Joining Forces with Ranch Computing to Enable AMD EPYC Processor-Based Immersion Cooling for the Media & Entertainment Segment

Elio © Disney/Pixar

As data centers around the world contend with the challenge of maintaining legacy compute applications and making room for emerging workloads, infrastructure owners are being tasked with balancing productivity and economic growth while also being mindful of sustainability, space, and budget constraints.

Robert Hormuth, Corporate Vice President, Architecture and Strategy, Data Center Solutions Group, AMD, describes the nuances of the data center efficiency topic in his June 2025 article in Datacloud Magazine, titled, “How optimisation is helping to tackle the data center efficiency challenge”. He quantifies the extent of global IT data center capacity growth¹, stating that: “Global IT data center capacity will grow from 180 gigawatts (GW) in 2024 to 296 GW in 2028, representing a 12.3% CAGR, while electricity consumption will grow at a higher rate, 23.3%, from 397 Terawatt hours (TWh) to 915 TWh in 2028.”

The associated environmental impacts of this increased data center capacity and electricity consumption are well-understood at Ranch Computing, a French render farm specializing in producing computer-generated images for the architecture, animation, and visual effects markets since 2006. 

Focus Initiatives at Ranch Computing

Ranch Computing counts the likes of TAT Studio (Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight on Netflix) amongst their customer base and partners with household names in the animation and visual effects business, such as Pixar’s RenderMan. 

Elio © Disney/Pixar

As one might expect, protection of their end users’ intellectual property (IP) is of utmost importance. Committed to digital sovereignty, eco-responsibility, and technological performance, Ranch Computing has obtained Trusted Partner Network (TPN) Gold Shield status – a guarantee of compliance and security for international studios. Accredited by third-party evaluators, the more-demanding Gold Shield designation exceeds the threshold of self-assessment for the TPN Blue Shield certification, demonstrating Ranch Computing’s commitment to securing their customers’ creative works and sensitive data.

In addition to prioritizing compliance and security, Ranch Computing has adopted immersion cooling technology paired with AMD EPYC™ processors to efficiently support high-performance computing applications in the Media & Entertainment sector, particularly rendering. These compute-intensive workloads benefit from the exceptional parallelization capabilities of high core-count CPUs, delivering optimal performance while delivering energy efficiency, helping reduce environmental impact.

AMD Collaboration

In response to increasing customer demand, Ranch Computing has strategically chosen to integrate AMD EPYC processors into their infrastructure and adopt a low-impact approach with immersion cooling. This is a progression of the AMD + Ranch Computing relationship, as described in the timeline below:

2020 – Ranch Computing and AMD first engage on virtualization tests on 64-core 2^nd Generation AMD EPYC 7742 (previously codenamed “Rome”) processors.

2022 – Production start-up with 3^rd Generation AMD EPYC processors (previously codenamed “Milan”), followed by 4^th Generation AMD EPYC processors (previously codenamed “Genoa and Bergamo”).

2023 – Launch of the first immersed servers featuring 64-core 3^rd Generation AMD EPYC 7763 CPUs, focusing on performance and energy efficiency. The next immersed servers featured the 128-core 4^th Generation AMD EPYC 9754 CPUs.

2025 – Production start-up with 5^th Generation AMD EPYC processors (previously codenamed “Turin”) in immersion cooled servers, after their official launch in October 2024.

Benefits of Immersion Cooling vs. Air Cooling

As reported by Ranch Computing in their blog, titled, “Reducing the Environmental Impact of High-Performance Compute (HPC) through Immersion Cooling”, the company found that immersion cooled servers can offer a reduction in average temperature compared to air-cooled servers, which can lead to tangible benefits for sustainable infrastructure², including:

• Server densification, driving higher power within a smaller, more compact footprint
• Reduced carbon footprint
  • Immersion cooling can reduce peak electrical requirements by 40%
  • Ranch Computing’s servers are powered by 100% renewable energy, including solar, wind, and hydroelectricity
  • Reduced air-conditioning requirements due to absence of air cooling
• Greater server stability and longer hardware life expected because of lower operating temperatures

Julien de Souza, CEO of Ranch Computing, says of these AMD processor-based immersion cooled servers, “Immersion isn't just a technical evolution; it's a tangible solution to energy issues. With AMD, we're creating a more environmentally friendly, compact and intelligent infrastructure.”

What’s Coming Next

In 2024, Ranch Computing facilitated equitable access to AMD EPYC CPU-based rendering resources to participants of Pixar’s RenderMan Art Challenge via the AMD Creator Cloud. This enabled contestants to render virtually anywhere, leveraging the compute capabilities of AMD EPYC processors to produce imaginative submissions matching last year’s theme of “SciTech”. Read more about AMD and Ranch Computing’s support of Pixar’s RenderMan Art Challenge 2024 in this blog.

Elio © Disney/Pixar

AMD and Ranch Computing look forward to supporting Pixar with their 2025 edition of the RenderMan Art Challenge, with this year’s theme and further details planned to be unveiled on Wednesday, August 13, at the Renderman Art & Science Fair during SIGGRAPH 2025.

Footnotes

1. https://www.capacitymedia.com/article/how-optimisation-is-helping-to-tackle-the-data-center-efficiency-challenge
2. https://www.ranchcomputing.com/en/reducing-the-environmental-impact-of-hpc-through-immersion/