AMD Bulldozer Finally!

zoomee · 16 Mar 2011 at 12:06

PCZ said:
Where is JF_AMD ?
I eagerly await his back peddling performance

LOL

- don't be so hard on him - he's always stated he's a server dude not desktop so the products may differ slightly between business and consumers

davieg · 16 Mar 2011 at 12:13

Maybe the person that JF-AMD is asking about AM3 support is talking to someone working on enhanced bulldozer and wires are getting crossed somewhere. I cant see two manufacturers not knowing the pin count on the first wave of bulldozer. Either way, either JF-AMD is wrong or two motherboard manufacturers, no where on that statement are asus stating that the board needs an AM3+ socket to work but an existing AM3 socket would work with a BIOS update, thats them and MSI singing the same tune???
More confused than ever now, tbh it would probably convince me to buy the first gen BD as I didnt want to get rid of my CHIV anyway.
But it makes no sense for AMD to keep it secret that they would drop in as I cant see how it would have a bad effect on sales if this is true?

psychas · 16 Mar 2011 at 12:59

this is great news

, weird how amd them self stated differently

RizlaKing · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:17

This is probably something that will work just like many things work but are not and never will be officially sanctioned by a company. We have an amd person on here and it's nice to see so i would like to have him around and be able to get answers from time to time not scare him off by attacking him on something that isn't his job or something he probably has no say over. All of this is completely unofficial at this point none of us has a BD chip to try it so until we do maybe it is best to hold fire on any critical comments.

Hagar · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:49

AMD CPU's always had a history of pin or socket modding potential. Be nice to see that back.

And yes, I have read JF-AMD posts on pcper.com, (used to be amdmb.com), he is keeping the community informed, well done.

Final8y · 16 Mar 2011 at 14:06

RizlaKing said:
This is probably something that will work just like many things work but are not and never will be officially sanctioned by a company. We have an amd person on here and it's nice to see so i would like to have him around and be able to get answers from time to time not scare him off by attacking him on something that isn't his job or something he probably has no say over. All of this is completely unofficial at this point none of us has a BD chip to try it so until we do maybe it is best to hold fire on any critical comments.

+1

Hagar · 16 Mar 2011 at 15:39

Just registered am3b.com will develop a site for bulldozer topics and compatibility of sockets etc.

zoomee · 16 Mar 2011 at 16:51

According to this site:

http://translate.google.co.uk/trans....html&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&prmd=ivns

CHIV and other Asus boards will not lose out on performance but on power management functions by having an AM3 socket v's AM3+ - awesome - i couldn't care less about power management as its the first thing I disable when overclocking lol

And heres further confirmation of Asus's stance:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/news.php?newsid=2292

Martini1991 · 16 Mar 2011 at 17:57

zoomee said:
Don't be in denial dude - lets run with it

Taking into account rumours about AMD chipset issues they may have left 900 series for now and decided to concentrate on 800 compatibility for bulldozer. I know back last year there was a decision to be made between AM3 and AM3+.

IF they were releasing a newer revision CH4 they would have linked to that instead of the existing one It quite clearly states existing AM3 boards upgradeable to Bulldozer support. It's probably something in the design that allows them to do this whereas other manufacturers are having to replace the socket.

Or it could also be Bulldozer is launched on two different sockets - AM3 and AM3+ similar to some older processors that they launched on two sockets...

If I recall correctly the CH4 came out way after the general 800series boards - they may already have the newer type sockets....

I had a CH4 before the 8 series launch.
The Extreme is what came out late.

zoomee · 16 Mar 2011 at 18:08

lol - look it up actually - The FIRST 890 board was a M4a89GTDPRo - 890gx series - the 890FX series wern't launched until a couple of months afterwards.

REALLY surprised your not just happy about this revelation - seeing as you complained about disliking AMD (on other forums) for not supporting BD on AM3...

Judgeneo · 16 Mar 2011 at 18:53

Presuming this news is actually true, they've secured themself an extra purchase at some point in the future.

One of the reasons I bought the crosshair IV was that I figured if any board was going to be supported, this one was. How right I was (may be)

Luke_Bowman · 16 Mar 2011 at 19:07

WooO!

Pulseammo · 16 Mar 2011 at 19:19

nkata said:
A heated needle may be safer than a drill.

I can see a return to heavily modded bios for some boards.

andy

Ideally the slide on the socket can be dismantled so that the piece of plastic covering the 2 pin holes can be partially removed safely and off of the board itself.

I've got some old Socket A boards laying about so if it turns out there is a BIOS released for my AM3 board then I could take a test run on an older board to see how it all comes apart.

I don't see a first party BIOS happening though - it seems that they are releasing BIOSes only to boards that they intend to release or revise with the black socket and it really wouldn't make much sense for ASUS to do this for a very small percentage of people willing to cut up their white socket boards.

Luke_Bowman · 16 Mar 2011 at 19:21

8 Cores! :O

Hagar · 16 Mar 2011 at 20:37

Pulseammo said:
I don't see a first party BIOS happening though - it seems that they are releasing BIOSes only to boards that they intend to release or revise with the black socket and it really wouldn't make much sense for ASUS to do this for a very small percentage of people willing to cut up their white socket boards.

I was thinking of the 890gx boards by Gigabyte and maybe not 1st party BIOS but tweaked by a knowledgeable 3rd party. If there is still a demand for BD on the 890 chipset, it may well come about for several manufacturers

A dual bios makes it a bit less risky.

JF-AMD · 16 Mar 2011 at 22:37

sonicology said:
Amazing how we can't seem to get a concrete answer to what is a relatively simple question.

We already gave you the answer months ago: AMD is only supporting Bulldozer on AM3+ sockets.

So, let me give you a fresh update for today with all of the latest news: AMD is only supporting Bulldozer on AM3+ sockets.

And, please use this response for sometime in mid April when the rumor comes out again: AMD is only supporting Bulldozer on AM3+ sockets.

If you have a question about Asus motherboards, please contact them, not AMD. We don't sell boards, we sell processors. And AM3+ is the only socket that our processor will be supported in.

Gashman · 16 Mar 2011 at 22:59

JF-AMD said:
We already gave you the answer months ago: AMD is only supporting Bulldozer on AM3+ sockets.

So, let me give you a fresh update for today with all of the latest news: AMD is only supporting Bulldozer on AM3+ sockets.

And, please use this response for sometime in mid April when the rumor comes out again: AMD is only supporting Bulldozer on AM3+ sockets.

If you have a question about Asus motherboards, please contact them, not AMD. We don't sell boards, we sell processors. And AM3+ is the only socket that our processor will be supported in.

well I for one am good with that, as long as your speaking for AMD on that matter rather, factually. so since the release date is supposidly June 2011, will there be a good volume of processors available on release day, at the majority of vendors? assuming you guys are prepping to ship them to various retailers, etc. nothing worse than the sort of thing we get with NVIDIA with total lack of any availability, since I for one am intending (performance depending) on purchasing a Bulldozer processor.

nightmare99 · 17 Mar 2011 at 07:08

Ok so the deal is although BD can be made to work on AM3 if there are problems AMD wont back it up it is down to the mainboard makers.

Martini1991 · 17 Mar 2011 at 07:58

zoomee said:
lol - look it up actually - The FIRST 890 board was a M4a89GTDPRo - 890gx series - the 890FX series wern't launched until a couple of months afterwards.

REALLY surprised your not just happy about this revelation - seeing as you complained about disliking AMD (on other forums) for not supporting BD on AM3...

I went from a 790FX to an 890FX.
No one, even you, has given ANY sort of answer to "What do we do with the extra pin", I mean even "It doesn't actually have an extra pin" would be a viable answer.

zoomee · 17 Mar 2011 at 09:18

Look at your X6 cpu mate - it already has one pin not being used in your AM3 socket. The same will probably apply to the first iteration of BD - That it will simply not have that pin there so it will 'fit' fine

To quote someone from XS: "Remember, Phenom II isn't using all the 941 pins the AM3 socket has, the extra pin might be for future product or for high end Zambezi. I guess we will know soon enough. "

Until we actually get our hands on the CPU - its anyones guess.

I couldn't care less if AMD supports BD on AM3 or not - what matters is if our motherboard manufacturers will support it and in this case they (MSI and Asus) are saying they can. Take what JF-AMD says with a pinch of salt (It's the official stance which I respect) - after all AMD refused to support core unlocking on the 800 series boards but manufacturers still managed to implement it successfully

I'll defo be upgrading to BD now, with the choice to change my motherboard if the newer AM3+ sockets offer something above and beyond what my CHIV can do.