Thursday, December 6th 2007
Phenom BIOS Fix Causes 14% Performance Hit
As many readers may be aware, there is an erratum (a mistake in the design) of AMD's recently launched Phenom CPU. Basically it's a problem with the CPU's translation lookaside buffer (TLB) and L3 cache, which can lead to crashes and data corruption. This was quickly discovered, and AMD issued a BIOS fix in response. However, recent tests carried out by The Tech Report found that as a result of this fix, memory bandwidth fell by as much as 38.7% whilst the latency increased by over 50%. When they tested the real world performance hit caused by this, they found it ranged from around 5% to as much as 50% in everyday applications, with an average performance drop of 13.9%. This issue should be fixed in any CPUs manufactured in the future, but things look quite bleak for anyone who has already purchased a Phenom processor, and it would be best not to buy one until all of the 'faulty' processors have either been sold or recalled. This is very bad news for AMD, considering that it has already been struggling to make a profit for quite a few months now.
37 Comments on Phenom BIOS Fix Causes 14% Performance Hit
Anyway i never buy top range stuff because in only a few months a better cpu, graphics card, mobo, sound card all the other components there will be a better version at the price of the old one.
If AMD could get out a good top range cpu you know maybe equal in performance or just less then i bet nobody would give a fuck honestly i think its about price although some stupid people will just buy the ultra top range all the time, so in 5 months they just upgrade and move the old cpu into another pc.
Really Intel clock good and have loads of cache, AMD try to go for a lower price and less power usage, i heard somewhere if the phenom could clock to ultra high speeds it could do good?
I always buy AMD. Even if they struggle to produce a top notch for now I will still buy them to support them.
After Christmas I am in line at Frys for that big clearance sale.
Got the following at their last clearance
AM2 Retail procs
X2 3800 brand new $50 (newegg price around $80)
A64 3200 brand new $20 (newegg - $45)
A64 3500 brand new $30 (newegg - $55)
So I am expecting this to be around $125 to $150.
hoo my hands are itchy to buy one.:D
Advanced Micro Devices acquires ATi technologies
(July 24, 2006)
"ATi Radeon" is now nothing but a graphics brand of AMD.
The point of liking a company, is to show support, and to make that company better. I'd rather support a company with good ethics and isn't trying to make you pay out the ass for a good chip.
If AMD had released something that was at least 10-15% better than a current Intel Q, then things would look 'promising.'
As it is, ....;whistle;...bad
|The point of liking a company, is to show support, and to make that company better. I'd rather support a company with good ethics and isn't trying to make you pay out the ass for a good chip.|
That's the thing though, it's often NOT about ethics or morals. People support the under-dog, or in this case AMD, for the same reason they don't want Intel to have a monopoly - money. If Intel puts out sub-standard performing parts for XXX.XXX price, then you feel as if your wasting/losing money.
I'd like to believe that every AMD supporter is in it, because they enjoy AMD's architectural designs and concepts/ideas, but 80% of them don't even know what those things are, and another 10% are just irrelevant fan-boy geeks. So that leaves 10% true enthusiasts, who are knowledgable, ethical and moral; yet that's hardly enough 'support,' to dent the current trend(s).
I only see AMD having success in one area, and that's Unix/Linux platforms. They need to get together with someone like Sun, and start trying to break down the walls between developers and Linux. It would be like Mac vs PC, where they build a whole platform, that's compatible and optimized for Unix/Linux. It would be slow at first, but eventually, if they could get developers on their side, it would compete against Windows/Microsoft, and maybe even take away competition from Intel. Ultimatley though, battling Intel head on spec vs. spec isn't going to lead to anything positive.