Evaluation of the 45nm AMD Deneb Reveals an Efficient Processor in the Making

[btarunr]

Chinese website Hardspell conducted a comprehensive pre-release evaluation of the upcoming Deneb 45nm Quad-core processor by AMD. The Deneb core incorporates thrice the amount of L3 Cache (that's 6 MB), and uses the same SIMD sets as its 65nm counterparts.

Here's a shocker: While the Phenom X4 9650 (65nm, 2.30 GHz, B3) consumes 104.1 W at load (peak), the 45nm Deneb (45nm, 2.30 GHz) peaks at an astonishing 57.3 W according to Hardspell's findings, go to see, the Deneb has an added load of transistors due to a 300% increase in the L3 Cache size. Let's bring in some numbers and figures.

CPU-Z Identification
Version 1.46.2 and above of CPU-Z detects the processor except the CPUID string which the engineering samples don't usually bring along. The 2.30 GHz Deneb Part comes with a 1.80 GHz HT link with 3600 MT/s of system bandwidth over the HyperTransport 3.0 bus. The L3 Cache uses 48-way set-associative paths.



Power Consumption
Specifications of the test-bed are provided. The 65nm Agena part was compared to the 45nm Deneb at the same clock-speed, idle and load consumptions were measured (first chart: idle, second: load):



Benchmark Scores

Fritz Chess (higher is better):



W-Prime Multithreaded Benchmark (time, lower is better):



POV-Ray 3.7 beta23 SSE2 (higher is better):



H.264 Encoding (time, lower is better):



3DMark Vantage (CPU score, higher is better):



The test bed was configured as follows:


View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Siman0]

not bad AMD may pull back. I jest cant wait to see what kinda numbers i can get out of it

 

[suraswami]

"and uses the same SIMD sets as its 65nm counterparts." - what does this mean?

 

[robspierre6]

I sinply don't trust any site.especially,those chines ones.
But, if thats true then wow

 

[WhiteLotus]

These figures look very interesting. It appears like AMD are going for efficiency rather than brute power like Intel.

Still very good though.

 

[btarunr]

"and uses the same SIMD sets as its 65nm counterparts." - what does this mean?

Instruction sets: x86, eMMX, AMD64, SSE 1/2/3/4A

(point was made since Intel Nehalem comes with a revised SSE4 set compared to Penryn 45nm).

 

[mullered07]

These figures look very interesting. It appears like AMD are going for efficiency rather than brute power like Intel.

Still very good though.

although the lower die size and reduced power consumption should yield better overclocks, as shown with the chip overclocked to a huuuuuge 3.2ghz, i want to see how it compares to intels at that clock speed.

btw, btarunr does it mention what kind of cooling they had on it to get that oc ?

 

[btarunr]

Air Cooling.

Another Chinese team reached a "huuuuuuge"-er OC of 3.60 GHz while staying within the 120W envelope. I doubt you'd need extreme cooling for that TDP though I don't recall what they used to cool.

 

[PCpraiser100]

Incredible Power saving! Now all that I wanna see next is domination of Core 2. If second thoughts, i7. I wonder if they got plans on lowering the Voltage and Multipliers? Cause this could have no boundaries with overclocking as Phenom hogs so much that 100-200MHz increases result in the CPU using a whopping 15-20 watts more due to the L3 cache and the fast FSB. btarunr should look for game benchmarks, at least F.E.A.R. but I think that 3DMark test proves that AMD is making a comeback with what will soon be Intel's legacy products. Will most likely beat Core 2 however not i7. Be aware however that AM2+ will probably get a makeover like 775.

 

[Polarman]

Q4 2008 or Q1 2009 ?

 

[Tatty_Two]

Sod the saving.....I just want the power!

 

[PCpraiser100]

Q4 2008 or Q1 2009 ?

You know AMD, they push release dates forward almost every time. Probably Q1 09'.

 

[wolf2009]

WOW , that power consumption is a real shocker .

 

[Mussels]

faster per clock (due to the cache) and around half the power use even after that.

I agree, these have a good shot of making AMD a competitor in the performance market again cant wait to see how they OC

 

[suraswami]

Instruction sets: x86, eMMX, AMD64, SSE 1/2/3/4A

(point was made since Intel Nehalem comes with a revised SSE4 set compared to Penryn 45nm).

Even though they achieved a cooler and low power consumption phenom, it really isn't worth a try. So they didn't increase the instruction set then. Its still the aged K8 architecture. what the heck? I was hoping this will compete with Nehalem.:shadedshu

 

[PCpraiser100]

Even though they achieved a cooler and low power consumption phenom, it really isn't worth a try. So they didn't increase the instruction set then. Its still the aged K8 architecture. what the heck? I was hoping this will compete with Nehalem.:shadedshu

You are right, but K8 is somewhat good architecture as without it AMD probably won't be the first to have L3 cache. Intel is taunting the $** out of AMD now that they has L3 cache in their Larrabee CPUs (i7). In the consumer market this CPU will definitely be on demand since Phenom is almost legendary in video playback performance, which will give AMD a little more profit in their pocket to finally kick K8 out the door with some good ol' engineering. Even though K8 is still on the crapper in the AMD building, the fast FSB provides excelling media and vista performance for the basic budget user and casual gamer.

 

[MilkyWay]

its a good upgrade for any am2 user, tbh im glad i havnt changed cpu yet because i can get money at Christmas prolly get one in feb or january

its a cpu like this id like to get then upgrade to intel or the new AMD architecture because by that time Intel will have this CORE cpu range down

 

[ASharp]

Yowza...I want one. Can't wait for these to be released!

 

[robspierre6]

Even though they achieved a cooler and low power consumption phenom, it really isn't worth a try. So they didn't increase the instruction set then. Its still the aged K8 architecture. what the heck? I was hoping this will compete with Nehalem.:shadedshu

where did you get your infos from?
We still know nothing about the architechture of the denebs.And i wouldn't believe those chinese sites.I remember before the 4800 series was released a chinese site claimed that they got a 4850 and they showed the specs via cpuz and the card had 480 stream cores which appeared to be 800 later.

first confirm your infos, then you can base your conclusions on them.

 

[PCpraiser100]

I'm still somewhat aware about the Phenoms being bad performers on games like Half-Life 2 and Crysis. With OC, you should be pretty fine. But when you are missing out on the Intel side's performance, thinking about it makes you feel a bit pissed off that you made the switch.

 

[TheGuruStud]

I'm still somewhat aware about the Phenoms being bad performers on games like Half-Life 2 and Crysis. With OC, you should be pretty fine. But when you are missing out on the Intel side's performance, thinking about it makes you feel a bit pissed off that you made the switch.

What switch?

Last intel was a PIII that died.

 

[AddSub]

Faster and cooler? That's a given. Now let's see some Deneb vs. 65nm/45nm Intel quads @ same and/or similar clocks.

 

[KBD]

So they are still calling their 45nm part the Phenom? I'm glad they lowered power consumption on this, their current line are such power hogs.

 

[zithe]

You are right, but K8 is somewhat good architecture as without it AMD probably won't be the first to have L3 cache. Intel is taunting the $** out of AMD now that they has L3 cache in their Larrabee CPUs (i7). In the consumer market this CPU will definitely be on demand since Phenom is almost legendary in video playback performance, which will give AMD a little more profit in their pocket to finally kick K8 out the door with some good ol' engineering. Even though K8 is still on the crapper in the AMD building, the fast FSB provides excelling media and vista performance for the basic budget user and casual gamer.

Maybe this is AMDs 3870/50! Make the previous thing a little better and more efficient while doing something totally badass in the background.

 

[AddSub]

something totally badass

I assume you mean 4870/4850 ?

Not exactly issue of something totally badass as much as they were priced right vs. their competition.

With the global economy as it is, especially in the west, I guess overall bang-for-buck value is becoming more important than actual performance and innovation.

If AMD can pull another "price it right" scheme with their 45nm CPU line-up like they did with their recent GPUs, then actually performance won't matter as much. Sad but true.