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Shades · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:28 am Post subject: AMD back in the game?

AMD WASN'T JOKING about Barcelona hitting Q2. I didn't believe it until a solid source came out and said the volume ramp is starting 'really soon'.
If really soon is defined as the end of the month, and you add in the 10-12 weeks it takes from shiny silicon pizzas in to pin laden chunks out, that would mean parts are available at the beginning of May.

It would not surprise me if it is trading yield out for time to market, so let's add a month before they are really available. That puts things at early June for volume, or when AMD said it would have it out. Minor miracles do happen.

What it is
This is the new 'Barcelona' chip amd hope will be their new flagship and be up there competing with Intel's dual cores.
Haven't seen any performance data yet but the skinny is that they will only compete at Intel's current level.
I also hear that Intel have been holding back some faster processors waiting to see what amd came back with. HOWEVER, nVidia and ATi press dept.'s used to say the same things and it was always just talk.
We wait to see what the reality is.

Shadow_Bshwackr · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:22 pm Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Thanks for the Heads Up Shades! Wink

Shades · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:52 pm Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Adrian_Wainer · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jun 03, 2006 Posts: 255

AMD Barcelona on schedule for mid-2007

Firm claims 40 per cent performance boost over Intel

By Paul Hales: Thursday 25 January 2007, 16:30

Top INQ jobs

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Senior Systems Tester, London - BBC
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Search for a job: AMD IS OUT banging the drum about its four-core Barcelona chippery, claiming it will blow Intel's rival Cloverton out of the water by being about 40 per cent faster.
According to Pat Patla, director of AMD's server worksation division, Barcelona is a new processor design, 90 per cent of which is brand new. He reckons it will make AMD the first firm to deliver a native quad-core X86 chip and its introduction will be as "substantial" as that of the original Opteron in 2003.

www.theinquirer.net/de...icle=37212

I wonder will this processor use the AM2 940 socket?

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

Shades · Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

It's possible they will use an interim socket (AM2+) or go for an all new socket (AM3) or both.
I suspect you will see some of the technology used across the range though which may, by definition, seep into some older and current sockets.
Or it 's possible they could ditch everything if it's REALLY that far ahead.
I wouldn't listen to Intel or amd hype about their performance though.
Wait for the independents (like Tom's, or others) to review them before forming any opinions.
Intel and amd's marketing departments have certain 'blinkered' leanings which don't compare to real world useage.
I stand to be corrected later but I suspect 1st releases of these new amd chips may only be comparable to the current crop of Intels.
Quad cores don't perform as well as dual's insofar as gaming performance yet (partly due to the way games have been written... up to now).

HF_SlowHand · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:44 am Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Shades, whats the best deal so el cheapo (here) can upgrade a socket 939 mb from a AMD 4000+ to a faster AMD processor?

I just bought a couple more gigs of ram and still takes a wee bit for FSX to load up - not pegging processor like it used to (uses about 1.2 g of ram tho to load)... (BTW shows 2560 Megabytes but it should show 3074 mb?)

heres what I'm a running...

2.40 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 4000+
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache

ASUSTeK Computer INC. A8N-SLI DELUXE 1.XX
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS A8N-SLI DELUXE ACPI BIOS Revision 1016 12/01/2005

Maxtor 6L300S0 [Hard drive] (300.09 GB)

2560 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'A0' has 1024 MB
Slot 'A1' has 512 MB
Slot 'A2' has 1024 MB
Slot 'A3' has 512 MB

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT [Display adapter] (2x)
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)
NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller

thanks
slow

HF_SlowHand · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:47 am Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Ps, got rid of my 10K HDS that were in RAID0, probably me but I was burning them up and losing everything.... so back to one big old slow hard drive "partitioned for protection" LOL but I do use regvac and O&O defrag

Shades · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 7:44 am Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Hi Slow,
Are you ditching the mobo as well?

At the moment the Intel dual cores are out in front by a country mile.
BUT these new amd's could take the crown back when they come out around May.
It'll be interesting to see.

We may find that CPU's might be more closely tied to chipsets and GPU's in future than previously; ie. Intel+nVidia, amd+ATi, because of the company tie-up's.
They have also been tied up with development last year as well (Intel / nVidia have been quite tight behind locked doors with Micro$oft last year as well).
Will wait and watch.

Could you tell me the CL & PC rating of each of the sticks of RAM you're running? It's probably paired. I'm hoping both figures are the same for all of it. If not, there's an area we can improve your performance.
PC rating is its' speed, CL is its' CAS Latency.

Not sure why you ditched your RAID-O array as that should improve your read/writ performance by almost 50%. If it was becoming unstable there are ways around that these days with different kinds of arrays, which have a built in protection (like a cross between a RAID-0 and RAID-1 set-up). RAID 0+1 (or 1+0) for example. Increasing the # of drives should also spread the load, increasing speed and security.

Uhu_Rodion · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:33 am Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

As ATI is now property of AMD, and Intel is trying (though with some difficulty) to acquire NVidia, the future scenario of game machines might be somehow troublesome.

I'm looking at these news with some perplexities, and hope we won't have to face up a struggle between two different platforms, which inevitably brings to software compatibility problems.

Crossing fingers!
Rolling Eyes

Marco

Shades · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:30 pm Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

nVidia and Intel have been working together very closely for a while but I'm not sure there's a deal in there. Not yet anyways.
I don't think they'll team up for the same reasons as you expressed.
I think they won't want to be seen as 'being in bed together' (in the same way as the amd & ATi merger), and able to offer as many options as they can.

HF_SlowHand · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:11 pm Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Mushkin HP3200 2-3-2, 2 X 1GB DUAL PACK - PC3200
Frequency: 400MHz
Latency: 2-3-2-6
Parity: Unbuffered
Voltage: 2.6V-2.8V
Pins: 184
Density Module: 128Mx64 Chip: 64Mx8
128Mx64 HP3200 module,
unbuffered 184-Pin Double Data Rate (DDR) Synchronous DRAM
Dual In-Line Memory Module (DIMM),
organized as a dual-bank high-speed memory array. 64Mx8 chip density. This DIMM achieves high-speed data transfer rates of up to 400MHz.

Rated 2-3-2-6 at 400MHz.

the other is two sticks of 512mb I think were corsair value select although I just had them out and dont remember seeing any markings (and they had no heatsinks of any kind). I dont know their latency or anything else, other than only 512 mb shows up - not 1024?

Shades · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:13 pm Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Have you tried running your system without the 512 sticks?
If they're slower than your 1Gb sticks I'll bet yr system will run better on just the 2Gb.
Both the 1Gb sticks look fine.

Adrian_Wainer · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jun 03, 2006 Posts: 255

Hi Slowhand, I am not expert on this, but is there not a issue that when one uses the second set of RAM sockets there is a speed limitation that kicks in that degrades the performance of all four memory sticks, if I am right on that would it be an idea to remove the two 512 sticks and just utilize the two 1 Gigabyte sticks.

www.xbitlabs.com/artic...ram_3.html

If I am right in thinking you have a 939 socket processor, I bought one [ ie a 939 4800 dualie ] in Europe late last year and the 4800 Dual Core 1+1 Megabyte cache was the highest level AMD Athlon 939 being offered at a significant discount price, if that situation is the same now and where you live, if you are interested in that processor you would need to see would perfomance gains in upgrading to that processor would be appropiate to your needs or not.

Another possability is keeping your present processor, getting an aftermarket heatsink/fan combi and overclocking your CPU. I have a thermotalke typhoon on my 4800 939 dualie and it was dead easy to fit and is very quiet and gives higher overclocking possabilities.

www.a1-electronics.net..._Apr.shtml

www.pcstats.com/articl...amp;page=2

www.pcstats.com/articl...amp;page=3

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

HF_SlowHand · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:30 pm Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Regards Adrian and Shades,

I may go the overclocking route, dunno. You know I had thought about "dual core processor" but what with everything I read and every one I talked to daid no - they were great for number crunching/data but not good for gaming?

Not true then?

Maybe a rudimentary class on what to look for when building a gamer? (GAMER 101?)

Many thanks!
Jim aka slow

Shades · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:39 pm Post subject: Re: AMD back in the game?

Not quite, the dual cores are very good for gaming.
It's the quad cores that are better for 'number crunching' and running multiple applications..
That may change when developers start writing games to take advantage of them.
That's why I'm a little wary of these latest amd chips, which are quad core.
The Intel dual cores are head-and-shoulders the best at the moment.
We'll just have to wait for a few reviews of the amd's before jumping the gun.
Trouble is, if you wait for them, there will be something else coming up by then that you'll want to wait for as well.

Gaming rigs are where the money is at the moment:
Intel dual core
Asus probably have the best mobo's for them.
Most of the popular Flight Sim's have been developed on nVidia cards so it stands to reason they will perform best on a similar system (this should apply to the IL2 and M$-FS games).
As much of the fastest, lowest latency, paired RAM you can afford.

BEWARE; With some boards (ie my Gigabutt GA-81K1100) they can take different amounts of RAM but start to bottleneck, the more you have.
Mine can take up to 4Gb of PC3200.
However it will only perform as PC3200 while there's 2Gb on the board.
If I put 3Gb in it, the whole lot will drop to PC2700 and, heaven forbid, should I put the whole 4Gb in it, it all drops to PC2100.

"A games rig needs to be high performance but any system will only be as strong as it's weakest component."

A gentle word on another forum I belong to will go a long way when you're considering equipment.

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