Core 2 Duo outdated already? Next generation CPU on the horizon.

[iluv2fly]

Core 2 Duo outdated already?

AMD just gave their retailers EOL notice (End of Life) for their 2x1MB cache AM2 X2's. Sounds like AMD are freeing up production capacity and are making room for the next generation cpu's at their production plants.

Next generation cpu, 4 cores, smaller die and more energy efficient. Scheduled to arrive later this year.

Maybe the current generation X2's and Conroe Duo 2 will both look very outdated in a near future?

What do you think ?

 

[thilanliyan]

K8L is not coming out this year apparently. Q2 2007 I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I doubt even quad core will make much of a difference for the majority of apps.

4x4 will probably come out sooner but it isn't a new generation CPU it's just 2 dualcore Athlons on one motherboard. Again, like quadcore, I doubt it'll make much of a difference for most apps unless the devs heavily optimize for the system. Also, I shudder to think how much a 4x4 system will cost.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: iluv2fly
Core 2 Duo outdated already?

AMD just gave their retailers EOL notice (End of Life) for their 2x1MB cache AM2 X2's. Sounds like AMD are freeing up production capacity and are making room for the next generation cpu's at their production plants.

Next generation cpu, 4 cores, smaller die and more energy efficient. Scheduled to arrive later this year.

Maybe the current generation X2's and Conroe Duo 2 will both look very outdated in a near future?

What do you think ?

AMD is EOL'ing the 1MBx2 dual core chips as it is creating brand confusion as the Opterons are supposed to be 1MB chips. In the future consumer K8s will have 512KB, and Opterons will have 1MB.

 

[DrMrLordX]

AMD is also EOLing 1MBx2 chips to divert all production of 1MB chips to their Opteron product lines. They don't have the production capacity to market both products anymore. Opterons are still selling well after all.

 

[gobucks]

the main reason AMD is EOL-ing the 2x1MB chips is simple - performance is only like 2-3% higher, and they can make almost 2 2x512MB chips for every 1 2x1MB chip, so if they want to increase capacity that's the easiest way to go. Now that AMD had to slash prices like mad on their X2's, they don't have the kind of profit margins that can allow them to make chips with large die sizes when small die sized chips are almost as good.

Also, Quad Core and 4x4 are not gonna get AMD the chip lead back, for several reasons:
1) Most apps are still single threaded, especially the ones that power users tend to use (games e.g.). even multithreaded games only show maybe a 10% improvement with dual core (see oblivion benchmarks). So quad cores won't help here.
2) K8L's cache situation is supposed to help the situation, but i don't think it will. first of all, shared cache helps minimize memory and bus traffic, but AMD is only implementing it on the L3, which is much slower, and i believe it's only gonna be 256MB, compared to conroe's 2-4MB of unified faster L2. Plus, AMD is actually planning to REDUCE its on-die cache from 128K to 64K, same as Conroe, removing yet another advantage AMD has had over intel.
3) The K8 design simply needs to be redesigned to compete with conroe, not just patched up and adding more cores. it can only execute 3 IPC versus 4 for conroe, and its shorter pipeline is limiting clockspeeds, which is a problem considering conroe is now more efficient on a per-mhz basis.
4) Intel is working on kentsfield, its own 4 core design, and it's due to be out around the same time as K8L, so any advantages with quad-core will be pretty much moot.

 

[Some1ne]

AMD just gave their retailers EOL notice (End of Life) for their 2x1MB cache AM2 X2's. Sounds like AMD are freeing up production capacity and are making room for the next generation cpu's at their production plants.

There's nothing special about that (it was known well in advance that those chips would be EOL'ed at the same time AMD announced its price cuts), though the reason has nothing to do with AMD having somethin big planned, and a whole lot more to do with AMD settling into its new position at the low-end of the CPU market. The 2x1MB chips simply are not cost-effective enough to produce to survive in a post-price-cut world, and by nixing them AMD can optimize its production facilities for the 2x512KB and fit more cores on a wafer, and thus get better yeilds and cheaper production costs.

Basically, AMD is ceding the high-end of the market, and optimizing itself for producing more value-oriented chips, so that it can produce them cheaply enough and build up enough of a supply to offer better price/performance than Intel at the low end of the scale. AMD *doesn't* currently have a counter for the Core 2, as evidenced by the massive price-cuts as soon as Core 2 was announced, and I'm sure that the moment they do, everyone will know, without having to resort to speculations like "the discontinued line must mean they have a secret new CPU waiting in the wings".

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: gobucks
the main reason AMD is EOL-ing the 2x1MB chips is simple - performance is only like 2-3% higher, and they can make almost 2 2x512MB chips for every 1 2x1MB chip, so if they want to increase capacity that's the easiest way to go.

Double the cache, but not double the total die area, but it is significant.

 

[krotchy]

I have a Dual Opteron 280 computer. Running an H.264 Encoder, HD-SDI output card outputting Uncompressed 1080i Video, and matlab, and then decoding h.264 video, I hit 70% overall. Honestly, this isnt really that normal of use for anyone. That being said, I probably could have gotten by easily with 2 Opteron 256's or something, but I figured the 280s would be more future proof.

4x4 is USELESS, 100% useless until multi-threaded apps come out, I dont care how good of a multi-tasker you are. So right now, 4x4 is going to provide no real improvement for most things. Dual Core did provide a good chunk of improvement over single core, because theres tons of things you can do to maximize 2 cores. After that you have to try a lil harder (yes its dooable, but *most* people wont ever touch it). So it will be more future proof, but it is pointless now. However lets be honest, anyone willing to spend money for a K8L isnt the type of person who needs future proof, they are typically the type to buy the best every 6 months because they can. I predict a K8L rig will run $2000+ for just the 2 processors and motherboard, so im hoping AMD surprises me.

Also isnt Intel's 4 Core processor supposed to be out around the time the K8L actually hits the street? A single 4 core processor is a cheaper solution than 2 dual cores no matter what, especially with Intel's ability to control their prices to compete with AMD.

 

[theteamaqua]

Originally posted by: thilan29
K8L is not coming out this year apparently. Q2 2007 I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I doubt even quad core will make much of a difference for the majority of apps.

4x4 will probably come out sooner but it isn't a new generation CPU it's just 2 dualcore Athlons on one motherboard. Again, like quadcore, I doubt it'll make much of a difference for most apps unless the devs heavily optimize for the system. Also, I shudder to think how much a 4x4 system will cost.

QFT ...

if it turns out to be crap. i ma stick wiuth high clock speed Core 2 Duo

 

[harpoon84]

C2D is hardly outdated, in fact it's state of the art at this point, beating X2s in pretty much every benchmark you can name. It's been almost a decade since Intel had a clean sweep at the performance crown (think back to the AMD K6 days).

4x4 as has already been mentioned will not provide any benifit over dual cores in most current applications. It's a platform for the future, but don't expect it to challenge Conroe in most benchmarks. What AMD needs is higher clockspeeds and a more efficient architecture. For that we need to wait for K8L, which is coming out mid 2007.

 

[Pugnate]

Most applications don't take advantage of dual core; you think quad core will make a difference this early? Besides they said for the first 6 month period quad core processor will be targeted at serious enthusiasts only and will be quite expensive. Priced at nearly $1000.