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That's a weird story. I saw AnandTech just announced today that the Bulldozer transistor count is actually 1.2 billion rather than 2 billion as earlier reported. Obviously this doesn't change the performance of the chip itself, but I guess the "2 billion transistors and this is all we get?" arguments do go down a little when they become "1.2 transistors and this is all we get?" instead.Or more to the point, turn into "that much die space on that process and..." since they're working on a significantly lower transistor density than has been earlier estimated.
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Dec 3, 2011 03:37
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pixaal posted:So people that like to do it themselves will build their own. I've actually wanted to build my own media box for awhile now, mostly because more control, and its something to spend time doing. But if anyone other then you is going to be using it its probably better to get a pre-made box because the end user is going to understand the UI a ton better then whatever you cobble together. I just slapped Windows 7 on mine with utorrent and VNC, and the housemates figured it out pretty quick. I was planning to run XMBC on it or something but they ended up being fine with just the standard OS, so I haven't really touched it since other than for occasional maintenance. Generally it's still not a bad idea to drop a mediaPC UI on one though.
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Dec 3, 2011 04:20
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Alereon posted:Use CoreTemp for monitoring AMD CPU temperatures. That also reports 0c when I am running Prime95 - obviously incorrect. Probably a result of the "beta" status of this BIOS, the only one on this motherboard that supports this CPU.
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Dec 3, 2011 06:20
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Killer robot posted:That's a weird story. I saw AnandTech just announced today that the Bulldozer transistor count is actually 1.2 billion rather than 2 billion as earlier reported. Obviously this doesn't change the performance of the chip itself, but I guess the "2 billion transistors and this is all we get?" arguments do go down a little when they become "1.2 transistors and this is all we get?" instead.Or more to the point, turn into "that much die space on that process and..." since they're working on a significantly lower transistor density than has been earlier estimated. It makes it sound slightly less worse engineered. Still doesn't change the fact of the benchmarks/power & heat. I guess they're trying any kind of damage control right now.
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Dec 3, 2011 12:58
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HalloKitty posted:It makes it sound slightly less worse engineered. Still doesn't change the fact of the benchmarks/power & heat. I guess they're trying any kind of damage control right now. Makes you think the recent house-clearing let go a lot of pure marketing people and maybe a real engineer took their place? How else do you officially release a number that is nearly twice the actual transistor count?!?
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Dec 3, 2011 15:55
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They probably thought announcing a higher transistor count would sound awesome. "We have five trillion transistors, overclock every one!"
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Dec 3, 2011 20:12
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If they're running like most corporations they've probably fired all the engineers and replaced them with a marketing team. I can see a marketing team claiming that a 2 billion transistor cpu only has 1.2 billion if it changes perception. We'll get a better idea of what they've done in the next year.
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Dec 3, 2011 22:27
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Devian666 posted:If they're running like most corporations they've probably fired all the engineers and replaced them with a marketing team. I can see a marketing team claiming that a 2 billion transistor cpu only has 1.2 billion if it changes perception. 
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Dec 3, 2011 22:34
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What did AMD need all those marketing folks for? I only ever saw adds for them on hardware sites and as part of game intros. And those banners looked like something a 14 year old with a pirated copy of PS could come up with
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Dec 3, 2011 23:17
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WhyteRyce posted:What did AMD need all those marketing folks for? I only ever saw adds for them on hardware sites and as part of game intros. And those banners looked like something a 14 year old with a pirated copy of PS could come up with It looks like they built some "relationships" with Webpages
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Dec 3, 2011 23:49
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Supposed 7000 series pricing. Well...on 2 cards at least.
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Dec 5, 2011 10:56
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:What an article title from Ars:
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Dec 5, 2011 14:32
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Daeno posted:Supposed 7000 series pricing. If these don't offer nVidia-like single-GPU performance, that nVidia-like pricing is going to be kind of a downer for sales. Especially on the heels of some embarrassing driver issues that have left a surprising number of consumers with the ill-informed perspective that AMD has driver issues while nVidia does not.
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Dec 5, 2011 17:38
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evil_bunnY posted:The real takeaway is that once the Sandbridge stuff hits Xeon it's pretty much game over. Agreed posted:If these don't offer nVidia-like single-GPU performance, that nVidia-like pricing is going to be kind of a downer for sales. Especially on the heels of some embarrassing driver issues that have left a surprising number of consumers with the ill-informed perspective that AMD has driver issues while nVidia does not.
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Dec 5, 2011 17:52
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Daeno posted:Supposed 7000 series pricing. I wonder how much of this is due to the terrible yields TSMC is giving them vs. abandoning the whole chip philosophy they started with the 4800 series.
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Dec 5, 2011 20:59
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Daeno posted:Supposed 7000 series pricing.
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Dec 5, 2011 21:04
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http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-cpu-apu-athlon-phenom-Llano-Bulldozer,14173.htmlquote:According to a post over at Nordic Hardware, only one CPU of the lineup is still shipping. We were not able to confirm the report, which is based on an unknown information source, but we do know that there are still plenty of Athlon II and Phenom II processors in the channel and we hear that vendorshave sufficient supply for the Christmas season.
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Dec 5, 2011 22:29
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So they are definitely going the Llano route. Well, what the hell else is available, good on 'em I guess. It sucks that we're already seeing the effects of diminished competition on Intel's activity - last-gen server parts still stomping through Bulldozer in the same thermal/power envelopes, so why bother bringing Sandy Bridge to servers? Because I'd like that, please, is why, not that it matters when there's no reason to that makes them more money. AMD withdrawing from the desktop market like this is loving nuts. I would like to see more information, obviously, to corroborate the journalistic equivalent of "some dude," but it's startlingly feasible.
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Dec 5, 2011 22:33
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Is Llano really that popular? I tried pricing a Llano system a month or two back and I was really struggling to see any advantage it has over a i3 setup with a dedicated video card.
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Dec 6, 2011 00:53
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It's the bee's knees for low-priced laptops. It's really driven down the price of Intel stuff to compete with it, too. Desktops? Eh.
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Dec 6, 2011 00:57
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I bought one for my HTPC and I wish I just stuck with my old C2D/Ion setup
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Dec 6, 2011 01:09
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WhyteRyce posted:I bought one for my HTPC and I wish I just stuck with my old C2D/Ion setup Really? I went with a E-350 HTPC and couldn't be happier. Nice small, low power, silent system and more than enough performance for 1080p content. I debated going Llano, but the E-350 is more than good enough.
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Dec 6, 2011 01:14
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Oops, sorry I should say I have a E-350. It's not where near as rock solid as the other setup was. I've got some weird HDMI issue where occasionally the resolution looks like it gets set really low (i.e. my WMC looks like it's running 1024x768 stretched to fit my screen), which goes away if I minimize and re-maximize. Which is super-annoying in a HTPC setup that you want to control only with a remote. If I elect to connect directly to my TV instead of through my receiver, then my screen will turn black randomly while idle. WMC will also crash if I have too many files in a video directory. It also crashes when it tries to render the thumbnail for certain MKVs. Continually waiting around for Silverlight 5 so I can do HD Netflix is also fun. And AMD removed the overscan correction tool in a couple of their driver releases.
WhyteRyce fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Dec 6, 2011 |
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Dec 6, 2011 01:34
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WhyteRyce posted:Oops, sorry I should say I have a E-350. It's not where near as rock solid as the other setup was. I've got some weird HDMI issue where occasionally the resolution looks like it gets set really low (i.e. my WMC looks like it's running 1024x768 stretched to fit my screen), which goes away if I minimize and re-maximize. Which is super-annoying in a HTPC setup that you want to control only with a remote. If I elect to connect directly to my TV instead of through my receiver, then my screen will turn black randomly while idle. WMC will also crash if I have too many files in a video directory. It also crashes when it tries to render the thumbnail for certain MKVs. Continually waiting around for Silverlight 5 so I can do HD Netflix is also fun. And AMD removed the overscan correction tool in a couple of their driver releases. Not to derail too much, but this is why I left HTPCs behind. I know a lot of people have them running successfully and love them to death, but I just had so much trouble with them I went back to dedicated set-top media boxes. Sacrifice in broader software compatibility, but much less painful. It didn't help that my target display was connected via 1080i component, which means a fun battle against overscan. That said, maybe some AMD hardware will be finding its way into aforementioned boxes, but they've got stiff competition from the existing players in the field.
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Dec 6, 2011 03:30
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movax posted:Not to derail too much, but this is why I left HTPCs behind. I know a lot of people have them running successfully and love them to death, but I just had so much trouble with them I went back to dedicated set-top media boxes. Sacrifice in broader software compatibility, but much less painful. It didn't help that my target display was connected via 1080i component, which means a fun battle against overscan. I really don't get the point of HTPCs with the new Sigma based set top boxes unless you want a full web experience or game on it. For video, its much easier to setup and the output quality is typically better.
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Dec 6, 2011 04:52
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I do a full HTPC because I actually don't have a huge transcoded media archive. I spend most of my storage on documents and media I create and backups of my PCs, and all my video stuff is live/recorded cable TV, streaming from YouTube and Hulu, and physical disks. It would actually be more of a pain in the rear end to convert everything over to STB-playable stuff than just deal with the four different player softwares and web browser - all of which work great, they just aren't centralized. And I'd need more, expensive storage to boot. It's an E350 mini-ITX box, and I love it.
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Dec 6, 2011 05:46
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Factory Factory posted:I do a full HTPC because I actually don't have a huge transcoded media archive. I spend most of my storage on documents and media I create and backups of my PCs, and all my video stuff is live/recorded cable TV, streaming from YouTube and Hulu, and physical disks. It would actually be more of a pain in the rear end to convert everything over to STB-playable stuff than just deal with the four different player softwares and web browser - all of which work great, they just aren't centralized. And I'd need more, expensive storage to boot. Yep, I'm the opposite, with a huge NAS (~15T) full of media that the Sigma can playback. Occasionally run into issues with compressed headers because my NMT is an older generation, but nothing that can't be overcome with a little work.
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Dec 6, 2011 06:07
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Factory Factory posted:It would actually be more of a pain in the rear end to convert everything over to STB-playable stuff... I got my STB because it supported all the formats I had in my library without converting. Which formats are you thinking of that STBs don't support?
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Dec 6, 2011 06:38
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Blu-Rays, DVDs, YouTube, Hulu, and a CableCard TV tuner with DVR functionality in one device. v v
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Dec 6, 2011 06:40
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movax posted:Not to derail too much, but this is why I left HTPCs behind. I know a lot of people have them running successfully and love them to death, but I just had so much trouble with them I went back to dedicated set-top media boxes. Sacrifice in broader software compatibility, but much less painful. It didn't help that my target display was connected via 1080i component, which means a fun battle against overscan. I really contemplated switching to a PS3 or something like a Boxee, but I planned on getting a network CableCard tuner and that thing was too enticing. Don't get me wrong, I really like my current HTPC. Having an all-in-one device for my movies, Cable TV, and Blu-Ray is loving awesome. When my HTPC is working, it's loving amazing. It's just that, when it doesn't work it's extremely aggravating. I'm assuming what I'm hitting is just stupid AMD driver/software related issues, that didn't effect my old ION platform. The real annoying thing with this is that AMD and MS just tend to point figures at each other in situations like this and you won't ever get a real resolution. The RTC time drift is really annoying too. I've never had a platform which has this much drift in this short amount of time, which really screws with my DVR programming if I let it get out of hand. I setup a Windows task to sync it every hour, but I guess it's not working since I still drift off a over a minute within a week. I guess that's why I'm so annoyed at my e-350 board. So many small annoying issues WhyteRyce fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Dec 6, 2011 |
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Dec 6, 2011 06:57
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I've been disappointed with an E-350 for my HTPC needs though because the CPU is just too anemic for snappy, reliable UI response times, especially if running other services in the background. That is, I couldn't really differentiate it from my ION-based machine I got rid of prior to that. The HP Microserver with nVidia GPU that's since replaced it is perceptibly on-par with the microATX monstrosity HTPC that I built last year and retired quickly. Coincidentally, there's an AMD CPU in this guy as well. The form factor of the Microserver was more attractive to me than dealing with mini ITX minimization scaling issues as well, so even if AMD made an APU with the Athlon and a respectable GPU I'd be opting for the Microserver. I think Intel has a slight upper hand even in the lower end segments mostly because the i3 is so drat power efficient you shouldn't even need to bother with GPU decoding. Sure, an i3 has an entry pricepoint of $130 + motherboard v. $130 for an E-350, but an i3 has better motherboard options than any Llano CPU will ever get, which can be a slight factor for hobbyist builders over OEMs. movax posted:Why would you even bother dealing with x86 at that price? Licensing a BIOS, trying to minimize power consumption, etc...painful. There's also the sheer laziness factor by your customers not wanting to deal with the hardware-supported formats better as mentioned above. Me, I'm really pissed off at having to transcode stuff because most of what I have is so low quality to begin with I can't accept transcoding for convenience. But basically it all boils down to the age-old problem of "software defines your hardware requirements." That's why we always ask people buying hardware regardless of if they're your grandma or a Fortune 500 customer wtf they want to run, right?
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Dec 6, 2011 07:08
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The thing that really annoyed me with the e-350 when I was shopping around, most of the boards came with some lovely, tiny, noisy fan on it. Very little in the way of true silent cooling options, except for an ASUS board that had a giant passive heatsink on it. But a bunch of reviews on Newegg claimed it still overheated.
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Dec 6, 2011 07:17
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For what it's worth, the fan on my ASRock E350 board may be tiny and lovely, but it's not loud.
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Dec 6, 2011 07:30
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necrobobsledder posted:There's also the sheer laziness factor by your customers not wanting to deal with the hardware-supported formats better as mentioned above. Me, I'm really pissed off at having to transcode stuff because most of what I have is so low quality to begin with I can't accept transcoding for convenience. You hit the issue on the head exactly. Right now, your best bet for playing any given media format is generally a ffmpeg-derived/based-on player solution on your PC. You're at the mercy of the firmware maintainers/developers for set-top boxes and however long they plan on continuing to support their box, and what formats they choose to implement. Maybe someone will put out an AMD APU/similar-based solution running x86 Android or similar to make a decent turn-key HTPC, who knows? I've mostly played with TI DaVinci hardware, and it's quite powerful, but the work involved in getting software decoders to leverage the hardware makes me want eat a gun most of the time. 
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Dec 6, 2011 07:40
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I picked up this guy last week and it's pretty drat cool (E-350). http://www.the-other-view.com/zotac-ad02.html I don't know what that guy is talking about in the comments, it's dead silent for me. It's hard to beat for only $319 ($250 sans RAM/HDD, you provide your own). Using it with an external cablecard. Still tweaking it but so far it's keeping up with two tuners recording HD channels. OldPueblo fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Dec 6, 2011 |
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Dec 6, 2011 09:59
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Ha ha look how wrong Engadget gets it.Engadget.com posted:AMD shaves 800 million transistors from Bulldozer chip, swears nothing's wrong Coredump fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Dec 6, 2011 |
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Dec 6, 2011 18:46
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So is BD AMDs Netburst? Or is it better/worse than that analogy?
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Dec 6, 2011 18:56
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Coredump posted:Ha ha look how wrong Engadget gets it. But they say the correct thing right there, that the company was just correcting a mistake in handed out specs. It's not news item worthy on a site like Engadget..
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Dec 6, 2011 19:02
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Shaocaholica posted:So is BD AMDs Netburst? Or is it better/worse than that analogy? More like their Pentium Pro. Huge die size, slower on existing code but faster on code optimized for it and geared more towards future code.
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Dec 6, 2011 19:06
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Shaocaholica posted:So is BD AMDs Netburst? Or is it better/worse than that analogy?
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Dec 6, 2011 19:07
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