AMD - Piledriver chitchat

[MrNeil]

Price's for new Piledriver-based "Vishera" FX-series

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/amd..._pricetag.html

I might just get a 6300 ?

[Biscuit]

Il have the full mac daddy one if its under £200

[MrNeil]

Il have the full mac daddy one if its under £200

Us brits tend to get a raw deal when these things start so i won't be suprised its going to cost a bit more

[Terbinator]

Well you'd expect it to replace the FX-8150's current price point which is £200, give or take.

[LeviathanPT]

Its quite an affordable price they got there.

[scaryjim]

Anyone a little worried about the relatively low-ball pricing there? Or does it just reflect what we pretty much already know; that whilst these will be better than bulldozer they're still not going to compete with Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge in out and out CPU benchmarks?

Either way, AMD cannot get Steamroller out soon enough, IMNSHO...

[DanceswithUnix]

I notice on the Asus site they now list FM2 motherboard specs. Have they been there long?

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD...t_FM2/AMD_A85X

[scaryjim]

Hmmm, I see they haven't taken my A55-M review to heart - look at top-down shot of the A85-M LE. C'mon ASUS, give us 1cm more room between the CPU and RAM slots - especially on a 2 slot motherboard...

[Sputnik]

I could be well off the mark but, I thought the general layout of motherboards was to a certain extent (CPU socket, RAM slots, Chipset etc.) dictated by the manufacturers of the chipsets? Isn't that why the general layout of boards with the same chipsets are pretty similar?

I guess motherboard manufacturers just work on the basis that the stock HSF unit will fit.

I might upgrade to an FM2 set up when they come out. I was impressed by the reviews that you guys did on your FM1 bundles.

[scaryjim]

I could be well off the mark but, I thought the general layout of motherboards was to a certain extent dictated by the manufacturers of the chipsets?

It could be - I assume there is some kind of engineering reason for always having the same distance to the first RAM slot (perhaps longer traces would affect memory performance or something?) but it isn't half annoying if you want a large quiet cooler on there. I've recently stuck my Zalman on my APU rig and it's made a world of difference - 10C cooler and absolutely silent - but it's also blocked a RAM slot which means I can't put a second pair of RAM in my board. On a 2-slot board, I simply wouldn't be able to use that cooler and have a dual channel memory kit.

The FM1 platform is great, tbh, and FM2 promises a lot more. On the GPU side the move to VLIW4 shaders should bring ~15% improvement clock for clock (based on the 5870->6970 results), but the (peak) GPU clock-speed has almost doubled: I reckon you're talking about acceptable medium quality gaming at 1080p on top-end Trinity. The CPU side will be interesting to watch - I reckon it needs to be comparable to a top-end Phenom II X4 to be considered genuinely successful, and I'm not sure if that's within reach. If it is, though, it'd make some of the lower end Trinity quads genuine CPU contenders in entry-level gaming machines: chuck in a 7750/7770 and you could end up with a ~ £300 1080p monster

Wonder if Hybrid Crossfire would work with a 7750... 384 VLIW4 shaders + 512 GCN shaders would make it a pretty potent combination.... But perhaps we'll have to wait for Kaveri for that *sigh*

[watercooled]

Is there no room for anything in the closest slot, or does it only apply to RAM with heatspreaders?

Distance could certainly be an engineering concern; longer PCB traces would introduce greater inductance and capacitance. Even the speed of light has to be factored into some design aspects. Engineers also have to try to keep traces on the same clock the same length, this is why you see squiggly traces to make up extra length.

[scaryjim]

I might be able to fit genuine low profile RAM in it, but I'm not sure. You definitely can't get normal profile RAM in it (there's a pic in my review thread of the problem). It's probably just the combination of the particular cooler with the particular socket orientation (the cooler has clearance but the heatpipe sticks straight over the ram slot), I just find it frustrating that the CPU socket *could* be clearer of obstructions. Granted for a lot of people that won't be an issue, it's just one of those little niggles...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looking at the FX4170 benchmark results,I expect the A10-5800K to be around Phenom II X4 965BE level overall,as the Toms Hardware review seems to indicate it is around 10% to 20% faster than an A8 3870K.

[Sputnik]

but it isn't half annoying if you want a large quiet cooler on there. I've recently stuck my Zalman on my APU rig and it's made a world of difference - 10C cooler and absolutely silent - but it's also blocked a RAM slot which means I can't put a second pair of RAM in my board. On a 2-slot board, I simply wouldn't be able to use that cooler and have a dual channel memory kit.

I know what you mean, My 720 came with exactly the same cooler as you got with your APU and I changed it after 1 week. It was too noisy and the temps were too high.

I think you had the disadvantage of not having much height to spare in your case too, So a taller cooler was not at option. I remember bending the caps on one board I had to get an XP-120 cooler on it.

[scaryjim]

Looking at the FX4170 benchmark results,I expect the A10-5800K to be around Phenom II X4 965BE level overall.

If that's true, and the GPU has the improvements I outlined, then you'd be looking at the 5800K on its own turning around a gaming performance not dissimilar to a 965BE + 6670, which iirc is around 9800GT levels. So I could replace my power hungry 8800GTX rig and barely notice the difference

Of course memory bandwidth is where the 5800K will fall down - I know the 4670 DDR3 was just about evenly matched in terms of GPU power and memory bandwidth: the 5800K will have around 50% more GPU power at the same bandwidth

[badass]

If that's true, and the GPU has the improvements I outlined, then you'd be looking at the 5800K on its own turning around a gaming performance not dissimilar to a 965BE + 6670, which iirc is around 9800GT levels. So I could replace my power hungry 8800GTX rig and barely notice the difference

Of course memory bandwidth is where the 5800K will fall down - I know the 4670 DDR3 was just about evenly matched in terms of GPU power and memory bandwidth: the 5800K will have around 50% more GPU power at the same bandwidth

Doesn't trinity have some shared memory thingmybob that might reduce the need to use the memory interface as much as there might be some more direct GPU-CPU communication? I'm sure in it's current iteration it'll not be a huge difference but any reduction is good news.
Plus, an FM2 motherboard should be upgradable to steamroller and I'd be gobsmacked if the Mainstream steamroller isn't a lot faster, both CPU and GPU than Trinity. I'm getting much better steamroller vibes than I had for any AMD product since the Athlon 64.