ITT: We propose our own Kaveri SKUs

[Enigmoid]

Athlon FX 890

6 Kaveri CPU Cores clocked at 4.2 GHZ and 4.5 Turbo
95w TDP
2mb per module L2 cache (6mb total)
12mb L3 shared Cache
Official support for 2400/2666 DDR3 (just like the boards)

Reason for this?

Obviously because it would be a killer product.

Screw APUs...Athlons all the way.

Way too much cache. 18 MB cache? The part would be huge, exasperating the problem AMD has with the FX series. The L3 cache is too large and slow to really help at all. You could probably cut down the cache to 6 MB L3 with <1% performance loss.

Other problem with the die would be binning. Any 4 core dies be be facing the $80 760k/860k with little to no advantages and thus a large die is sold at an even lower profit margin (or else it has nowhere to go).

You can see how large the 4MB cache is. The chip would be a similar size with 3 Modules and 12 MB cache; if AMD wanted to make it a 2P or 4P capable server chip it would be larger still.

It would be competing against $100 6 core FX Piledriver chips as well.

 

[Shehriazad]

Meh...6MB, 12MB...details.


In the end...what I want is a 6core for FM2+. Im done with the lame quad cores. I mean sure it would eat away some FX sales...but seriously...those need to die already.

Why exactly is it necessary to try and promote chips from 2011/2012?

Also this is just something I with that would happen...knowing that it never will.

I was hoping for Carrizo to be made in 22NM and thus feature space for 6 CPU cores...but that hope was already shattered a few months ago.

(Both the 22NM and Desktop Carrizo hopes)

 

[DrMrLordX]

Why exactly is it necessary to try and promote chips from 2011/2012?

Yields are high, the 32nm process is mature, and they have a (relatively) large installed base of customers who have shown that they are willing to buy FX updates like the 8320E, 8370E, and 8370.

They also have a stock of older chips that need to be sold at a discount. Economically, it seems to make sense for them to keep clearing out inventory than to pay out the moolah necessary to tape out a 3M Steamroller for FM2+.

And that doesn't even touch on the subject of the fact that AMD's FX CPUs have all been trickle-down designs from server parts. Is AMD willing and capable of taping out 3M Steamroller parts for G34 and then trickling those down to FM2+?

I was hoping for Carrizo to be made in 22NM and thus feature space for 6 CPU cores...but that hope was already shatered a few months ago.

Die space may actually not be that big of an issue for Carrizo. The HDL libraries seem to have facilitated a massive increase in transistor count. Where those transistors went is another story . . . probably the on-die PCH but who knows.

 

[Ramses]

The enthusiast volume is low I'm sure, but the FX is still selling.
If they weren't, the prices would be lower and/or they'd dry up.
It's a testament to something, I'm not sure it's something flattering or not, but
it's something.

 

[cbn]

Deleted.

 

[Ramses]

I've got like 20 people following my 9590 I threw up on ebay and have had half a dozen offers of $300 shipped for it and the sabertooth. Not enough to make me bother selling it even though it was a fair price, but it was interesting there were so many people actively looking for the thing.
I sold my 8350 on ebay for $20 less than I paid for it new after using it a year awhile back. Had a 1090T I think it was sold for a heck of a lot more than I thought it would not long before that, sometime last year. There's people wanting and buying them, for whatever reason.

It's hard to tell on the FX new sales bit, we just don't have the data. They could have a ton, they could still be having them made, they could be making a lot $$ off each, they could be giving them away. I still think the 9570 and 90 were a just for the heck of it bone thrown to the hard core guys, I suspect it'll always be a niche of sorts. It started out at a pie in the sky price and went down to where it is now awhile ago, it still shows out of stock now and again on newegg, and vendors are still emailing sale info on the FX line so they aren't trying to usher them off on that end. The only real sales "data" I can ever find is number of reviews on newegg and amazon and such, and those are always high fwiw.
Is very hard to say, the lot of it. It'd sure be interesting to know but I doubt we ever will.

 

[DrMrLordX]

A few sites were dumping 9590s at huge discounts just before Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Like ~$250 9590s, and ~$210 9370s. It'll be interesting to see how much longer FX chips remain widely-available through retail channels.

 

[seitur]

A few sites were dumping 9590s at huge discounts just before Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Like ~$250 9590s, and ~$210 9370s. It'll be interesting to see how much longer FX chips remain widely-available through retail channels.

Are they(whole FX line) still being manufactured or AMD/retailers are just selling what was manufactured back in the day?

 

[cbn]

The desire for a 3M/6T Steamroller on either AM3+ or FM2+ is palpable, but releasing such a chip would undercut AMD's ability to continue selling 4M/8T Piledrivers.

If a person thought 3M/6T Steamroller or 3M/6T Excavator would interfer with 4M/8T Piledriver, I'd imagine AMD could release two dies:

1. 3M/6T Steamroller or Excavator die without L3 cache for value enthusiast.

2. 5M/10T Steamroller or Excavator die with L3 cache for servers and higher end enthusiasts

Of course, these would be for AM3+.

 

[cbn]

For a FM2+ SKU, If AMD ever went Hexcore I would hope they would only include a very minimum iGPU. (1 CU/64 GCN streamprocessors max). This to help them undercut Intel on cost.

With that said, I still think Hexcore is probably better off on AM3+. This way a person has the choice of integrated graphics or not via the chipset rather than having every processor die having the costing adding iGPU on it.

 

[cbn]

Are they(whole FX line) still being manufactured or AMD/retailers are just selling what was manufactured back in the day?

Well back in September of 2014, AMD released at least four SKUs (for AM3+) that I know of: FX-8310, FX-8320E, FX-8370E, FX-8370.

So I would assume these are still being manufactured.

 

[Ramses]

If they still makin, they still sellin. Interesting..