How AMD Zen Almost Didn’t Make It | Stories of Ryzen, ft. Unreleased CPUs

Sponsor: Get the Lexar NM800 Pro w/ Heatsink on Amazon - This didn’t make the final cut for our upcoming, in-depth lab tour of AMD’s testing & engineering campus in Austin, Texas, but the stories told (and the unreleased products shown) were too interesting to cut entirely -- so we branched out the discussion. This covers some of AMD Zen’s history from a side conversation with Amit Mehra and Bill Alverson at AMD, discussing the many challenges of initial bring-up, products that get pitched and some that don’t make it to market, and how Zen almost didn’t make the original showing in 2016. AMD’s Ryzen CPUs launched to the public in 2017, but this content looks at the behind-the-scenes of what led up to that launch. GamersNexus pays for all of its own travel for on-location coverage. Learn more in our ethics statements and policies here: Help fund our travel coverage and unique behind-the-scenes discussions! The best way to support our work is through our store: -- grab a Modmat for PC building, a toolkit, a coaster pack, and more! Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - How Zen Almost Didn’t Make It 02:20 - The History of Zen 04:17 - ALL HANDS ON DECK! 07:43 - Betting the Company 10:57 - The Only One in the World 11:32 - Raven Prototype Laser Problems 13:09 - How X3D Came to Be (16-Core X3D) 15:27 - Fusing Explained 16:38 - Unreleased Threadripper 17:18 - Bill Shows Unreleased X3D Performance 19:22 - How an Idea Gets Produced 21:52 - EXPO Memory Testing ** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! ** Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video (“this video is brought to you by“) and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or “sponsored content“ (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage. Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates: t: f: w: Host, Writing, Editing: Steve Burke Camera Operation: Mike Gaglione Camera, Editing: Vitalii Makhnovets