AMD tri cores

[perdomot]

Anyone seen the info when these babies will appear at Newegg, etc?

 

[NXIL]

Looks like tricores are OEM only for a while:

Here's where it gets complicated. AMD needed something to do with all of its B2 stepping Phenoms, so it's selling those to OEMs who don't really seem to care about the TLB bug. The CPUs with a * next to them are OEM only; although that doesn't mean that they won't appear in retail, they aren't intended for end user purchase.

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3272

Hmm, given that they are [apparently] 1/4 defective, I would like to see a thorough review, and maybe hear some reports from users before trying one....

HTH

NXIL

 

[Phynaz]

Originally posted by: NXIL
Looks like tricores are OEM only for a while:

Here's where it gets complicated. AMD needed something to do with all of its B2 stepping Phenoms, so it's selling those to OEMs who don't really seem to care about the TLB bug. The CPUs with a * next to them are OEM only; although that doesn't mean that they won't appear in retail, they aren't intended for end user purchase.

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3272

Hmm, given that they are [apparently] 1/4 defective, I would like to see a thorough review, and maybe hear some reports from users before trying one....

HTH

NXIL

Don't forget, these are essentially defective chips made from a defective design.

Not something I would spend my money on.

 

[taltamir]

well, they will have the TLB bios fix... which causes 5% to 70% loss of performance... and on an OEM it is NOT optional. only high end boards allow you to disable the TLB bios fix.

That disabled core was either defective, or was cut out to just sell the damn thing while its still worth anything. But its gonna be laser cut, so it never comes back. You should expect 3 perfectly stable and non defective cores without risk of TLB related crashes. They will just run really slow due to the TLB fix.

 

[fire400]

Originally posted by: taltamir
well, they will have the TLB bios fix... which causes 5% to 70% loss of performance... and on an OEM it is NOT optional. only high end boards allow you to disable the TLB bios fix.

That disabled core was either defective, or was cut out to just sell the damn thing while its still worth anything. But its gonna be laser cut, so it never comes back. You should expect 3 perfectly stable and non defective cores without risk of TLB related crashes. They will just run really slow due to the TLB fix.

Hopefully in due time, though, they'll finally come up with a fix that just eliminates problems, period, without any performance losses.

However, as far as the time frame for a superior fix... who knows?

 

[flexy]

why should someone get tricore...if there is Intel Quads? Stupid question, but why settle for lower....

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: flexy
why should someone get tricore...if there is Intel Quads? Stupid question, but why settle for lower....

Cost.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Aluvus

Originally posted by: flexy
why should someone get tricore...if there is Intel Quads? Stupid question, but why settle for lower....

Cost.

Yeah man, not everybody on this planet have the money to buy a quad, even if it is ten times faster then a triple core.

 

[daveybrat]

Give us some B3 Tri-cores and i'm very interested......but tossing us old B2 cpu's....yuck.

They will be releasing Tri-Core Phenoms based on B3 stepping later in the year though, so no real reason to get these now as even the B3 Quad's aren't supposed to be priced to high.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: Aluvus

Originally posted by: flexy
why should someone get tricore...if there is Intel Quads? Stupid question, but why settle for lower....

Cost.

Yeah man, not everybody on this planet have the money to buy a quad, even if it is ten times faster then a triple core.

Actually, for almost all apps in the consumer sector, they will be about the same speed.

 

[Foxery]

They're intended to compete with dual-core Core2s, not quads. The prices and performance are in line with the mid-range Core2 Duo models.

The frequencies are still underwhelming. I thought X3s were expected to clock higher, partly thanks to only producing 3/4 the heat?

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Foxery
They're intended to compete with dual-core Core2s, not quads. The prices and performance are in line with the mid-range Core2 Duo models.

The frequencies are still underwhelming. I thought X3s were expected to clock higher, partly thanks to only producing 3/4 the heat?

I would think so. Additionally it has been seen with the 9600 black edition that when you clock cores at individual frequencies by AMD Overdrive, some of the cores on the die clock alot higher than others- so if you eliminate the 'bottleneck' (ie the one core that holds you back achieving a higher clockspeed) you will be able to get a higher frequency from all.

Whether AMD have done this or not with the Tri-Cores remains to be seen but it would make sense.

 

[geokilla]

I'd imagine that the disabled core is the bad core which is plagued by the TLB bug. They wouldn't disable a certainly good core and keep the bad one now would they?


I guess that they'll release the triple-cores sometime in early April.
Link

 

[Phynaz]

Originally posted by: Viditor

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: Aluvus

Originally posted by: flexy
why should someone get tricore...if there is Intel Quads? Stupid question, but why settle for lower....

Cost.

Yeah man, not everybody on this planet have the money to buy a quad, even if it is ten times faster then a triple core.

Actually, for almost all apps in the consumer sector, they will be about the same speed.

For most apps in the consumer sector, a tri-core Phailnom will be no faster than a low-end Core 2.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: geokilla
I'd imagine that the disabled core is the bad core which is plagued by the TLB bug. They wouldn't disable a certainly good core and keep the bad one now would they?


I guess that they'll release the triple-cores sometime in early April.
Link

TLB bug can affect any/all cores since it relates AFAIK to stuff between an individual cores L2 cache, and the shared L3 cache. Since the X3 has the same L3 cache as the X4, removing one core won't make any difference to the bug, hence the need for OEM's to include the TLB fix in the BIOS of any motherboard using the chip.

They could still be disabling a bad core, since Phenom is a monolithic die, which means any single bad core means the chip can't be used as an X4, but like with graphics cards, they could presumably laser cut off a bad core and let it run with 3 instead of all 4, cutting away the core which has some other defect unrelated to the TLB issue.

 

[secretanchitman]

i honestly see no point in getting this...any c2d would be better off than an X3 personally. why buy a poorly manufactured cpu when you could have had an X4 if it was manufactured right...yeesh.

to be fair, it is quite speedy in vista with a 3rd core...i toyed around with one in my local frys.

 

[fire400]

come to think of it now, what an embarrassment to AMD.

 

[Idontcare]

Given the clockspeed disparity with AMD's own X2 chips...what's the motivation for forgoing a higher clocked X2 just to get lower clocked X3 for more money? It seems to be an odd duck until the highspeed X2's go away or the X3 gains some clockspeeds over the X4's.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: fire400
come to think of it now, what an embarrassment to AMD.

Word. At least AMD is selling them at really good prices. Thats the best thing about all this.