AMD will launch AM4 platform in March 2016 says industry source

[The Stilt]

I just hope that once the AM4 platform is out that they will also release a Bristol Ridge CPU-only part asap. There better be one...I really don't want to yet again be "forced" to buy an APU just to try out the CPU and possibly be stuck with problems that the CPU only versions do not suffer from.

With 2400 Mhz max I really cannot imagine this to be great, anyway. AMD used to always be a bit more on the higher side of Memory clocks...but 2400 Mhz on DDR4 is...well...low.

Carrizo based Athlons will be most likely available in AM4 too. For FM2+ they will at least be. iGPU enabled Carrizos won´t be available in FM2+, since the third main voltage plane isn´t available in FM2+.

 

[AtenRa]

I really don't want to yet again be "forced" to buy an APU just to try out the CPU and possibly be stuck with problems that the CPU only versions do not suffer from.

I dont want to derail but what problems did you experienced when using the CPU only with a dGPU ??

 

[dark zero]

And Bristol Ridge is essentially the same exact thing...

It was expecting to end into.... something more special... Bristol Ridge is only an upgrade if you have an APU.... or just to move to AM4.

Also.... AM4 will be LGA or PGA?

The only sure thing is that Iris Pro won't catch them up for a short while, until Kabylake-C

 

[Shehriazad]

I dont want to derail but what problems did you experienced when using the CPU only with a dGPU ??

Had 2 Kaveri APUs for myself and both of them still ended up (on 2 different boards as well) sucking the power of the iGPU even if it was disabled in the Bios... this created additional heat and raised my wattage beyond what I would have liked.


Meanwhile my Kaveri CPUs run sub 70w @ 4 and 4.1 Ghz.


The Gigabyte and Asrock boards both miserably failed at properly disabling the iGPU...somehow the thing would not stop drawing power.




Either way....since Desktop Godavari CPU seems dead(870 and 880 just don't exist)....waiting for Bristol Ridge now.

Seeing how that means I also get to upgrade the 2 remaining cubes from FM2+ to AM4 and possibly use Zen on them in the future...great.

 

[Dresdenboy]

Here is some AM4/FP4 Bristol Ridge info:
https://benchlife.info/amd-will-rename-excavator-to-bristol-ridge-12082015/

 

[AtenRa]

Had 2 Kaveri APUs for myself and both of them still ended up (on 2 different boards as well) sucking the power of the iGPU even if it was disabled in the Bios... this created additional heat and raised my wattage beyond what I would have liked.

Meanwhile my Kaveri CPUs run sub 70w @ 4 and 4.1 Ghz.

The Gigabyte and Asrock boards both miserably failed at properly disabling the iGPU...somehow the thing would not stop drawing power.

Either way....since Desktop Godavari CPU seems dead(870 and 880 just don't exist)....waiting for Bristol Ridge now.

Seeing how that means I also get to upgrade the 2 remaining cubes from FM2+ to AM4 and possibly use Zen on them in the future...great.

I will test with my APU to see if i will experience the same thing.

 

[squirrel dog]

I'll wait for the amd4+ , played that with the amd3/amd3+ .

 

[Justinbaileyman]

This is great news and just what I've been waiting for. I was going to throw my money away on a am3+ mobo and an FX-8320e but now that we are this close to AM4 I think I can hold my horses till this spring. I to am hoping for a CPU only variant and would very much love it if its an unlocked "K" version. Can't wait to start seeing some bench leaks to get me more hyped.. Hopefully though they fix the TDP and overclocking problems the Godavari has vs. Kavari.Because I dont know about others but my 760K can hit 4.8Ghz easily but my 860K can even get above 4.5Ghz. Be nice to see 4.8Ghz on the newer am4 cpu's.

 

[Techhog]

Pretty disappointing. Bristol Ridge will (most likely) still be bandwidth limited.



I assume you're basing this on your crippled Core i3 numbers with carefully selected crap RAM running games that favour AMD. Then yes, maybe.

This is just another set of 28nm 512 SPs APUs which will barely surpass Q2-2015 Broadwell-K (with much worse CPU performance). No match for Skylake-S GT4e coming later in H2-2016 (to LGA desktops, a lot earlier in BGA mobile/servers). And then there's Kaby Lake GT2 to close the gap once again in late 2016.
Hopefully they will launch some interesting stuff in 2017 with the first Zen-based APUs.

Yes, your comparison to CPUs that cost twice as much lame a lot more sense and you are clearly the unbiased one here.

 

[Sweepr]

Yes, your comparison to CPUs that cost twice as much lame a lot more sense and you are clearly the unbiased one here.

They cost less because of their relatively poor CPU performance compared to Intel's quad-cores, not because benevolent AMD wants you to pay less.

 

[Arachnotronic]

They cost less because of their relatively poor CPU performance compared to Intel's quad-cores, not because benevolent AMD wants you to pay less.

A point that is still lost on so many.

If AMD ever has competitive CPU + GPU combo, don't expect them to price it cheaply. AMD knows its products are basically trash at this point (Bulldozer was an "unmitigated failure" per a former AMD exec...) and the only way to sell them is to offer them at very low prices.

 

[AtenRa]

A point that is still lost on so many.

If AMD ever has competitive CPU + GPU combo, don't expect them to price it cheaply. AMD knows its products are basically trash at this point (Bulldozer was an "unmitigated failure" per a former AMD exec...) and the only way to sell them is to offer them at very low prices.

A dual Module 4 Threads L3 cache-less APU was never mend to compete against Quad Core 8 Threads Intel CPUs.

Broadwell Iris Pro SKUs are not in the same category as AMDs current APUs no matter how some people trying to spin it.

Its like saying NVIDIA knows its products are trash and cannot sell the GTX750Ti at higher price because it is a low performance product vs AMDs R9 390X.

Im sure that IF/When AMD will produce an Iris-Pro competitor they will price it accordingly.

 

[mysticjbyrd]

A point that is still lost on so many.

If AMD ever has competitive CPU + GPU combo, don't expect them to price it cheaply. AMD knows its products are basically trash at this point (Bulldozer was an "unmitigated failure" per a former AMD exec...) and the only way to sell them is to offer them at very low prices.

AMD CPUs might be low end, but that's not true of their GPU market.

AMD wins every single price point in the dGPU division, except the top tier 980ti vs Fury X, and even that is a lot closer than people want to admit.

I don't understand why people want to pick sides.

 

[DrMrLordX]

AMD wins every single price point in the dGPU division, except the top tier.

Actually, if "top tier" means SLI/Xfire, AMD wins there too. Until you overclock, then things get murky.

 

[cbn]

2400MHz is the maximum frequency the IMC can be set to operate. It is impossible to program it for higher ratios, let alone make it operate stable at those frequencies.
Along with the CPU performance itself, the memory controllers are the weakest aspect in AMDs current designs.

If Bristol Ridge is based on Carrizo that means it also has a DDR3 memory controller.

I am wondering if this DDR3 memory controller also has a GDDR5 mode like Kaveri:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7702/...nce-quadchannel-memory-interface-gddr5-option

If so, maybe there is a chance we could have some APU-only boards with soldered on GDDR5.

 

[cbn]

AMD wins every single price point in the dGPU division

At the bottom end they don't compete.

Example is how Tom's hardware rates the GT 730 GDDR5 best entry level (playable HD) video card:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gpus,4380.html

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

They cost less because of their relatively poor CPU performance compared to Intel's quad-cores, not because benevolent AMD wants you to pay less.

Huh.

Funny, I remember Athlon 64 X2 CPU's clobbering Pentium 4's in performance while also being considerably cheaper.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

At the bottom end they don't compete.

Example is how Tom's hardware rates the GT 730 GDDR5 best entry level (playable HD) video card:

Justifying the purchase of a dedicated video card with such crappy performance -- isn't a particularly easy thing to do. I would probably just run onboard graphics because the GT 730 isn't much of an upgrade.

 

[cbn]

Here is some AM4/FP4 Bristol Ridge info:
https://benchlife.info/amd-will-rename-excavator-to-bristol-ridge-12082015/

Sad to see the OPN8 desktop spec of 65W with 1M and only 4CUs.

With Intel Pentiums now coming with GT2 on some models is there really a reason to be so stingy on the iGPU on the most budget Bristol ridge?

I would think 6CUs should be the minimum and let the CPU be the differentiating factor.

 

[AtenRa]

Sad to see the OPN8 desktop spec of 65W with 1M and only 4CUs.

With Intel Pentiums now coming with GT2 on some models is there really a reason to be so stingy on the iGPU on the most budget Bristol ridge?

I would think 6CUs should be the minimum and let the CPU be the differentiating factor.

Carrizo's 4CUs with color compression will be faster than Skylake GT2.

 

[cbn]

Justifying the purchase of a dedicated video card with such crappy performance -- isn't a particularly easy thing to do. I would probably just run onboard graphics because the GT 730 isn't much of a upgrade.

I own the card. Its pretty decent actually. (The PNY GT 730 GDDR5, which I use, regularly sells for $55 shipped after $10 rebate).

In fact, I've been wanting to test Athlon x4 860K with GT730 GDDR5 vs. A10-7850K (and DDR3 2133 or DDR3 2400) for quite some time.

 

[cbn]

Carrizo's 4CUs with color compression will be faster than Skylake GT2.

I assume you are referring to Windows.

But what about Linux? What if Valve starts adding perks for SteamOS users to encourage the building of low cost machines?

 

[cbn]

Also the CPU clock on that OPN8 desktop (1M, 4CU) is really low too.

2.5 Ghz base with 2.8 Ghz turbo for a processor with 65W TDP and only two cores?

 

[frozentundra123456]

AMD CPUs might be low end, but that's not true of their GPU market.

AMD wins every single price point in the dGPU division, except the top tier 980ti vs Fury X, and even that is a lot closer than people want to admit.

I don't understand why people want to pick sides.

Are you saying you dont understand yourself?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Huh.

Funny, I remember Athlon 64 X2 CPU's clobbering Pentium 4's in performance while also being considerably cheaper.

You might want to go back and look at the reviews and the launch prices for some of those chips. They were over $1000!