Items tagged with AM3
Even before AMD officially released its Bulldozer-based FX-Series of desktop processors last year, the company was already talking about the follow-on microarchitecture codenamed “Piledriver”. In fact, in the conclusion of our launch article featuring the AMD FX-8150, we posted an AMD-provided slide that showed Piledriver was already on-deck and that it would offer IPC and power improvements over existing architectures, which would result in roughly a 10% to 15% uplift in performance. We have already shown you what Piledriver could do in mainstream APUs in our coverage of the desktop AMD A10 and A8-Series of products here and the mobile A10-4600M here, but today AMD is finally...
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Even before AMD officially released its Bulldozer-based FX-Series of desktop processors last year, the company was already talking about the follow-on microarchitecture codenamed “Piledriver”. In fact, in the conclusion of our launch article featuring the AMD FX-8150, we posted an AMD-provided slide that showed Piledriver was already on-deck and that it would offer IPC and power improvements over existing architectures, which would result in roughly a 10% to 15% uplift in performance. We have already shown you what Piledriver could do in mainstream APUs in our coverage of the desktop AMD A10 and A8-Series of products here and the mobile A10-4600M here, but today AMD is finally refreshing...
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Today AMD is officially taking the wraps off its latest FX-Series of desktop processors, targeted at performance-minded PC enthusiasts and overclockers. The FX-Series is based on the processor core formerly codenamed Zambezi, which leverages AMD’s much anticipated Bulldozer microarchitecture. The flagship processor in the new FX-Series line-up is the FX-8150, an unlocked, 8-Core processor, with gobs of cache and peak Turbo frequencies that exceed the 4GHz mark. But there’s a lot more to the FX-Series than speeds and feeds. The Bulldozer microarchitecture is a completely new design, which was built from the ground up in an attempt to shed some weight and produce a modular, highly-efficient...
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When we sit down to arrange our thoughts and write an introduction for a new product launch, we typically want to put together some interesting and suspenseful prose that sets the stage for an exciting reveal of an as-yet undisclosed, eagerly anticipated product. No such luck this time around, as the product we’ll be discussing today has been one of the most talked about in tech circles for years—literally. Today AMD is officially taking the wraps off its latest FX-Series of desktop processors, targeted at performance-minded PC enthusiasts and overclockers. The FX-Series is based on the processor core formerly codenamed Zambezi, which leverages AMD’s much anticipated Bulldozer...
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A few weeks back, NVIDIA broke the news that official SLI support was coming to some future AMD chipset-based motherboards. And the first of those ‘boards has arrived in the HH labs, the Asus CrossHair V Formula. The Asus CrossHair line of motherboards for AMD processors has long been a favorite amongst enthusiast and this latest addition seems poised to carry on the tradition. The CrossHair V Formula is based on the brand new AMD 990FX chipset, which support all current socket AM3 processors and future AM3+ based processors as well. The Asus CrossHair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX-Based Motherboard The Crosshair V Formula will also support both 3-Way NVDIA SLI and...
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Although much of the scuttlebutt lately has revolved around AMD’s upcoming Llano and Bulldozer-based APUs, the company isn’t done pushing the envelope with their existing processor designs. In case you haven’t noticed, over the last few months AMD has continued to ramp up frequencies on their current bread-and-butter Phenom II processor line-up to the point where they’re now flirting with the 4GHz mark. We should also point out that AMD has done so with little disruption to their relatively low pricing structure; as a newer, faster processor is released in a given product family, it occupies the historic top spot while the existing products have simply been pushed down...
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Although much of the scuttlebutt lately has revolved around AMD’s upcoming Llano and Bulldozer-based APUs, the company isn’t done pushing the envelope with their existing processor designs. In case you haven’t noticed, over the last few months AMD has continued to ramp up frequencies on their current bread-and-butter Phenom II processor line-up to the point where they’re now flirting with the 4GHz mark. We should also point out that AMD has done so with little disruption to their relatively low pricing structure; as a newer, faster processor is released in a given product family, it occupies the historic top spot while the existing products have simply been pushed down...
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It's been several weeks since Asus announced that certain socket AM3 motherboards would support AMD's upcoming Bulldozer processors. Since then, we've turned up additional rumors on the nature of such support. MSI has also announced its own plans to retrofit some existing AM3 boards with Bulldozer compatibility. What follows is the general shape of the situation as we currently understand it... Questions of Compatibility: AMD, AM3, and Bulldozer...
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It's been several weeks since Asus announced that certain socket AM3 motherboards would support AMD's upcoming Bulldozer processors. Since then, we've turned up additional rumors on the nature of such support. MSI has also announced its own plans to retrofit some existing AM3 boards with Bulldozer compatibility. What follows is the general shape of the situation as we currently understand it. Will AMD Officially Support Bulldozer On The AM3 Platform? No. The recent announcements from Asus and MSI make it clear that some AM3 boards will function with a Bulldozer-class processor installed. With that said, AMD originally justified moving from AM3 to AM3+ because not doing so would prevent certain...
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MSI announced its AMD AM3 motherboards as well as BIOS upgrades for MSI’s AM3 motherboards to enable support for AMD’s new generation AM3+ multi-core processors. Through the BIOS upgrades, MSI says users will be able to take full advantage of the power of AMD AM3+ multi-core processors without extra expenses. In addition to providing the BIOS upgrades to consumers, MSI will upgrade the BIOS on new AM3 motherboards before shipping. A list of the MSI AM3 motherboards that will support the AMD AM3+ multi-core processors is below. Note: As we've pointed out previously, the official word from AMD is that Bulldozer will only be supported on AM3+ motherboards. As a result, it may not be...
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One of the unfortunate consequences of AMD's inability to match Intel's performance at the ultra high-end of the CPU market over the past few years is that there's been a substantial decline in the number of high-end AMD motherboards. NewEgg presently stocks just two AMD motherboards in the $200-$300 price range compared to 36 Intel products. That's not to imply that you have to pay $200 or more for a quality motherboard but it clearly implies that when motherboard manufacturers are thinking about enthusiasts, they're also thinking about Santa Clara. With one exception. Both of the $200+ AMD boards are built by Asus and the company recently sent us its top-end AMD offering. The motherboard's...
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One of the unfortunate consequences of AMD's inability to match Intel's performance at the ultra high-end of the CPU market over the past few years is that there's been a substantial decline in the number of high-end AMD motherboards. NewEgg presently stocks just two AMD motherboards in the $200-$300 price range compared to 36 Intel products. That's not to imply that you have to pay $200 or more for a quality motherboard but it clearly implies that when motherboard manufacturers are thinking about enthusiasts, they're also thinking about Santa Clara. With one exception. Both of the $200+ AMD boards are built by Asus and the company recently sent us its top-end AMD offering. The motherboard's...
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Intel announced this morning that it's been forced to stop shipping existing Sandy Bridge motherboards. The company recently discovered a design issue in its P67 (Cougar Point) chipset that, over time, could cause SATA performance to degrade and possibly fail altogether. The problem only affects older 3G SATA ports—Intel's 6G implementation is unaffected—but it's going to take several weeks for the company to implement and ramp the new motherboard revision. During its press conference, Intel explained that the erratum only appeared after its extensive validation process had concluded. Once Intel signs off of a chipset, it ships motherboards to OEMs who begin their own verification...
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We have been hearing a lot from AMD over the last few months regarding the slew of new processors and Fusion APUs slated to arrive next year. With all of the news regarding Zacate, Ontario, Bobcat, Bulldozer, and Llano, et al, that has hit recently, you’d think work on the current generation of products had ceased, but that is not the case. Just in time for the holidays, AMD is refreshing it’s line-up of desktop six-core processor offerings with a brand new flagship CPU, dubbed the Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition. As you can surmise from its name, the 1100T is clocked higher than the 1090T it will be supplanting at the top of AMD’s line-up and its “Black Edition”...
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Just in time for the holidays, AMD is refreshing it’s line-up of desktop six-core processor offerings with a brand new flagship CPU, dubbed the Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition. As you can surmise from its name, the 1100T is clocked higher than the 1090T it will be supplanting at the top of AMD’s line-up and its “Black Edition” moniker denotes an unlocked chip for more flexible overclocking. We been playing with one of AMD’s new Phenom II X5 1100T Black Edition processors for a little while now and have a full performance profile laid out on the pages ahead... AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition CPU Review...
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AMD is launching a half dozen new processors today, targeted at virtually all market segments, ranging from an inexpensive, mainstream dual-core Athlon II offering to a new, relatively high-end six-core Phenom II. We decided to take a look at AMD's latest six-core and higher-end quad-cores in both the Phenom II and Athlon II flavors. The full specifications for each of the processors are listed below and performance for each of the new chips is detailed on the pages ahead... AMD Unleashes New Phenom II and Athlon II Speed Bumps...
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AMD is launching a half dozen new processors today, targeted at virtually all market segments, ranging from an inexpensive, mainstream dual-core Athlon II offering to a new, relatively high-end six-core Phenom II. The complete list of processors launching today, along with their respective price points are as follows: 3.0GHz (3.5GHz Turbo) Phenom II X6 1075T - $245 3.5GHz Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition - $185 3.3GHz Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition - $105 3.1GHz Athlon II X4 645 - $122 3.2GHz Athlon II X3 450 - $87 3.3GHz - Athlon II X2 265 - $76 As its name suggests, the Phenom II X6 1075T drops in between AMD’s existing 1055T and 1090T six-core offerings, but the rest of the processors...
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One of the major points of AMD's conference call (we apologize for missing it) was news that the company's Llano processor—a hybrid GPU/CPU product meant to clock in over 3GHz in dual-core and quad-core configurations—has been pushed back into the first half of 2011. Company CEO Dirk Meyer delivered the news on Thursday, even as he highlighted the company's positive quarter and improving revenue streams. The news isn't all bad. Even as he informed the press that Llano could ship as much as six months behind schedule, Meyer made a point of noting that the company's next-generation Ontario processor will ship for revenue beginning in Q4 of 2010. Up until now, Ontario wasn't expected...
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We are officially declaring May 11, 2010 "Athlon II" day. Why you ask? Because AMD is launching a total of six new Athlon II processors today, including a new flagship model, targeted squarely at budget conscious consumers. We should point out, however, that all six of the processors launching today feature existing core microarchitectures. While they do differ from previous offerings in terms of frequency, and of course their model names, all of the new Athlon II processors arriving today are based on the same Propus (X4), Regor (X2), and Rana (X3) cores that were introduced a few months back. We got our hands on the new flagship Athlon II X4, the 3.0GHz Athlon II X4 640, and have its performance...
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We are officially declaring May 11, 2010 "Athlon II" day. Why you ask? Because AMD is launching a total of six new Athlon II processors today, including a new flagship model, targeted squarely at budget conscious consumers. We should point out, however, that all six of the processors launching today feature existing core microarchitectures. While they do differ from previous offerings in terms of frequency, and of course their model names, all of the new Athlon II processors arriving today are based on the same Propus (X4), Regor (X2), and Rana (X3) cores that were introduced a few months back. The new line-up of Athlon II processors AMD is introducing today consists of the following...
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Way back in November of 2007, AMD unveiled all of the components of the "Spider" platform, which consisted of a Phenom processor, 700-series chipset-based motherboard, and Radeon HD 3800 series graphics. A little over a year later, in January of 2009, AMD completed a refresh of their total platform and dubbed it "Dragon". Similarly, the Dragon platform consisted of an all-AMD processor, chipset, and GPU combo, but this time the Phenom II, a revamped 700-series chipset with a new southbridge, and Radeon HD 4800 series graphics were at the heart of the platform. Do you see a pattern forming, here?If you recalled AMD's platform roll-out plans for the last few years, the new "Leo" platform we'll...
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Way back in November of 2007, AMD unveiled all of the components of the "Spider" platform, which consisted of a Phenom processor, 700-series chipset-based motherboard, and Radeon HD 3800 series graphics. A little over a year later, in January of 2009, AMD completed a refresh of their total platform and dubbed it "Dragon". Similarly, the Dragon platform consisted of an all-AMD processor, chipset, and GPU combo, but this time the Phenom II, a revamped 700-series chipset with a new southbridge, and Radeon HD 4800 series graphics were at the heart of the platform. Do you see a pattern forming, here? If you recalled AMD's platform roll-out plans for the last few years, the new "Leo" platform...
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