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*** AMD "Zen" thread (inc AM4/APU discussion) ***

Soldato
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You say this appeals to you, but your buying habits and rigs you run disagrees with that :p?

I'm not knocking or flaming or baiting or any of that crap, just your stance has me genuinely puzzled....

I think an APU that has a midrange gpu could be decent for some of the lower end pc's I've done. Although so far, I've never really found an APU to offer the best performance given slightly hhigher budget would let me do a better discrete gpu. But here is hoping.

Well the APU's just aren't there yet. When they are I'll buy one lol.

Consider it watching the APU space with interest, an all in one APU that can game def appeals to me. Less power use / Less to cool etc run quieter. I hope AMD gets it right next year.
 
Soldato
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The next generation Opteron has 32 Zen x86 cores

No APU, 16MB L2, 64MB L3 cache

We recently showed you a new 16 Zen core next generation processor with Greenland integrated graphics and DDR4 support.

This part definitely sounds interesting but we got an update on the 2016 Opteron server market parts. The next generation Opteron won't have an integrated graphics part but it will have up to 32 Zen x86 cores with 64-thread support. Unlike the highest end compute HSA part that comes with Greenland HBM graphics, the next generation Opteron doesn't have any integrated graphics. The Opteron needs all the silicon space for the L2, L3 cache as well as its Zen x86 cores.

http://fudzilla.com/news/processors/37564-the-next-generation-opteron-has-32-zen-x86-cores
 
Soldato
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Wait, they showed Zen? I thought we knew next to nothing about Zen (aside from the fact that it returns to traditional x86-64 cores with an AMD version of HyperThreading)?
 
Soldato
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hot damn, imagine if someone could actually program a dx12 game to take advantage of as many threads as available? one of those badboys and a few gpu's would be mental
 
Soldato
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We need IPC much closer to Intel's designs which means a much shorter pipeline and an performance / watt ratio which beats Intel. Coupled with that, we need those chips to support at least 512GB of RAM per socket - ideally 1TB if they're going to be competitive in the high density space.

I'm quietly hopeful but I wouldn't be surprised if these fall short of the mark.
 
Soldato
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These Zen chips are sounding more and more interesting, i was so torn when i bought my 4770k, but i just could not justify the performance of the 8 core AMD stuff.

However if AMD have pulled their socks up with this new Zen architechture and its atleast within 3% of the equivalent Intel model in regards to all round performance, then im jumping on to it.
 
Associate
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These Zen chips are sounding more and more interesting, i was so torn when i bought my 4770k, but i just could not justify the performance of the 8 core AMD stuff.

However if AMD have pulled their socks up with this new Zen architechture and its atleast within 3% of the equivalent Intel model in regards to all round performance, then im jumping on to it.

Why ?
 
Soldato
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AMD chips aren't that bad, problem is the Piledriver series was seen as the new hope to fight Intel and it was a massive let down

If AMD can bring something to the table that's in the same region of performance as the equivalent Intel chip it will be a winner, AMD chips are generally cheaper for a start, add on Dx12 And I bet you start noticing little to no difference between the actual CPU in performance although this is just my theory and I could be wrong
 
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Regarding the 'weak cores' issue what do you guys think about this possibility?


At first glance any program using less than four threads appears doomed to use just one quarter of its 14nm silicon. The deeper truth, that looks may be deceptive here, comes from both Intuition and some of the Alchemy of modern chip design.

We know from several recent processors that silicon is starting to be designed to ‘wrap-up’ multiple cores. This Alchemy is the opposite of hyperthreading - from the user’s standpoint - in that a cluster of cores are stacked up to work as a single core, when the processor deems that to be optimal. This looks plausible because one can easily look at a diagram (or even a picture) of a CPU, see how the data flows and reach valid conclusions on how the whole schebang fits together. In a real life (i.e. Google) map, areas that wish to feed traffic into other areas, must be close by and be well connected, a maxim processor topology fits. The slide shows a bloody ginormous Level 3 cache interconnecting with four cores; the design Alchemy on display here would be just right to have those four cores function as one. Zen could be very clever and with Intel having done some water treading since 2011, Zen could be very competitive.
 
Soldato
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AMD chips aren't that bad, problem is the Piledriver series was seen as the new hope to fight Intel and it was a massive let down

I'm still reeling from the great Bulldozer hype collapse of '11... :S

But I agree that in absolute terms, AMD chips are generally 'good enough' for the majority of people, especially non-gamers. I wouldn't touch any of the current crop myself though, since most of what I play favours a meaty CPU with good single-thread capability ^^;

I'd love the next AMD chip to be a beast though, since Intel clearly can't be bothered making anything faster in desktop space...
 
Soldato
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There's been rumours about a CPU that can use multiple cores processing single threads for years and nothing has ever materialised.

I have a strong suspicion this would be very, very situational and completely dependant on the code being executed. Some instructions just don't make sense in parallel, and if you force it in without the original programmer having expected it, all sorts of weirdness might break loose :S

Not that I wouldn't be fascinated it if happened, I just reckon it'll be a really unpredictable animal that 'sometimes' makes code run 'a bit' faster, and other times massively breaks the program :)
 
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