AMD Shows Upcoming Phenom II CPU At 6.0 GHz+ 159
Vigile writes "Today during a press briefing at AMD's offices in Austin, TX the company showed off some upcoming technology that should be available sometime early in 2009. What was most impressive was the overclocked speeds of the pending Phenom II X4 45nm processors. On air cooling AMD showed the quad-core CPU running at nearly 4.0 GHz while with much more extreme liquid nitrogen cooling help the same CPU reached over 6.0 GHz! It looks like AMD's newest processor might finally once again compete with the best from Intel, including its recent Core i7 CPUs."
first question.. (Score:2, Interesting)
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That link only includes information regarding the current it does have a quick paragraph on the new ones but no TDP is mentioned.
They're almost certainly going to keep the same TDP bands as they have today. Of course the 4GHz and especially 6GHz demonstration are probably well outside those bands.
Re:first question.. (Score:5, Informative)
That's for the current generation Phenoms. You likely want this article [wikipedia.org], which covers the Phenom 2 procs.
TDP spec at 3.0ghz is 125W, so don't think he's exaggerating that much. I'd guesstimate 150-200W at 4ghz.
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Voltage sure, but what about the current?
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Power usage grows as the square of the voltage.
For purely resistive loads, yes. I can't say I know the details of how CPUs work internally with regards to power consumption, but I would not be surprised if it is also proportional to the clock speed. In that case, it would be another 1/3 to that, making 192% normal TDP, giving 240 W.
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yeah, CMOS is pretty heavily affected by clock speed. Higher clock means more source/sink current needed to toggle fast enough. And multiply a few nanoamps by a few hundred million transistors and you start talking about quite a lot of current.
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It's over 9000!!
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what's the power rating for this thing at 4 ghz? 250 watts?
If you actually read the article you would have seen "AMD could theoretically have a 3.4 to 3.6 GHz processor at moderate TDP levels (think 125 watts)"
Re:first question.. (Score:5, Funny)
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1.21 gigawatts
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Overclocking BS (Score:3, Informative)
For example, here is a video from 2006 where a Pentium 4 processor is overclocked to 5 GHz. [youtube.com]
So no, it doesn't look like "AMD's newest processor might finally once again compete with the best from Intel."
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Re:Overclocking BS (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't get a Core 2 CPU to run at 5Ghz no matter how hard you try.
What this proves for AMD's CPU is that the architecture is able to handle 6Ghz, and the only problem is heat. Heat is a big problem, sure, but it's delt with every day in all sorts of new and creative ways - but usually just from reducing fab size and lowering voltage.
I personally don't care much anymore about who's CPU is 5% faster than the other. I choose what gives me the best options.. And I really have had excellent results with AMD's processors in the past. I have a few Core 2 based machines and they're nice too, no doubt. It just doesn't really matter anymore.
Re:Overclocking BS (Score:5, Informative)
You can't get a Core 2 CPU to run at 5Ghz no matter how hard you try.
Given that the Nehalem is reaching the same speeds [theinquirer.net] or higher [fudzilla.com] on air-cooling, I wouldn't be surprised if Intel could match 6 GHz under liquid nitrogen cooled conditions.
Re:Overclocking BS (Score:5, Informative)
Given that the Nehalem is reaching the same speeds or higher on air-cooling, I wouldn't be surprised if Intel could match 6 GHz under liquid nitrogen cooled conditions.
Here [hexus.net] is an example of Core i7 at 5.2 GHz on LN2
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Who would pay $1000 for a processor to keep a processor overclocked at 5Ghz running 24/7? Nobody. People who do this are doing it for benchmarks marketing reasons.
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What this proves for AMD's CPU is that the architecture is able to handle 6Ghz, and the only problem is heat. Heat is a big problem, sure, but it's delt with every day in all sorts of new and creative ways - but usually just from reducing fab size and lowering voltage.
Well, yes, in the sense that hotter transistors are slower than cooler ones. There's probably no way you could ever run it at 6GHz with air cooling, because even if you could actually dump all the heat produced you'd never get the chip coole
Re:Overclocking BS (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sorry, but it's quite easy. All you need is the following:
- Intel Core 2 Duo SP9300 (x 3)
- Duct Tape
Bam! 6.78 Ghz. Done.
Re:Overclocking BS (Score:5, Insightful)
personally don't care much anymore about who's CPU is 5% faster than the other. I choose what gives me the best options.. And I really have had excellent results with AMD's processors in the past. I have a few Core 2 based machines and they're nice too, no doubt. It just doesn't really matter anymore.
When they're about equal, I choose AMD, so that next time I build a computer I'll still have a choice.
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Heck, even if the Intel solution might be a LITTLE better, I'll still pick AMD a lot of times.
And, at work I have the say as to what systems our clients will order for VMware hosts, and I always pick Opterons, even if they're a little more expensive. With AMD you get better multi-core performance when you're using a lot of RAM - perfect for VMware.
This is likely to change when Intel releases their Server CPU's with what is basically HyperTransport and an embedded memory contr
Virtualisation should save AMD (Score:2)
Considering Intel only puts it on some chips, it's the only thing that makes me consider AMD right now.
That and the fact that 45nm Phenoms are coming to AM2+, so an AM2 board is not as "useless" as an LGA775... Sure, the LGA775 will get newer 45nm CPUs, and likely a few 32nm ones (or updated 45nm while the Nehalems are fixed up), but I feel you get better flexibility with AMD right now if you don't mind losing out a bit in gaming performance. Quads are also cheap when it's AMD. I'm just waiting for a 90W or
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I've been using AMD processors for years for two reasons. One is to keep the competition alive because it's a good thing. The second is because AMD processors are usually a better deal.
If you look at the benchmark charts over at Tom's Hardware, you can get a rough idea of how the processors rank in terms of performance. Then, when you go out an price them, the stuff that gives you the best bang for the buck is usually AMD. Not talking cutting edge or server class processors but the kind of thing you wou
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But virtualisation takes the cake. I don't get a hit with AMD's CPUs, having Pacifica in all the chips.
Ain't no way I'm going to go dig up the links, but even with the latest virtualization support in Intel chips, the opterons are reportedly significantly faster changing from one VM to another. One hypothesis is that it is due to support for nested page tables on the AMD implementation, but I have yet to read anything more than empirical tests plus speculation.
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I couldn't agree more.
Even all other things being equal, I still tend to prefer AMD as they have a better track record of supporting upgrades without having to change out your CPU, RAM and motherboard every time. Also, if your board burns out, you're far more likely to find a new retail motherboard for AMD to replace it. Intel, a lot of times, your only option is eBay.
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On air cooling AMD showed the quad-core CPU running at nearly 4.0 GHz
A highly efficient processor running at clock speeds not seen in standard pc kit since the Pentium 4 era... Sounds like they are regaining their footing to me!
Re:Overclocking BS (Score:5, Interesting)
Look, I don't think overclocking in liquid nitrogen is cause for a slam dunk conclusion that AMD is now competitive with Intel, but stating that it's not impressive and not an indication of the performance of the processor indicates a complete lack of understanding of electrical design.
This wouldn't have worked, for example, with the original PPC 7400 (G4) past 500MHz. As it turned out, there was a hard stop getting past that. Finding FMax (maximum frequency) independent of reliability and power concerns highlights design weaknesses. If they can overclock by 50% with adequate cooling, one can conclude they don't have any early or late mode problems preventing higher frequencies, and that metal isn't the limiting factor. In fact, they can easily conclude that the electrical design is sound and that their limit will be what they can qualify from a reliability perspective.
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Look, I don't think overclocking in liquid nitrogen is cause for a slam dunk conclusion that AMD is now competitive with Intel, but stating that it's not impressive and not an indication of the performance of the processor indicates a complete lack of understanding of electrical design.
I still want to wait to see how the intel performs when cooled with liquid helium.
(not that I care in the slightest what brand of CPU is in my machine as long as it's current in terms of performance, cheap and not a power hog...)
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It's nice, but I don't think the ability to overclock with extreme measures necessarily indicates that it is better at handling more conventional tasks in benign conditions.
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Yes, it's called diminishing returns. Intel initially used large caches to make up for the lower performance of having a separate north bridge, because designing an interprocessor cache coherency mechanism and NUMA support is the tougher job. They could rely on their financial and manufacturing strengths to push fab and process improvements and sup
Re:Overclocking BS (Score:5, Insightful)
This is far from impressive. Showing the overclocking results, especially on liquid nitrogen, is not a good indication of the day to day performance of the processor.
If the overclocking results were the only thing in the full article, your argument would be valid. However, your comment indicates that you read the short summary, did a quick search for your P4 overclocking link, and posted for quick mod points from Intel fanboys.
TFA shows the processor benchmarking at 3GHz, and 4GHz with air cooling, likely a custom air setup that would not be uncommon for many self builders. Check Intel's speeds, I'll even give you a link to a vendor [newegg.com]. I even filtered for the highest GHz. They are about the same.
So Yes, it does look like ""AMD's newest processor might finally once again compete with the best from Intel." Maybe it doesn't blow them away, but compete with Intel it does.
(This commenter recognizes that raw GHz is not the end-all and be-all of the final experience, but this is the only concrete number we currently have to argue about)
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So to quote from the FULL article "I do not believe that AMD wants to get back the performance crown at this time, namely because they do not have a design that is head and shoulders above what Intel currently has. So they are content to be 2nd best, and keep Intel in sight in terms of performance and
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GHz does not equal performance. Which is why a 2GHz Core 2 CPU can beat out a 3.6GHz Pentium 4.
Please don't bring back the myth.
Patience (Score:1, Funny)
If they just wait six months, their new chip won't be such a hot product and thus won't need liquid nitrogen to reach 6GHz
All good but... (Score:3, Funny)
Will it run Vista?
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Fail:
All Good but... Will it blend?
Now, that's the question! Better yet, can you blend an i7 and a Phenom II?
Misleading title (Score:4, Informative)
If you need liquid nitrogen to boost it to 6 GHz, it's not all that interesting. Nehalem 2.66 GHz offering has also been shown to overclock to 4 GHz on air cooling, and some people have got the 3.2 GHz offering up to 4.5 GHz on air. On GHz they're roughly the same, possibly with a slight Intel edge.
I thought both companies were ditching the GHz war and fighting for actual performance supremacy? What's with the silly "my GHz is bigger than yours" competition? Do we have PPW numbers, or just press releases that mean nothing?
Basically (Score:3, Informative)
GHz is brought up when your chosen platform is on top. If you aren't, it's downplayed.
For example the original "MHz myth" was started by Mac fans. When they first went PPC, Apple had a large lag behind Intel in MHz. Well, the Mac fans were all excited about this new architecture and kept talking about how PPC has a positive second derivative of MHz and x86 had a negative one and so on and so forth. They were all excited about how they'd be ahead in MHz in a few years and basically equated MHz to performance
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You seem like the right person to ask this of, so, how exactly do I choose what's best for the job?
I want a good, cheap, stable, processor that's going to be able to handle every game made in the next few years (the same thing every home user wants).
I can't really judge by GHz, since my ancient 1.6 GHz processor is enough to handle most modern games when overclocked (2.13 GHz). So what do I look at? L1/L2 cache? FSB? Does the tech (45 nm) factor into speed at all, or is does it just give a general idea
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You are (possibly unintentionally?) turning this into a straw man argument.
It's not the processor that really dictates what you can handle. It's the graphics card moreso.
As long as you have a mobo that can handle PCIEx16 (minimum) and a nice processor, well you're good for quite a while. Meanwhile, anyone buying any motherboard right now is potentially fucked not because of processors or graphics, but because of USB3 coming out. Since no current motherboards will be able to support that speed without a drop
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They are the company that outed other companies (and tested their own as well), to see who was willing to give positive reviews based on being bribed, such as tomshardware.
Really? Do you have a link to that story? I've read THG for years, so I'd like to hear the full details of that claim.
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Aww, I apologize. It was the site that works with techreport, dailytech. why do I trust techreport? Because they also tried to bribe their own company secretly in this process as well to ensure honesty. They also have a much more up to date system building guid3e (monthly) with straight newegg links.Here are two of the related links:
http://www.dailytech.com/PR+Firm+Owner+in+Hot+Water+Over+Game+Review+Site+Ownership/article13085.htm [dailytech.com]
and also
http://www.dailytech.com/Pay+to+Play+Uncovering+Online+Payola/article [dailytech.com]
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Thanks for techreport.com, I'd somehow missed that site.
I'm not sure why exactly I'd be screwed when USB3.0 comes out. Will it break my existing mouse and keyboard? How about my flash drives?
And if I really need USB3 functionality, I'll be able to buy that PCIE card, so I fail to see what the problem is.
I am well aware of the benefits of a good video card, and I opted for a $25 dollar processor (2800) and a $150 VC (7900GS) several years ago, and they served me (really) well. However, they are in need of
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Oh, no. USB3 will be backwards and forwards compatible. You can run USB3 on USB2 devices and vice versa, but the speed difference is 20x faster so it's a big deal (way faster than firewire). AKA 600MB/s. Meaning that you could tune HD tv and use ridiculously fast flash drives/it could be straight competition to Esata as well.
Gaming processor = look at techreport's system builder guide on the front page. They show justification for why they choose something and newegg links to the whole system and is updated
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Broadcast HD tv maxes out at approximately 19 Megabits (yes, bits not bytes) per second. That is the total bandwidth but many stations have multiple channels sharing that bandwidth.
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Uh, do you have a link to show that for my own understanding? I seem to recall that not only do USB2 devices have a difficult time receiving HD to 1080P but also not all "broadcast HDtv" is transmitted at the same bandwidth either. Not that the difference should be enormous. From what I read, you're referring to digital tv [tomshardware.com], which is not HD broadcast.
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Umm, no. USB3 will be backwards compatible with 2, so it's not like we won't be able to use USB3 devices on a USB2 computer or vice versa.
The issue is that there is a huge realm of hardware devices that can suddenly reach fruition when they can function at 600MB/s that are simply not available right now.
Example: anything streaming (HD especially). It even opens up a reasonable possibility of an external graphics card for low level tasks. I honestly can't imagine what else as I cannot see the future, but go
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Re:Basically (Score:5, Informative)
For games, doesn't much matter. Get a dual core chip that's reasonable and you should be fine. Games do use the CPU but the GPU is by far more important. You can get a quad if you really want but at this time very few can use it at all, and those that can don't tend to be that efficient. A good dual core from the mid range area from either manufacturer should work well.
65 vs 45 nm isn't that important except in terms of energy usage. The 45nm chips are going to use less power for equal performance. However this again isn't a huge deal since the GPU is likely to be the big drain in the system.
Cache isn't all that big a deal. Again, just get whatever the midrange is. Games aren't an area where cache seems to make a large performance difference.
More or less, while these things can make a difference, they don't make enough to justify that much worry or money. You will probably find that a $250 processor works pretty much as good as a $1000 processor, whereas a $300 graphics card is going to be 50% faster than a $150 graphics card. Thus it is clear where your money should go.
Personally I have a Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz 65nm chip and it works just fine on all the games I've thrown at it. In general, when games are limited it isn't the CPU it is either the refresh rate of the monitor (it isn't useful to go above that and as with all LCDs mine is set at 60Hz) or the GPU. Now keep in mind the GPU I have is a GeForce GTX 280. So even a GPU that heavy hitting doesn't really seem to need more CPU, for all the games I've messed with.
If I were to build a gaming system today my strategy would be as such:
--Get a midrange CPU. Something probably not more than $300, but not less than $150. Maybe a quad core since I also do audio work, but I'd be looking more at dual cores. I'd make sure it supports DDR2 RAM, since DDR3 is currently too pricey to justify the small gain.
--Get 4GB of RAM. It's cheap, why not.
--Get a nice big drive since bigger drives are faster and games are not getting any smaller.
--Get a video card such that I can afford to get a new one of the same price once every 12-18 months or so.
That last one is key: Your video card is important to games, and it gets outdated real fast. You can't buy one that won't, because new technology comes out all the time. You can drop $2000 on an insane multi-card setup, and it'll still be outdated soon. So, the right answer is to buy less card, more often. I say make it a yearly target. You aren't necessarily going to buy that often, but that's a good target to make sure your price is realistic and you really don't want to buy more often than that. So whatever you can afford per year, get that. Then, when the next worthwhile upgrade in that price range comes along, get it.
That's what I did. Prior to my 280, I had an 8800. They both cost me about $400. I can afford to spend that every year (I spend a lot on my computer, it's important to me). In that case, it was more like 16-18 months, which is fine. You keep your card until there's a new one worthwhile and/or you find a game that doesn't run well, but you are ready to upgrade yearly. Used to be I couldn't afford so much, so I used more midrange cards. I had a GeForce 3 Ti 200 back in the day. Wasn't top of the line, but I could afford to get it, and then to replace it next year if needed.
So get a midrange CPU, plenty of RAM, and a video card that you can upgrade and you should be fine. CPUs have pretty good life these days. It's videocards that are obselete all the time. Good news is that videocards can be gotten for reasonable prices. For example an ATi 4850 will run you about $150, less after rebate. However it is enough to run any game out there at high detail at a reasonable rez. My bet is it lasts more than a year, but at $150, it isn't unreasonable to replace next year if you need.
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The nice thing about current GPU/CPU tech is that a Athlon X2 2.6GHz with an 8800GT/HD4850 is considered baseline by Ars, and can play games at 1680x1050 comfortably. That's pretty incredible.
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I wrote this in response to another, and decided against posting it (since the GP specifically asked about gaming, but I missed that), but then decided to use it in response to your post. It expands on your points.
Addressing the GP's question: It depends on your application/use-case. A database server can do fine with a relatively slow multi-core CPU, as long as it has fast enough IO and a LOT of RAM. A scientific computing/numerical analysis machine will likely need the fastest FPUs it can find -- henc
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Buy a chip that costs about $100 and then be happy with it, or buy one that costs about $300 and be extremely happy with it.
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Simple test:
Are they selling it to you? It's probably way more powerful than you'll need for a long time. Go with the cheapest one you can get on the newest architecture you can find.
You said it yourself, your ancient processor overclocked slightly (it does matter whether it's AMD or Intel to know how ancient that is) is almost enough to play today's games. No matter what you buy today it'll be way more powerful than either an Athlon XP 2000+ or a Pentium 4 1.6Ghz, probably 2-4 times before counting the dua
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1. Pick the CPU slot or form factor that has the longest roadmap. With my last computer, that was the AMD 939-pin platform. This will allow for future upgrades to the CPU, even if 3-4 years have passed.
2. Once the form factor has been chosen, do the research and find the best performance-to-price ratio. If it comes down to a few different processors, pick the one with the highest FSB and/or memory onboard cache.
3. Get a quality cooler
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I want a good, cheap, stable, processor that's going to be able to handle every game made in the next few years (the same thing every home user wants).
Every home user? Erm, no. For most home users performance rendering web pages, using Office and displaying their photos is much more important than playing the latest 3D FPS.
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Well that didn't come to pass. PPC didn't scale up in MHz fast and x86 did. So all of a sudden they started whining about the "MHz myth" and saying that it didn't matter, performance did. When their platform wasn't going to be on top it changed from important to worthless.
Same shit here. When Intel had the high GHz chips, AMD heads were up on the fact that AMDs did more per clock. Now if AMD has the high GHz chips, they'll be touting that as being the measure of awesomeness.
Me, I'll just keep buying what do
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Actually the i7 last time I checked only went to 5.9ghz on LN2. And they showed 4ghz on air so yes this is pretty interesting depending on the price point.
An over clocked $250 AMD Phenom II could compete very well with a $1000 i7.
That would be very interesting.
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I have had my Q6600 running at 4GHz for three weeks 24/7 on air. 4GHz is not that hard. The system didn't crash, everything ran fine. I didn't have to turn the heat on for those three weeks either, but cranking a 2.66 GHz to 4.1 GHz is going to create more heat.
It did take a bit of tweaking to get it there. But I did it, and now it is running back at stock speeds. This machine is a my DVR it doesn't need to run at 4 GHz to record TV. Yes I have a much less power hungry system on order. I was just testing th
what a wank (Score:2)
some people have got the 3.2 GHz offering up to 4.5 GHz on air
I bet that's super-reliable. Don't people have anything better to do?
Re:Misleading title (Score:5, Informative)
The Phenom seem to perform somewhat better under linux, or at least gcc produces better code for them than it does for intel chips...
(note, this is based on 64bit gentoo, gcc 4.3.0 compiled with -O2 and appropriate cpu type setting on a 2.3ghz phenom 9500 and 2.4ghz Q6600)
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AMD from the beginning treated 64-bit mode as a first-class citizen.
They also treated GCC as a first-class citizen, while Intel is content with trying to compete with it using its own compiler that generates vendor-sniffing code like a bad geocities website.
Only nitrogen? (Score:4, Funny)
Anyone ever tried cooling a CPU with a continuous flow of liquid helium? :)
Don't try it, you might get sued... (Score:2)
www.patentstorm.us/patents/7243507/description.html
Unbelievably, you didn't try http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=liquid+helium+cpu+cooling&btnG=Search [google.com]
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Even better - with _superfluid_ liquid helium :)
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Man that puppy runs cool... I think I'll celebrate with a smoke!
[INSERT CaptainPatent INTO DARWIN_AWARD]
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[INSERT CaptainPatent INTO DARWIN_AWARD]
INSERT INTO SQL101
(nick)
VALUES
('CaptainPatent');
Yes I'm being pedantic here ;-)
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Almost a fanboy (Score:1, Flamebait)
Had I not bought two new computers within a year I could almost have been a fanboy. No, they were Intel as I could afford them...
I've stuck with AMD (Score:5, Interesting)
Second, AMD clearly differentiates their product. An XP 6000 is faster than a 5000, etc. Buying an Intel CPU is a chore (and make sure you get the right board, That's not always clear either).Basically I'm Lazy, and Intel's made it a pain to pick the right processor.
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First, I can put together an AMD box equivalent to an Intel for about $200 bucks cheaper. That money goes into my Video Card and I wind up with a better overall System.
I just bought a new computer, looking at quad-core configurations from either Intel or AMD - and, granted, I'm not so in-touch with computer hardware as I used to be - but my impression from the reviews I'd seen, etc. was that AMD was slightly slower per clock-cycle than Intel, and that the range of available clock speeds didn't go as high, either. The one advantage AMD had was a better memory architecture... Which, given the fact that this is a quad-core system, is very important if you don't want the pr
Re:I've stuck with AMD (Score:5, Informative)
Intel handled (I think they still do) all IPC (Inter-Processor Communication) through the FSB. Which is also the ram bus, and so runs at ram speed. They even did this for inter-core communication, completely screwing any attempts to scale a single intel system to lots of cores and have it still run well.
AMD have 3 independent buses, an inter-core comms for multi-core cpus (runs at cpu clock speed), hypertransport for inter-cpu comms and device comms (runs at multiple GHz independent of CPU speed), and an independent ram bus (runs at ram speed, obviously). This means that an AMD system gains real performance pretty linearly with the number of cores and cpus, and an Intel one didn't.
Intel countered by massively increasing their ram speed, countering the FSB bottleneck for smaller (2 or 4 cores) systems, and by making their cpus capable of more instructions per clock than AMD cpus (a real surprise when it happened), giving them great single-threaded performance. AMD couldn't match the performance of the most powerful Intel Core 2 cpus, so went for energy efficiency in a big way, and generally tried to undercut (instead of outperform) Intel at every turn. AMD's cache architecture was better too, with data not duplicated in all levels of the cache, so AMD cpus effectively had 10% more cache compared to Intel cpus. Intel countered by adding lots more cache to their cpus. AMD also went for forward and backward compatibility in a big way, a BIOS update (and sometimes not even that) is all that is needed to make the oldest socket 939 boards work with the newest AMD cpus. You lose out on a few features (e.g. faster HT and ram), but it makes upgrading an AMD machine much cheaper.
This leaves us with the situation where AMD cpus are great for highly-communicating parallel operations, and are great in clusters and datacenters due to having higher performance per watt (so they cost less to run and need less cooling). They also make for cheaper desktop systems both to build and to run, important if you're on a budget. Intel cpus are great for ram performance, and high-speed single-threaded ops, important if you are building a super-powerful gaming rig. Intel's pushing of their on-board graphics chipsets has also caused Intel cpus to end up in a lot of pre-built machines.
Though to be honest, You don't need a cpu costing more than £60 to play anything released recently at full speed, and AMD is incredibly competitive at those prices (e.g. my AMD X2 5600). The real expense is in graphics these days, though my 2-generation-old nVidia 8800 (rev 1) GTS 320MB hasn't struggled on anything I've bought recently, even on high settings...
Looks like the performance race might be slowing, unless someone comes up with a cheap, working holographic projector :)
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AMD also went for forward and backward compatibility in a big way, a BIOS update (and sometimes not even that) is all that is needed to make the oldest socket 939 boards work with the newest AMD cpus. You lose out on a few features (e.g. faster HT and ram), but it makes upgrading an AMD machine much cheaper.
Err, really? How's that? I know AM2(+) and AM3 are supposed to be relatively interchangeable, but Socket 939 doesn't have the same number of pins or layout as them, last time I checked. I would be totally thrilled if that were possible, since I still have a Socket 939 board, and my CPU is the only thing that's really not fast enough right now, but unless I'm missing something, I don't see how that would work. It seems like you'd just end up with some bent pins and a broken computer.
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Whoops, I meant AM2 onwards :S
Re:I've stuck with AMD (Score:4, Interesting)
That's all true. Intel's been beating AMD at that for a while now.
Thing is, that's never the question that you want to be asking when you buy a new computer. Who cares which company has the fastest chip at $1000. The important question is: If I spend $90 on a chip, what's the best I can get? What if I spend $150? Is that better than putting $60 somewhere else? How about $200?
In the $75 - $250 range (the range I personally care about), AMD and Intel are pretty much always trading blows. Here's a good chart for illustration: Crysis CPU Benchmark [tomshardware.com]. Note how, for example, the Intel chip at $187 is slower than the AMD chip at $170.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Who cares which company has the fastest chip at $1000.
only those who have money to burn and/or are buying more for penis length reasons than real value
In the $75 - $250 range (the range I personally care about), AMD and Intel are pretty much always trading blows. Here's a good chart for illustration: Crysis CPU Benchmark [tomshardware.com]. Note how, for example, the Intel chip at $187 is slower than the AMD chip at $170.
Note how the intel chip at $164 (rounding down to the nearest dollar like you appeared
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If an AMD box is $200 cheaper than a Intel box you are doing it wrong.
The E5200 is the same price as AMD's best offerings and smokes all of them. The motherboard is the same price, around $80.
I've stuck with discounts. (Score:2)
"First, I can put together an AMD box equivalent to an Intel for about $200 bucks cheaper. That money goes into my Video Card and I wind up with a better overall System."
Oh I don't know. Newegg has some nice deals on Intel/Mobo combo deals. Throw in any promo codes and rebates and you can get a good deal on an intel.
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Ummm I don't know what you're talking about, the days of AMD being significantly cheaper are long gone and even if you do save money, the AMD performance levels are quite distinctively different to Intel now.
This is not the AMD Athlon XP thunderbird vs Pentium 4 days, where Intel was at least 2x more expensive for only 20 to 30% more speed, Intel is marginally more expensive for a lot more speed and a cooler overall system.
Furthermore back in the day, a good PC was 3000$ AUD, then 2000$ AUD then 1500$ etc -
Clock speeds aren't doubling every 18 months now? (Score:2)
I bought a notebook about 5 years ago, that gave 2.4Ghz.
By the oft-misunderstood (I'm sure I'm using it incorrectly here) that would have meant that I could be buying a 9.6Ghz machine these days.
What am I not understanding here? (Bear in mind that CPU's and architecture are really outside my scope of knowledge/interest.)
Re:Clock speeds aren't doubling every 18 months no (Score:2)
You're misunderstanding Moore's Law. The number that doubles every two years is the number of transistors that can be placed on an IC inexpensively.
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I didn't know the ground was tethered down to start with.
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So wait, there's a magic processor I didn't know about that goes faster than two products that haven't been tested head to head yet, and it's intel's?
I have a bridge I'd like to sell you, too.
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Ummm. No...
We learned that clock speed wasn't the end all and be all of performance.
In this case both Intel and AMD are getting good performance per cycle so upping the clock is a good thing.
If it can do 4Ghz on air then yes it is getting in the the competitive range.
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We do have a lot about what is "underneath". We have seen the 45nm server parts and they are very fast per clock tick. The new Desktop CPU is based on the same design so we can work from that and the clock speed.
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Oblig car analogy: GHz = engine rpms, bus = transmission, cpu architecture = multivalve overhead cam cylinder heads with a supercharger strapped on top.
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Re:Bahhh! Legion hardware did that on a i7. (Score:4, Insightful)
The Phenom II will fit in my AM2 motherboard (which started with an Athlon 64 2.0GHz and currently has an Athlon x2 2.6GHz) and use my existing RAM. The intel i7 will not. The intel i7 is significantly more expensive than anything AMD has too.
Re:And ? (Score:4, Funny)
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All things considered, I think you'll have to be pretty cheap to care all that much about the power dissipation of your CPU. Even if it's 100W greater, you're looking at about 50 bucks a year at 6c/kWh if you're maxed out every day. That seems to me like the smallest cost involved.
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Or you simply care about noise. It's a lot easier to cool a 45W or 60W part then a 125W or 150W part.
And up here on Long Island, NY, we pay closer to $0.17 per kWh (Spring 2008 prices). So for a system that is used 2000 hou