AMD - Bulldozer Chitchat

[badass]

Part of me is wondering if Trinity will be available before Ivy Bridge. I hope so.

[scaryjim]

2.3GHz - 3.2GHz

Way to go AMD - lets hope the IPC improvements over BD are sufficient to make up for that lowish base 2.3GHz...

[Golden Dragoon]

Not sure if this was posted already, but piledriver seems to be coming out in Q3 2012:

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/26...oduction-in-q3

[Noxvayl]

Aw, that *might* make it too late for me to consider for my upgrade. I would like to upgrade before August 2012, September 2012 at the latest. It would be nice to have AMD and Intel options for my system upgrade.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems the PS4 might be using an AMD CPU and GCN based GPU:

http://kotaku.com/5896996/the-next-p...re-the-details

I wonder if they are using an APU??

[Terbinator]

x64(86) CPU = better cross-platform games?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

x64(86) CPU = better cross-platform games?

Hopefully,but if Sony intend to use GCN,wouldn't that be a boost for AMD GPUs too??

[watercooled]

Yeah I've been reading about it, it seems the next Xbox is too. I've heard rumours of various technologies like die stacking (on-chip memory), FPGAs, etc possibly making an appearance too. Consoles do tend to use exotic hardware so it wouldn't surprise me. I've also heard one rumour that there may be 2 new Xbox consoles, a 'casual' one and a proper replacement for the 360. I'm still sceptical about rumours of the consoles using x86.

As I think I've said before, I think I'm more interested in what hardware they use than the new games.

Either way, more powerful, DX11 hardware and possibly x86 on consoles can only be good for PC ports.

[Biscuit]

... which is what 99% of games are nowerdays

[Noxvayl]

Either way, more powerful, DX11 hardware and possibly x86 on consoles can only be good for PC ports.

If you mean purely code based, as in the way it looks, then yes... otherwise a big fat no. Console ports are horrible for me because of the controls.

Fable 3 is a prime example, you have no option to aim elemental attacks besides jumping from one opponent to the next... so if there is an explosive crate in-between them you can't hit it. There are many other problems with it that I won't go into because I could be here all night ranting. If you play Fable 3 and then play Skyrim, both have PC and console versions, you'll notice that there is an ocean between them.

The problem isn't with the hardware- it's with the developers; If a console game is going to be released on PC and the developer won't revamp the control system they shouldn't bother doing it.

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As for the news, lets just say I'll be very surprised if any of the new consoles have x86/x64 CPUs.

[watercooled]

Well no console design is going to fix the control problem TBF, unless they use a keyboard as the controller...

Besides, a fair few console ports support a 360 controller natively if that's what you'd prefer.

[KeyboardDemon]

Not sure if this was posted already, but piledriver seems to be coming out in Q3 2012:

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/26...oduction-in-q3

I don't know if it has been posted before, but having been quite dissapointed by the first round of Bulldozer CPUs I was starting to think that my current rig has been a waste of money, but if the FX8350 actually delivers this time then I might be in for a pleasant performance boost and finally get the rig I dreamed of when I picked up my AM3+ mobo. I think that the timescale works well for me too, as I am not really in a position to be shelling out on new components at the moment.

[badass]

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As for the news, lets just say I'll be very surprised if any of the new consoles have x86/x64 CPUs.

I'm not expecting them to use x86/x64, however I wouldn't be surprised.
I wonder how much less die space would be necessary if the x86 was completely removed so the only instruction set is x64 and any of the useless for consoles extensions are removed.

I'm secretly hoping that they do use an APU with loads of shaders, memory bandwidth, some embedded RAM and some stacked RAM for good measure.
It will move games on a lot. Keep the CPU/GFx fed.

[watercooled]

They could also, possibly, modify the CPU to use an in-order architecture which would save a heck of a lot of die space. Thinking about it, the BD architecture should be well suited to a platform where GPU offloads some floating point ops.

However, the amount of cost involved in modifying the chip to such an extent may negate the benefits of going with x86 over RISC of some sort. Weren't AMD talking about licensing ARM cores?

With rumours of both consoles looking quite similar, it will be interesting to see how they differentiate.

[DanceswithUnix]

Thinking about it, the BD architecture should be well suited to a platform where GPU offloads some floating point ops.

I think that was always the idea behind BD, if mass FP is offloaded to GPU the CPUs will only run integer. Bit of a gamble imo. Better balance for servers though, and their designers are always server biassed.

[mikeo01]

FX-4170 and FX-6200 have been released, I assume this is the new BD versions?

Wonder how well they will perform. Might get a FX-4170 if its decent