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AMD Launches New Processor Socket Despite Poor Economy
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Feb 09, 2009 06:03 PM
from the damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead dept.
from the damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead dept.
arcticstoat writes to tell us that despite a poor economic climate, AMD is moving forward with a new processor socket launch, although they are trying to make it as upgrade-friendly as possible. "As you probably already know from the AM3 motherboards that have already been announced, AM3 is AMD's first foray into DDR3 memory support. As Phenom CPUs have integrated memory controllers, it's more accurate to say that it's the new range of Phenom II CPUs (see below) that are DDR3-compatible. However, the new DDR3-compatible Phenom II range is also compatible with DDR2 memory. As the new CPUs and the new AM3 socket are pin-compatible with the current AM2+ socket, you can put a new AM3-compatible CPU into an existing AM2+ motherboard. This means that you can upgrade your CPU now without needing to change your motherboard or buy pricey new DDR3 memory."
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AMD Launches First 45nm Shanghai CPUs 264 comments
arcticstoat writes "The wait for AMD's next-gen CPUs is finally over, as the company has now officially launched its first 45nm 'Shanghai' Opteron chips for servers and workstations. 'AMD's move to a 45nm process relies on immersion lithography, where a refractive fluid fills the gap between the lens and the wafer, which AMD says will result in 'dramatic performance and performance-per-watt gains.' It's also enabled AMD to increase the maximum clock speed of the Opterons from 2.3GHz with the Barcelona core to 2.7GHz with the Shanghai core. Shanghai chips also feature more cache than their predecessors, with 6MB of Level 3 cache bumping the total up to 8MB, and the chips share the same cache architecture as Barcelona CPUs, with a shared pool of Level 3 cache and an individual allocation of Level 2 cache for each core.'"
[+]
45nm Opteron Performance, Power Efficiency Tested 129 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Now that Intel has unleashed its next-generation Core i7 processors, all eyes are turned to AMD and its incoming wave of 45nm CPUs. To get a feel for AMD's future competitiveness, The Tech Report has taken a pair of 2.7GHz 45nm Opterons (with 75W power envelopes) and put them through the paces against Intel Xeons and older, 65nm Opterons in an extensive suite of performance and power efficiency tests — from Cinema 4D and SPECjbb to computational fluid dynamics and a custom XML handling benchmark. The verdict: AMD's new 45nm quad-core design is a notable improvement over the 65nm iteration, and it proves to be a remarkably power-efficient competitor to Intel's Xeons. However, 45nm AMD chips likely don't have what it takes to best Intel's Core i7 and future Nehalem-based Xeons."
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AMD Phenom II Available To Distributors This Week 114 comments
jdb2 writes "Fudzilla reports that AMD's Phenom II is already available to distributors, and will be available to sell to consumers in the week of the 29th of December. The Phenom II is AMD's consumer version of its 'Shanghai' 45 nanometer SOI process Quad-core Opteron chip and will reportedly ship in 3 and 2.8 gigahertz flavors corresponding to the model numbers '940' and '920' respectively. This first release will be packaged as a Socket AM2+ part which only supports DDR2 memory. The following month AMD is reportedly going to release a new '9x5' series of Socket AM3 versions which support DDR3 memory — these will be backward compatible with Socket AM2+ . This may be an inflection point for AMD if the Shanghai architecture lives up to the performance numbers from preliminary reports and if so it will no doubt also be a welcome belated Christmas present for the already salivating hordes of Tech Junkies."
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45nm Phenom II Matches Core 2 Quad, Trails Core i7 234 comments
An anonymous reader writes "AMD recently debuted its 45nm Phenom II processors, and The Tech Report has already run them through a complete suite of benchmarks to see how they perform compared to Intel's latest and greatest. The new 2.8GHz and 3GHz Phenom IIs are in a dead heat with like-priced Core 2 Quads, but they generally fall well behind Intel's new Core i7 chips. TR concludes that AMD's future doesn't look as bleak as some say, and future Phenom IIs could compete favorably with more affordable Core i7 derivatives."
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What's the point in wating for markets to turn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn (Score:4, Insightful)
In addition the fact that it's cheaper for them to make this than the previous version as well, they have every reason to stay competitive.
Who writes this "poor economy" crap?
Many companies are doing just fine through this downturn, it's just a mental state of consumers that has changed, and probably not for the long run either as consumers tend to have about the memory of a goldfish when it comes to taking corrective action financially.
We're just slowly deflating back to where we were before this hyperinflation the last few years has brought.
Parent
Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn (Score:5, Informative)
AMD is competitive at the low and middle end as long as you don't overclock the middle end CPUs.
(If you include the price of the motherboard and don't care about overclocking a low- or midrange AMD system will be cheaper.)
AMD don't have as high end CPUs as Intel and the ones which are closest don't overclock as good or use as little power.
Though then I'd say you shouldn't overclock anyway and AMD chipsets have used less power making the two when used in a complete system rather comparable.
Also AMD used to have an advantage in memory bandwidth and when using multiple CPUs.
Information may be slightly outdated but all of it is probably true, Intel may have catched up in memory bandwidth performance with their latest CPUs since they have put the memory controller within the CPU themself to.
Parent
Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn (Score:4, Informative)
You have to account for how each company lists its TDP.
Intel lists its TDP as average load usage, while AMD lists the max draw.
So if each chip was listed at 90W, the AMD would actually use less power.
Parent
Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn (Score:5, Informative)
(PS to trolls: Unbuffered ECC memory is only marginally more expensive than unbuffered non-ECC, though it usually has a small latency penalty. Registered/FB-DIMMs ECC on the other hand are Quite Expensive)
Parent
Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn (Score:5, Interesting)
Core i7 940 -> $564.99 + about $250 for mobo = $800+
Phenom II 940 -> $224 + about $150 for mobo = about $375
Core i7 needs DDR3, Phenom II 940 runs DD2 (note that the 940 is an AM2+ part, not AM3 so it doesn't support DDR3). DDR3 is somewhere around 50% more expensive than DDR2 (though falling).
For me, the fact that the i7 is only about 10-20% faster than the Phenom for more than twice the cost, it's simply not worth considering for me. Then again, I do most of my gaming on consoles.
Parent
Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn (Score:5, Informative)
AMD has the Geode LX and NX lines.
Geode LX [amd.com] is very low powered and the highest clock speed (I've seen) is 566Mhz.
Geode NX [amd.com] is targeted directly at the Atom. Although I have yet to see any of these out in the wild.
I've only ever found a Geode in the wild clocked as high as 500Mhz (see the ALIX boards [mini-box.com])
Actually the Geode is a dead end processor, AMD already has stated they are disconinuing it.
AMD recently announced a new processor "Conesus" that is intended for netbooks and UMPC.
http://gizmodo.com/5086703/amds-upcoming-conesus-netbook-chip-wont-stoop-to-mid-levels
Parent
am3 CPU in am2+ motherboard: OK Otherway.. no (Score:5, Informative)
You may be able to put a am3 processor in a am2+ motherboard, but the Register says that am2+ processor in a am3 motherboard will not work. (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/02/09/review_cpu_amd_phenom_ii_am3/page2.html)
To quote: ..
"makes life horribly confusing as the Phenom X4 920 and 925 and the X4 940 and 945 will be identical apart from the processor socket. This means that there is the possibility that some poor so-and-so will buy an AM2+ CPU and an AM3 motherboard when ne'er the twain shall meet."
careful what you buy out there
Despite a poor economy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Despite a poor economy? (Score:5, Informative)
And also due to poor economy, otherwise they wouldn't support cheaper DDR2.
I guarantee you they would.
Even when the economy was good, there was a lot of downward pressure on the prices of computers. Mandating a switch to a more expensive memory tech before the market is ready is a sure way to have it backfire in your face *cough* RAMBUS *cough* Ugh that was some nasty phlegm.
Parent
Inflationary summary? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Despite a poor economic climate, farmers still harvest crops they planted last year...." - come on....
Re:Good (Score:5, Informative)
The latency is generally lower than DDR2, measured in wall-clock time. The advertised latency appears worse only because of the faster clock.
Parent
Re:Good (Score:5, Informative)
That's bullshit, CL in periods * period length = latency, and since they are clocked higher the latency will probably be around the same, I won't calculate it for you.
And that latency is how long it takes before you actually start to read any bits, but as soon as you have started each bit will come faster from the higher clocked memory.
If you don't get a speed increase it's because either of:
1) Processor not fast enough to take benefit of additional bandwidth.
2) Cache system smart enough to not take benefit of additional bandwidth.
3) Application not using memory in a fashion where it will take benefit of additional bandwidth.
Most likely the later one ..
All higher end graphic cards come with faster memory, it may not be a huge deal always but it probably add some benefit, rather stupid if it didn't.
AMD said they would skip DDR2 and go directly to DDR3 earlier because there was no benefit when actually in use but I guess they "had to" when Intel was using DDR2 just because people see the numbers and wonder why one is bigger than the other.
Though first AM DDR2 chips vs 939 DDR chips showed no increase in speed in benchmarks.
Anyway, DDR3 is faster than DDR2, will you notice it? I have no idea.
Parent
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
The 3-fold clocking scheme will only really help on interleaved burst reads. The memory cells don't charge the output buffers any faster just because you clock them at a higher rate. This is why the nCLK latencies scale with the number of folds in DDR scheme. The only things that will make the cells charge faster are a) higher voltage or b) smaller process or c) a more conductive semiconductor chemistry that lowers resistances and increases currents on the wafer.
If you can have 3 banks of DDR3 interleaved by 1 clock then you can probably see some significant gains on sequential (aka burst) reads. In real life, this doesn't happen very much, especially in a multithreaded environment where almost all s/w is written using high-level foundation classes with very little machine optimization.
Parent
Re:strange (Score:5, Insightful)
Or a lot of small-budget husbands :P
Parent
Re:strange (Score:5, Insightful)
So my advice to the married chumps out there is to keep a separate bank account for discretionary purchases which your wives have neither control of nor access to. Life without self-respect (and gadgets) is not worth living.
Seconded. One of the best things you can do is establish the idea of a slush fund for both sides of the relationship; fighting over money is one of the more common reasons for divorce.
Parent
Re:strange (Score:4, Insightful)
So my advice to the married chumps out there is to keep a separate bank account for discretionary purchases which your wives have neither control of nor access to. Life without self-respect (and gadgets) is not worth living.
Or... marry someone who isn't a total shite and respects your interests.
-Taylor
Parent
Re:strange (Score:4, Insightful)
Or... marry someone who isn't a total shite and respects your interests.
-Taylor
This.
There's no way you are going to be able to successfully "hide" income from your partner.
You need to be able to sit down and talk about priorities and expenses without it devolving into a shouting match or having one of the parties become an unhappy invertebrate...
Parent
Re:strange (Score:4, Funny)
Life without self-respect (and gadgets) is not worth living.
Dude! Way to totally reverse priorities. Did it occur to you that maybe she's the one with the high-paying job, and all that groveling got him better hardware than he could have bought if his was the only income?
Okay that probably wasn't the case, I'm just sayin', if I had to choose between self-respect and gadgets... "Honey, please?! I took out the trash last night and everything!"
Parent
Re:strange (Score:5, Insightful)
Or, you can be adults, and maybe agree on an amount for discretionary spending that doesn't require the others approval.
Parent
Re:strange (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Not strange at all (Score:5, Insightful)
Other than starving CIS majors, who barely earn enough money from their university's computer lab to pay for Ramen Noodles, who does that? IT professionals would just buy all the hardware together because their time is worth more than their money, and everybody else just buys entire new computers. This could only appeal to a handful of small-budget kids.
If you don't think in terms of upgrading the processor of the computer sitting on your desk, but instead think of HP updating the processor in their line of AM2-based computers, then you should be able to see that the appeal is basically universal. This way the OEMs can offer refreshed versions of their lines without having to incur the extra expense of DDR3. Obviously they will also make a DDR3 AM3-based line, but the DDR2-based line will be cheaper.
Backward compatibility and in-place upgrades appeals to far more than a handful of poor hobbyists.
Parent
Re:strange (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:strange (Score:4, Insightful)
Virtualization doesn't help your performance if you're already using all of a particular resource. It has overheads that mean you're getting less out of your hardware in terms of raw performance. The fact that you can put 5 boxes that would otherwise be sitting idle on the same hardware is what makes virtualization attractive.
Parent