HD 7970: Bulldozer vs. Sandy Bridge vs. Nehalem

Just one week ago AMD released their new Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards which introduced a new shader architecture and a new manufacturing process. The company's new flagship is the fastest single GPU graphics card in the world, and reviews across the Internet were generally favourable. Today, we test the Radeon HD 7970's CPU scaling, pitting AMD's recently released Bulldozer-based FX-8150 CPU against two formidable Intel opponents.

According to the reviews online, AMD's latest processor architecture delivers surprisingly underwhelming performance, which quickly made it one of the biggest disappointments of the year according to some users. Loyal fanboys despise terms like "Faildozer" and have kept faith in AMD's promise to deliver a competitive high-end gaming capable processor.

Despite disappointing reviews, Bulldozer has gone on to sell quite well and has amassed a certain cult following with enthusiasts who would like to own this CPU regardless of benchmarks. Their purchasing reasons range from supporting the underdog, to setting records with its impressive overclocking abilities (8 GHz+ on LN2) and everything in-between. This has led some of these enthusiasts to clamour for a review of AMD's best in GPUs (Radeon HD 7970) and CPUs (FX-8150) to be compared working together against the Intel CPU competition to see just how well they do, as this seems to present an unknown variable in many end-users' buying decision.

In this review we will pit three CPUs from the popular ~$250 segment against each other using the Radeon HD 7970:

• AMD FX-8150: This is the company's current flagship Bulldozer processor. It features four execution units that show up as eight cores in Windows, its Turbo clocks up to 4.2 GHz and it has plenty of cache, the processor is priced competitively at $270.
• Intel Core i5-2500K: The processor most gamers and overclockers use. Thanks to its "K" suffix it enables significant overclocking unlike the cheaper Sandy Bridge processors, yet comes at an affordable price of $220. Actually this makes it the cheapest processor in today's test group.
• Intel Core i7-920: While it does not use a sexy 32 nm production process and is based on Intel's last generation Nehalem architecture, it still packs a punch especially when overclocked. It is also an affordable choice if you are looking to run a multi-GPU gaming rig at full 2x PCIe x16 without breaking the bank (LGA 2011)

 

                 Market Segment Analysis

	AMD FX-8150	Intel Core i7-920	Intel Core i5-2500K
Number of Cores	8	4 (8 threads)	4
Core Codename	Zambezi	Bloomfield	Sandy Bridge
Socket	AM3+	LGA 1366	LGA 1155
Core Speed	3.6 GHz	2.67 GHz	3.30 GHz
Turbo Boost	up to 4.2 GHz	up to 2.93 GHz	up to 3.7 GHz
L2 Cache	4x 2048 KB	4x 256 KB	4x 256 KB
L3 Cache	8 MB	8 MB	6 MB
Process Size	32 nm	45 nm	32 nm
Die size	315 mm²	263 mm²	216 mm²
TDP	125 W	130 W	95 W
Price	$270	$270	$220

 from : techpowerup.com

Intel Readies Core i5-2550K Quad-Core Unlocked Processor

Intel started its "Sandy Bridge" LGA1155 family with two processors geared for overclocking, the Core i7-2600K, at a $320 price-point, and Core i5-2500K at around $210. Both are extremely successful products, among the two the Core i5-2500K struck a price-performance sweet-spot, while the Core i7-2600K became the ideal chip to build high-end gaming PCs with. Around the time when AMD was releasing its AMD FX processor family, Intel released the new Core i7-2700K. This chip didn't necessarily replace the i7-2600K, but took a price point slightly higher than it. According to a CPU World report, Intel is readying a new sweet-spot processor geared for overclocking, the Core i5-2550K.

Compare AMD Ontario C-50 vs Intel Atom N550/N570 !!

Lately netbook market previously dominated by Intel's Atom platform began to falter with the advent of the Brazos Bobcat of AMD's architecture that are specific to netbooks.

One variant for the AMD platform Brazos C-50 Ontario, face to face with the Intel Atom N550/N570. AMD C-50 has 2 cores at a speed of 1.0 GHz, 2 threads and 1 MB of L2 cache. He integrated with the AMD Radeon HD 6250 GPU that has supported the UVD 3.0, Shader Model 5.0 and DirectX version 11. With such complete ability, the combination of CPU and GPU is claimed to only consume a maximum of 9 watts.
While the Atom N550 is widely used in various brands netbook because it is the first Dual Core Atom (with a 4 thread capabilities thanks to Hyper Threading). N550 works on the frequency of 1.5 GHz and integrated Intel GMA 3150 GPU. Atom N550 is claimed to consume 8.5 watts of power. Atom N570 is very similar to the N550. The only thing different from her sister is that N570 works at a clock speed of 1.66 GHz.

Recently we had the opportunity to play around with the netbooks that use AMD C-50 and the following benchmark results are obtained:

Chart above clearly shows how powerful AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics than the Intel GMA 3150 found on most netbooks. 3DMark scores on AMD C-50 is much left Atom N550. Some modern games can still be played even on a netbook with AMD C-50. One example Street Fighter IV, though with the LOW setting (640x480) the game is still playable with smooth and get the average 50-an FPS. Never dreamed to play them on the GMA 3150.

As for the PCMark Vantage, a score derived AMD C-50 is still below the Atom N550 processor clock speed due to differences in both (1.0 GHz vs. 1.5 GHz). However, in everyday use, we can not feel the difference between the two.

In addition to performance, battery life is also a factor important consideration in choosing a netbook. Therefore, since the beginning of many who want to know how exactly the actual power consumption on AMD C-50 compared with rivals. Below we summarize some of the results of tests conducted by the site NetbookNews.com (in watts): 

  It should be noted that the above gaming tests using the online game is Live for Speed ​​where the AMD C-50 get an average of 50-60 FPS, while the Atom N550 is only around 7 FPS. Atomic power consumption in the system is lower but the game can not run properly.

Overall it can be concluded that the battery life between systems with AMD C-50 and Atom N550/N570 almost equal, but still won by Intel. C-50 superior performance at the expense of battery life.

The last important factor of consideration that we want to review is the PRICE. Our survey found that prices N550/N570 Atom netbooks on the market is still relatively high compared to those using AMD C-50. The data we get by April 2011 that the price intel atom is more expensive than AMD's -50 C with approximately one hundred thousand. Can be concluded that the presence of AMD C-50 and successfully forced the Brazos platform Intel cut prices and ultimately end-users who benefit. Now the choice is returned to the user, select price compare performance or battery life. 
source:www.ruangpc.com

AMD Bulldozer A Surprisingly Sell-Out Sales Success. Victims: Phenom II & Athlon II

AMD's new Bulldozer "FX" series of processors may be very lacklustre performers in reviewer's benchmarks and have garnered considerable scorn in enthusiast circles, but they're a very good performer for AMD's bottom line. Incredibly, they are selling out as soon as shops get them in stock - and they are not even priced very competitively against Intel's offerings, so perhaps the "It's an 8 core CPU!!" marketing is working well on the uninformed "enthusiast" after all? Mind you, what enthusiast, however uninformed, wouldn't know exactly how these products perform? Every tech website and computer magazine has covered these chips by now. The mind boggles.

AMD Realizes That Bulldozer Has 800 Million LESS Transistors Than It Thought!

AMD's new flagship Bulldozer "FX" series of processors have turned out to be mediocre performers in almost every review and benchmark going, sometimes even getting bested by the existing Phenom II and certainly no match for their Intel competition. To add to this tale of fail, it now turns out that AMD didn't even know how many transistors they have! Anand Lal Shimpi of AnandTech received an email from AMD's PR department and this is the revelation he had to share with us:

AM3+ Processor Support BIOS Updates Available for Several MSI Motherboards

 Leading international mainboard and graphics card maker MSI released the mainboard BIOS with full AMD AM3+ 8-core CPU support for download today. Enthusiasts that own one of the listed mainboards1 can now download the update to support the latest AMD AM3+ 8-core CPUs (B2 Stepping). For those planning to purchase a new mainboard, if the box is labeled with "Supports AM3+ CPU with New BIOS," the mainboard will support the powerful AMD AM3+ 8-core CPUs out of the box. Enthusiasts that have purchased a mainboard that is on the list of compatible mainboards can update the BIOS themselves to support the latest AM3+ 8-core CPUs. Also, new in this BIOS update is official support for MSI's proprietary ClickBIOS II system optimization tool for all AMD 900 mainboards. The graphical UEFI BIOS provides mainboard-level support, and exporting OC Profiles to USB drives offers unparalleled convenience.

AMD Unlocked FX Processors Announced

AMD today unleashed the AMD FX family of CPUs, delivering a fully unlocked and customizable experience for desktop PC users. The AMD FX series of desktop CPUs includes the first-ever eight-core desktop processor, enabling extreme multi-display gaming, mega-tasking and HD content creation for PC and digital enthusiasts – all for less than $245 (suggested U.S. retail price). This marks the first retail availability of processors that use AMD’s new multi-core architecture (codenamed “Bulldozer”), which is included in AMD’s upcoming server CPU (codenamed “Interlagos”) and the next-generation of AMD Accelerated Processing Units.

“AMD FX CPUs are back with a vengeance, as validated by the recent feat of setting a Guinness World Records title for ‘Highest Frequency of a Computer Processor,’” said Chris Cloran, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Group at AMD. “While overclockers will certainly enjoy the frequencies the AMD FX processors can achieve, PC enthusiasts and HD media aficionados will appreciate the remarkable experience that AMD FX processors can provide as part of a balanced, affordable desktop system.”

Know Your Processor AMD Bulldozer

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. according to the plan will immediately throw the processor based on AMD's FX Series Bulldozer micro-architecture to the world market. In the early stages of AMD released four models with eight cores, six cores or four cores, and the TDP (Thermal Design Power) 95W or 125W. The model is AMD FX8000, FX6000 and FX4000 are currently known by the code Zambesi. All three models are beginning to fully support what is supported by the micro-architecture Bulldozer, including a new processing unit Flex FP floating point. Bulldozer eight-core chips offer increased performance by 50% compared to AMD Phenom II in running multimedia apikasi. Processor AMD FX series are produced through the 32 nm SOI technology (Silicon on Insulator) supports dual-channel DDR3 1866 MHz, Turbo Core support dynamic acceleration technology and is present in the AM3 + form factor.

While in the second stage, Bulldozer chip also consists of four processors and will bring improved performance. Two eight-core chip FX 8130 and FX 8110, a six-core FX 6110 chip and a chip four-core FX 4110. The following data:

AMD Bulldozer Processors Compete with Intel's Fastest?

Although not yet officially released but the performance of AMD's flagship processor has been sticking. That said, based on several trials, the ability to close 990X Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition, which is Intel's desktop processors.
Testing was conducted by the site of origin Czech analyst, PC Tuning, who claims to have earned engineering sample of AMD's latest processor code-named Bulldozer, or the embryo of the FX series family.
In the test, both processors are driven at a speed of 4 GHz, paired with two Nvidia GeForce graphics card unit 580 in Scalable Link Interface mode (SLI). This was done in order to maximize its ability in the game.
Judging by the results of the trial site, which quoted on Thursday (21/07/2011), the overall performance of the AMD Bulldozer looks stuck with Intel Core i7 990X. Only for a few games far beyond just Intel AMD.

Sandy Bridge-E Model Numbers, Clock Speeds Surface

Here are details of the first three models of Intel's "Sandy Bridge-E" Core i7 processors in the LGA2011 package. Some of these details were made public as early as mid-April. It was then analyzed that Intel was driving two distinct lines of LGA2011 client processors: Enthusiast and Performance, and within Performance, there were BClk multiplier-unlocked six-core, and locked quad-core chips. With the new series, Intel will move to the 3000 series of processor model numbering, indicating that the new processors will be part of Intel's 3rd generation Core processors, even though they're based on the Sandy Bridge architecture.

Before we move to the model numbers, here's a quick run up of the brand extenders. "X" denotes Extreme Edition, "K" denotes "Unlocked" (BClk multipler unlocked). Leading the pack will be Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition. This six-core (6 cores, 12 threads with HTT) chip has a nominal clock speed of 3.30 GHz, Turbo Boost speed of up to 3.90 GHz, and features the full 15 MB of L3 cache present on the Sandy Bridge-E silicon. Expect this chip to have a four figure price-tag.