AMD CPU and Platform Discussion: Ryzen Might Be...Good? *knocks on wood*

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > AMD CPU and Platform Discussion: Ryzen Might Be...Good? *knocks on wood*

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

AMD's 386DX40 was an incredibly popular CPU for years. Even a year after launch, it was over $1000 cheaper than the 486SX/25 but about on par performance wise.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2011 16:36

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 05:21

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

Stanley Pain posted:

Just got word that a lot of ASUS AM3 boards are going to be AM3+ compatible There's already a beta BIOS out for my Crosshair IV Formula with bulldozer support. Good times!

That's pretty loving sweet.

ASUS posted:

Stockholm, Sweden (March 15, 2011) � ASUS, the worldwide leader in motherboard design and sales, today announced the release of the industry's first AM3+ CPU enabled motherboard solution based on the existing AMD 8-Series Chipsets. Current owners of an AM3-based board* can make their AMD 8-Series motherboards compatible with the latest AM3+ CPUs with a simple BIOS** update from the official ASUS website.

ASUS provides options for users to be the first to enjoy AM3+

AMD�s new AM3+ CPU is a complete microarchitecture redesign from previous AMD CPUs, and offers better performance over the previous generation. As such, ASUS is committed to provide continuous support for the latest technologies, and is the first to market for a product solution for user�s needs. Current ASUS 890FX and 890GX series motherboards can be upgraded to enjoy the extra performance offered by future AM3+ CPUs. ASUS will also be releasing*** the AMD 8-Series Chipset motherboards based on 880G and 870 as well as the 760G Chipset with the AM3+ socket for increased selection so users can enjoy AM3 and

AM3+ CPUs.

Current AMD 8-Series chipset based motherboards feature award-winning overclocking utilities, along with ASUS Core Unlocker which was widely recognized by global media at its debut while Turbo Unlocker offers real-time adjustments to enhance system performance. All utilities are designed to help the user achieve maximum performance from their systems.

*BIOS Upgradable Supported AM3 models:

AMD 890FX/SB850:

*Crosshair IV Extreme
*Crosshair IV Formula
*M4A89TD PRO/USB3
*M4A89TD PRO
AMD 890GX/SB850:
*M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
*M4A89GTD PRO

**Current BIOS update is a beta release. Please check the ASUS support site for continual updates.

***Upcoming ASUS M5A Series models (AM3+ socket with AMD 8-series chipsets):

AMD 880G
M5A88-V EVO
M5A88-M EVO
M5A88-M
AMD 870
M5A87
AMD 760G
M5A78L
M5A78L LE
M5A78L-M/USB3
M5A78L-M PLUS
M5A78L-M LE
M5A78L-M LX

Misogynist posted:

Even the KT133 was absolutely awful. It barely ran at its rated bus speed.

Were you trying to run it at 133MHz or something? The KT133 only ran at 100MHz.

frumpsnake fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Mar 17, 2011

# ¿ Mar 17, 2011 19:33

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

It is odd, because six months ago AMD said that they had to outright scrap AM3 support:

AMD posted:

"When we initially set out on the path to Bulldozer we were hoping for AM3 compatibility, but further along the process we realized that we had a choice to make based on some of the features that we wanted to bring with Bulldozer. We could either provide AM3 support and lose some of the capabilities of the new Bulldozer architecture or, we could choose the AM3+ socket which would allow the Bulldozer-base Zambezi to have greater performance and capability.

The majority of the computer buying public will not upgrade their processors, but enthusiasts do. When we did the analysis it was clear that the customers who were most likely to upgrade an AM3 motherboard to a Bulldozer would want the features and capability that would only be delivered in the new AM3+ sockets. A classic Catch-22.

Why not do both you ask? Just make a second model that only works in AM3? First, because that would greatly increase the cost and infrastructure of bringing the product to market, which would drive up the cost of the product (for both AMD and its partners). Secondly, adding an additional product would double the time involved in many of the development steps.

So in the end, delivering an AM3 capability would bring you a less featured product that was more expensive and later to market. Instead we chose the path of the AM3+ socket, which is a path that we hope will bring you a better priced product, with greater performance and more features - on time.

When we looked at the market for AM3 upgrades, it was clear that the folks most interested in an AM3-based product were the enthusiasts. This is one set of customers that we know are not willing to settle for second best when it comes to performance, so we definitely needed to ensure that our new architecture would meet their demanding needs, for both high performance and overclockability. We believe they will see that in AM3+."

To me, that sounds like AM3 wouldn't work *at all* based on their design decisions. So what is so special about those 6 ASUS boards?

It also looks as though AMD aren't going to support this configuration at all.

frumpsnake fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Mar 17, 2011

# ¿ Mar 17, 2011 19:54

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

Please. The A7N8X Deluxe version was the board to have.

I still remember my first "onboard graphics" board sighting. My parents needed an upgrade and got talked into an ASUS SP97-V with an SiS chipset and a dirt cheap 6x86MX. That motherfucker was quite possibly the most stable PC they ever had and was in use until 2002, and surprisingly despite the generally poor FPU performance of Cyrix CPUs and questionable SiS chipset, I remember it running Virtua Cop 2 like a loving champ.

PC LOAD LETTER posted:

I remember waiting each month for a new version of the 4in1's to fix some weird issue that would pop up with all those VIA boards. Ahh memories.

I had an Athlon 1.33GHz, KT133A-powered Abit KT7A, and SB Live 5.1 card. I only ever had one problem -- I simply couldn't run Nero Burning ROM, which would report that the Checksum Failed when it ran its own internal file integrity functions. I never saw data corruption, instability, or any other weird compatibility problems, but clearly they were there, lying dormant, until I dared to burn a CD.

frumpsnake fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Apr 4, 2011

# ¿ Apr 4, 2011 18:22

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

Well, no luck for consumers but it looks like the Opteron 620 is shipping.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/95199-amd-ships-interlagos-16-core-bulldozer-cpu-but-wheres-zambezi

# ¿ Sep 7, 2011 23:04

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

In a number of tasks a dual core i3-2100 is going to outperform a comparable quad-core Phenom in the same price range, particularly if you're a gamer on a budget.

You'd have to drop down to the Pentium-branded Intels (or have some very highly parallel workloads) to see AMD comfortably beating on price/performance.

frumpsnake fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Oct 1, 2011

# ¿ Oct 1, 2011 02:15

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

Jago posted:

This is the 129 price point. The Phenom X4 965 reigns supreme.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=118

No, you're comparing the 965 to the old i3-530 rather than the Sandy Bridge-based i3-2100, which as of writing, is $5 cheaper than the 965. Comparable boards are about the same price, +/- $10. Lets call it even.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=289

In many real world apps and most games (particularly some not listed such as Starcraft 2) -- the dual core Intel equals or handily beats the 965. And draws a lot less power doing so.

AMD does provide good value, but you've got to go lower than the i3.

frumpsnake fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Oct 1, 2011

# ¿ Oct 1, 2011 04:04

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

Jago posted:

Deus Ex: HR, Space Marine, and Battlefield 3's system requirements all require "any" dual core chip and recommend "any" quad core chip. They are multi-threaded and suffer on two cores.

Not on Intel's two cores.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2011 22:57

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

And it's an overclocking monster too!

http://techreport.com/articles.x/21813/18

quote:

Our starting point was the stock operation of the chip. Our FX-8150 runs at 3.6GHz and 1.2625V by default. When Turbo Core kicks in, the CPU ranges up to 1.4V and 4.2GHz. We figured we'd begin at just 200MHz beyond that top Turbo speed, 4.4GHz, at 1.4V. Seems like an easy first step, right? When we fired off Overdrive's CPU stability test, however, it quickly came back with an error. We had to raise the voltage to 1.425V in order to get the chip to pass just three minutes in that stability test.

...

Yep, 4.4GHz was about it.

...

Worried that we weren't reaching our chip's full potential, we pinged AMD PR on the matter, who pointed us to a section in the reviewer's guide (a document we shamlessly ignore after extracting any useful info) that suggests 4.5GHz is a reasonable expectation for FX-8150 overclocking with an air cooler. We also discovered, at the same time, that AMD had disabled three of the chip's four modules during the Guinness World Record run. That's not something we'd expect, you know, real users who care about performance to do.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2011 17:43

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

The joke at the time was that the S3 ViRGE was the worlds first graphics decelerator, and it was true.

From what I remember, however, the S3 Savage cards were actually pretty decent.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2012 18:28

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 05:21

frumpsnake: Jan 30, 2001; The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.

LiftAuff posted:

AMD drivers are still horrible if you need OpenGL or run Linux.

Or if you wanted to run Rage, BF3, or Batman last year at launch.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2012 19:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > AMD CPU and Platform Discussion: Ryzen Might Be...Good? *knocks on wood*