Is a Vishera Refresh Coming?

[cbrunny]

Expectations? Rumours? 8390? Prices? Performance? What have you heard?

Not interested in an Intel vs. AMD debate. Save that for a different thread please.

 

[Homeles]

Haven't heard anything. AMD has been very quiet, and it's annoying.

 

[inf64]

Rumor mill and some leaked AMD presentations state yes, it is coming. But we have no idea what kind of refresh is it. Best bet is +200Mhz on top of 8350 with same "TDP" spec. AMD just launched 4350 and 6350 so 8000 series refresh might be scheduled for Computex time.

 

[FlanK3r]

maybe FX-8370 (my tip 4200 MHz/4300 MHz for turbo)

 

[Ajay]

Last I recall reading is that the Opteron line-up will be refreshed in 2014, though the roadmap only shows 2P & 4P capable. No 1P that would be suitably priced for the consumer market. They will likely be 5-6 module CPUs (perhaps x 2), otherwise they wouldn't be much of an upgrade from Vishera (as far as the server market is concerned). Hopefully GloFo's 28nm process is yielding competitive clock rates by then (if only AMD could be so lucky as to build these on 20nm - which just might have kept them in the high-end x86 server market). At 28nm, these would need to be compatible with the current 2P/4P sockets, and hence sales would mainly come from current Opteron clients wanted to upgrade. Not great news.

http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2012/2012120301_AMD_server_CPU_roadmap_for_2013_and_2014.html

 

[Ajay]

Duh, so my point was, I think that AMD is planning to 'satisfy' the desktop market with Kaveri This is the only desktop CPU on any of the slides we currently have. It kinda of makes sense since all Intel desktops (except the extreme enthusiast cut down Xeons) with be CPU + iGPU. Not that AMD is competing with Intel anymore (as R.Read has told us).

 

[vampirr]

AMD is not competing with Intel on Desktop CPU market, but they compete in tablet and laptop market and I think they have done a good flanking and I was suprised that sales in India for AMD increased by 6 times in time period of couple of months(4-6)...

AMD now holds 20+ percent of CPU market in India.

 

[Ajay]

AMD is not competing with Intel on Desktop CPU market, but they compete in tablet and laptop market and I think they have done a good flanking and I was suprised that sales in India for AMD increased by 6 times in time period of couple of months(4-6)...

AMD now holds 20+ percent of CPU market in India.

Well, that's a smart move for AMD - Sell into emerging markets, which are more price sensitive than mature markets (in general). Hmm, this could be a very good thing, if RR is able to get AMD Marketing and Sales to actually market and sell their products in a coherent and focused manner!

Thanks for the info!

 

[inf64]

I'm pretty sure there will be one "last" Piledriver FX83xx model by the end of the year. Kaveri will ,according to latest rumors, have 4-6 SR "cores"(or 3 modules if you will) . If 30% performance jump in MT software is correct(what AMD states,vaguely) then 3M Kaveri will roughly be on par with FX8xxx running at similar clock. That way FX8xxx PD based line will be invalidated and Kaveri will take over the lower,mid and upper mainstream desktop segment. Basically all performance desktop parts will be Kaveri APUs in 2014+,running on whatever socket it(Kaveri) runs on. Maybe AMD may launch some sort of non-APU part later on,based on SR core on that same socket,but that is not that likely.

 

[cbrunny]

Bummer. I'm so confused about the AMD product line right now. No matter how much I may want to, it really just doesn't feel like the right time to upgrade anything.

 

[podspi]

I wonder if they're planning on retiring AM3+ or not. Seems to me their best bet would be to just have one platform. Doesn't FM1/2 already have 'Athlon IIs' without any IGP?

 

[cbrunny]

I wonder if they're planning on retiring AM3+ or not. Seems to me their best bet would be to just have one platform. Doesn't FM1/2 already have 'Athlon IIs' without any IGP?

I was trying to do some reading earlier today about this very subject, and I couldn't find anything conclusive. I read a few places that said they were hoping to standardize to AM3+, but then many others predict an AM4 with the next gen. If they're sticking to AM3+, upgrading becomes much easier, since I could just drop in a new cpu when the time comes. But that just seems way too good to be true. It's so counter-intuitive to me that I can't convince myself that it even might be the case.

 

[Homeles]

To me, sticking with AM3+ doesn't make any sense. They really, really need to move off that platform. Put it on FM2 or FM3.

 

[cbrunny]

http://m.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2208525/amd-sticks-with-socket-am3-for-steamroller

According to this, socket compatibility is going to be important to amd. No idea how reputable this source is. I guess this also doesn't necessarily mean that current gen chip sets will be compatible with future gen CPUs.

 

[SocketF]

AMD stated openly that Vishera 2013 will be different to Vishera 2012. Buutt .. no clue what that could be. In the best case it would be Family 15 Model 20h Piledriver cores (not used anywhere yet,they are only mentioned in AMD's PDFs), in the worst case it is only a speed bump.

After the recent Richland news, I think the best guess currently is a new revision with Richland-like power features, including working temperature sensors and more/better P states.

Steamroller cores are out of question imo, then they wouldn't call it "Vishera".

 

[VirtualLarry]

To me, sticking with AM3+ doesn't make any sense. They really, really need to move off that platform. Put it on FM2 or FM3.

But what about the lack of I/O virtualization on their non-AM3+ platform chipsets? Lack of ECC? Are they going to abandon the professional workstation market entirely?

 

[Vesku]

I hope they at least produce a last goodbye AM3+ CPU for Q4/13. Expect to retire my 1090T about that time and I'd like to stretch the AM3+ board's legs a bit more if at all possible.

 

[SocketF]

But what about the lack of I/O virtualization on their non-AM3+ platform chipsets? Lack of ECC? Are they going to abandon the professional workstation market entirely?

Obviously, there will be a new Opteron socket.

 

[Homeles]

But what about the lack of I/O virtualization on their non-AM3+ platform chipsets? Lack of ECC? Are they going to abandon the professional workstation market entirely?

Trinity Opterons have ECC. No idea about virtualization.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Trinity Opterons have ECC. No idea about virtualization.

I was speaking of AMD's other consumer sockets, FM1 and FM2. Trinity Opterons don't run on FM2, do they?

Edit: Interesting, thanks for the article. So that proves that the FM2 socket CAN support ECC, if it is enabled on the CPU die. So we may end up with the "Xeon scenario" with AMD - namely, that you can run an Opteron in a desktop motherboard, with ECC RAM.

 

[Homeles]

They apparently do.

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...n2c-opteron-trinity-apu-comes-in-q4-2012.aspx

 

[Vesku]

Well, the Opteron APUs were mentioned but were they ever launched? This is saying ARM server APU before x86 server APU: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...bring-out-arm-opteron-apus-before-x86-version

Can't find any information on Opteron APU model numbers, they don't appear to be a purchasable product atm.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Rumor mill and some leaked AMD presentations state yes, it is coming. But we have no idea what kind of refresh is it. Best bet is +200Mhz on top of 8350 with same "TDP" spec. AMD just launched 4350 and 6350 so 8000 series refresh might be scheduled for Computex time.

I'd rather see Thuban on 32nm tech

 

[Ajay]

I hope they at least produce a last goodbye AM3+ CPU for Q4/13. Expect to retire my 1090T about that time and I'd like to stretch the AM3+ board's legs a bit more if at all possible.

Last time I saw, Kaveri was due Q4/13

With 4-5 modules it would be great at MT; I would expect 15% bump in integer performance as well (no clue if FP will be better, but I read that AMD shortened the pipeline). What I worry about is top clocks for 28nm bulk Si - I'd GloFo can't get its act together, Kaveri will suck.

And, I hope the chipset team can do better than FM2 for Kaveri
I think Kaveri could make an excellent HTPC - I'm looking to build one next year, so I hope AMD/GF pull off a winner.

 

[Ajay]

I'd rather see Thuban on 32nm tech

Well,that's water under the bridge, but an 8 core 32nm Thurban could have been a winner (and saved AMD quite a bit of dough). If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!