AMD - Piledriver chitchat

[planetJ]

Mantle gives low-level access to the GPU hardware, so is unlikely to be doing int work And while it might allow developers to offload flops to the GPU, I don't think that's the point.

It's more the case that because Mantle allows low level access to the GCN hardware, you bypass some of the CPU-managed translation layer that OpenGL/DirectX require, which reduces load on the CPU, freeing it up to handle more of the well-threaded rendering and game management that can't be done on the GPU. In that sense, it'll actually benefit Intel+AMD rigs as much as it will all AMD rigs.

Indeed, though from what I understand of it, MANTLE is going to be an open standard...it will also accept HLSL which is the same scripting language that DX uses. So, it's possible it could eventually replace DX and OGL entirely if NVidia get on board (I wouldn't hold my breath, waiting for that though...).

[CountBartok]

Looks like Watch_Dogs will run well on amd cpu's.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/...h-dogs-specs/1.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

An AMD presentation about Kaveri:

http://share.csdn.net/#/detail/851

There seems to be mention of GDDR5 on page 33?? Is this a hint Kaveri might also be able to use GDDR5??

[DanceswithUnix]

An AMD presentation about Kaveri:

http://share.csdn.net/#/detail/851

There seems to be mention of GDDR5 on page 33?? Is this a hint Kaveri might also be able to use GDDR5??

It shows 12 GDDR5 chips, in what looks like a standard GPU layout. I think it is a 3GB graphics card.

I wouldn't rule the ability out though, we are getting close to DDR4 availability which I gather is very similar, so if they can make it use either memory type I expect they have. Wonder just how much silicon that costs.

Didn't they say somewhere that it was a new memory controller on this chip, or am I confusing it with something else?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It shows 12 GDDR5 chips, in what looks like a standard GPU layout. I think it is a 3GB graphics card.

I wouldn't rule the ability out though, we are getting close to DDR4 availability which I gather is very similar, so if they can make it use either memory type I expect they have. Wonder just how much silicon that costs.

Didn't they say somewhere that it was a new memory controller on this chip, or am I confusing it with something else?

Yeah,your probably right. The part about the memory controller,I am not sure. I know the purported leaked of Kaveri performance a while back did show better performance. I really hope at least that part is true.

However,it somewhat annoying we don't know if Kaveri is actually being released this year. I can understand the potential Osborne effect on their current lines,but still,come one AMD!

Edit!!

Some more BF4 benchmarks:

http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/http...f_4_proz_2.jpg



http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Battle...Cores-1091016/

It seems the FX8350 is around Core i7 2600K/Core i5 3570K/Core i7 3770K level performance in 64 player BF4 maps. GameGPU overclocked the FX9370 to 5GHZ,whereas the FX9370 runs at between 4.4GHZ to 4.7GHZ IIRC. The FX9370 is under £170 from Scan now too,although I suppose an FX8320 is still better value,and looks like the budget CPU for BF4.

The second link,does indicate a bug with FX63** CPUs for some reason,although GameGPU did not see it.

I wonder if something is going haywire with the core management in the game??

[DanceswithUnix]

However,it somewhat annoying we don't know if Kaveri is actually being released this year. I can understand the potential Osborne effect on their current lines,but still,come one AMD!

I think since the 486 new CPU releases have been held off until after Christmas, or the OEMs like HP and Dell get really stressy about their Christmas stock being obsoleted before it is sold. So I think it is too late now, I expect January at the earliest

[scaryjim]

There seems to be mention of GDDR5 on page 33?? Is this a hint Kaveri might also be able to use GDDR5??

Old rumour is old:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...ets-gddr5.aspx

And I think I first read it somewhere that's not BSN, so that'd be two sources. Whether we'll see any Kaveri systems with soldered on GDDR5 is debatable given the potential capacity limits on a 128bit interface, but if they can manage 4GB of soldered on GDDR5 it'd be a nice fit for ultrabook-competitors with genuine gaming pretensions.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its a shame if Kaveri is not released this year!!

It seems AMD has won a contract with Verizon:

http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/07/ve...micro-servers/

Verizon is massive in the US.

[DanceswithUnix]

Well I would love to be proved wrong and see them turn up early Doubt it though

I see the FM2+ motherboards are finally out at least (though ebuyer only have 8 in stock).

http://www.ebuyer.com/567538-ga-f2a8...ga-f2a88xm-d3h

8 SATA ports & 4 ram slots, ideal for a small NAS!

Couple more Gigabyte boards on pre-order too.

[CountBartok]

Yeah,your probably right. The part about the memory controller,I am not sure. I know the purported leaked of Kaveri performance a while back did show better performance. I really hope at least that part is true.

However,it somewhat annoying we don't know if Kaveri is actually being released this year. I can understand the potential Osborne effect on their current lines,but still,come one AMD!

Edit!!

Some more BF4 benchmarks:

http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/http...f_4_proz_2.jpg



http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Battle...Cores-1091016/

It seems the FX8350 is around Core i7 2600K/Core i5 3570K/Core i7 3770K level performance in 64 player BF4 maps. GameGPU overclocked the FX9370 to 5GHZ,whereas the FX9370 runs at between 4.4GHZ to 4.7GHZ IIRC. The FX9370 is under £170 from Scan now too,although I suppose an FX8320 is still better value,and looks like the budget CPU for BF4.

The second link,does indicate a bug with FX63** CPUs for some reason,although GameGPU did not see it.

I wonder if something is going haywire with the core management in the game??

Seems Ubisoft agree with you on the Fx8350 = i7 3770k.
Story is on the Hexus main page, so no point linking it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

http://translate.google.cz/translate...-tdp-trueaudio

[scaryjim]

If that diagram is right, it suggests extra GDDR5 memory exclusive to the GPU portion? Didn't I say "sideport" somewhere earlier in this thread?

[DanceswithUnix]

If that diagram is right, it suggests extra GDDR5 memory exclusive to the GPU portion? Didn't I say "sideport" somewhere earlier in this thread?

Well I think it is a diagram of a 7970, which has 6 memory controllers driving 12 chips.

Sadly I don't think that means we can expect a 3D die stack of CPU, 7970 and 12 RAM chips piled up in an FM2+ socket

I do think that seeing a slide stack from a talk without the context of the relevant chat that went with it is rather tricky.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems AMD has made a small profit this quarter:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amd...k=MW_news_stmp

[cheesyboy]

It seems AMD has made a small profit this quarter:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amd...k=MW_news_stmp

Those Console contracts showing some uplift already;

-- Graphics and Visual Solutions (GVS) is comprised of graphics
processing units (GPUs), including professional graphics, as well as
semi-custom products and development and game console royalties.
-- GVS segment revenue increased 110 percent sequentially and
increased 96 percent year-over-year driven largely by our
semi-custom business. GPU revenue declined sequentially and
year-over-year. In the third quarter customers began transitioning
to our new products late in the quarter.
-- Operating income was $79 million compared with breakeven in Q2
2013 and $18 million in Q3 2012.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Some info about the future AMD 14NM and 20NM plans:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/d..._Quarters.html

So they could have 14NM CPUs in early 2015,although these probably are CPUs in the same segment as Jaguar.