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Truga
May 4, 2014
Lipstick Apathy
Well, it makes sense, kinda? If you spent a couple hundred on cpu silicon alone, you're probably getting a separate GPU anyway. If nothing else, it should make cooling more efficient?

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No Gravitas
Jun 12, 2013

by FactsAreUseless

Truga posted:

Well, it makes sense, kinda? If you spent a couple hundred on cpu silicon alone, you're probably getting a separate GPU anyway. If nothing else, it should make cooling more efficient?

I wonder if it would be possible to just stick in copper plates into the CPU to wick heat away. Usually we get a dead/disabled core, but if we could instead of that have on-chip heatsinks.

(I know nothing of this, just musing aloud.)

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

No Gravitas posted:

I wonder if it would be possible to just stick in copper plates into the CPU to wick heat away. Usually we get a dead/disabled core, but if we could instead of that have on-chip heatsinks.

(I know nothing of this, just musing aloud.)

There are already heat shields.

EmpyreanFlux
Mar 1, 2013

The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!
I must be stupid, has AMD released FX processors this year? Why are they bothering to release any piledriver chips for 2015 at all? What could they possibly offer over anything they currently have that makes it worth the cost? They're not even 28nm?! Am I not reading the roadmap right? Also, wasn't Godavari supposed to be BGA?

I guess out of 2015 I'm most excited for Beema, since I've been looking to replace my clunky and oversized old C2Q for HTPC use.

Twerk from Home
Jan 17, 2009

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

FaustianQ posted:

I guess out of 2015 I'm most excited for Beema, since I've been looking to replace my clunky and oversized old C2Q for HTPC use.

In theory, we should be seeing small form factor APU things coming out for exactly that usage. Instead, I'm not seeing anything from AMD so I got one of these. The NUCs are a really impressive tiny-PC package.

Sidesaddle Cavalry
Mar 15, 2013

Oh Boy Desert Map
The most interesting part I think is that all socketed desktop chips look like they're returning to a single platform, FM3.

Rastor
Jun 2, 2001

FaustianQ posted:

Also, wasn't Godavari supposed to be BGA?
You're thinking of Carrizo, in the mobility roadmap. Godavari is the Kaveri with a very slight clockspeed boost.

GrizzlyCow
May 30, 2011

FaustianQ posted:

I must be stupid, has AMD released FX processors this year? Why are they bothering to release any piledriver chips for 2015 at all? What could they possibly offer over anything they currently have that makes it worth the cost? They're not even 28nm?! Am I not reading the roadmap right? Also, wasn't Godavari supposed to be BGA?

Maybe they'll be releasing be a FX-9590E and FX-9370E like they did with the FX-8370(E) and FX-8320(E) last year. I guess enough people are buying their crappy FX series to warrant another revision.

The Fitlet is just about the only NUC-class computer I can think of that uses AMD, but it uses Mullins instead of Beema. Actually, I haven't actually seen any Mullins or Beema based computers except the fitlet.

EmpyreanFlux
Mar 1, 2013

The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!

Rastor posted:

You're thinking of Carrizo, in the mobility roadmap. Godavari is the Kaveri with a very slight clockspeed boost.

I was sure that Excavator wasn't supposed to have a socketed version though, I must be misremembering.

GrizzlyCow posted:

Maybe they'll be releasing be a FX-9590E and FX-9370E like they did with the FX-8370(E) and FX-8320(E) last year. I guess enough people are buying their crappy FX series to warrant another revision.

I have no idea why, seems like a waste of silicon. Maybe they'll go nuts and release 16 core Opertons as an FX-9950 and 9990 so you can get Zen-like performance out of it.

Also, RIP socket AM1 it looks like, I was hoping for K12 on AM1 but it looks like K12 is purely a BGA/Tablet/Mobile part. Maybe FM3 can scale down to AM1, making the whole thing pointless?

Wistful of Dollars
Aug 25, 2009

If Zen can give similar performance to Skylake (for similar or less cost) then I'll be very tempted to give AMD a few bucks.

The proof will be in the pudding.

JawnV6
Jul 4, 2004

So hot ...

No Gravitas posted:

I wonder if it would be possible to just stick in copper plates into the CPU to wick heat away. Usually we get a dead/disabled core, but if we could instead of that have on-chip heatsinks.

(I know nothing of this, just musing aloud.)

You don't know where the dead core will be ahead of time. Taking the time and effort to locate one is difficult enough, having a second op to remove that silicon and put something else in would be horrendous for efficiency.

champagne posting
Apr 5, 2006

YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

El Scotch posted:

If Zen can give similar performance to Skylake (for similar or less cost) then I'll be very tempted to give AMD a few bucks.

The proof will be in the pudding.
That is, to say the least, unlikely.

roadhead
Dec 25, 2001

Boiled Water posted:

That is, to say the least, unlikely.

He didn't say anything about per-watt performance though :)

Twerk from Home
Jan 17, 2009

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

roadhead posted:

He didn't say anything about per-watt performance though :)

That would be something to see, a 300W Zen locked with a 65W Skylake in multithreaded performance. Also feasible!

No Gravitas
Jun 12, 2013

by FactsAreUseless

JawnV6 posted:

You don't know where the dead core will be ahead of time. Taking the time and effort to locate one is difficult enough, having a second op to remove that silicon and put something else in would be horrendous for efficiency.

Oh, I know that.

But you could just pick some cores and replace them with metal instead of even attempting fabbing them for cores. You would alternate core metal core metal core. Yes, your yields would suck. But would it actually help to get heat out of the chip?

With shrinking processes you could probably just have them in between the cores anyway. I always see the chip crammed on chip photograps, but maybe some metal spacers would help wick the heat out?

Rosoboronexport
Jun 14, 2006

Get in the bath, baby!
Ramrod XTreme

No Gravitas posted:

Oh, I know that.

But you could just pick some cores and replace them with metal instead of even attempting fabbing them for cores. You would alternate core metal core metal core. Yes, your yields would suck. But would it actually help to get heat out of the chip?

With shrinking processes you could probably just have them in between the cores anyway. I always see the chip crammed on chip photograps, but maybe some metal spacers would help wick the heat out?

In addition to horrible yields you will double the core price per wafer, making a dual-core processor in four-core processor die size. And that would make manufacturing uneconomical.

Proud Christian Mom
Dec 20, 2006
READING COMPREHENSION IS HARD

Rosoboronexport posted:

In addition to horrible yields you will double the core price per wafer, making a dual-core processor in four-core processor die size. And that would make manufacturing uneconomical.

Sounds like something AMD would be interested in!

JawnV6
Jul 4, 2004

So hot ...

No Gravitas posted:

But you could just pick some cores and replace them with metal instead of even attempting fabbing them for cores. You would alternate core metal core metal core. Yes, your yields would suck. But would it actually help to get heat out of the chip?
I don't really think so. The hot spot is in the same place (somewhere in OoO/ROB) it just takes a little longer to get up to the steady state where it's maxed out and the heatsink is pulling all the thermal energy it can out of the chip. It's like optimizing the DVFS points to take advantage of the lag before the skin temperature of the device catches up, you'll get snappier perf in the short run but there aren't any long-term gains.

No Gravitas posted:

With shrinking processes you could probably just have them in between the cores anyway. I always see the chip crammed on chip photograps, but maybe some metal spacers would help wick the heat out?
It's a uphill battle to get any die area. Trying to justify spending that area on blank metal won't fly without an airtight power dissipation case, and I don't think that's there yet.

Wistful of Dollars
Aug 25, 2009

roadhead posted:

He didn't say anything about per-watt performance though :)

Also true. I admit, given I'm using a water cooled setup I'm not particularly concerned about wattage as long as the performance (and price) are good.

(you know, as long as it's not 300+ watts on the cpu :downs:)

A big part of me really, really wants to be able to unironically buy an AMD chip without excuses. In the end it's up to them to prove they've earned it.

Wistful of Dollars fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Apr 30, 2015

SwissArmyDruid
Feb 14, 2014

by sebmojo
A big part of me wants to be able to buy an AMD chip unironically, too, but my machine needs upgrading now, not later.

Lafarg
Jul 23, 2012

GrizzlyCow posted:

Maybe they'll be releasing be a FX-9590E and FX-9370E like they did with the FX-8370(E) and FX-8320(E) last year. I guess enough people are buying their crappy FX series to warrant another revision.

The Fitlet is just about the only NUC-class computer I can think of that uses AMD, but it uses Mullins instead of Beema. Actually, I haven't actually seen any Mullins or Beema based computers except the fitlet.

These chips may already exist, they bin everything. Who knows how long the 9590 was sitting in inventory before they had enough to sell them.

Rastor
Jun 2, 2001

It's AMD’s Financial Analyst Day and that means Zen is official:

http://anandtech.com/show/9231/amds-20162017-x86-roadmap-zen-is-in

Sidesaddle Cavalry
Mar 15, 2013

Oh Boy Desert Map

Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:

The most interesting part I think is that all socketed desktop chips look like they're returning to a single platform, FM3.

In which I got totally wrecked by a fake presentation slide the other day and the single platform is actually called AM4.

40% IPC increase over Excavator. Isn't that only going to bring it up to parity with Haswell?

No Gravitas
Jun 12, 2013

by FactsAreUseless

Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:

In which I got totally wrecked by a fake presentation slide the other day and the single platform is actually called AM4.

40% IPC increase over Excavator. Isn't that only going to bring it up to parity with Haswell?

Assuming no decrease in clock rates?

Sidesaddle Cavalry
Mar 15, 2013

Oh Boy Desert Map
It's very arbitrary, I know. We don't even have Excavator cores on market yet and I assumed only a very small increase over Steamroller.

EmpyreanFlux
Mar 1, 2013

The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!
Haswell performance out of an AMD part is still good, and they seem to acknowledge this since there is a refresh by the end of the year. This also pegs Zen as being 2016 Q1/2, which might mean it gets out before Cannonlake, yes?

Also RIP ARM for this generation apparently :\

Rastor
Jun 2, 2001

FaustianQ posted:

Also RIP ARM for this generation apparently :\

They're still doing ARM, but just their low-power / low-performance Opteron 1100 for 2015 through 2016, and apparently dropping the idea of boards that can accept both ARM and x86 chips (which honestly always sounded goofy to me anyway).

Lowen SoDium
Jun 5, 2003

Highen Fiber
Clapping Larry
Haswell performance is "good enough" for them to be consider a contender if they are priced competitively. Makes me think of the early Athlon and Pentium 3 days. The Pentium 3 was slightly faster in a lot of games because it has stronger FP performance but the Athlon chip was considerably cheaper. A lot people didn't care about 10% performance increase in some applications when you could save 30-40%.

EmpyreanFlux
Mar 1, 2013

The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!

Rastor posted:

They're still doing ARM, but just their low-power / low-performance Opteron 1100 for 2015 through 2016, and apparently dropping the idea of boards that can accept both ARM and x86 chips (which honestly always sounded goofy to me anyway).

I dunno, a K12 desktop sounded like a hilarious waste of money right up my alley, just because I like the idea of a desktop ARM platform.

Wistful of Dollars
Aug 25, 2009

Lowen SoDium posted:

Haswell performance is "good enough" for them to be consider a contender if they are priced competitively. Makes me think of the early Athlon and Pentium 3 days. The Pentium 3 was slightly faster in a lot of games because it has stronger FP performance but the Athlon chip was considerably cheaper. A lot people didn't care about 10% performance increase in some applications when you could save 30-40%.

Haswell performance with 6/8 core chips for cheaper money could be viable in the DX12/Vulcan world.

Paul MaudDib
May 3, 2006

TEAM NVIDIA:
FORUM POLICE

El Scotch posted:

Haswell performance with 6/8 core chips for cheaper money could be viable in the DX12/Vulcan world.

Fewer cores for the same performance is always better. Games that don't thread well will always run like garbage, and even games that do thread highly will perform better on fewer/stronger cores due to stuff like less lock contention.

DX12/Vulkan is going to force most people to use a big-budget engine that has better-skilled developers, so I guess that means we'll probably see games that thread better in the DX12/Vulkan future, but there's only so far you can go on that. Even highly threaded games tend to lean on one core real hard - some of that is due to the difficulties of threading with current-gen graphics APIs, but there are just some inherent bottlenecks to the game loop.

You can pick up a i5-4690K and a MSI Z97 PC Mate for $265 out the door at Microcenter. To be appealing given power usage and the fact that each core is weaker it'd probably have to be down in the $175 range or lower. Factor in $75 for the motherboard manufacturer and you don't leave much room for AMD. Let alone if still you need to bundle it with a water cooler.

Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 01:53 on May 7, 2015

Killer robot
Sep 6, 2010

I was having the most wonderful dream. I think you were in it!
Pillbug

Paul MaudDib posted:

Fewer cores for the same performance is always better. Games that don't thread well will always run like garbage, and even games that do thread highly will perform better on fewer/stronger cores due to stuff like less lock contention.

DX12/Vulkan is going to force most people to use a big-budget engine that has better-skilled developers, so I guess that means we'll probably see games that thread better in the DX12/Vulkan future, but there's only so far you can go on that. Even highly threaded games tend to lean on one core real hard - some of that is due to the difficulties of threading with current-gen graphics APIs, but there are just some inherent bottlenecks to the game loop.

I imagine a generation of consoles that have a large number of weak x86 cores is going to continue pushing development there, isn't it?

Wistful of Dollars
Aug 25, 2009

Paul MaudDib posted:

Fewer cores for the same performance is always better. Games that don't thread well will always run like garbage, and even games that do thread highly will perform better on fewer/stronger cores due to stuff like less lock contention.

DX12/Vulkan is going to force most people to use a big-budget engine that has better-skilled developers, so I guess that means we'll probably see games that thread better in the DX12/Vulkan future, but there's only so far you can go on that. Even highly threaded games tend to lean on one core real hard - some of that is due to the difficulties of threading with current-gen graphics APIs, but there are just some inherent bottlenecks to the game loop.

We'll see when DX12/Vulcan games start hitting the market. The early synthetic benchmarks indicate a significant boost going from 4 to 6/8. However, they're only synthetic and we won't know until the real thing is running around.

Paul MaudDib
May 3, 2006

TEAM NVIDIA:
FORUM POLICE

El Scotch posted:

We'll see when DX12/Vulcan games start hitting the market. The early synthetic benchmarks indicate a significant boost going from 4 to 6/8. However, they're only synthetic and we won't know until the real thing is running around.

Synthetic benchmarks also show perfect scaling from 4-way Crossfire/SLI, which doesn't show up in the real world either. Having a game that responds to player interaction (and maybe even talks to stuff on the internet) is way different than running FireStrike.

You can pick up a i5-4690K and a MSI Z97 PC Mate for $265 out the door at Microcenter. To be appealing given power usage and the fact that each core is weaker it'd probably have to be down in the $175 range or lower. Factor in $75 for the motherboard manufacturer and you don't leave much room for AMD. Let alone if still you need to bundle it with a water cooler. If DX12 games scale great it might be worth it at $200 or so.

Paul MaudDib
May 3, 2006

TEAM NVIDIA:
FORUM POLICE

Killer robot posted:

I imagine a generation of consoles that have a large number of weak x86 cores is going to continue pushing development there, isn't it?

I'd think that if AMD was going to get a boost from the fact that their processors are in both current-gen consoles, it would already be showing.

Your average console runs on a 1.6 GHz APU and it hasn't made PC games perform vastly better. I think the way this usually tends to play out is that console devs take a PC gaming engine and start stripping features and detail and tuning to the hardware until they can get it to run, rather than engineering something better from the ground up. That poo poo takes too long and if the game isn't in stores by Christmas then your publisher is going to cut you off. It would be sweet to spend a couple years writing an engine that could push 144 FPS on a 16-core potato but the priority tends to be writing games.

Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 02:15 on May 7, 2015

EmpyreanFlux
Mar 1, 2013

The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!

Paul MaudDib posted:

Synthetic benchmarks also show perfect scaling from 4-way Crossfire/SLI, which doesn't show up in the real world either. Having a game that responds to player interaction (and maybe even talks to stuff on the internet) is way different than running FireStrike.

You can pick up a i5-4690K and a MSI Z97 PC Mate for $265 out the door at Microcenter. To be appealing given power usage and the fact that each core is weaker it'd probably have to be down in the $175 range or lower. Factor in $75 for the motherboard manufacturer and you don't leave much room for AMD. Let alone if still you need to bundle it with a water cooler. If DX12 games scale great it might be worth it at $200 or so.

Zen has a max TDP of 95W, how would this require a water cooler? Fairly sure AMD can hit the competitive price point if they can get a performing product.

Ragingsheep
Nov 7, 2009

FaustianQ posted:

Zen has a max TDP of 95W, how would this require a water cooler? Fairly sure AMD can hit the competitive price point if they can get a performing product.

There's no official mention of what TDP Zen is aiming for.

GrizzlyCow
May 30, 2011

El Scotch posted:

We'll see when DX12/Vulcan games start hitting the market. The early synthetic benchmarks indicate a significant boost going from 4 to 6/8. However, they're only synthetic and we won't know until the real thing is running around.

You'll still have to deal with games that were released before DX12 and Vulcan were a thing. If ZEN is around Haswell level of performance, that'd be great, but lets not overhype it.

Yaoi Gagarin
Feb 20, 2014

GrizzlyCow posted:

If ZEN is around Haswell level of performance, that'd be great, but lets not overhype it.

Come what come may
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day

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SwissArmyDruid
Feb 14, 2014

by sebmojo

SwissArmyDruid posted:

Motherfucker, seriously?!

Edit: Sigh.

...Well. On the other hand, AMD isn't selling SeaMicro, they're retaining the IP portfolio, and I can only assume they're going to take what they know about dense computing, merge it how they play nice with ARM, and... gently caress it, I don't know anymore. Maybe the interconnect fabric scales up to traditional servers, who the gently caress knows anymore.

Still good! :dance:

"You might recall that AMD killed off their SeaMicro systems products a few weeks ago. This was explained by Lisa Su as being a market that wasn’t growing and because AMD wasn’t a systems company, both of which we agree with. The thing lost on most pundits was the product itself was knifed, the underlying tech wasn’t. That will be rolled into the forthcoming server SoC as their fabric, and it will live on, just not as a pre-rolled package."

http://semiaccurate.com/2015/05/06/amd-puts-goodies-amid-vague-terms/

Even in the depths of my despair, my precognitive abilities have not failed me! (I am not actually precognitive)

SwissArmyDruid fucked around with this message at 11:57 on May 7, 2015

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