Rumor: AMD "Piledriver" FX CPU production to begin Q3 2012

[Guest]

AMD was an intellectually bankrupt company back in the Pentium days. If it hadn't been for a crucial infusion of engineering creativity and competence from NexGen, we wouldn't even be talking about AMD in 2012. Even now, it is the creativity and competence of an acquired asset, in ATI, which is keeping AMD's chronic and critical mismanagement from forcing the company into a terminal spiral. Piledriver appears to be an insufficient tweaking of the failed Bulldozer architecture which is being outperformed by the complete spectrum of Intel's Sandy Bridge line. The new Intel Ivy Bridge line is a noticeable improvement upon Sandy Bridge ; likely continuing to outclass AMD offerings based upon the unfortunate Bulldozer architecture.

 

[red1776]

<p>AMD was an intellectually bankrupt company back in the Pentium days. If it hadn't been for a crucial infusion of engineering creativity and competence from NexGen, we wouldn't even be talking about AMD in 2012. Even now, it is the creativity and competence of an acquired asset, in ATI, which is keeping AMD's chronic and critical mismanagement from forcing the company into a terminal spiral. Piledriver appears to be an insufficient tweaking of the failed Bulldozer architecture which is being outperformed by the complete spectrum of Intel's Sandy Bridge line. The new Intel Ivy Bridge line is a noticeable improvement upon Sandy Bridge ; likely continuing to outclass AMD offerings based upon the unfortunate Bulldozer architecture.</p>

Hey look, Kevin Trudeau stopped in.

 

[Guest]

uggh, I hate how these Intel fanboys are so obsessed with the ****. Like they just sit in every comment section and write essays about how superior Intel is, and they must respond to every one dissenter comment with at least 10 comments until he's beaten into the ground. They're almost as bad as PS3 fanboys in videogaming, or Apple fanboys anywhere.

That said, they're pretty right right now, Bulldozer was a colossal fail. It makes me angry at AMD they would even develop it, or that they didn't fire every single engineer who worked on it six months ago, and then sue them all for willful destruction of assets or something.

But it still doesn't make me like Intel fanboys. Stop being so aggressive.

It's pretty hard to recommend AMD anywhere, but it is true that decent AMD mother boards are cheaper, something the fanboy ignores, and should be looked at in the overall price equation. If I was doing a "cheap" (and it'd be the only way AMD would be acceptable) I could use a $60 motherboard, where the cheapest non garbage Intel Mobo I see is $90. Not saying even that makes AMD a buy anywhere, it doesn't.

Also Intel fanboys, stop using Microcenter pricing to make Intel prices look better. For me I'd have to burn $40 in round trip gas, plus hours of travel time, just to get to a Microcenter, then I'd pay almost 10 percent sales tax too, that newegg doesn't charge. In othe words for anybody who doesnt live nearby, Microcenter is useless, so stop pretending $169 2500k's exist, they dont.The 2500k is way too expensive, period. $220 at newegg, And it's really the only acceptable CPU for a new build (IE, the sweet spot). I've been at this game for a long time and $220 is the highest I can remember a sweet spot CPU costing. That a hell of a lot of money for just a CPU, with no motherboard or RAM or anything else, a bare CPU. I can get a whole damn Xbox for 199. I blame AMD for not providing any competition too, but Intel isn't blameless for holding their prices so damn high because they can. Oh and love Ivy Bridge which from what I can tell is actually worse than Sandy Bridge, and priced higher too. Way to go Intel!

Thats one more silver lining if any for AMD, Ivy Bridge sucked (though I did kind of enjoy the annoying Intel fanboys who have been posting on forums about waiting for Ivy Bridge for the last 50,000 years getting owned). So that should give AMD some more time. Whether they utilize that time, doubtful, but we'll see. I can actually see something like a Piledriver with 10% more IPC and 10% more clockspeed (so basically, 20% faster across the board) or something, not being horrible compared to Intel if the price is right. Still nowhere near where AMD will need to be.

 

[dividebyzero]

The new Intel Ivy Bridge line is a incremental improvement upon Sandy Bridge.

/fixed

...Bulldozer was a colossal fail. It makes me angry at AMD they would even develop it, or that they didn't fire every single engineer who worked on it six months ago, and then sue them all for willful destruction of assets or something

Overreact much? Bulldozer is a direct product of AMD's falling server marketshare allied with a CEO who was tied deeply with server products. By the time AMD realized that the product wasn't going to be what they thought, they were already committed to the architecture- AMD mortgaged their future enterprise/desktop on Bulldozer architecture. Piledriver, Steamroller and Excavator will be a product of a decision made six-seven years ago...a bit late to start handing out the last cigarettes. You might also note that not all the ills are of AMD's making. Globalfoundries less than stellar intro to 32nm plays a small role, while Intel's near flawless execution since Conroe, and the speed of their tick-tock microarch-die shrink timetable (not to mention R&D budget) was always going to ensure that AMD were going to be behind the eight ball

But it still doesn't make me like Intel fanboys. Stop being so aggressive.

Hey aggressive Intel fanboys and fud spreading AMD fanboys...you think if they were put in the same forum thread they'd cancel each other out like some B-grade SF matter/anti-matter scenario?

It's pretty hard to recommend AMD anywhere

Not really. The Radeon part of AMD is pretty good. I recommend them more often than not

..but it is true that decent AMD mother boards are cheaper, something the fanboy ignores, and should be looked at in the overall price equation. If I was doing a "cheap" (and it'd be the only way AMD would be acceptable) I could use a $60 motherboard, where the cheapest non garbage Intel Mobo I see is $90. Not saying even that makes AMD a buy anywhere, it doesn't.

Wow, thats like spending an entire paragraph saying nothing. Can I have my twenty seconds back?

Also Intel fanboys, stop using Microcenter pricing to make Intel prices look better. For me I'd have to burn $40 in round trip gas, plus hours of travel time, just to get to a Microcenter

Hold up there Einstein, If you actually read the thread you'll note that the AMD fanboy Guest started railing against the price/performance of Intel using Amazon and Newegg prices...while simultaneously using an AMD example bought for cheap (combo deal) from Microcenter- which they actually bought. That is a pretty decent example of hypocrisy in action...and since my reply was in relation to that posting, maybe you shouldn't attribute some global implication. Anyhow, nice try with the aggrieved attitude.

The 2500k is way too expensive, period....That a hell of a lot of money for just a CPU....a bare CPU. I can get a whole damn Xbox for 199

Cool. Buy the Xbox. You'll be happy you've found your level

I blame AMD for not providing any competition too

AMD to blame? Intel to blame ? Just as well you're buying MS Xbox ! Might I suggest VIA ?

Oh and love Ivy Bridge which from what I can tell is actually worse than Sandy Bridge

Yup, wrong again. Great strike rate there Jose Canseco.
Clock for clock looks like 11.8% improvement for IB over Sandy (3.5G 3770K vs 2700K) for 9% higher price, and 9.6% improvement for the non-HT 6MB L3 cache part (3.4G 3570K vs 2550K) for 4.3% higher price....all using less power- go figure! Since you're Xbox shopping I guess you're not too wrapped up in actual CPU results.

Thats one more silver lining if any for AMD, Ivy Bridge sucked (though I did kind of enjoy the annoying Intel fanboys who have been posting on forums about waiting for Ivy Bridge for the last 50,000 years getting owned).

Cool. I was wondering when the hyperbole infused straw man argument was going to make an entrance.

I can actually see something like a Piledriver with 10% more IPC and 10% more clockspeed (so basically, 20% faster across the board) or something.

Combined efficiency estimate is 24% - Higher clocks (4 - 4.2) added to slightly increased IPC and a slight reduction in power consumption (clock-for-clock).
Here's the long version (pdf)
Happy Xbox shopping.

 

[RH00D]

(Insert long ramblings of dividebyzero)

You must be a fun person to be around.

 

[dividebyzero]

insert long ramblings by dividebyzero)

Yup, those ramblings include the latest estimates of the FX-8350's abilities, an AMD white paper on Bulldozer efficiency, and some general comparitive analysis on Intel CPU's...easy to see how you might interpret this as "ramblings" - I see the "Techspot Enthusiast" title is well earned.

You must be a fun person to be around.

Since you ask, yeah. But then, I have a very low threshhold for trolls, agenda driven wannabe's and the mentally stunted, so interaction amongst my peers is both entertaining and informative , of course ymmv. Feel free to PM me if you ever post anything that qualifies as entertaining and/or informative...if it is, I'm sure we'll get along famously.

 

[Guest]

I've always said AMD fanboys were cheapskates...

"Hey my AMD CPU is better than its Intel equivalent based on price alone, because I've never actually compared the two, and I'm too cheap to care, so yea, I'll stick with the price/performance argument like I hear from the other fanboys, and in fact, I know nothing about computer hardware anyway... but I do know AMD has the bigger GB's."

 

[Guest]

"[FONT=Helvetica]I've been at this game for a long time and $220 is the highest I can remember a sweet spot CPU costing."[/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica]One of the most uninformed posts I've read in a loooooooooooong time. [/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica]Should I even Google launch pricing for Barton XP2500+, C2D E6400/E6600, Q6600, A64 3000+, A64 X2 3800+ pricing? [/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica]Nah. This Guest has totally lost it, not to mention that a $220 Intel CPU will have a higher resale value, so the overall cost of ownership is not that much. Most importantly, AMD users have had to upgrade from Phenom I, to II to Bulldozer while a 2008 i7 920 @ 4.0ghz is still faster than any CPU made by AMD at any overclock on air. [/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica]Thus, in the long-term it was actually cheaper to own an Intel i7 920/ i7 860 / i5 750/750, i5-2500k and the same will hold true for i5-3570K. In 2-3 years that Bulldozer FX system will be total junk while the i5-3570K @ 4.5ghz will still deliver good performance and most importantly 250-300W less power consumption![/FONT]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2012/05/01/intel-core-i5-3570k-cpu-review/7

 

[Rick]

<p>lol on the front page this article has an Intel Cpu Image......</p>

Good stock photos are hard to come by.

 

[dividebyzero]

Good stock photos are hard to come by.

Try this one:

[source]
I bet that caused some unfortunate loss of control amongst the AMD cyberwarriors...

 

[Stupido]

AMD's largest individual shareholder is the Abu Dhabi royal family (also known as Mubadala). Connect the dots

actually that info was unfamiliar to me... interesting... thanks for it!

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Some financials to put AMD vs. Intel into perspective.
AMD 2011 Revenue = 6.5 billion with 492 million profit
Intel 2011 Revenue = 54 billion with 12.9 billion profit.

AMD spent 1.4 billion on R&D compared to Intel's 8.3 billion. it's honestly surprising AMD is even a competitor.

 

[Guest]

Wow you are a very angry and obsessive person you need some medication and therapy. AS for me my experience in owning Intel processors and amd processors is that Intel makes faster processors than AMD,they have for the past 5 years,but Intels run much hotter than my AMDs ever have and tend to slow down after a few years and in some cases die, but I've never had any problems with my AMD processors,I still have my 11 year old Athlon XP 2800+ overclocked from 2.0 -2.5 GHZ and that stays on 24/7 my Pentium 4 stock clock @ 2.6 GHZ which I bought in 2006 died last year and I didn't even keep that one on 24/7 and it was also much slower than my AMD chip. I replaced my Intel with an AMD Phenom IIx4 980 setup and it is plenty fast for me overclocked from 3.7- 4.2 GHZ NB from 2.0-2.8 GHZ idle temp 28 celcius cooled by Noctua NH-D14 air cooler.

 

[Guest]

I personally own a 1100t overclocked to 4 ghz, with crossfire 6970. My system benches quite well and plays anything I throw at it. I know everyone wants to believe that intel plays games better but the fact remains they dont, they bench better and get very little frames per second over amd in actual game. Intel is the shadies company out there and just paid amd 2 billion for not playing nice not to mention most bench marks use intel compillers. Intel fan boys read bench marks and want the best possible chip for their money and hey guys who doesnt but get out there and try both camps before posting none sence that you dont even understand. And intel fan boys bare in mind amd fan boys back their campe cause amd works in the real world. Benches are not everything, life is not testing in perfect conditions some times theres crap running in the background and I dont want to turn it off.

 

[Guest]

I really wish they would just throw more 1100ts into production. I'd buy those over this bulldozer crap .

 

[Guest]

FX-8150---$199.99, Intek 2500K $219.95
To me $20 is $20. And it does out perform 2500K in some marks.

 

[Guest]

Why trust intel when they use cheap shots to win, its funny how blind test seem to turn amd the victor. Isn't what you feel and see more believable then some shotty benchmark! Bulldozer wasnt what was promissed and AMD change there internal team and is working to fix the issue. Inst that the company you want (and the dropped the price huge). Longer life on chip sets, a company that does pay to play (buying scores), having an amd and knowing what it can do really adds frustration when intel bias people talk trash. But at the end of the day with the money I saved I bought a second vid card and I am killing it. So I guess its not that frustrating. Cheaper boards cheapr chips great performance, my first amd and I am a fan! Ohh by the way I have had 3 intels in the past and was never happy with there performance!

 

[Guest]

Intel produces a better processor no doubt. But I still buy AMD for two reasons, my Phenom 2 still provides me with more power than I can use, secondly, we need competition right now AMD is about the only company that can provide even the slightest bit of competition.

 

[Guest]

Looking forward to 'Piledriver' My FX 6100 handles Max Payne 3 maxed out easy with my HD6950. There is no difference between my mates i7 and my Fx when we tested the game on both machines on my tv which has a max res of 1920x1080 which is what we played the game at. Both were extremely smooth. Ultimately, cheaper does not always mean crap, plus I never really look at benchmarks so much, mainly the on chip cache. My mate used to be AMD and went intel because of this game, now he knows he didn't have to. I been using AMD cpu's since their 133mhz in 90's, actually been backward and forward between the two. Anyway, never seen the point of intel cpu lovers actually making an effort to find AMD topics just to say 'get I this or that' just get over the fact that FX cpu's are selling, useful and more than capable for gaming and overclocking and not everyone follows the herd. As long as latest games are smooth as silk it don't matter what anyone says really..........................

 

[Guest]

Thank you. You had the most useful post here. So much damn childish bickering going on between fanboys that people actually forget that most of the stuff you see according to these benchmark sites are nearly indistinguishable to the average person.

 

[Guest]

intel cheaps are to easy to overclock especially multithreaded cpu's that eleven teen year olds could do.. I found the bulldozer quite fun and challenging to keep a overclock and have it keep stable, it brought back the good ol' days.. intel may outperform now, just as amd did before, but you never know if ivy could be intel's final step until amd jumps back ahead.. So unpredictable. d:^)

 

[Guest]

Wrong, i5 is still more expensive than fx 8 core..............Well here anyway.

 

[Guest]

People come on. while all the bickering goes on around the internet there are people like myself who own the FX-6100 and playing games like Max Payne 3 in very high settings HD6950 1920x1080 and getting 60 fps....I really do not see what all the fuss is about. AMD is cheaper, not as 'great' as Intel but so what. As long as I'm getting good fps in the latest games and it never cost the world for me to build my pc I am not complaining. The weirdest thing is Intel users are finding AMD topics and posting in them just to knock Bulldozer down, that is pretty sad. So, while I can max out MAx Payne 3 on my tri core cpu (yes that what it is really with 2 threads per module) that is saying something. Intel, AMD, all people should be bothered about is if their machines do what they need it to instead of constantly bickering and comparing, scouring the internet for AMD topics to say how great or cheap Intel products are...............sad.

 

[soulcatcher357]

(I appreciate all AMD and Intel fans posting, so please take this tongue in cheek, but I do have a good point I think to make on system cbuilds and pile driver)

I win, because ignorance is bliss and I get 30+ FPS on Shogun 2 (which loads in about 20-30 seconds) with my A8N-SLI Deluxe w FX55 (gasp single core!) and WD Raptor drive Win XP Pro that I purchased in 2004 for $3770 recently updated to 4 GB better ram for a Radeon HD 4650 1GB.
My system is now unbelievably stable, running a custom 1015 bios (non SLI). Hell, it even ran 'buggy' Total War Empire well.

My point is a fast CPU doesn't always make a fast system.
Chipset/ Motherboard and architecture are important too.
Hard drive, motherboard architecture and memory - quantity and quality are important here.
Watch your component v cable placement- Insulating your stock sata cables from heat sources (next to your hard drive an video cards) should not be under-emphasized. I replaced 3 SATA cables with hard drived reported as failing before I cut open a cable and confirmed a meltdown... Video card sat against cables (new card doesn't).
What you use your machine for matters (Mine is gaming, secondary Excel and compiling code).
Your Operating System and Version(Windows XP SP3 still best for gaming, considering 64 bit windows XP-Win 7/8 Pro and Linux)

Ivy bridge is a disappointment to me because of the cheap thermal solution.
The exodus from Sandy Bridge of enthusiasts has already begun- I've seen enough folks selling their old chip on ebay.

2600K -2700K Still not viably priced. 2500K is good
I'm looking closely at Intel's I3 and 2100.

I'm hoping for good results from piledriver, with an expectation that pricing won't be much different from bulldozer.

What if AMD got integrated processors up to the Radeon HD 7770? --- that's a performance sweet spot for games in the near future.

Price/performance is a premium now because I am building 3 systems (2 for my kids) in the next year.

 

[Guest]

olde 9550 to new 960t @ 4.0 GHz $119 + 5770/6770 xfire to 7870. I figure that is quite enough & good enough for most anything. 7870 x2? An 8150 would work good for x2. My 2 year old amd board has a black socket. Not having to go from 1156 to 1155 well you figure it out. I let everbody else that wants to brag about their 3dmark. I play the same games they do, the same way. I built a bragger in 2002 a dual pentium III 1.3GHz @ $399 each on a $400 motherboard with 2 Gb ram $900 of ram, it was outdated in 4 years and pretty much not not upgradeable. I made that mistake once. My backup pc, a thuban powed 790gx does good enough to work the 7870 also.