AMD has introduced an entry-level version of its Zen 5 Epyc server processors, targeting small and medium-sized businesses and hosted IT service providers, the company announced today (May 13).
The new Epyc 4005 series CPUs arrive seven months after AMD launched its fifth-generation Epyc server processors, the company’s latest high-performance, energy-efficient CPUs.
Fewer Cores, Lower Price Point
The Epyc 4005 chips, available in six- to 16-core configurations, are aimed at smaller businesses and service providers offering dedicated hosting services. This compares to the 192 cores in the high-end Epyc 9000 series.
“We bring the power down, we put them in the same AM5 socket, and we price it for this space,” said Dennis McQueen, a product marketing manager in the AMD Server Solutions group, during a media briefing this week.
The new Epyc 4005 series chips are an update to the Epyc 4004 series chips, which were released last year and built using AMD’s previous Zen 4 core architecture.
The 4000 series fills a void in the company’s product family as it competes against Intel in the server processor market.
“We knew we were not serving the SMB and dedicated hosting space very well, and we needed to,” McQueen said. “So, about this time last year, we introduced the 4004 series processors, and it’s been accepted very well.”
AMD’s entry-level Epyc 4005 series processor features 6 to 16 cores and uses the AM5 socket. Image: AMD.
Faster Processing for On-Prem Environments
Bob O’Donnell, president and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, said AMD’s new 4005 series chip offers faster memory than its predecessor. He said it was a good option for small and medium-sized businesses that have traditional computing workloads or custom applications that still run on-premises, such as Exchange servers, content management, or HR and sales applications.
“It’s designed for lower-end data centers,” O’Donnell said. “For companies sitting on some older servers that are not very power-efficient, this processor provides a significant boost in terms of performance and power efficiency.”
AI-Enhanced Workloads
AMD executives noted that the Epyc 4005 series CPUs are tailored to IT service providers who offer dedicated servers for virtualization, e-commerce, and web hosting applications.
The company also said businesses can use the new chip for AI-enhanced workloads. Hardware vendors supporting the new chip include Lenovo, Supermicro, MSI, and Gigabyte.
Last year, AMD received strong support from European service providers such as Hetzner, OVHcloud, and Scaleway. Now, McQueen said AMD is beginning to attract providers from the U.S. and Asia.
U.S.-based Vultr has announced the immediate availability of bare metal and cloud compute instances powered by the Epyc 4005 series processors.
