AMD EPYC 7702P socket: SP3

What the EPYC 7702P is

The EPYC 7702P is a 64-core, 128-thread server processor from Rome. It launched in August 2019 for maximum density single socket nodes with a 2.0 GHz base and up to 3.35 GHz boost at 200 W. Eight chiplets share 256 MB of L3, the largest cache of its generation.

One hundred twenty eight threads per socket replace dual socket servers for VM farms. Thirty two megabytes of L2 back massive parallel builds. The low base clock reflects power sharing across 64 cores, while burst still lifts single threads.

The P suffix holds the platform to one socket, which simplifies clusters to identical cheap nodes. The non-P 7702 mirrors it for dual socket 128-core boxes. Single socket 64-core nodes changed cloud economics on arrival.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The EPYC 7702P fits SP3 on single socket boards rated for 200 W. Vendor qualification matters at this density for power and thermals. Rome firmware posts it natively.

Single socket 1P boards cost far less than dual socket equivalents while matching thread counts. Redundant cooling zones matter in 1U. The How to find your CPU socket type guide covers server platforms.

Milan single socket flagships later reused these boards with BIOS updates.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Eight channels of DDR4-3200 ECC reach up to 4 TB per socket for in memory analytics. Two DIMMs per channel maximize capacity at slightly lower speeds. All channels filled avoids bandwidth collapse across 64 cores.

PCIe Gen4 lanes total 128 for dense NVMe and 200 Gb networking. One socket feeds a full flash array without switches. Lane planning decides GPU counts for AI nodes.

The 200 W class needs premium air or liquid cooling. Data center set points and altitude derate boost. Torque sequences for the large package follow the manual.

Where this Rome part fits

Sixty four cores fit cloud hosts past one hundred VMs, HPC partitions and dense CI. Thread count beats clock speed for throughput billing. The 256 MB L3 keeps huge working sets on package.

Operators standardize on 2 TB RAM nodes with 25 Gb networking. Power per thread stays low against smaller SKUs. The AMD EPYC 7702 twin scales to dual socket where one node must hold everything.

Firmware power caps can pin racks to facility limits without hardware changes.

Upgrade paths

On SP3 there is no core upgrade past 64 cores per socket; the path runs to Milan 64-core P parts with IPC gains on the same boards. Memory and NVMe growth extend node life.

SP5 Genoa platforms bring DDR5 for the next density leap. The CPU cooler compatibility by socket guide details 200 W cooling classes.