Kamakazie! said:
Assuming it beats C2D AND Penryn then they will have a lead over Intel for at least a year. Nehalem is not out till well in to 2008 from what i have heard. Even then, it's performance is a complete unknown. Pretty much nothing is known about it other than that it will include CSI and an on-die memory controller... which will give little/no advantage over the AMD processors because they already have such features.
As for being disappointed... if Barcelona really is 20-50% faster than C2D/Penryn then I will be extremely happy. What more can you ask for?
yes and no, c2d's have a very agressive cache system setup that doesn't at all negate the need for an ondie mem controller, just is so good its pretty much as fast latency wise as an on die mem controller ath 64. on die mem controller should still cut out latency but then ath 64 wasn't so agressive with extra bits to cut down latency, they will just get more agressive with that added to the mem controller to fight back.
but from what it sounded like the mem controller was for xeons is the impression i'm getting. no doubt to "win"(ie fake win) desktop performance if they are xeon only additions then i'd fully expect to once again see a xeon part rebadged as a extreme edition desktop part for silly money, but basically no one will will have them as with current extreme editions.
the "k10" jump is valid, the ath 64 is getting a LOT of changes, not just a few tweaks. most parts of the core have been upgraded, added to new features. its more than different enough to get a new part name, but that main fact remains that they can call it k9, k8l, k29 or k10, the name doesn't change its performance so who really cares. by all accounts, theoretically it should very much spank the c2d's. early benchmarks on the next intel cpu's, as rosey as they look, are also heavily biased for SSE4 usage. without big time SSE4 usage there appears to be little to no real gain. 20% faster than a 15% slower clocked c2d doesn't to me say much in way of performance benifits. if intel are only getting a 5% boost in performance, and amd are going to be 20% ahead in most things, further ahead maybe in others, then amd WILL be faster until the next set of chips. even then it doesn't sound like p4 to c2d leaps in performance, but another mild boost with slightly more speed advantage reserved for £600+ cpu's.
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They're going to have to do better than that really. Barcelona will fend off Intel for a few months tops if they're lucky.
