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AMD Officially Unveils 4700S Processor Kit Using Xbox Series X|S Salvaged Dies

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member
Screenshot-2021-06-26-at-21-09-40-21807451-desktop-kit-motherboard-tower-1260x709_0-png-WEBP-Image-992-%C3%97-558-pixels11-1536x854.jpg


A while back, boards salvaged from defective Xbox Series X|S processor-kits started surfacing online featuring eight Zen 2 cores and a disabled iGPU along with 8-16GB of GDDR6 memory. These motherboard-CPU kits come with the AMD A77E Fusion Controller HUB (FCH) which is used in AMD APUs (and most likely the PS5 and Series X|S as well), and Realtek ALC897 audio which supports spatial sound via 7.1 sound playback.

image-49-1536x1318.png


In terms of I/O, the board comes with three USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 1, and four USB 2.0 at the back which is quite impressive for a budget board. At the front panel, it features a USB3 2x Gen1 port and an audio connector. Additionally, the kit can be paired with a discrete graphics card, with AMD recommending the Radeon RX 590 or the GTX 1060 as the upper limit. Using more expensive cards can lead to bottlenecks in the PCIe bus as it features an x16 Gen 2 slot which is quite a bit slower than Gen 3 and Gen 4.

image-50-1536x1042.png


What makes it very likely a discarded Xbox Series X|S kit is the inclusion of GDDR6 memory (16GB of it), eight Zen 2 cores, and the limited PCIe I/O options. Generally, GDDR6 is more expensive than DDR4 (and faster too), and the lack of full-fledged Gen 3 or Gen 4 PCIe connectors means that the processor wasn’t designed to leverage an external graphics card. A single x16 PCIe 2.0 slot can support speeds up to 8 GB/s, and the lack of NVMe support means that the board is also hitting the limit with the GPU.

image-51.png


The Series X|S has an uncompressed I/O speed limit of 2.4 GB/s which shouldn’t post any problems with this configuration.

 

BabyYoda

Banned
Interesting, hopefully DF get hold of one. It's a shame the GPU couldn't be salvaged as well, but I guess they completely failed.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
This is without a GPU? Seems like the power delivery is very weak...
 
The 2.4GBs speed is not the reason, this is likely a Xbox Series X SOC.
But the fact this also has 4x PCIe 4.0, just like the Series X with 2 lanes for the internal SSD and 2 for the external

Tho this only has gen 2 PCIe and not Gen 3 or even 4
 
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01011001

Banned
"and a disabled iGPU" Huh? Why?

why disable the gpu? Even if a lot of CU's were defective, there are still enough for an entry level gaming system.

they deactivated them because they are broken, which is why they are salvaging them for these board.

and they can't keep some of the CUs active since these will most likely be APUs of varying number of defective CUs. so some might only have 3 defective ones, while other might have 10 or more.

of course they then could split them into multiple different SKUs but I bet that would be too much of a hassle for what these are supposed to be used for
 

clintar

Member
The 2.4GBs speed is not the reason, this is likely a Xbox Series X SOC.
But the fact this also has 4x PCIe 4.0, just like the Series X with 2 lanes for the internal SSD and 2 for the external

Tho this only has gen 2 PCIe and not Gen 3 or even 4
Huh? Where did you read that first part? Second part sounds like the opposite. I'm confused
 

acm2000

Member
I wonder if the IO limitations are imposed by MS as part of the deal to allow them to reuse these? Basically only useful for non gaming
 

clintar

Member
First part in the OP.
Second part in the white paper Xbox Series X SaoC
Last part on the official AMD product page.
I can't see anywhere that it says this has 4x PCIe 4.0. where is that? And how can you say it does it have that, then say "Tho this only has gen 2 PCIe and not Gen 3 or even 4"
 
I can't see anywhere that it says this has 4x PCIe 4.0. where is that? And how can you say it does it have that, then say "Tho this only has gen 2 PCIe and not Gen 3 or even 4"
AMD 4700S has 4 PCIe gen 2 lanes. It's noted on the AMD reveal page. https://www.amd.com/en/desktop-kits/amd-4700s
Xbox Series X has 4 PCIe gen 4 lanes. (otherwise it wouldn't be fast enough for their SSDs)



Edit :
Xbox SOC has 5 in total. That IO is on one, too.
But the AMD 4700S has IO, too
efUePW6XyJJvvUwqUtCidL-970-80.jpg
 
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old-parts

Member
without the iGPU it's not very interesting... maybe very cheap for a very small system as it is now.
It's actually better off without an iGPU as with the past recycled Xbox One SoC PC systems their biggest weakness was no GPU driver support from AMD, all you got was some beta driver from 2017 for Windows, that was broken with so many games.

No GPU actually makes this viable, the limited PCI-e isn't that much of a deal breaker, people game just fine on laptops with jury rigged PCI-e x1 connections using external GPU.

Still a novelty item though.
 

scydrex

Member
Compatible Graphics Required

List of Compatible Graphics Cards:
AMD Radeon™ 550 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 550 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 560 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 570 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 580 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 590 Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce GT 710

NVIDIA GeForce GT 730

NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
 
good they're salvaging parts but don't see the point in buying it. zen 2 is old tech now. just get a Zen 3 with mini-itx board.
 
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Compatible Graphics Required

List of Compatible Graphics Cards:
AMD Radeon™ 550 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 550 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 560 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 570 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 580 Graphics

AMD Radeon™ RX 590 Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce GT 710

NVIDIA GeForce GT 730

NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
That fucking sucks.
 
It's actually better off without an iGPU as with the past recycled Xbox One SoC PC systems their biggest weakness was no GPU driver support from AMD, all you got was some beta driver from 2017 for Windows, that was broken with so many games.

No GPU actually makes this viable, the limited PCI-e isn't that much of a deal breaker, people game just fine on laptops with jury rigged PCI-e x1 connections using external GPU.

Still a novelty item though.
The presence of some iGPU in the device would assume it uses decent drivers.
 

clintar

Member
AMD 4700S has 4 PCIe gen 2 lanes. It's noted on the AMD reveal page. https://www.amd.com/en/desktop-kits/amd-4700s
Xbox Series X has 4 PCIe gen 4 lanes. (otherwise it wouldn't be fast enough for their SSDs)



Edit :
Xbox SOC has 5 in total. That IO is on one, too.
But the AMD 4700S has IO, too
efUePW6XyJJvvUwqUtCidL-970-80.jpg
Then why did you say:

The 2.4GBs speed is not the reason, this is likely a Xbox Series X SOC.
But the fact this also has 4x PCIe 4.0, just like the Series X with 2 lanes for the internal SSD and 2 for the external
 
Then why did you say:

The 2.4GBs speed is not the reason, this is likely a Xbox Series X SOC.
But the fact this also has 4x PCIe 4.0, just like the Series X with 2 lanes for the internal SSD and 2 for the external
I said 4x PCIe. Not PCIe 4.0.
This AMD SOC has the same number of lanes as the Xbox Series, just the generation seems to be different

Pretty sure 2 = 3,5gbps could be wrong tho.
Right. But 2x Gen 3 is just 2Gbps and therefor not enough for the Xbox Series SSD speed of 2.4GB/s
 

Kenpachii

Member
I said 4x PCIe. Not PCIe 4.0.
This AMD SOC has the same number of lanes as the Xbox Series, just the generation seems to be different


Right. But 2x Gen 3 is just 2Gbps and therefor not enough for the Xbox Series SSD speed of 2.4GB/s

ah its gen 3 yea that makes sense then.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
I said 4x PCIe. Not PCIe 4.0.
This AMD SOC has the same number of lanes as the Xbox Series, just the generation seems to be different


Right. But 2x Gen 3 is just 2Gbps and therefor not enough for the Xbox Series SSD speed of 2.4GB/s
It's probably downgraded, so the mobo PCB could be simpler, thus cheaper.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member

Hardwareluxx believes it's a PS5 and not Xbox Series SOC
Yeah, it looks like it’s salvaged PS5, not Xbox.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
PS5 APU tested

AMD 4700S desktop kit is based on PlayStation 5 SoC

Combination of only 4MB l3 per ccx mixed with high latency GDDR6 gives us super slow Zen2 CPUs, looks like those CPUs in consoles are quite a bit weaker than desktop Zen2 let alone Zen3.
4700SBandwidth.jpg
iirc, the leaked "Flute"/PS5 benchmark had ~150ns memory latency. That was from July 2019. Cool to look back on those leaks knowing they were real.
 
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Md Ray

Member
PS5 APU tested

AMD 4700S desktop kit is based on PlayStation 5 SoC

Combination of only 4MB l3 per ccx mixed with high latency GDDR6 gives us super slow Zen2 CPUs, looks like those CPUs in consoles are quite a bit weaker than desktop Zen2 let alone Zen3.
4700SBandwidth.jpg
Of course, they're weaker than the desktop parts. They're more or less equivalent to laptop Zen 2 with max clk speed in the 3.4-3.6 GHz region w/ SMT.

But the combination of a lean OS with fewer background tasks running, and less driver overhead allows them to punch above their weight.
 
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