AMD - Piledriver chitchat

[mikeo01]

Speaking of bittech, what were they smoking when they came up with their Handbrake benchmark? http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...swell-review/3

A 6 core, 12-thread i7 is really less than twice as fast as an i3? Really? What were they transcoding, a dot?

Ha, they can't be serious. Well, there you have that. The I3 is apparently a little gem that works wonders. The super secret processing power behind the I3 that Intel has kept hush hush.

[The Hand]

If I was going to buy a good moderate gaming system now, I would go for an FX6300 + R9 270; There does seem to be at least an unconscious bias against AMD at several review sites at the moment even if deals aren't being done behind the scenes. A bias is still a bias though. The price of the FX6300 is pretty amazing considering what you get.

[watercooled]

Probably the main reason I find it annoying is for the sake of competition - AMD could really do with a better public image and more sales to remain competitive with Intel, therefore leading to better value for customers going with either brand. But websites having an unfair bias against AMD goes completely against that. I mean it's obvious you'll get a few narrow-minded idiots fanboying companies for whatever reason, but people writing for 'review' sites should know better, and be objective in their methodology.

I mean fair enough if you draw a conclusion e.g. lower performance/watt efficiency, but don't massively exaggerate the difference it really makes, and use unrealistic worst-case comparisons like some website are doing, as it's plain misleading to someone looking for purchase advice.

[AETAaAS]

Thought I'd ask in here for opinions on the new AM1s (desktop socket Kabini). To me, it doesn't really make sense. APUs make sense since upgrading CPUs and GPUs can be done independently of anything else on the system. But Kabini which has I/O controllers on it, doesn't, since the ports are dictated by the motherboard.

Not that it seems to matter too much; the low prices on the new parts make them almost ideal for many applications and I'm assuming the motherboards can be made more cheaply as well, since many functions have been offloaded from the Southbridge, if this new setup even has one. Looking quite good for the 'cheap internet box', media PC and office applications to name a few.

Downside is a new cooling mount by the looks of a couple mobo shots I've seen (Hexus and Anandtech), but with a 25W TDP, I shan't think it should be much of a problem for the most part.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Interesting comparison of PD and SR:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing...-next-gen-core

[DanceswithUnix]

Thought I'd ask in here for opinions on the new AM1s (desktop socket Kabini). To me, it doesn't really make sense. APUs make sense since upgrading CPUs and GPUs can be done independently of anything else on the system. But Kabini which has I/O controllers on it, doesn't, since the ports are dictated by the motherboard.

Not that it seems to matter too much; the low prices on the new parts make them almost ideal for many applications and I'm assuming the motherboards can be made more cheaply as well, since many functions have been offloaded from the Southbridge, if this new setup even has one. Looking quite good for the 'cheap internet box', media PC and office applications to name a few.

Downside is a new cooling mount by the looks of a couple mobo shots I've seen (Hexus and Anandtech), but with a 25W TDP, I shan't think it should be much of a problem for the most part.

The socket name is stupid. What do they call the next generation, AM2 has been used?

Apart from that, these things make sense from a shop/builder stock control point of view. If you want to stock just 8 motherboards and 4 CPUs, then that is 12 items. If the CPUs are soldered down, then you need to stock all variants which is 32 items, or more likely try and guess which ones will be popular and ignore the rest which is annoying for the consumer and might lead to lost sales as a vendor.

[AETAaAS]

The socket name is stupid. What do they call the next generation, AM2 has been used?

Apart from that, these things make sense from a shop/builder stock control point of view. If you want to stock just 8 motherboards and 4 CPUs, then that is 12 items. If the CPUs are soldered down, then you need to stock all variants which is 32 items, or more likely try and guess which ones will be popular and ignore the rest which is annoying for the consumer and might lead to lost sales as a vendor.

They will buy time to think of a new name by releasing the AM1+ socket first.

I take your point on the combinations, but what does moving most of the SB onto the socket do that couldn't have been done with an APU? ie, You still stock 12 items rather than 32 in that scenario with the possibility of the various combinations and they already can do that with the FM line without bringing out a new socket.

[Noxvayl]

Interesting comparison of PD and SR:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing...-next-gen-core

Very interesting indeed. It seems there isn't a simple improvement that will significantly help the cores considering the varying issues that were highlighted. AMD spent a significant amount of time on the HSA fabric for this generation, I hope that is why the high end desktop parts didn't get a refresh and their plan is to focus more on the CPU now which should provide us with a new processor in the enthusiast space. With the extra focus on the CPU we could see the issues highlighted in the test investigated and tweaked.

With console design wins starting to provide financial reward for their efforts I am hopeful that they will have the ability to expend the resources required to become competitive with Intel in pure performance terms.

[mikeo01]

Thought I'd ask in here for opinions on the new AM1s (desktop socket Kabini). To me, it doesn't really make sense. APUs make sense since upgrading CPUs and GPUs can be done independently of anything else on the system. But Kabini which has I/O controllers on it, doesn't, since the ports are dictated by the motherboard.

Not that it seems to matter too much; the low prices on the new parts make them almost ideal for many applications and I'm assuming the motherboards can be made more cheaply as well, since many functions have been offloaded from the Southbridge, if this new setup even has one. Looking quite good for the 'cheap internet box', media PC and office applications to name a few.

Downside is a new cooling mount by the looks of a couple mobo shots I've seen (Hexus and Anandtech), but with a 25W TDP, I shan't think it should be much of a problem for the most part.

If you need something quite a bit stronger than the Raspberry Pi I guess they do sound interesting as they can be cooled extremely easy (and probably cheap too). Chuck into a Mini Itx and you have a great little upgradeable device with a big more umf than your general Raspberry Pi.

Should be capable of streaming music and videos in your living room, the "living room" PC with a bit of web browsing etc. May make sense in some cases

[scaryjim]

The socket name is stupid. What do they call the next generation, AM2 has been used?

Actually, a careful reading of the launch articles suggests that the socket is still called FS1b - the platform is called AM1.

This response (from the Anandtech article) is very telling:

AMD hope to keep the FS1b socket for the AM1 platform going forward.

That strongly implies that the socketed SOC platform will always be called AM1, but the actual socket at the heart of it might change in the future. If that isn't handled well, there could be terrible confusion...

[DanceswithUnix]

Actually, a careful reading of the launch articles suggests that the socket is still called FS1b - the platform is called AM1.

This response (from the Anandtech article) is very telling:

That strongly implies that the socketed SOC platform will always be called AM1, but the actual socket at the heart of it might change in the future. If that isn't handled well, there could be terrible confusion...

I committed the sin of commenting before I read the relevant articles, but afterwards figured I would leave the comment there as there was still plenty of room for confusion. I think my initial comment stands but can be shortened:

Stupid name.



Aside: Looks like AMD are pushing out some more cheap dual core FM2 chips: http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/34...richland-parts

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It looks like the R7 265 is £110 on pre-order from OcUK:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-349-SP

[DanceswithUnix]

Interesting read on expected AM1 prices.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/34...-be-dirt-cheap

[DanceswithUnix]

Interesting article on a site I don't poll that often so had missed:

" According to the leaked slides, Knights Landing has 16GB of eDRAM that delivers >500GB/s of memory bandwidth"

16 Gig, blimey that makes the huge expensive optional lump on Haswell graphics look puny!

http://www.realworldtech.com/knights-landing-details/2/

Interesting to see that KNL is based on Silvermont cores, albeit with a pair of massive AVX units bolted on.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

BTW,the double standards of Anandtech forums are highlighted in this article:

http://techsoda.com/anandtech-forum-...iased-corrupt/

Worth a read,and it took the chap a year to gather the evidence.

[AETAaAS]

^I know I've fled forums for mods being questionable which is why I've come to Hexus. Not seen any rabid fanboyism and the mods exercise a light touch. (I've jinxed it now haven't I?) The comments on Anand put me off the website. Guess it's for the better that I didn't enter the forums.

Interesting read on expected AM1 prices. http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/34...-be-dirt-cheap

So bloody tempted... it is practically in 'Impulse Buy' zone...