AMD just rolled out its EPYC 4005 Series processors, and while they’re not gunning for the data center crown, they’re sending a clear message to Intel—enterprise-grade performance doesn’t have to come with a five-figure price tag. Aimed squarely at small businesses, hosting providers, and anyone needing “right-sized” compute power, this new line is built to be efficient, dependable, and easy to deploy.

These chips are based on AMD’s Zen 5 architecture and slot into the familiar AM5 platform. That means IT teams and system integrators already building around EPYC 4004 have a direct upgrade path, no crazy infrastructure changes needed. The 4005 line brings serious performance to server blades, towers, and other compact form factors that are typical in small and medium-sized deployments.

And the numbers are eyebrow-raising. In the Phoronix test suite, AMD says its top chip in the stack—the 16-core EPYC 4565P—beats Intel’s 6th-gen Xeon 6300P by 1.83x. That’s not a small margin, especially when we’re talking about systems that need to stay online all day without soaking power or breaking budgets.

“Growing businesses and hosters are often juggling tight budgets, short deployment timelines, and limited complexity,” said Derek Dicker, CVP of AMD’s Enterprise and HPC group. “EPYC 4005 hits the sweet spot for performance and simplicity without the premium price.”

The full 4005 lineup ranges from 6-core to 16-core models, with prices starting at $239 and topping out at $699. Even the high-end 4585PX brings 128MB of L3 cache and a max boost clock of 5.7GHz while staying under the $700 mark.

Enterprise-Grade Performance, Minus the Enterprise Headache

The launch comes with backing from a who’s who in the hardware world. Lenovo, Supermicro, ASRock Rack, Gigabyte, and OVHcloud are among the vendors building systems around the new chips. The consensus is clear: this platform is ready for always-on hosting, cloud compute, and even AI-adjacent workloads without burning through resources.

Lenovo’s Senthil Reddy says they’re integrating the 4005 chips into solutions tailored for the AI era, targeting small businesses looking to future-proof their infrastructure. Supermicro’s Vik Malyala highlighted how the chips work across their multi-node MicroCloud systems and 1U/2U servers, offering a clean balance of flexibility, power efficiency, and PCIe 5.0/DDR5 support.

Vultr is already putting these chips into its Bare Metal and Cloud Compute instances. CEO J.J. Kardwell pointed out that these new offerings are built for straightforward deployment and scale, making them ideal for developers and startups that need enterprise-grade performance but aren’t ready for an enterprise-level bill.

The Bottom Line

The EPYC 4005 Series isn’t about flashy specs for show-off servers in billion-dollar data centers. It’s about filling a massive gap in the market—delivering dependable, high-performance CPUs that small businesses and service providers can actually afford. With top-tier clock speeds, strong efficiency, and broad partner support, AMD is making it harder for Intel to justify its dominance in this space.

Whether you’re building hosted services, spinning up virtual environments, or just need always-on compute power that won’t blow your power budget, the EPYC 4005 Series is looking like a smart bet. And if AMD’s performance claims hold up across broader benchmarks, Intel’s Xeon chips could be looking a little overpriced very soon.

Filed under: Tech News - @ May 15, 2025 11:26 am

Tags: Press Release, Tech News