Just when you thought desktop PCs couldn't get slower. Along comes AMD...

[Ramses]

Cool, I got out of PC's for a long while right before the core stuff came out, didn't really get back in till a year or two ago.

 

[john5220]

My mother has a AMD C10 laptop at 1 GHZ an ASUS

its a little slower than a 800mhz Pentium 3 from the 90's

 

[cbn]

True to a certain extent, but in practice, this rule of thumb actually works.

ie. Don't bother getting any main desktop machine with a Passmark below 1000 because it's too slow even for basic usage.

OTOH, above 2000, it's generally OK.

In the 1000-2000 range your point may be more valid, but I'm recommending getting something over 2000, which is easy to do in 2015 for low cost.

A stock speed E8400 (generally $10 shipped "buy it now" on ebay) gets 2173 on passmark.

 

[john5220]

I just checked my mom's C10 AMD

It cannot play a 480P video on youtube it stutters and takes 5 seconds to open to fullscreen and start playing even though its badly.

I have therefore concluded its more on the lines of a Pentium 2 from around 1995

A chinese Mediatek is way faster than this garbage CPU. Those crappy BLU phones seem faster than this rubbish.

Why is AMD still in business?

 

[hungtran]

AMD should just go semi-custom and GPU only and get out of the PC/mobile market.

 

[Ramses]

Why is AMD still in business?

There's more to the processor biz than BS desktop chips.

Stuff like this... http://ir.amd.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=74093&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1989919

 

[Eug]

I just checked my mom's C10 AMD

It cannot play a 480P video on youtube it stutters and takes 5 seconds to open to fullscreen and start playing even though its badly.

I have therefore concluded its more on the lines of a Pentium 2 from around 1995

A chinese Mediatek is way faster than this garbage CPU. Those crappy BLU phones seem faster than this rubbish.

Why is AMD still in business?

What is C-10? Is it a very low end Bobcat?

If so, I thought they all have integrated H.264 decoding. Or am I mistaken? Or perhaps your browser is trying to play it through software decoding? I ask because even my Atom 330 machine with ION will play back Blu-ray 1080p smoothly.

http://youtu.be/VmgxSxb6prM

As for the Mediatek, it is a mobile SoC utilizing a mobile OS to play back H.264 with a hardware decoder.

BTW, I'm typing this on an iPad 2 with dual-core 1 GHz ARM A8, purchased in 2011.

 

[Maxima1]

It cannot play a 480P video on youtube it stutters and takes 5 seconds to open to fullscreen and start playing even though its badly.

Google for me is better than Firefox and its variants at this assuming the problem is the same. You can fix it, though.

https://www.proxfree.com/youtube-proxy.php

Try watching from this. It uses Flowplayer instead of the native Flash player.

 

[Roland00Address]

Question would anyone be complaining if AMD sold this cpu to a chinesse shell company (similarly to Sony with ps4) and they required the shell company to not use any terminology connecting the chip to AMD. Aka a rebrand?

I ask for most people are tolerant of mediatek cortex a7 and this is a similar cpu.

 

[ClockHound]

I was in a store recently, casually browsing in the All-in-One aisle for no good reason. Stopped to demo a cheap HP unit. It was so painfully sluggish, concluded it was broken. Was about to go look for staff to notify them about the broken unit and glanced at the spec sheet - AMD E1.

Oh, that's why. Wasn't broken. Just needed to attract the right market niche with the right slogan:

"Not in a rush, no hurry, use a computer rarely? This is the one just for you!"

 

[railven]

I finally gave the APU's a shot with an AMD A6-6400 (or something of the sort). I twas $350 during a Black Friday deal and I needed a laptop to take care of certain stuff while on vacation.

All I'm going to say is I'm glad Wal-mart doesn't have a restocking fee.

Opening up Google Maps was a chore. While on vacation needing to find directions was important, and unfortunately we had terrible reception. My phone loaded Google Maps on WiFi better than that Laptop did on WiFi.

Most likely all the HP Bloatware, but that laptop was the slowest thing I've used in a long time. Even my work PC (E8400's 1GB of RAM, 5400 RPM HDD) felt snappier.

 

[tential]

Question would anyone be complaining if AMD sold this cpu to a chinesse shell company (similarly to Sony with ps4) and they required the shell company to not use any terminology connecting the chip to AMD. Aka a rebrand?

I ask for most people are tolerant of mediatek cortex a7 and this is a similar cpu.

If I was AMD, I would not sell these APUs under my own brand name for the lower power ones. It ruins their brand image.

AMD continually finds ways to make short term sales, long term lost customers.

 

[Shivansps]

What is C-10? Is it a very low end Bobcat?

If so, I thought they all have integrated H.264 decoding. Or am I mistaken? Or perhaps your browser is trying to play it through software decoding? I ask because even my Atom 330 machine with ION will play back Blu-ray 1080p smoothly.

http://youtu.be/VmgxSxb6prM

As for the Mediatek, it is a mobile SoC utilizing a mobile OS to play back H.264 with a hardware decoder.

BTW, I'm typing this on an iPad 2 with dual-core 1 GHz ARM A8, purchased in 2011.

I do noticing something strange lately, like Chrome+HTML5 player = SW decoding on my BT tablet, but IE11 works just fine.

Anyway. i used a E350 for a while and its just a pain in the ***, its even slower than the Neos L3xx it reeplaced, i just cant belive anyone could be using anything slower than that today, and im petty sure the E1-6010 is slower than a E-350.

AMD is stagnated on the low end for some reason, the AMD Neos are 2009 mobile versions of AMD K8, Bobcats did not improved that at all, they just added the igp, Kabini improved the IGP and added 2 cores, and Beema... im not sure if Beema did anything besides improving the perf/tdp ratio. A Dual 1.35Ghz Beema has petty much the same CPU performance of a 2009 1.6Ghz L335 Neo X2, in fact it has just 90 more points on passmark to give you some idea.

But im not sure why people are just realising this... a 1.35Ghz Dual Beema is not better than a 1.45Ghz Dual Sempron 2650, and those slow Semprons sells like crazy.

 

[jhu]

I finally gave the APU's a shot with an AMD A6-6400 (or something of the sort). I twas $350 during a Black Friday deal and I needed a laptop to take care of certain stuff while on vacation.

All I'm going to say is I'm glad Wal-mart doesn't have a restocking fee.

Opening up Google Maps was a chore. While on vacation needing to find directions was important, and unfortunately we had terrible reception. My phone loaded Google Maps on WiFi better than that Laptop did on WiFi.

Most likely all the HP Bloatware, but that laptop was the slowest thing I've used in a long time. Even my work PC (E8400's 1GB of RAM, 5400 RPM HDD) felt snappier.

Definitely due to bloatware.

 

[ninaholic37]

Celeron 420 1.6 GHz (with 512 KB L2 cache) gets just over half the Passmark score of my SU4100, at around 460. So, agonizingly slow divided by 2.

Interesting, mine says 413 but feels smooth. My Atom says 540 but felt slower.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I finally gave the APU's a shot with an AMD A6-6400 (or something of the sort). I twas $350 during a Black Friday deal and I needed a laptop to take care of certain stuff while on vacation.

All I'm going to say is I'm glad Wal-mart doesn't have a restocking fee.

Opening up Google Maps was a chore. While on vacation needing to find directions was important, and unfortunately we had terrible reception. My phone loaded Google Maps on WiFi better than that Laptop did on WiFi.

Most likely all the HP Bloatware, but that laptop was the slowest thing I've used in a long time. Even my work PC (E8400's 1GB of RAM, 5400 RPM HDD) felt snappier.

Not at all surprised that an E8400 is faster. I mean it has more than twice the clockspeed and probably faster performance per clock as well. The only way those atom and Kabini processers make decent scores in benchmarks is that they are quad cores, which does not help that much in normal day to day use. I have a Bay Trail tablet, and while the performance is acceptable in a small, cheap, low power device (one of those 60.00 Winbooks from microcenter), I would be very unhappy with it in a 200.00 or more laptop or desktop, especially since there are so many alternatives not that much more expensive.

It does play video fine though, and the wi-fi is mixed. Sometimes it seems fairly fast, and other times it kind of locks up loading pages and takes forever. Not sure why, unless it is because it is low on ram (it has only 1gb). Sure makes me appreciate my i5 desktop when I go back to it.

 

[BSim500]

The only way those atom and Kabini processers make decent scores in benchmarks is that they are quad cores, which does not help that much in normal day to day use.

This has been my experience testing them too. Too many people are hung up on "but it's a quad core!" and not really grasping that day to day web-browsing, etc, will still often "spike up" only 1 core to the max for a short period during page rendering. You could stick an 8-core Avoton / Jaguar in there and it'll still often feel slower in actual practice than a "big core" 35w Pentium.

 

[Blitzvogel]

Well, Intel did develop P III Tualatin further because they realized the P4 was teh suck.

Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P6_(microarchitecture)#P6_Variant_Enhanced_Pentium_M

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_M

So Pentium M, Core and Core 2 all happened due to the last hurrah of the P III.

Seems to be less of a last hurrah, and more like a systematic case of revenge.

I think AMD's biggest problem against Intel is being stuck on such archaic processes. AMD just can't supply good enough product at cheap enough prices (number of good chips per wafer), which has made OEMs weary of their limited supply chain. Using problematic Beema dies as dual cores is a way to get higher yields so to speak, but it's probably just giving them a bad name in the eyes of consumers who see brand names but don't actually understand the products.

They also need a new flagship desktop CPU pronto. It just needs a small IGP and 4 modules and boom, there we go.

 

[VirtualLarry]

They also need a new flagship desktop CPU pronto. It just needs a small IGP and 4 modules and boom, there we go.

I do wonder why they haven't released 3/4-module APUs on FM2+ yet. Is it just the cost for layout / design / masks is too much, compared to how many that the would sell?

Or are they afraid to finally put the nail in the coffin of AM3+? Are they still actually mfg'ing AM3+ FX-series CPUs? Or just selling off stockpiled inventory from before?

Even a nice little six-"core" / 3-module FM2+ CPU would be an advancement, I think.

 

[NTMBK]

I do wonder why they haven't released 3/4-module APUs on FM2+ yet. Is it just the cost for layout / design / masks is too much, compared to how many that the would sell?

Or are they afraid to finally put the nail in the coffin of AM3+? Are they still actually mfg'ing AM3+ FX-series CPUs? Or just selling off stockpiled inventory from before?

Even a nice little six-"core" / 3-module FM2+ CPU would be an advancement, I think.

Would the fact that it was on FM2+ sell any more chips than the AM3+ model? I sincerely doubt the increase in sales would make up for the cost of a new die.

 

[cbn]

I do wonder why they haven't released 3/4-module APUs on FM2+ yet. Is it just the cost for layout / design / masks is too much, compared to how many that the would sell?

Or are they afraid to finally put the nail in the coffin of AM3+? Are they still actually mfg'ing AM3+ FX-series CPUs? Or just selling off stockpiled inventory from before?

Even a nice little six-"core" / 3-module FM2+ CPU would be an advancement, I think.

Would the fact that it was on FM2+ sell any more chips than the AM3+ model? I sincerely doubt the increase in sales would make up for the cost of a new die.

I think how the hexcore die were laid out matter a lot.

Two big weaknesses of AM3+ and FM2+ are huge amount of cache for the former and too large of an igpu for the latter.

If they can fix both those problems with a new hexcore die I think the cost would be low enough for it to be competitive.

The question is what direction do they go?

1.) Do they design the hexcore for both desktop and higher end laptops (using dGPU)? Or do they go strictly for desktop with the hexcore?

2. What uarch do they use? Streamroller (which proven capability for high clocks)? Or do they use Excavator (which might clock lower due to high density libraries, but might be better for notebook using dGPU)?

In any event, I would hope for either no iGPU (integrated graphics on chipset are fine) or a very minimal iGPU (64 GCN stream processors maximum).

 

[Blitzvogel]

An IGP is pretty much a requirement these days. But yes, it only needs to be minimal, 128 SPs.

FM2+ I think has some electrical issues, and can't support anything above 95W. AMD bet too much money on big graphics APUs. The cost of such a large die, of which a large part only serves gamers and a few media enthusiasts, just got transferred to ordinary consumers who didn't care or didn't know. Alternatively the CUs from a practical standpoint have failed to really augment the CPU in the way we were hoping. Non graphics GPGPU in games hasn't taken off at all and most SIMD heavy programs still use CPU cores purely. I would partially blame AMD for not getting more devs on board with GPGPU.

I'm gonna laugh if Zen just turns out to be a recycled Llano K10 CPU core with single pass AVX capability with all the power state and gating improvements AMD made with Trinity, Richland, and Kaveri. It's the direction they should've taken in the first place instead of all this BD CMT nonsense.

 

[monstercameron]

This has been my experience testing them too. Too many people are hung up on "but it's a quad core!" and not really grasping that day to day web-browsing, etc, will still often "spike up" only 1 core to the max for a short period during page rendering. You could stick an 8-core Avoton / Jaguar in there and it'll still often feel slower in actual practice than a "big core" 35w Pentium.

I dont know what websites you are visiting that spikes cpu usage so high.

 

[cbn]

AMD bet too much money on big graphics APUs. The cost of such a large die, of which a large part only serves gamers and a few media enthusiasts, just got transferred to ordinary consumers who didn't care or didn't know. Alternatively the CUs from a practical standpoint have failed to really augment the CPU in the way we were hoping. Non graphics GPGPU in games hasn't taken off at all and most SIMD heavy programs still use CPU cores purely. I would partially blame AMD for not getting more devs on board with GPGPU.

The big iGPU was a neat idea in concept, but yes I agree, at what cost?

At this point, I would like them to go the opposite direction of Intel on desktop and actually have much less iGPU. (At the moment, I believe Intel's dual core die is something like 50% iGPU.....so there is still a chance for AMD to undercut Intel even with their node disadvantage)

 

[Ramses]

The whole integrated graphics thing, surprised me how much "enthusiasts" give a crap about em. They have been out forever on motherboards, they have always sucked compared to any midrange (that's midrange to an enthusiast) dedicated graphics card of the same time. I don't get the attraction/interest for anyone that's bought real GPU's as a matter of course for years like most of us. I know they are better and faster than they were and that's cool for cheap PC's and laptops maybe, but they are still going to suck, and suck at a more rapidly increasing rate than the CPU they are attached to it seems like.
So many of us are on 2-4 year old CPU's or more that are holding their own still, but on a second or third video card. It's neat I guess but seems like a lot of energy and RnD and construction wasted for an enthusiast at the end of the day. I kinda left PC's as a hobby for a few years, I came back and everyone is talking about power consumption and integrated graphics, I thought I was on the wrong forums lol...

What's the attraction?