Should AMD have focused on a Steamroller high TDP product line instead of Vishera?

[Vesku]

I think the current FX 9370 and 9590 are actually a bad idea and if they were determined to create a ~200W TDP product line it should be Steamroller based. Kaveri is supposedly on track for release this year, I think a manufacturer certified high clocked Kaveri would have been the way to introduce this marketing idea. But I'm not sure it's a good marketing idea in general, too much like the Pentium 4 EE.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

What it has done (FX9370/9590) is put AMD back on peoples radar map. That is a good thing for AMD, because it will help improve their theoretical market share, when Steamroller hits the market (whenever that might be).
To an extent, it has also stolen some of Intels thunder, as I doubt it is a coincidence that Haswell has just been released, and the 220W TDP product has just been released (or announced) at the same time.

 

[Rezist]

It's a product designed for marketing alone rather then to make money selling units is my best guess.

 

[Ventanni]

They're hand picked chips that they already have produced. What's the big deal?

 

[zebrax2]

If the FX 9000 series are nothing more than harvested CPUs then personally i think it is a good move. This should at least give them a little presence in the high-end prebuilt computers where buyers mostly dont care about power consumption

 

[Torn Mind]

In the CPU industry, a few more Mhz can mean a hundred dollars more money. It won't make a difference on Steamroller's sales. Meanwhile it should capture a few "enthusiasats" that aren't quite as literate about the performance or have brand loyalty and get them to shell out the $$$ for these parts.

 

[Durp]

It was a terrible idea. The only way a 220w CPU would be acceptable is if it's an APU that includes a beefy GPU.

 

[Rvenger]

I think this is great for AMD because when they do a high end 95/125w Steamroller 8 core, it has to outperform the FX 9000 series to be relevant. I think this could give AMD a good challenge for Steamroller.

 

[RaistlinZ]

220w CPU is the most ridiculous thing I've heard of in a long time. Unless it has a 7950 built onto it I don't see the point.

 

[nanaki333]

is there even a price on this chip yet? if it's in the $200-$250 range, then yeah, not a bad idea. if AMD is trying to adopt their old FX pricing from the Athlon64 days... then no. terrible idea.

 

[Vesku]

I think this is great for AMD because when they do a high end 95/125w Steamroller 8 core, it has to outperform the FX 9000 series to be relevant. I think this could give AMD a good challenge for Steamroller.

That's when they do the flip flop to power efficiency ala Nvidia 500 series -> 600 series.

 

[frozentundra123456]

is there even a price on this chip yet? if it's in the $200-$250 range, then yeah, not a bad idea. if AMD is trying to adopt their old FX pricing from the Athlon64 days... then no. terrible idea.

Yea, I said didnt matter, because it depends on price. If it is in this price range, it will have a market. If it is 500 dollars or more, it is a very bad idea.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I think it was a good idea. I doubt it took too much in the way of resources. The people on the forums who are complaining about power use were not likely to be AMD CPU customers anyway, at least not while Vishera is their performance part.

 

[guskline]

As I pointed out in another thread, AMD is simply leveraging what it has in the cupboard. As to the higher TDP it's a concern but why don't we hear the same furor when enthusiasts are running 3 Titan gpus or 2 7970s in CF?

 

[Durp]

As I pointed out in another thread, AMD is simply leveraging what it has in the cupboard. As to the higher TDP it's a concern but why don't we hear the same furor when enthusiasts are running 3 Titan gpus or 2 7970s in CF?

Because an SLI titan setup doesn't have competition that draws significantly less power to make this an issue. Intel makes them look especially bad when it comes to efficiency.

Saying it doesn't matter because another component in your system also draws a lot of power doesn't make that power sucking CPU look any better.

 

[podspi]

While I don't think I would be interested in the Piledriver version, I think this paves the way for high TDP-capable motherboards, definitely a good thing for enthusiasts.

And let's face it, it doesn't make sense for us as a group to complain about Intel not releasing high-TDP products for enthusiasts, and then complain about AMD doing exactly that. What we can complain about is that the performance it does achieve isn't terribly remarkable compared to Intel's sub 100W offering. But let's be clear, a 220W CPU is about as ridiculous as a 300W GPU. Heck, IBM already sells higher TDP chips than that

 

[AtenRa]

Good idea,

5GHz, 8 cores, will be faster than Core i7 Haswell (Default) in a lot of apps, it will look good in the graphs if you know what i mean

 

[VirtualLarry]

Good idea,

5GHz, 8 cores, will be faster than Core i7 Haswell (Default) in a lot of apps, it will look good in the graphs if you know what i mean

Indeed. This could be a marketing coup.

 

[Haserath]

Performance: ok
Power consumption: Error

 

[Chicken76]

I wonder if there's any room left for overclocking these.

 

[BD231]

Lets not pretend AMD is actually honest about TDP. They've been selling 200 watt CPU's since the release of bulldozer and I think its far better they're closer to the truth with this rating, even if it is still to low.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Lets not pretend AMD is actually honest about TDP. They've been selling 200 watt CPU's since the release of bulldozer and I think its far better they're closer to the truth with this rating, even if it is still to low.

What if they're not being truthful, what if this is actually a 400 watt part.

 

[Ancalagon44]

They should have either just saved the money, or released a top end Richland SKU with a 480 shader count GPU and embedded DRAM.

 

[Vesku]

Interesting poll results, guess these 220W Visheras and Intel's Pentium 4 EEs are a decent stopgap while being the under performer of the x86 duopoly.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Interesting poll results, guess these 220W Visheras and Intel's Pentium 4 EEs are a decent stopgap while being the under performer of the x86 duopoly.

AMD will very likely be an under performer indefinitely. It is behind on process technology, it can't afford to spend the kinds of R&D that Intel can, and it's doing all of this while trying to branch into new areas.

AMD would be very dumb to try to chase the "x86 performance crown" at the high end from a business perspective, and instead should be putting all of its eggs into the low power X86 CPU to try to have a shot at gaining market share in the much more rapidly growing tablet/convertible spaces with a decent cost structure.

High end Opterons aren't making AMD any money, high end APUs aren't making them any money, so this feeble attempt to compete against a juggernaut in full rampage mode needs to stop for the sake of AMD's shareholders and AMD's future.