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

[eddyr]

It should be a joint communication between Amd and the board partners to maintain a focus towards future proofing using the latest standards.
Exactly that, just like it has to have Gaming printed on it !

That would help. I wonder whether that kind of explicit dialogue has been left for x300 chipset more suited to itx/APU combo so you have board partners jumping the gun to get an itx board out such as these x370 itx motherboards.

Still my issue is that someone (and more) had to apply thought in designing and developing the board and reached a decision where they though that was a sensible feature choice.

Would you really be concerned with using a freesync monitor with an APU? How many people would really game on an APU, X370 setup with a freesync monitor? Just doesn't really add up.
Buy a cheaper board and standard CPU and a dedicated GPU surely? Otherwise you're looking at a cheap 1920x1080 compact gaming HTPC system to use on a TV right?

Since I have a freesync UW I would want the flexibility and personally don't need to run high settings. Upcoming APU's should be more than capable. There is no reason to close the board to that market.

 

[DragonQ]

Surely FreeSync is a great feature for an APU, which is likely not to be able to hit a constant 60 FPS in future games without very low settings?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Would you really be concerned with using a freesync monitor with an APU? How many people would really game on an APU, X370 setup with a freesync monitor? Just doesn't really add up.
Buy a cheaper board and standard CPU and a dedicated GPU surely? Otherwise you're looking at a cheap 1920x1080 compact gaming HTPC system to use on a TV right?

FreeSync monitors are cheap as £100 and in laptops it will also be a useful feature too.

 

[Chuk_Chuk]

FreeSync monitors are cheap as £100 and in laptops it will also be a useful feature too.

Didn't freesync come from laptops?
If i remember correctly its a feature in latops to save power and when Gsync came out AMD pretty much said they didn't realise it was something that consumers wanted for gaming, so they brought it across.

 

[DragonQ]

Didn't freesync come from laptops?
If i remember correctly its a feature in latops to save power and when Gsync came out AMD pretty much said they didn't realise it was something that consumers wanted for gaming, so they brought it across.

Never heard of this before. I know my laptop likes to reduce to 40 Hz when on battery (and despite my repeated attempts, sometimes sticks at 40 Hz even when plugged in). That has nothing to do with FreeSync though.

 

[ubersonic]

Didn't freesync come from laptops?
If i remember correctly its a feature in latops to save power and when Gsync came out AMD pretty much said they didn't realise it was something that consumers wanted for gaming, so they brought it across.

It was something like that, Nvidia brought out Gsync then AMDMatt on this forum (then LtMatt) suggested to AMD that they counter with Adaptive Sync and call it "FreeSync" (and I told him it was a dumb name /blush), I think it was something already used in laptops or a VESA spec or something, can't remember all the details exactly.

 

[Martini1991]

Wasn't it something about vblank and a feature that was coming to Display port, or was already an optional part of display port.

Either way, Freesync took ages to come out after Gsync.

 

[Chuk_Chuk]

Wasn't it something about vblank and a feature that was coming to Display port, or was already an optional part of display port.

Either way, Freesync took ages to come out after Gsync.

Yeah it was optional, (and used in laptops) upon AMD realising that customers wanted it they pushed for it to become a requirement.

 

[silversurfer]

Would you really be concerned with using a freesync monitor with an APU? How many people would really game on an APU, X370 setup with a freesync monitor? Just doesn't really add up.
Buy a cheaper board and standard CPU and a dedicated GPU surely? Otherwise you're looking at a cheap 1920x1080 compact gaming HTPC system to use on a TV right?

Current integrated GPU sucks but if the gpu technology included was Vega then its very likely people want to use it far more. AMD could really make a break through if they are the only makers of such an all one solution. Nvidia's last presentation seemed to be mostly about heading off AMD on laptop developments.
I'm talking mainstream here of course, we have a big trend towards mobile computing so that means large sales figures possibly for the company which can bring superior graphics in a compact way. Of course the best GPU will still be dedicated add in cards in large form factor cases but a lot of the market wants the all round smart slimline solution.

 

[AllBodies]

INTERESTING I have long wanted a laptop with more than 4 cores - finally looks like they are on there way - 8-12 core laptop please! Middling graphics is fine for content creators.

Wish list:

Ryzen/Ryzen 2/AMD - 8-16 core CPU
32GB RAM
2 - 4 NVME PCI-E storage
4k colour accurate monitor
1080TI (or newer cooler equiv)

We'll likely only get 8-cores for laptops this generation. But when Zen2 arrives on 7nm it shouldn't be out of the question to do 12 cores, maybe even 16.

7nm is meant to be just over 1 normal node jump, so it should provide the same performance at less than half the power, if it's a power-constrained application (like laptops are).

 

[Martini1991]

Yeah it was optional, (and used in laptops) upon AMD realising that customers wanted it they pushed for it to become a requirement.

It's not a requirement though, it's still optional standard.

 

[Chuk_Chuk]

It's not a requirement though, it's still optional standard.

oh right.

 

[Glaucus]

Yeah. If that Asus 1700 + RX 580 comes out before Vega & Threadripper very tempted...

what's the equivalent amd card to the 1050ti?

 

[Panos]

what's the equivalent amd card to the 1050ti?

RX 560 is same if not faster than the 1050Ti.
To put in perspective, RX 470 is around 60% faster than the 1050Ti

That laptop I was mentioning, is a full blown RX 580 under there, which is faster than a full blown GTX1060

 

[Glaucus]

RX 560 is same if not faster than the 1050Ti.
To put in perspective, RX 470 is around 60% faster than the 1050Ti

That laptop I was mentioning, is a full blown RX 580 under there, which is faster than a full blown GTX1060

thanks, I wish they could hurray up and release a good range of stuff, my laptop is dying.
and yeah asus and that spec will both make it very expensive. a 6core with a 1050ti equivalent, 15" preferably with a 360 hinge and touch screen essentially an amd equiped version of the lenovo yoga 720.

 

[Combat squirrel]

what's the equivalent amd card to the 1050ti?

the 580 i guess

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Similar region to a RX460/560 IIRC.

 

[melmac]

Didn't freesync come from laptops?
If i remember correctly its a feature in latops to save power and when Gsync came out AMD pretty much said they didn't realise it was something that consumers wanted for gaming, so they brought it across.

Never heard of this before. I know my laptop likes to reduce to 40 Hz when on battery (and despite my repeated attempts, sometimes sticks at 40 Hz even when plugged in). That has nothing to do with FreeSync though.

It was something like that, Nvidia brought out Gsync then AMDMatt on this forum (then LtMatt) suggested to AMD that they counter with Adaptive Sync and call it "FreeSync" (and I told him it was a dumb name /blush), I think it was something already used in laptops or a VESA spec or something, can't remember all the details exactly.

It came from the embedded display port specifications. The Panel Self Refresh feature was what prompted both AMD and Nvidia to consider sync technologies. Because it had a framebuffer to hold the frame to save power.

And yes both AMD and NVidia came up with this around the same time. Nvidia released Gsync first, AMD of course, were slow because they don't have resources Nvidia have and had to go through getting certification from Vesa.

No I don't know who came up with it first, because it's impossible to say. AMD built the second version of GCN cards with the hardware needed for Adaptive sync before Gysnc was even demonstrated. The R9 285 was released a month before Gysnc was announced. This hardware has no use in desktop graphics cards, so it shows that AMD were planning adaptive sync/freesync. But I guess they were caught completely off guard by how quickly Nvidia got their solution to market.

Wasn't it something about vblank and a feature that was coming to Display port, or was already an optional part of display port.

Either way, Freesync took ages to come out after Gsync.

See above it was from the embedded display port 1.3 spec.

Yeah it was optional, (and used in laptops) upon AMD realising that customers wanted it they pushed for it to become a requirement.

AMD pushed it to become a part of the desktop display port spec so that monitor manufacturers could start building Adaptive sync monitors. It became an optional feature in display spec 1.2a. It's still an optional part of the spec because a lot of monitors don't need to have any sort of sync technology.

 

[ubersonic]

Wasn't it something about vblank and a feature that was coming to Display port, or was already an optional part of display port.

Ahh yeah that was it, I remember Matt saying Vblank around when came up with the FreeSync idea.

 

[The1nonly1]

Hey guys, bit of a noob question here. I did a stress test in CPU-Z but my Ryzen 5 1600 won't go past 3.3Ghz? I thought it boost to 3.6Ghz unless I'm missing something? Image below.

http://imgur.com/gEXxKoN