AMD - Piledriver chitchat

[Noxvayl]

I've been thinking that for a while now jim, but the time between having working DDR4 memory chips and the technology getting included in consumer products seems to be longer than usual. I don't remember this long a wait for DDR3, not from them having working chips to being put into consumer products. I get the feeling that something is holding it up because a couple of times it has been said that DDR4 is coming in 2014 but now it seems 2015 is the new estimate on roadmaps. Something seems to be holding it back, and I have a suspicion that it isn't technical in nature.

[watercooled]

I was thinking it could be more of a cost thing, and the kits currently available for preorder are steep: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...d=8&subid=2557

However when you compare to DDR3's current prices, yeah it's considerably more expensive, but it's still early and it's not *that* bad, considering. We're just spoiled by those DDR3 prices from a while back. Here's a line from one of my Scan orders from 2011 (excluding VAT):

8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3 PC3-1 1 £27.99

And another from ebuyer:

Item: Crucial 4GB DDR3 1333MHz Rendition Memory Module CL9 1.5V - RM51264BA1339
Qty: 2 Cost: £9.99 [each]

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

[Noxvayl]

Those prices were insane, no wonder the market couldn't handle it. I remember buying some myself and thinking I should of got more, because it was that cheap. I purchased my current set of RAM because of DDR4 coming to market in the near future; I expect DDR3 to become expensive soon with it being replaced by DDR4 in the factories once there are consumer board to support them. I was interesting to read about DDR4 being available for pre-order at OcUK after I was saying that I didn't expect DDR4 to be out this year.

That GrassFX looks interesting. I hope that Hexus and other sites can get the same performance boost when testing under normal conditions. I am definitely getting myself an APU when I can, these AMD chips are perfect for a media PC I want to build.

[DanceswithUnix]

Disappointing article from Anandtech.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8312/s...-the-part-cpus

So many issues, but the fact the 6300 is way cheaper than their reference i3 seems to show in the graphs but doesn't come through in the text. An FX8350 in the mix would have been nice.

[scaryjim]

I think my big issue with it is the decision to slap a $50 GPU in the AM3+ build. If you're interested in CPU performance at stock you can get any number of 760G based motherboards with IGP so you don't need to pay the extra for the GPU. Or if you care about GPU performance, slap the cost of a decent mid-range GPU into every build. Otherwise you're just taxing the AM3+ platform with $50 that you don't need to spend. Very frustrating.

I've yet to see an actual helpful review, where someone sets a budget, builds 3 or 4 systems to that budget with a specific target in mind, then tests them against each other to see which performs best. I'd love to see a £400 gaming build review, or a £600 video editing review (and I wouldn't mind doing the £500 digital audio workstation review myself ). There's this odd juxtaposition, where there's far too much focus on trying to test an individual component, but the methods used quite often confound the component tested (like using very low res and settings to show the difference in CPU performance, when gaming at proper res and settings shows little difference).

I wonder if I have enough online reputation to persuade companies to send me free tech gear to review....?

[Noxvayl]

I think my big issue with it is the decision to slap a $50 GPU in the AM3+ build. If you're interested in CPU performance at stock you can get any number of 760G based motherboards with IGP so you don't need to pay the extra for the GPU. Or if you care about GPU performance, slap the cost of a decent mid-range GPU into every build. Otherwise you're just taxing the AM3+ platform with $50 that you don't need to spend. Very frustrating.

I've yet to see an actual helpful review, where someone sets a budget, builds 3 or 4 systems to that budget with a specific target in mind, then tests them against each other to see which performs best. I'd love to see a £400 gaming build review, or a £600 video editing review (and I wouldn't mind doing the £500 digital audio workstation review myself ). There's this odd juxtaposition, where there's far too much focus on trying to test an individual component, but the methods used quite often confound the component tested (like using very low res and settings to show the difference in CPU performance, when gaming at proper res and settings shows little difference).

I wonder if I have enough online reputation to persuade companies to send me free tech gear to review....?

I have just come up with an idea, and it might seem absolutely insane but hear me out.

Get together with some friends, pay for the components yourselves, test the systems over the course of a week or two, gather the data together into an article and then give the rigs away as a gift with entry into the draw being £1. A £1 entry into the draw will give you the chance of winning thousands of pounds worth of computer equipment.

I would start by challenging yourselves to build a computer for £300 that could perform a certain task. The £300 includes hardware only, no software, not even an operating system. Just the bare bones of a computer. The competition is to have the best performing PC over a number of metrics: silence, heat dissipation, performance in all testing software used (needs to work under Ubuntu or Linux distro of choice among the group) and then finally looks, which is judged by the audience you have.

Actually, this sounds like fun to me. I'm buying myself a website and getting to work on it right away. I'll be back later.

[watercooled]

I'm not exactly sure how that would work in terms of law - isn't there some restriction against non-charities raffling stuff off? Although saying that, it's essentially how those phone-in competitions work so I'm not sure.

[scaryjim]

I'm not exactly sure how that would work in terms of law - isn't there some restriction against non-charities raffling stuff off?

there would be legal ramifications - it's down to the distinction between a game of luck and a game of skill, what you can and can't charge for, and how taxation and regulation applies. I'm not sure how it applies to raffles and other such activities for fund-raising though. TBH I'm not that fussed - I just want someone to give me cool hardware to play with

[Noxvayl]

I am actively researching it, I hope to give you free hardware soon... I am in over my head with legal issues, might contact Saracen about it.

Having said that I get an AMD A4-6300 tomorrow, any tests you guys want me to do and post about? I'm building it for a family member, not raffling it off

[watercooled]

Well it might be worth grabbing some Handbrake and Cinebench numbers as per the relevant forum threads.

And the non-flagship models are often neglected when it comes to IGP testing, so maybe a bench there to compare it to the more expensive chips from the series?

[Noxvayl]

Sure will do that, added the stuff to the list. Will use my steam library that have benchmarks and the free ones I have stored on my system somewhere.

I will add my old PC to the mix as well as my new system to give some full system comparisons which should be interesting although not that useful. Will be fun for me. Might take a week or two to get my old system and new one tested though so will start with the Cinebench and Handbrake charts I have already posted in with my system.

[watercooled]

I did a ton of benchmarking on some older systems a while ago, and still have the data just sitting in a folder. I'll get around to graphing it or something one day.

[scaryjim]

If you can find any benchmarks for mp3 encoding or applying filters/effects to sound files that'd be pretty useful: I'm speccing a recording rig for a local am-dram I tech for and have been trying to work out the best budget option (I want to fit a mahoosive SSD for scratch recording into the budget and istr that audio work is still predominantly single-threaded so a budget A4 or Pentium might be the way to go....!)...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hmm,maybe I should see if I can harrang some companies?

[Noxvayl]

I know nothing of mp3 encoding software but am happy to run some tests for you. Found the Phoronix Test Suite, might be of use. Is that going to give the results you are interested in scaryjim? (http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com/?k=home)

Just imagine CAT getting everyone a budget £300 system worth of components to test. Would be awesome times for the Hexus community. I must say I enjoy the give aways that Hexus do on the forums where members need to post reviews of the stuff. I follow the threads to check the reviews out.