Any 6 or 8 core AMD desktop chips coming soon?

[thilanliyan]

I've read that Istanbul is coming in June but are there any desktop 6 or 8 core versions planned for this year?

 

[richierich1212]

Text

Someone at XS said a 6-core version should be coming out in June. We'll see.

 

[SunnyD]

Are you doing RT? Or maybe Photoshop or video editing? If not, then 4 cores will be plenty?.*

*Disclaimer: The '4 cores will be plenty.?' is a registered trademark of SunnyD, and is not guaranteed. Any implied warranty is null and void, and any disputes with regard to any implied warranty shall be handled by binding arbitration, the terms of which henceforth will be specified by SunnyD at the time and selection of his choosing. This statement is non-binding and non-transferable. SunnyD reserves the right to modify this statement at any time without any prior notice to any party. If you choose not to accept this statement, please return the original statement in its entirety to where it was stated for immediate refund.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Are you doing RT? Or maybe Photoshop or video editing? If not, then 4 cores will be plenty?.*

*Disclaimer: The '4 cores will be plenty.?' is a registered trademark of SunnyD, and is not guaranteed. Any implied warranty is null and void, and any disputes with regard to any implied warranty shall be handled by binding arbitration, the terms of which henceforth will be specified by SunnyD at the time and selection of his choosing. This statement is non-binding and non-transferable. SunnyD reserves the right to modify this statement at any time without any prior notice to any party. If you choose not to accept this statement, please return the original statement in its entirety to where it was stated for immediate refund.

Good one :thumbsup:

But I'm pretty sure NV already owns that trademark. :laugh:

edit:

Seriously though, with the publicized benefits of hardware scout included in the Istanbul cores, wouldn't an X2/X4/X6 product based on the new architecture improvements help the desktop experience regardless of how many cores are present?

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Seriously though, with the publicized benefits of hardware scout included in the Istanbul cores, wouldn't an X2/X4/X6 product based on the new architecture improvements help the desktop experience regardless of how many cores are present?

Maybe, but it might not be worth it to make another line of processors if nothing significant is changing. Example: the Athlon X2 Kuma is the 65nm version of the Athlon X2 Windsor, and benchmarks show that it's a slight improvement, but do you know a single person who has one of these? That's what will happen if AMD releases a slightly improved version of the Phenom II.

If they're going to make a new processor line, they should do it right. While using that improved design, includes some extra cores or more cache or something.

 

[imported_Scoop]

Originally posted by: richierich1212
Text

Someone at XS said a 6-core version should be coming out in June. We'll see.

Aren't those server processors?

 

[veri745]

Originally posted by: Scoop

Aren't those server processors?

Yes

 

[Gikaseixas]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Seriously though, with the publicized benefits of hardware scout included in the Istanbul cores, wouldn't an X2/X4/X6 product based on the new architecture improvements help the desktop experience regardless of how many cores are present?

Maybe, but it might not be worth it to make another line of processors if nothing significant is changing. Example: the Athlon X2 Kuma is the 65nm version of the Athlon X2 Windsor, and benchmarks show that it's a slight improvement, but do you know a single person who has one of these? That's what will happen if AMD releases a slightly improved version of the Phenom II.

If they're going to make a new processor line, they should do it right. While using that improved design, includes some extra cores or more cache or something.

the only thing changing would be the 2 extra cores. It will definitely be faster on multithreaded applications but not for everything as it will most likely have slower clock speeds at Launch time.

that's my take on it, err if they do make such a thing for us

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Seriously though, with the publicized benefits of hardware scout included in the Istanbul cores, wouldn't an X2/X4/X6 product based on the new architecture improvements help the desktop experience regardless of how many cores are present?

Maybe, but it might not be worth it to make another line of processors if nothing significant is changing. Example: the Athlon X2 Kuma is the 65nm version of the Athlon X2 Windsor, and benchmarks show that it's a slight improvement, but do you know a single person who has one of these? That's what will happen if AMD releases a slightly improved version of the Phenom II.

If they're going to make a new processor line, they should do it right. While using that improved design, includes some extra cores or more cache or something.

The X2 Kuma is a K10 B3 stepping with 2 cores disabled**, 1800MHz HT3 and full 2Mb L3 cache.

As far as the OP's question there is a diminishing point of return in adding cores (and additional cache) on desktop processors. I believe Anand (or maybe Tom's) looked at the performance 'curve' from additional cache.

With AMD, who knows? I doubt the demand exists for additional cores on the desktop - - and as far as additional cache I'd say the jury is still out. The Phenom II 9xx series has 6Mb of L3 - the 8xxx series 4Mb. They seem to perform on par with the 'equalizer' most likely being the increase in the IMC/NB speed (where AMD has room to 'grow' in the range of 40%).




** No one seems to know why AMD disabled the cores.

 

[waffleironhead]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo


The X2 Kuma is a K10 B3 stepping with 2 cores disabled**, 1800MHz HT3 and full 2Mb L3 cache.

As far as the OP's question there is a diminishing point of return in adding cores (and additional cache) on desktop processors. I believe Anand (or maybe Tom's) looked at the performance 'curve' from additional cache.

With AMD, who knows? I doubt the demand exists for additional cores on the desktop - - and as far as additional cache I'd say the jury is still out. The Phenom II 9xx series has 6Mb of L3 - the 8xxx series 4Mb. They seem to perform on par with the 'equalizer' most likely being the increase in the IMC/NB speed (where AMD has room to 'grow' in the range of 40%).




** No one seems to know why AMD disabled the cores.

Because they were faulty?!? and they needed a dual core to replace the older K8's still on the market. Its called chip harvesting. Why not sell it as a dual core rather than throwing it in the trash bin.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Seriously though, with the publicized benefits of hardware scout included in the Istanbul cores, wouldn't an X2/X4/X6 product based on the new architecture improvements help the desktop experience regardless of how many cores are present?

Maybe, but it might not be worth it to make another line of processors if nothing significant is changing. Example: the Athlon X2 Kuma is the 65nm version of the Athlon X2 Windsor, and benchmarks show that it's a slight improvement, but do you know a single person who has one of these? That's what will happen if AMD releases a slightly improved version of the Phenom II.

If they're going to make a new processor line, they should do it right. While using that improved design, includes some extra cores or more cache or something.

Yeah I'm not thinking of making a parallel product line-up to be sold alongside current Phenom II chips (unless the market demand remains high enough to justify).

Basically manage the situation from production thru inventory the same as Intel does with a tick and a tock (45nm Core and 45nm i7) and rollout Phenom II+ as their tock using the same architecture improvements that went into Istanbul.

This is assuming of course that the tweaks in Istanbul are relevant to desktop performance, which could be entirely not the case. But IIRC the stream benches released months ago showed Istanbul had some serious upgrades to the memory subsystem (caches and IMC).

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Are you doing RT? Or maybe Photoshop or video editing?

Yes some photoshop and video encoding mostly.

So I guess no mention from anywhere of Istanbul on the desktop then?

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: waffleironhead

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo

** No one seems to know why AMD disabled the cores.

Because they were faulty?!? and they needed a dual core to replace the older K8's still on the market. Its called chip harvesting. Why not sell it as a dual core rather than throwing it in the trash bin.

The professional 'assumptions' I've seen is that it primarily came down to core speeds - and the need for a dual core K-10.

If a chip has 2 cores operating at 2.7GHz and 2 cores operating at 2GHz, instead of trying to market a 2GHz quad that no one really wanted, 2 cores @ 2.7GHz with the full L3 cache fit in a product price point they wanted to cover.

I can't recall but Ars may have had an article about this ... but I have never seen anyone from AMD comment.

 

[Falloutboy]

it shouldn't be to hard to take that server chip and to make a Black Edition chip for the enthusiast market, will give a halo part over the i7 and might even out perform it in certain situations.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Yeah I'm not thinking of making a parallel product line-up to be sold alongside current Phenom II chips (unless the market demand remains high enough to justify).

Basically manage the situation from production thru inventory the same as Intel does with a tick and a tock (45nm Core and 45nm i7) and rollout Phenom II+ as their tock using the same architecture improvements that went into Istanbul.

Sorry I made that assumption. I thought that's what you meant since that appears to be happening with AMD's current chips. I don't know if they're still making all of these chips, but there's a lot of performance and price overlap in the chips available on Newegg (it might just be overstock).

You can still buy a Windsor or a Kuma which are different but basically the same speed (link). You can buy the Phenom II X3 or its retarded half-cousin the Phenom X3 for $6 more. The Windsor X2 6400+ and the Phenom II X4 are the same price.

It's very likely that this is not AMD's fault and it's just overstock, but throwing a new line of processors into the mix won't help. Maybe just add 1 new processor and make it a black edition? If you check Newegg's top AMD sellers, the 2 chips listed are both black editions: link.

 

[Idontcare]

Yeah no doubt there would be some overlap on the market as one product is phased out while the other ramps in production. There are a lot of legacy chips floating around out there though, economy slowdown and all.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Are you doing RT? Or maybe Photoshop or video editing? If not, then 4 cores will be plenty?.*

*Disclaimer: The '4 cores will be plenty.?' is a registered trademark of SunnyD, and is not guaranteed. Any implied warranty is null and void, and any disputes with regard to any implied warranty shall be handled by binding arbitration, the terms of which henceforth will be specified by SunnyD at the time and selection of his choosing. This statement is non-binding and non-transferable. SunnyD reserves the right to modify this statement at any time without any prior notice to any party. If you choose not to accept this statement, please return the original statement in its entirety to where it was stated for immediate refund.

by reading this text you accept it as a legally binding contract, and accept any future revisions made to it by the writer at their discretion.

 

[Hacp]

Until you can encode H.264 at High Quality two pass in real time, the more cores the better. I'm thinking it'll take 12 cores to get 1080p at a decent bitrate to encode in real time.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Are you doing RT? Or maybe Photoshop or video editing? If not, then 4 cores will be plenty?.*

*Disclaimer: The '4 cores will be plenty.?' is a registered trademark of SunnyD, and is not guaranteed. Any implied warranty is null and void, and any disputes with regard to any implied warranty shall be handled by binding arbitration, the terms of which henceforth will be specified by SunnyD at the time and selection of his choosing. This statement is non-binding and non-transferable. SunnyD reserves the right to modify this statement at any time without any prior notice to any party. If you choose not to accept this statement, please return the original statement in its entirety to where it was stated for immediate refund.

by reading this text you accept it as a legally binding contract, and accept any future revisions made to it by the writer at their discretion.

By allowing this text to exist in this dimension... blah blah blah. 😀

 

[ilkhan]

Originally posted by: Falloutboy
it shouldn't be to hard to take that server chip and to make a Black Edition chip for the enthusiast market, will give a halo part over the i7 and might even out perform it in certain situations.

Yeah that'll do real well. Until gulftown shows up and wipes the floor with istanbul. 😉 Production costs on istanbul will be a lot higher as well. AFAIK.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Are you doing RT? Or maybe Photoshop or video editing? If not, then 4 cores will be plenty?.*

*Disclaimer: The '4 cores will be plenty.?' is a registered trademark of SunnyD, and is not guaranteed. Any implied warranty is null and void, and any disputes with regard to any implied warranty shall be handled by binding arbitration, the terms of which henceforth will be specified by SunnyD at the time and selection of his choosing. This statement is non-binding and non-transferable. SunnyD reserves the right to modify this statement at any time without any prior notice to any party. If you choose not to accept this statement, please return the original statement in its entirety to where it was stated for immediate refund.

by reading this text you accept it as a legally binding contract, and accept any future revisions made to it by the writer at their discretion.

By allowing this text to exist in this dimension... blah blah blah. 😀

actually, mine is based on real eula stuff... MOST eulas have a notice that says that by agreeing to this eula, you also automatically agree to any revisions they make to it.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

This is assuming of course that the tweaks in Istanbul are relevant to desktop performance, which could be entirely not the case. But IIRC the stream benches released months ago showed Istanbul had some serious upgrades to the memory subsystem (caches and IMC).

Istanbul has what they call a Probe Filter. It's another term for Snoop Filter. Basically the cores are trying to look at each other and "snoop" for data and it takes up bandwidth. Snoop Filter takes care of that. In multi-core systems, it becomes important.

I don't think its relevant for most desktop apps.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Are you doing RT? Or maybe Photoshop or video editing? If not, then 4 cores will be plenty?.*

*Disclaimer: The '4 cores will be plenty.?' is a registered trademark of SunnyD, and is not guaranteed. Any implied warranty is null and void, and any disputes with regard to any implied warranty shall be handled by binding arbitration, the terms of which henceforth will be specified by SunnyD at the time and selection of his choosing. This statement is non-binding and non-transferable. SunnyD reserves the right to modify this statement at any time without any prior notice to any party. If you choose not to accept this statement, please return the original statement in its entirety to where it was stated for immediate refund.

by reading this text you accept it as a legally binding contract, and accept any future revisions made to it by the writer at their discretion.

By allowing this text to exist in this dimension... blah blah blah. 😀

actually, mine is based on real eula stuff... MOST eulas have a notice that says that by agreeing to this eula, you also automatically agree to any revisions they make to it.

I know... I was just taking it that one teeny little step further. 🙂