AMD Quad FX Hits Retail

[man_from_uncle]

I just wish they had stuck with the 939 users out there a bit longer, they are changing sockets faster than Intel now.

I agree. The benefits of switching to AM2 from 939 are as close to nil as makes no difference. If they'd put their money into making better CPUs for their existing socket rather than forcing people to do total upgrades to get that extra couple of percent that DDR2 offers, then you'd have a lot less people jumping ship to core 2. They should only have moved to DDR2 when they had a next gen product that Intel wouldn't kick the **** out of.

 

[FrankJH]

If there was any life in 939 then maybe so - but I dont believe there was.

I was a firm believer in S939 (even have a shuttle with a Opty 170 in it which is a brilliant pc) but there was no growth left at all - simple as that.

Im the first to admit they shouldnt have gone for AM2 think thats a lame duck but I think they will previal pretty soon

 

[GAMEfreak]

i'm interested in how K8L will work with 4x4, but i can never see myself getting one. the one advantage i DO see with 4x4, is that it should be better for overclocking in that there are less cores per chip, so heat per CPU should be less overall. squeezing in 4 cores in a cpu die would surely mean overclocking would become more limited by heat. anyway who knows. right now 4x4 stinks though.

 

[Mattus]

So this is basically just two 2-series Opterons, rebadged to look like a new product and sold to the retail market?

 

[man_from_uncle]

I was a firm believer in S939 (even have a shuttle with a Opty 170 in it which is a brilliant pc) but there was no growth left at all - simple as that.

I more or less agree. But if they'd released an FX-62 on 939, or even an FX-59 (which technologically could not have been that hard, and certainly would not have been the same investment as moving to AM2), then you'd have a lot more people with mid/high range CPUs, like me, who'd stick with AMD another CPU longer. That's another year of me not being an Intel customer. As it is, unless they do let us have an FX-60 for sub £200, then there is no option but to jump ship if we want to upgrade.

I think this 4x4 set-up is a good example of how a hugh amount of money can be spent to get a fairly rubbish computer that offers virtually no competitive advantage to any conceivable customer. The extreme oddity who might consider it is a short sighted but tight video-encoder, who doesn't play games, doesn't plan on upgrading and can't spring a hundred quid or so more for an Intel Quad core set-up that would completely put the AMD offering to shame.