AMD Bulldozer Eng. Sample leaked, benched

[Noxman]

Nope man, we're screwed. Gigabyte isn't updating the Bios, they want us to pay for a black socket revision. I e-mailed them about the situation when Asus announced that they were going to do Bios updates and they told me that they weren't because AMD wasn't supporting it.
That was my driving force for looking at anyone other than Gigabyte for my next board.

That's assuming that you are using the board in your system specs, which is the same as mine.



That's the e-mail if you were interested, awesome grammar included.

Well, I don't think that is completely true because they have a beta BIOS for the GA-890GPA-UD3H (Rev 2.x) that adds support for AM3+
Link: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3420#bios

 

[techtard]

Why don't you use your thousand suns intellect to figure it out yourself? ;D

This waiting game is killing me. I may switch sides to a cheap i3 rig, or a full-blown 2500k build soon.

AMD at least let us know when we can expect the chips.

 

[repman244]

I did that, but if people are saying AM3 boards are not capable of running BD becouse of high voltage and high current draw.

Wattage = voltage x current

You do the math!

Ok first of all not even all AM3 boards support 125/140W CPU's (Thubans, 140W Denebs). Secondly do some search on the internet as to why BD won't work in AM3 (the boards that don't support it don't have all the pins in the socket wired and partly because of the weak low quality VRM on cheap boards), and of course you need a good VRM for a top of the line CPU.
Would you use a Westmere in a shitty board? Maybe, but try overclocking it and watch the magic smoke come out.
And are you forgetting about the transition to 32nm, and a more efficient design?

And who the hell cares if BD uses even the same power as Thuban (I'm talking about an 4 module version here), it's a high end part. It's like saying: I'll buy a GTX 580 and I'll underclock and undervolt it so I can save some power.

You constantly keep saying BD will suck, now tell me this: based on what?

 

[techtard]

I'd say based on teenage, hormone fueled fanboyism.

The worst kind.

 

[heky]

Oh really, how come some Asus boards will be able to run BD?

 

[Horrux]

Ok first of all not even all AM3 boards support 125/140W CPU's (Thubans, 140W Denebs). Secondly do some search on the internet as to why BD won't work in AM3 (the boards that don't support it don't have all the pins in the socket wired and partly because of the weak low quality VRM on cheap boards), and of course you need a good VRM for a top of the line CPU.
Would you use a Westmere in a shitty board? Maybe, but try overclocking it and watch the magic smoke come out.
And are you forgetting about the transition to 32nm, and a more efficient design?

And who the hell cares if BD uses even the same power as Thuban (I'm talking about an 4 module version here), it's a high end part. It's like saying: I'll buy a GTX 580 and I'll underclock and undervolt it so I can save some power.

You constantly keep saying BD will suck, now tell me this: based on what?

And even with good VRMs... My M4A79 Deluxe supports my 145W Deneb just fine, but can't support BD. I don't think it's because its RAM sockets are DDR2 because the DDR3 equivalent, the M4A79T Deluxe (and non-deluxe variants) also can't support BD. So I hypothesize there may be something else at work too.

 

[Red_Machine]

Oh really, how come some Asus boards will be able to run BD?

Mine won't.

 

[repman244]

Oh really, how come some Asus boards will be able to run BD?

Because of the reasons I already wrote?

And even with good VRMs... My M4A79 Deluxe supports my 145W Deneb just fine, but can't support BD. I don't think it's because its RAM sockets are DDR2 because the DDR3 equivalent, the M4A79T Deluxe (and non-deluxe variants) also can't support BD. So I hypothesize there may be something else at work too.

This could be the case of the wired pins I said earlier. The boards you mention are a bit older (I don't know how old they are, this could partly be the reason).
If it is older and if the AM3 boards supporting BIOS update are at the age of CHIV, I guess that's the answer.

 

[heky]

I'd say based on teenage, hormone fueled fanboyism.

The worst kind.

Really, i am probably older than you. I am basing my statements on the fact the launch has been postponed 3 times, and that all the leaked ES BD chips are just a FAIL really.

 

[repman244]

 

[heky]

Get a grip man, its obvious who is the Troll and fanboy.

If you are so curious on what i am basing my statements, than please state on what you are basing yours?

 

[Dent1]

Really, I am probably older than you. I am basing my statements on the fact the launch has been postponed 3 times.

Earlier you was being negative about its hypothetical power consumption. Now you are being negative about it being postponed. Get your story straight, is your hostility due to the power consumption or delays?

and that all the leaked ES BD chips are just a FAIL really.

ES chips are supposed to be fail. What’s your point?

 

[repman244]

Get a grip man, its obvious who is the Troll and fanboy.

If you are so curious on what i am basing my statements, than please state on what you are basing yours?

First of all I'm not the one who posted FAIL, it will suck etc. /case closed I'm not talking about this anymore

Now what am I basing my statements: BD is 32nm compared to 45nm (Stars), it's a ground up design and I doubt AMD wouldn't make it power efficient (after all everyone is promoting Green stuff right? You want those power consumption charts to be good these days).
I also would like to know, to which chip are you comparing it's supposed power consumption (which no one has a clue about), Thuban maybe? If you are compare it core per "core" (heh when we get power consumption numbers - see what I did here?) I bet BD will be more efficient.

Now I want to hear what are you basing it on.

And please don't ever call me a fanboy ever again. I really don't give a flying rat's ass what is in my PC as long as it does the job I need it to do, I'm only a fanboy of hardware.
And just to add I only have 1 AMD chip and 8 Intel, yes a true fanboy indeed. *never wants to talk about this anymore since it derails a topic*.

 

[Velvet Wafer]

Im curious why no one seems to know, that the pin holes of the black sockets are wider, and there is one additional hole... white sockets are physically inable to receive a BD chip, that and nothing less.

seronx, with each additional post in this thread, you just ridicule yourself more, in front of this audition... if you dont know even that, you obviously have NO CLUE what you are talking about

and mailman, if you ask that guy for help, you can rather ask your grandma... she will be more educated regarding BD,than this Guys is... he tries to be smart, but fails miserably.

 

[repman244]

and there is one additional hole... white sockets are physically inable to receive a BD chip, that and nothing less.

We haven't seen the chips yet I don't understand why would there be a CHIV beta BIOS then.

 

[Red_Machine]

Im curious why no one seems to know, that the pin holes of the black sockets are wider, and there is one additional hole... white sockets are physically inable to receive a BD chip, that and nothing less.

Well, I DEFINETLY won't be able to use Bulldozer on my board then.

 

[Thatguy]

Seronx needs a vacation, he has outright lied on more then one ocassion in this thread, lying is worse then the word FUCK by a mile.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Im curious why no one seems to know, that the pin holes of the black sockets are wider, and there is one additional hole... white sockets are physically inable to receive a BD chip, that and nothing less.

seronx, with each additional post in this thread, you just ridicule yourself more, in front of this audition... if you dont know even that, you obviously have NO CLUE what you are talking about

and mailman, if you ask that guy for help, you can rather ask your grandma... she will be more educated regarding BD,than this Guys is... he tries to be smart, but fails miserably.

Dude.......did you see my board?

Well, I DEFINETLY won't be able to use Bulldozer on my board then.

He was being sarcastic. You wont be able to run BD because you have an M4 board. Not many M4 boards will work. If you had an M5 you might have better chances.


Here is a list of supported Asus boards for BD.

http://event.asus.com/2011/mb/AM3_PLUS_Ready/

 

[Red_Machine]

Yup, no nForce support...

 

[Horrux]

Personally I don't mind changing my mobo because when I purchased mine (two of them actually, in order to build identical gaming rigs for myself and my girl) I thought they were DDR3 boards but they were DDR2. Stupid mistake, but back then it was "AM3 is DDR3" all over... I had actually waited for AM3 mobos to come out so I could have DDR3 and be future-proofed. Sigh.

So anyway, no biggie coz I'd have to change them anyway, I'll be getting them 990FX mobos and keeping my deneb and thuban until BD comes around. If BD isn't the bees' knees, well, I might just stick with then bargain-priced Phenom II X6 1100t's which do the job nicely anyway. I'm not going to saddle myself with Intel's "change everything" upgrade 'path' just to get 20% more performance than an already pretty damn good level thereof.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Yup, no nForce support...

Well the good news is when you do upgrade all you will need is a mobo. I had to buy a mobo AND ram.....may I suggest my board? The thing is BAD ASS.

 

[Red_Machine]

I'm most likely going to go Intel, and be changing my RAM because I'm on my second set already due to one of the sticks failing. OCZ didn't make reliable RAM from what I hear...

 

[heky]

Earlier you was being negative about its hypothetical power consumption. Now you are being negative about it being postponed. Get your story straight, is your hostility due to the power consumption or delays?


ES chips are supposed to be fail. What’s your point?

You have got to be kidding, right?

"First of all I'm not the one who posted FAIL, it will suck etc. /case closed I'm not talking about this anymore

Now what am I basing my statements: BD is 32nm compared to 45nm (Stars), it's a ground up design and I doubt AMD wouldn't make it power efficient (after all everyone is promoting Green stuff right? You want those power consumption charts to be good these days).
I also would like to know, to which chip are you comparing it's supposed power consumption (which no one has a clue about), Thuban maybe? If you are compare it core per "core" (heh when we get power consumption numbers - see what I did here?) I bet BD will be more efficient.

Now I want to hear what are you basing it on.

And please don't ever call me a fanboy ever again. I really don't give a flying rat's ass what is in my PC as long as it does the job I need it to do, I'm only a fanboy of hardware.
And just to add I only have 1 AMD chip and 8 Intel, yes a true fanboy indeed. *never wants to talk about this anymore since it derails a topic*."

I am basing it on what we have seen so far. And what we have seen so far is 3 postpones and some really not good ES.

 

[Black Panther]

Guys, any more flaming after this post will result in vacations being handed out lavishly.

 

[repman244]

Ok I found some information about energy efficiency: http://blogs.amd.com/work/2011/02/22/amd-at-isscc-bulldozer-innovations-target-energy-efficiency/

The main highlights:

Fully power gating the core to essentially zero power when not in use
Sharing components in the dual core design (instruction fetch, decode, L2 cache, FP) to make more efficient use of them while still delivering the performance of a true dual core. This is sort of like the efficiency of a duplex home design where heat, plumbing, foundation and electrical infrastructure can all be shared, but the structure still provides independent homes for two families.

Optimizing the low level circuits for maximal efficiency at all levels. For instance low-power flip-flop design shown in paper 4.5 yesterday at ISSCC provides innovative power reductions for one of the biggest power consuming circuits in the core. The clock grid (another big power sink) builds on the power efficiencies of past designs, and adds more improvements. Perhaps most importantly, the grounds-up design opportunity enabled an unprecedented level of clock gating (see figure below from the paper) to reduce power waste as shown in the graph below. Retrofitting a design to add logic to turn clocks off when circuits aren’t used is a time consuming and error-prone process. The Bulldozer team designed these in from the beginning which enabled the inclusion of over 30,000 individual clock enables to be used.

And finally, a next generation AMD Turbo CORE technology implementation that provides maximum compute speed when required, and throttles back to maximum efficiency when appropriate. Bulldozer implements a significantly more aggressive version of this capability than “Llano” with more details to be disclosed in the future.

And let's not forget about 32nm process