Wednesday, January 11th 2012

New Windows 7 Bulldozer Patches Available.

Very quietly Microsoft has released two new patches available for the Bulldozer platform. According to the AMD blog these patches seem to offer little more then a 10% boost but the do improve over all performance. This is what Adam Kozak a product marketing manager at AMD had to say,

"Some of you may remember that AMD FX processors use a unique dual-core module architecture codenamed "Bulldozer", which current versions of Windows 7 were not specifically architected to utilize. In essence, for those with an AMD FX-8150 Processor, for example, Windows 7 sees the eight available cores and randomly assigns threads to them.

In initial testing of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, we've seen performance improvements of up to 10% in some applications, when compared to Windows 7. This is because the system correctly recognizes the AMD FX processor architecture and cores. Thanks to close collaboration between Microsoft and AMD, Microsoft recently completed back-porting some of the Windows 8 scheduler code for AMD FX processors into a hotfix for Windows 7."

Here are the directions given by Adam Kozak,
So if you have an AMD FX processor, here's what you can do to update your version of Windows 7:

1) Download the scheduler update (KB2645594) and install. This will tell the scheduler that your AMD FX processor contains dual-core modules (in fact this is similar to the SMT path that the other guys use). In essence, threads 1-4 now get assigned to their own module first.

2) Download the core parking scheduler update (KB2646060) and install. This will prevent Windows 7 shutting down unused cores prematurely when there are threads to be assigned (there's a performance penalty parking and then un-parking a core).

The best possible cases for improvement are applications that use ½ cores in your AMD FX processor. In our testing using the AMD FX-8150 processor, we found the best improvement in wPrime, Left 4 Dead 2, and Lost Planet. Below you'll find links to the patches:

Patch 1
Patch 2
Source: AMD Blog
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105 Comments on New Windows 7 Bulldozer Patches Available.

#26
qubit
Overclocked quantum bit
AphexDreamerLINK PLEASE! This news is to new for google.
.
You're not seeing a direct link, because being a hotfix, it needs to be specifically requested from Microsoft - you have to click the link at the top of their hotfix page, called "View and request hotfix downloads". You then have to click Yes to an agreement :rolleyes: and it then takes you to a page where you can request the hotfix, by giving them your email address and answering the captcha.

What a bother.

Alternatively, just grab it off Regeneration's link, which you've seen.

10% improvement might be quite disappointing, but still, it's better than nothing.
Posted on Reply
#27
neko77025
tricksonWOW a .1% increase ! Now you can play Crysis ;)
its way more then just .1% 7.9 is max so ... .1 is alot
NielsCnossenI got 7.6 with a Phenom II 1055T :)
you refresh your score any time soon .. as new stuff somes out old stuff goes down.




On another note I am seeing some improvements but nothing big.
have 8150 @ 4400mhz
Posted on Reply
#28
JustaTinkerer
I see 10% in all most nothing...10% must be the "but its up to " number.

I am re-installing and testing as Idid with the 1st part of the patch....novabench was 11% improvement BTW, just on messing about testing.

Lost 13% on PC mark right enough....a re-install and test will tell me more but truth be told it feels no faster, benchmarks mean little in the real world....will bench a few converting files and some winrar....real world stuff....I would do it now but re-installing is a pest
tricksonI think BD is the Bigger Disappointment . :laugh:

I get 7.5 on both CPU and RAM I don't see any thing extreme about it .
I get 7.7 on processor ...in fact 7.7 through the board until my SSD gives me 7.3.....raid0 soon right enough.
Posted on Reply
#29
JustaTinkerer
How can you say such things....after my re-install I will be looking @ a 18.7 WEI, its not hard to see how great this patch will be.

If you have 8 cores working flawlessly together is must be better than sliced bread, Tricky me old son this patch is like a cure it all ....just wait, intels benchmarks are blown away by such a patch.

I mean it must be who can argue with hope.

My WEI is stock BTW, @ 5 GHz is gets 7.9, it would be more but AMD didnt want to frighten the intel lads.

PS anyone want to buy a super powerful FX 8120..... its almost as good as intel but without the "being good" part.
Cant argue with patches improving just about nothing, will swap for a cute micro pig and a plate of ham sandwiches.
Posted on Reply
#30
mtosev
TweetyWindows CPU score went from 7.4 to 7.5... for free :)
my i7 930 has the same score and it's almost 2 years old:p
Posted on Reply
#33
mdbrotha03
mtosevmy i7 930 has the same score and it's almost 2 years old:p
I'm getting 7.6.
Posted on Reply
#34
qubit
Overclocked quantum bit
Heck, I'm getting 9 on my old E8500 and a cheap graphics card!
Posted on Reply
#35
HillBeast
mtosevmy i7 930 has the same score and it's almost 2 years old:p
I get 7.6 on my 930 @ 3.66GHz. And it's not 2 years old, we should consider when Nehalem came out (2008), so a 4 year old CPU is still trading blows with a '8-core' CPU. Bulldozer is still a massive fail. It's worse than Netburst.
Posted on Reply
#36
seronx
HillBeastI get 7.6 on my 930 @ 3.66GHz. And it's not 2 years old, we should consider when Nehalem came out (2008), so a 4 year old CPU is still trading blows with a '8-core' CPU. Bulldozer is still a massive fail. It's worse than Netburst.
Well you have to understand Bulldozer was going to come out on 45nm....All 8-cores nothing disabled

and it shows somewhat....

www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2011q4/cpu2006-20111121-19030.html
www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2011q1/cpu2006-20110211-14447.html

O6238 @ 2.6GHz(2.9GHz ACTC) 24C/24T: SPECint_Rate: 414, 365(Base)
X5690 @ 3.467GHz 12C/24T: SPECint_Rate: 419, 389(Base)

www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2011q4/cpu2006-20111121-19042.html
www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2011q1/cpu2006-20110211-14445.html

O6238: SPECfp_Rate: 340, 318(Base)
X5690: SPECfp_Rate: 272, 265(Base)

In these benchmarks, this is comparing Interlagos 24C vs Westmere 24T both on 32nm(I can't compare Sandy Bridge-E to Interlagos yet because there is no Sandy Bridge-E 2P LGA2011 yet)

What happened was GlobalFoundries cut the plug for 45nm HKMG SOI and started rushing for 32nm HKMG SOI eSiGe
Posted on Reply
#37
Super XP
We have a failure to communicate.
A for this 2 part patch, boosting L4D2 is all good. :D
Posted on Reply
#38
Damn_Smooth
Can it play Starcraft 2? Or any other game that isn't GPU limited? And how are those minimum FPS doing?

Just kidding, I already know the answer. I would've put this board to use already if it could.
Posted on Reply
#39
johnspack
Here For Good!
I miss my K6-2 450......
Posted on Reply
#40
xBruce88x
... i miss my k6-2 500 i had OC to 550. 768mb ram... a couple voodoo IIs... good times. also miss my athlon xp 2500.
Posted on Reply
#41
mtosev
HillBeastI get 7.6 on my 930 @ 3.66GHz. And it's not 2 years old, we should consider when Nehalem came out (2008), so a 4 year old CPU is still trading blows with a '8-core' CPU. Bulldozer is still a massive fail. It's worse than Netburst.
just i know that the first lga1366 cpus came out in late 2008. we had lots of cpus i7 920, 920 D0, 930, 940, 950, 965, 980, 990:Dmy cpu isn't oced so that must be why i get a score of 7.5
Posted on Reply
#42
Covert_Death
tricksonI know one game it would choke on . Battlefield 3 ! That would kill the BD .. :twitch::wtf: They will need 4 patches for the 2 patch patch to get the patch to work on BF3 !
lol i doubt that, my pII 955 runs BF3 on ultra. i think the BD would handle it too.
Posted on Reply
#43
n0tiert
all i can say about the AMD FX-8150, it runs all current Programs / Games (max / ultra) fine, and if a patch could fix some compatible issues to the OS / thread handling thats also fine to me ........

dunno why all you guys bitchn about, now i can run "......."
Posted on Reply
#44
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
The only benchmarks I run was the ones included in AIDA64 Extreme (1.85.1600) and there was no real difference there. Numbers attached if anyone is interested.
Posted on Reply
#45
Damn_Smooth
tricksonI know one game it would choke on . Battlefield 3 ! That would kill the BD .. :twitch::wtf: They will need 4 patches for the 2 patch patch to get the patch to work on BF3 !
It actually handles BF3 fine. BF3 is GPU limited.

Posted on Reply
#46
qubit
Overclocked quantum bit
FrickThe only benchmarks I run was the ones included in AIDA64 Extreme (1.85.1600) and there was no real difference there. Numbers attached if anyone is interested.
The patch makes no difference as far as your benchmarks.
Posted on Reply
#47
imitation
tricksonWOW a .1% increase ! Now you can play Crysis ;)
First of all, 7.4 to 7.5 is not .1%. Secondly, the Windows score is non-linear. To gain 1 (one) point, you 50% more performance, according to Microsoft.
So the score indicates 0-10% more performance. Not too shabby for a patch!
Posted on Reply
#48
omagic
Well i only had time to check Crysis CPU Benchmark
Before 47 fps
After 56 fps

So quite nice boost. Ill try some more games after the work

FX-8120 8GB RAM HD6870
1680x1050 all maxed
Posted on Reply
#49
mtosev
imitationFirst of all, 7.4 to 7.5 is not .1%. Secondly, the Windows score is non-linear. To gain 1 (one) point, you 50% more performance, according to Microsoft.
So the score indicates 0-10% more performance. Not too shabby for a patch!
too bad for amd. intels cpus are still faster and cost less. amd screwed up good:D
Posted on Reply
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