AMD - Piledriver chitchat

[scaryjim]

OK, this is far more complex then I imagined. For now I think I'll stick with "they keep making things smaller", I can understand that

AFAICT, however, AMD are moving to 28nm bulk for the Kaveri APUs? Or will they be using A 28nm SOI at GF?

Actually, the answer would probably just confuse the hell out of me

[Terbinator]

I think the rumours were they were going with bulk as its cheaper(?).

[MrNeil]

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages...review,11.html

Good ??

[Terbinator]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6332/a...-review-part-1

[scaryjim]

So, the GPU is 15% faster than Llano and therefore hands HD4000 it's arse on a platter. Colour me unsurprised. Rather sad that AMD are so concerned about their CPU performance that they've asked sites to push up the GPU elements of their reviews to grab some early buzz - particularly since I reckon most sites would have given favourable conclusions based on the balance of the processor: enough CPU power coupled with masses of graphical oomph. tbh the graphics results are almost disappointing: ~15% increase probably means they're bumping up against a memory limitation. Looking forward to the promised Hexus review of high-performance memory on Trinity

[hb904460]

Are the trinity APUs able to downwardly 'crossfire'? What i mean is the A8 specifies a 6670 as a dual graphics card, but will it also be able to increase the performance of a 6450 as well?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looking at the results for Crysis2 and FarCry2 with a GTX580 in the Guru3D,peformance does look at least Phenom II X4 965BE level in the games tested overall,as I expected. The A10 5800K does look a reasonable amount faster than an FX4100 despite having no L3 cache.

Power consumption figures are weird - it is either slightly lower than an A8-3870K,around the same or higher at load!!

[Terbinator]

Snip...

Seems you was right about it being a PII X4 with an 8800 slapped onto it though - not bad IMO.

[scaryjim]

Hmmm, having back-compared the reviews I reckon it might be just a bit slower than the 8800, although it's hard to tell since Anandtech don't give any proper system specs for their review, don't detail which versions of the 5570 and GT440 they're using, and I've had to try to back-link about 5 reviews before I got back to an 8800GT[/X] Having said that, it appears to at least be in the same ballpark. The A10-5700 should definitely be interesting, given it's got the same IGP and just a lower base clock speed, wrapped up in a 65W TDP. Slap it on a cheapo A55 FM2 board and add a dollop of high speed memory and you've got lan-party nirvana, I'd've thought.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have listed the previews in this thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...-previews.html

The IGP is probably around HD6570 GDDR3 level I suspect.

[DanceswithUnix]

Fudzilla says there will still be a wait for retail parts. Hope they are wrong.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/28...in-oem-flavour

[scaryjim]

The IGP is probably around HD6570 GDDR3 level I suspect.

I'm not so sure: Anandtech have it beating a 5570 in most cases, but it's not clear whether that's a GDDR5 version or a DDR3 version. It also comes out comfortably ahead of a GT440, although again it's not clear whether that's an OEM or retail version, and whether it's the DDR3 or GDDR5 version. Shoddy reviewing by the Anandtech team - either do it properly or don't do it at all... *sigh*

Trying some cross-review comparisons with the Tom's GT640 review, it looks like the 5570 in Anandtech's preview is probably a DDR3 version. The thing is the 6670 DDR5 and GT640 are very inconsistent when compared to each other; with each coming out significantly on top in different games. The fact that the 5800k comes out consistently behind the GT640 means it probably isn't quite up to 8800GT levels yet, no doubt down to memory limitations (and perhaps a narrow back end - anyone know how the ROP count compares to 5670/6670?).

Am I being too critical? Let's be honest, it'll probably provide medium detail 1080p gaming for the masses, which is pretty good going. And I'm pretty sure I'd buy one if I needed a new computer about now (which I don't, sadly ). I've just got a bad taste in my mouth from the way AMD (and those review sites that have bowed to their wishes) have gone about the launch. Could have done better AMD, could have done better...

[DanceswithUnix]

A second piece at Anandtech on HTPC side of things.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6335/a...pc-perspective

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It looks like Steamroller will work on socket AM3+ too:

http://hexus.net/tech/news/mainboard...ckets-am3-fm2/

[Biscuit]

It looks like Steamroller will work on socket AM3+ too:

http://hexus.net/tech/news/mainboard...ckets-am3-fm2/

Interesting. I thought that with steamroller there was the hint at a rework of the whole HT backbone? If thats the case then i take it the first round of them is likley to be a bit of a hybrid and performance could be a bit pants on the 990 boards?

[Terbinator]

Interesting. I would have thought that with steamroller there was the hint at a rework of the whole HT backbone? If thats the case then i take it the first round of them is likley to be a bit of a hybrid and performance could be a bit pants on the 990 boards?

Just O/C the HTT some more