AMD vs. Intel

[Dust]

Im workin 2pm to 10pm next week.

[qwiksilva666]

i go bang for buck ratio soon my buck will be big enough to buy new bang!!

[Dust]

9800gtx bang? I wanna bang with 3870X2!

What does your rig bench Qwik?

[qwiksilva666]

only about 9000 if i remember. cpu holds the rest back ALOT

[Hex_Rated]

This is Intel vs AMD vs nVidia

Full details on Larrabee architecture

Excellent article, very informative. Basically Larrabee's "pipes" are made out of the original Pentium 1 processors, but running 4 way hyperthreading and they each have a new, specialized 16 way vector processing unit to deal with graphics or stream processing. The cores run at 2Ghz and are connected by a 512 bit ringbus.

Larrabee isn't directly DX10 compatible but it's so flexible that a software layer makes it emulate DX10 at decent speeds. Not only can it emulate DX10, but any new API that gets launched will be automatically supported. So when DX11 and DX12 get released, all this thing needs is a driver upgrade for it to support the new features and shader models, whatever.

It is a native x86 processor so it can run any code developed for x86 as well.

Intel have released all the details of the architecture so you can be assured they are pretty confident that this thing will be competitive, they've released far more details of their architecture than nVidia or AMD ever have. There's no word on exactly how many cores will be released but for the die to be the same size as an nVidia G200, they can fit around 64 cores on a single die.

So that's 64 cores with 4 way SMT that each have 16 vector units = a crap load of parallel processing power.

[StoneIce]

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9907/wolf ... index.html

Damn the intel really beat the 6GHZ CLOCK SPEED!!!

[SykomantiS]

Sorry for the revival, but I figured this would be the best place to ask this question.

What's up with the Athlon X2 4850e? What is it? and what is g2 stepping?

[Hman]

The "e" designates the processor as a "Efficient" one. It should have a lower TDP than others with the same clock speed. If I remember correctly it should be 65W vs the normal 95W.

[SykomantiS]

Oh, ok. And performance-wise, it should be equal to the 4800 I guess?

Was just interested since this is the first time I've heard of it.

[Hman]

It's supposedly the same, it's just on a smaller more efficient process. Might have less cache, but I'm not sure.

[Hex_Rated]

It's probably a binned CPU that has a lower VID than the others (that is if it has the same amount of cache). That's what they've done before with previous energy efficient CPUs, find ones that are stable at a much lower voltage at stock. It's like underclocking a processor, drop the voltage and mark it as energy efficient.

[chowzen]

i dunno if this is still relevant, but, what about nahalem?
i was in a conference where the one of the big brained intel guys talked about vPro2 and what u can do with it..but we briefly discussed nahalem, and it is gonna rip..8 cores with the memory something that used to be integrated into intel based boards are with nahalem integrated into the CPU which will make it mega fast! we also talked a little about what intel thinks about AMD, and he said that AMD is now so far behind..that it is almost not even worth mentioning, he said that in their CPU roadmap they have ridiculously amazing cpu.s lined up that no-one will be able to compare..
so watcha guys think?

[Mow]

I think intel is a naive bunch of $ossers. Make good chips , but like nvidia they are underestimating AMD.
From what ive seen the next gen AMD chips with hypertransport 3.1 will have 53.6 Gb of bandwith available for the CPU. If they manage to raise there clocks they will probably have a mean contender.
Early reports have next gen AMD chips running 5ghz under watercooling. Time will tell , but my money is on AMD's comeback.

[1rr3t4t3d]

Well if we can take the massive comeback in th GPU market by AMD as a indication, and if they have something similar in mind with the CPU market , then well it will be amazing. Just look at what this shake up dit in the prices of GPUS, and if the same can happen in the CPU market then we will be looking at a time where you will be able to get a PC that will be able to play any game for a couple thousand.. Cant wait ..

[chowzen]

i am hoping for it!
if AMD can deliver the same punch in the cpu market as with the 48xx series Gfx, it will be awesome,
i am not saying that i am a intel guy, i mean i used to have an amd proc a few years back, it was awesome, but at current standing, intel is better. i hope that amd can surprise us, that will be awesome..and they must do it soon, i wanna upgrade in the next few weeks

[1rr3t4t3d]

i am hoping for it!
if AMD can deliver the same punch in the cpu market as with the 48xx series Gfx, it will be awesome,
i am not saying that i am a intel guy, i mean i used to have an amd proc a few years back, it was awesome, but at current standing, intel is better. i hope that amd can surprise us, that will be awesome..and they must do it soon, i wanna upgrade in the next few weeks

he he I am sure AMD will alter their entire Corporate strategy , just to adapt to your upgrade schedule .. wait.. that will actually be pretty awesome !!

[chowzen]

LOL !

[Hman]

That Intel guy is really naive. Intel's current CPUs aren't that far ahead, their lead (at stock clocks) is smaller than the lead the A64 enjoyed over the P4.

And also underestimating AMD is what caught Intel out when the original Athlon came out and when the A64 hit the market. Intel were sitting with their pants around their ankles.

[Hex_Rated]

Intel messed up because their architecture couldn't work with their current substrate. They messed up from P4C (Northwood) - P4E (Prescott). The marketing went mad and they didn't listen to their engineers. They got too bold, they won't make the mistake again.

Intel is way to far ahead for AMD to catch up without a revolutionary new design. Nehalem will destroy any high clocked quad core Barcelona setups. Intel have pushed the performance envelope and engineering is once again in charge, they've made their mistake and now they've corrected it. Remember they invented the x86 game, AMD is just a clone - they reverse engineered the world's best selling micro and released a copy, a rip off. Sorry if this pisses you off.

Intel are the top dogs and will be for a very long time. AMD is giving them competition but they won't regain the lead in the near future. Not for at least 2-3 years, maybe they'll come out with an ultra extreme version that no one can get and has 2 or 4 sockets that will briefly take the performance lead in some sector and then get crushed.

All AMD fans can do is wait for decently priced stuff. Sorry guys, be realistic here. Bulldozer / Fusion will be interesting and I'm looking forward to it but Intel will have an answer. SMT capable quad cores are already good enough to take them on. Octo cores = 16 virtual processors with a proper SMT and multicore aware OS that means extreme power. Coming out soon. These CPUs aren't made with hyperthreading bolted on as a desperate attempt, they were designed from the ground up to be SMT. With multicore becoming more and more used (check out Race Driver: Grid's core allocation if you can get the f***n thing to run - almost all games are using more than 2 cores), Intel will take the lead for a long time. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I don't think AMD will beat Intel very soon. Unless they've got a top secret development and chances are Intel has also persued some other paths.

[Ryan_Cooper]

I actually believe that AMD are releasing these mediocre products that struggle against Intel on purpose.
Maybe they are working on something so advanced, so mind blowing and so top secret that will crush all competition when released like a 25nm process or a stable and small quantum processor or even a DNA processor. they dissapointing products they are releasing is just to fund the R&D of these advancements.

[Hex_Rated]

I actually believe that AMD are releasing these mediocre products that struggle against Intel on purpose.
Maybe they are working on something so advanced, so mind blowing and so top secret that will crush all competition when released like a 25nm process or a stable and small quantum processor or even a DNA processor. they dissapointing products they are releasing is just to fund the R&D of these advancements.

Sorry, you're dreaming. That's not how business works, as a publicly listed company they would never be able to do something like that, maybe as a privately owned company you could. Releasing mediocre CPUs scares away potential shareholders. Also you can't divulge information JUST to shareholders, it's public domain.

I don't know why you guys don't understand that:

AMD DON'T NEED TO HAVE THE PERFORMANCE LEAD

All they have to do is sell CPUs. Having the performance lead helps but looking at the Radeons, which product would you say is in a better position, Radeon 4xxx series or GeForce 2xx series? The GeForce 280 is still faster overall but the Radeon 4870 is a better buy.

Having said that, the GeForce 260-216 looks set to put nVidia back in a decent position though.

[Freakazo]

Does anyone know what amds production capacity is and how much of that capacity it is using?

if it is something like 99% they can just make the price higher and not really worry whether theirs is better than intels, just as long as all the cpus they make can be sold...

[Hman]

Does anyone know what amds production capacity is and how much of that capacity it is using?

if it is something like 99% they can just make the price higher and not really worry whether theirs is better than intels, just as long as all the cpus they make can be sold...

wat

[Hex_Rated]

@Freakazo:

They used to, don't know about now. I assume that they were being forced to sell at a bit of a loss at a stage though even if they were selling everything they made (ie using all their production capacity). Or at least for much less than they anticipated but I'm sure they've adapted and will be posting figures back in the black soon. I'm hoping...

Their marketing and branding is getting better, especially that branding idea with the complete AMD system and now the Radeons are back in the game. And definitely doing much, much better than the GeForces if you measure performance / die space. And performance / price. Just waiting for the GeForce 260 - 216 from nVidia, this should push down prices on the HD4870 / HD4870X2.

[KillerByte]

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ ... ge-nehalem

WE GOT WORD that Intel is adivising mobo-makers and memory vendors alike about their new X58+Core i7 combo and to abide to a strict 1.65V limit on memory voltages, beyond which there is the risk of burning out the CPU.
The info first tipped up on the XFastest forums where the admin posted several photos of an Asus P6T Deluxe (retail-packed) mobo including one of a big sticker over the DIMM slots motherboard warning that anything over 1.65V will fry the CPU.
The DDR3 JEDEC specification is well within limits of this, however, starting off at 1.5V, but as Intel’s CPUs have made for such great overclockers, memory vendors have ever so happily catered to the enthusiast crowd with faster, higher-powered memory kit. You’ve got plenty of examples, OCZ Reaper PC3-14400 operates at 1.9V, Mushkin’s XP Series uses 1.9-1.95V, Corsair’s Dominator high-end takes you all the way up to 2.1V…
Asus' staff has been busy in meetings so we rang up several memory vendors here in €uroland, and considering it’s a public holiday in Germany, they were more than helpful.
Mushkin’s VP Steffen Eisenstein said that they are re-designing specifically for the X58/Core i7 combo, and that their kit should be out some time next month… in Tri-Channel packs. Other memory vendors across the globe are claiming their kits are still undergoing certification with motherboard vendors so they still don’t know whether they qualify or not.
We’re still waiting for Intel to explain why the memory voltage will burn the CPU, but pressing F9 in Outlook and constantly checking our phones isn’t making things any faster.
It looks like the DDR3 IC and memory vendors will have to go back to the drawing board if they are to create enthusiast-grade performance levels for Nehalem. If you want to get a Core i7 as soon as it hits the market, make sure you have the memory kit to go with it. You’ll have to underclock your kit to more reasonable (power compliant) settings in the meantime. µ
Update: Asus called us back and confirmed the limitation on the RAM voltages. They are currently running a 1.7V kit in their UK office, but beyond that, you're on your own.