6 or 8 core Steamroller based AMD CPU likely?

[Insert_Nickname]

Don't think I would go AMD again (seeing several Z87 boards that interest me), but if you're so inclined the 8320 will save you a few $$'s - have seen them as low as $145 on Amazon - mine runs at 4300MHz with just a slight voltage bump.

The biggest hurdle with AM3+ is finding decent mATX boards. They exist, but are few and far between. If you want to use ITX, forget it. Doesn't even exist. Maybe because of thermals and power consumption. But then why can FM2 ITX boards handle a 100W TDP? (Rhetorical question, I don't expect an answer to it)

 

[Yuriman]

Don't buy an expensive cooler, don't buy an expensive Mobo or expensive RAM, put the money in the bank and upgrade your PC a year earlier than originally planned.

Today it pretty much doesn't matter whether you went with a Q9400 or a Q9550. They both perform poorly compared to CPUs released a couple year later.

LGA 1150 is pretty much a dead socket. Broadwell isn't going to be compelling enough for someone on a 'budget'.

Slightly off topic but I'm going to second this opinion, at least with regards to the cooler. Get yourself a $25 212, you're not likely to see more than 100MHz extra overclocking headroom (which is something like 2%) for the extra $75 spent. This is coming from someone mounted bare-die with a custom WC loop.

 

[rtsurfer]

The reason I dont have a 4770K system yet is the C2 fault and the lid on the CPU being not very nice. So I just wait for the next steppings.

Could you please elaborate the C2 fault. Is this the one with the motherboard having some problems

with USB or is it something else.

Slightly off topic but I'm going to second this opinion, at least with regards to the cooler. Get yourself a $25 212, you're not likely to see more than 100MHz extra overclocking headroom (which is something like 2%) for the extra $75 spent. This is coming from someone mounted bare-die with a custom WC loop.

Alright.

Since last night I have already been reconsidering the H100i and looking to go with a Noctua or something.
I will look into it.

 

[lefty2]

I was just thinking not having a steamroller based Opteron could really screw up their Seamicro sales. The Verizon sale was mostly Opterons.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Could you please elaborate the C2 fault. Is this the one with the motherboard having some problems

with USB or is it something else.




Alright.

Since last night I have already been reconsidering the H100i and looking to go with a Noctua or something.
I will look into it.

Yea, it was in regards to losing data/not waking up from sleep properly from USB 3.0 I believe. Not a big deal to me on the desktop, but kind of embarrassing for Intel. There was a new stepping that was supposed to have already come out that corrected the problem. Only thing is I am not sure how you can tell which stepping you are getting.

 

[rtsurfer]

Yea, it was in regards to losing data/not waking up from sleep properly from USB 3.0 I believe. Not a big deal to me on the desktop, but kind of embarrassing for Intel. There was a new stepping that was supposed to have already come out that corrected the problem. Only thing is I am not sure how you can tell which stepping you are getting.

It was already rectified.
The new boards are already supposed to be out. Some places like microcenter still sell some old boards.

There was a thread about this in the Motherboard section, look for it.

I would link but I am on my phone.

 

[mrmt]

I was just thinking not having a steamroller based Opteron could really screw up their Seamicro sales. The Verizon sale was mostly Opterons.

What was said by AMD is that there was a significant number of opterons there, whether this significant is 5% or 50% AMD didn't disclose.

 

[sm625]

So you want to buy an AMD chip that is generally considered pretty competitive, and you want to do it because you're a fan of the company, but you're going to buy an Intel chip instead because... you're afraid somebody is going to make fun of you or something?

I don't get it. What's preventing you from buying an AMD CPU when your inclination is to support the company?

Charts like this:

 

[lefty2]

What was said by AMD is that there was a significant number of opterons there, whether this significant is 5% or 50% AMD didn't disclose.

Don't believe the FUD. The only reason that they're not all Opterons is because the deal pre-dates the AMD take over, before Seamicro even had Opteron servers

 

[CHADBOGA]

I was just thinking not having a steamroller based Opteron could really screw up their Seamicro sales. The Verizon sale was mostly Opterons.

I thought that Verizon sale was mostly Intel chips?

 

[Gikaseixas]

I thought that Verizon sale was mostly Intel chips?

If i'm not mistaken they'll sell both brands

 

[NTMBK]

I thought that Verizon sale was mostly Intel chips?

It's hard to find solid confirmation either way. (But that probably indicates that there's a lot of Intel chips- if it was all AMD, they'd be shouting it from the rooftops.)

 

[mrmt]

Don't believe the FUD. The only reason that they're not all Opterons is because the deal pre-dates the AMD take over, before Seamicro even had Opteron servers

The FUD came from AMD itself.

 

[USER8000]

I posted the following a while back.

http://www.moorinsightsstrategy.com/whos-processors-are-used-in-the-giant-verizon-cloud/

On an analyst conference call, I asked Verizon whose processors were being used, AMD or Intel, or both, and here is what Pat and I got back, word-for-word…

The answer is both, we are using the Intel Xeon class processors and a bunch of our infrastructure is using the Intel. Recently we switched to AMD Opterons, and as you wonder why, one of the things we are looking for is increasing the memory per host and the Opterons allow us in a single socket configuration to address more memory, and so all of the new deployments we are putting out there are carrying 64GB per host and the 8-core Opteron processors.

 

[Vesku]

That is one thing Opterons actually have going for them, lots of memory for server applications like memcached.

 

[mrmt]

That is one thing Opterons actually have going for them, lots of memory for server applications like memcached.

And huge power consumption penalties because of the inefficient processor.

I can't fathom opteron servers being in just a small share of the orders, and only if sold at very low prices.

 

[Vesku]

And huge power consumption penalties because of the inefficient processor.

I can't fathom opteron servers being in just a small share of the orders, and only if sold at very low prices.

Power consumption on the Abu Dhabi 6300s is alright at least if you need the extra memory a 4 module 6300 can handle vs a 4 core Xeon E3.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6508/the-new-opteron-6300-finally-tested/5

In these dense memory hungry configurations a 4 module 6300 CPU cluster with double the RAM of the 4 core Xeon cluster option can make sense.

http://www.seamicro.com/sm15000

 

[bgt]

It was already rectified.
The new boards are already supposed to be out. Some places like microcenter still sell some old boards.

I mailed the dealers to give me a C2 MB but they could not or want to guarantee it. USB3 is a big deal for me because I use my PC's in hibernate mode a lot/always. I normally use hibernation mode after 30 minutes.

 

[nemesismk2]

That is one thing Opterons actually have going for them, lots of memory for server applications like memcached.

I loved my Amd Opteron 180 those were great times

 

[tweakboy]

latter next year.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Reading this thread about the BF4 CPU core utilization I think AMD would be insane not to release 6 and 8 core CPU versions based on the Steamroller core.

Obviously we're heading in the direction of PS4/XBONE next-gen games being coded for parallelism, so finally 6/8 core CPUs make sense. When the Bulldozer based AMD FX CPUs were initially released that was not so much the case though.

AMD already has the Steamroller CPU and Kaveri design ready. So just take the IP blocks from there, skip the iGPU parts, and you're done. Should require very little R&D resources. I really don't see any reason for AMD to not go ahead with that.

 

[ShintaiDK]

BF3 had the same utilization. Nothing that comes from consoles.

 

[Exophase]

Reading this thread about the BF4 CPU core utilization I think AMD would be insane not to release 6 and 8 core CPU versions based on the Steamroller core.

Obviously we're heading in the direction of PS4/XBONE next-gen games being coded for parallelism, so finally 6/8 core CPUs make sense. When the Bulldozer based AMD FX CPUs were initially released that was not so much the case though.

AMD already has the Steamroller CPU and Kaveri design ready. So just take the IP blocks from there, skip the iGPU parts, and you're done. Should require very little R&D resources. I really don't see any reason for AMD to not go ahead with that.

If making a totally different die was so trivial and cheap we'd have seen native 4 and/or 6 core FX parts. We'd have seen native dual core Trinity and Richland APUs. We'd have seen native dual-core Temash. We'd see different GPU configurations in APUs. We don't get all these different dies because (at the very least) the overhead in making fresh masks for them is expensive.

We can't say for sure if they won't do another FX 8-core CPU now, but it won't be a big shock if they don't. AMD has shown many signs of being spread too thin with their current arrangement. FX would be the first thing you'd expect to go - with APUs they can at least rely on the strength of their GPU technology. With FX they have to rely on underselling vs Intel, but that's not good when their dies are so much larger... The margins vs volumes just may not be worth it to AMD.

 

[Fjodor2001]

BF3 had the same utilization. Nothing that comes from consoles.

Perhaps, but since both PS4 and XBONE now have 8 core CPUs, it's a trend that will be much more common going forward. If you don't code your next-gen console game to make use of that you'll get run over by other games that do. Thus 6 and 8 core AMD CPUs based on the Steamroller CPU makes much more sense now that back when the 6/8 core Bulldozer based FX CPUs were released.

 

[Fjodor2001]

If making a totally different die was so trivial and cheap we'd have seen native 4 and/or 6 core FX parts. We'd have seen native dual core Trinity and Richland APUs. We'd have seen native dual-core Temash. We'd see different GPU configurations in APUs. We don't get all these different dies because (at the very least) the overhead in making fresh masks for them is expensive.

Well it's certainly much cheaper than designing a new CPU where all the parts have to be designed from scratch (or "upgraded" from previous design). E.g. going from Richland->Kaveri should be much more expensive compared to reusing IP blocks from the Kaveri design in a 6/8 core CPU based on the Kaveri Steamroller CPU core.

Regarding the reason why we're not seeing all the possible very similar CPU versions you mentioned from AMD, I would say the primary reason is that AMD sells in much less volume. So they simply can't have that many SKUs, because the volume of each SKU would be too small. Entering a new segment would be a different matter though. I.e. if they make 6 & 8 core Steamroller based CPUs without iGPU, they can enter a completely different market segment for relatively little cost. Hence it makes sense.

Also, look at Intel and the multitude of SKUs they have. Surely they would not have so many SKU variants if it would require a huge additional cost for each SKU.