Absolutely. End of last year there were rumours of a March release for AM4, I think that timing would have been really good and it is a shame it didn't happen.
Absolutely. End of last year there were rumours of a March release for AM4, I think that timing would have been really good and it is a shame it didn't happen.
Some of the X4 845 numbers are interesting though - in some cases it handily beats an X4 860K and in others it does lose. It makes me wonder if it is a TDP limitation or the consequence of only have 2MB of L2 cache??
It's definitely instructions specific as to whether Excavator has a performance gain over Steamroller or not. At least it doesn't lose out on performance anywhere though - it's going to be at least as good as, and in some cases better than, Kaveri on desktop. The 845 has the lowest base and turbo clocks in the test, so the fact that it doesn't lose any of the CPU tests (it's ahead of the 7860k on everything except HWBot x265 4k, where it's level) is pretty good. It's only minimum FPS in games where it really seems to drop off against the Kaveri chips.
Looks like Zen will offer hardware based memory encryption which is a first AFAIK:
http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=ne...ory-Encryption
As per usual, a first on PCs. Has been around on RISC chips and even the old 8 bit Dallas DS5001 for decades, but nice to see the concept of an encrypted VM. Should make cross VM intrusions through the host OS a whole lot harder if the host OS can't directly read/write memory in a meaningful way!
I think consoles like the Xbox 360 use some form of memory encryption to deter tampering, but like you say that's RISC.
Am looking to update my Athlon II machine but the max in terms of cpu mb supports is phenom x6 1055t.
Wait around for AM4 or grab a cheap one off Ebay. Their performance still great for everyday stuff...
I have a 95W 1055T myself, fantastic CPU in my opinion and still copes brilliantly in most modern games. The only time it seems to struggle is single-thread monstrosities like Rust but I'm in no hurry to upgrade.
If the 1055t is the highest listed processor that probably means they're restricting you to 95W processors - in which case a 1065T should also work OK. That's got a base clock of 2.9GHz and a boost clock of 3.4GHz, which makes it just about the fastest 95W processor you could pick up anyway (the X4 960T does 3.0/3.4, and there's a 95W stepping of the X4 955 which is a static 3.2GHz clock).
Given the price of the 1055t on ebay I'd be tempted to get one anyway - it's a great chip that'll last you a couple of years whilst AMD's roadmap settles down, and even if AM4 is so good that you want to do a new build when it comes out the X6 should hold most of its value for resale anyway (seriously, an 880G mobo and an X6 is a fantastic base...).
EDIT: leftfield suggestion: Athlon II X4 640. About half the price of the X6, basically like having an extra X2 250 in there. There's an E0 stepping that theoretically has turbo capability, although it doesn't have turbo clocks listed anywhere - perhaps something you can tweak in BIOS? Not sure... But if you were concerned about dropping the extra money on an X6, it's a potential option...
Last edited by scaryjim; 29-04-2016 at 11:15 AM.
Yes the MB is restricted to 95w. Was fine with it back in 2010 because my goal at the time was a quieter PC as well as wanting to stick to my 330W PSU.
Yeah 640 could be an option actually...
The other option could be get a new SSD doubling capacity, and wait it out until Autumn.
Last edited by pp05; 29-04-2016 at 07:27 PM.
I went from an Athlon II to a Phenom X6
I have the lowest clocked one, a 1045
I have just started playing Shadow of Mordor and it's romping it easily.
The X6 is one of the best power houses for bang per buck
And on Handbrake encoding it is pretty quick too.
Just get one. I like mine as it's so cool.. it's near silent and the graphics card makes more noise.
Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
pp05 (30-04-2016)
It seems stock-dumping didn't do Intel a whole lot of good in the mobile space then http://anandtech.com/show/10288/inte...socs-cancelled
+1 for the Phenom X6, mine has been great!
Another 2GB of RAM won't go amiss and remember once AMD moves to DDR4,DDR3 prices will probably rise too.
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