What in the world is AMD doing?

[OverVolt]

So, I've been out of the loop for awhile. I built this E7200 rig and was thinking of tweaking it a bit. I was also looking into making an AMD rig to tinker with.

I mostly do gaming, so a dual core makes the most sense. AMD's product line-up makes zero sense for gamers.

With their latest iteration of CPU, the K10, it only comes as a triple core 8000 series or a quad core 9000 series. The latest review of the 7750 made me realize AMD doesn't really have a modern generation dual-core offering until now. How could a company so large not have a dual-core offering? The 7750 is just a 9000 series with two cores disabled.

As for the 8000 series, they are all rather lacking in clock-speed.

AFAIK, the Quad CPU market is about 13% of CPUs sold. If I went with a quad, the price/performance on something like the Phenom 9850BE looks solid. However, that leaves 87% of the market segment for Intel to dominate. They only have to compete with the K8 which is a generation behind.

My mind is blown. It was such a mistake for AMD to focus on quad core only with the K10. AMD would be much more competitive if they had a K10 built from the ground up as a dual.

 

[mpilchfamily]

AMD has allot of dual core options. Porblem is the C2Ds easily outperform them. Just like Intel's quads out perform AMD's. AMD has been lagging since Intel released there C2Ds.

Look at there 4K, 5K, and 6K series. Those are there current Dual core offerings.

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
AMD has allot of dual core options. Porblem is the C2Ds easily outperform them. Just like Intel's quads out perform AMD's. AMD has been lagging since Intel released there C2Ds.

Look at there 4K, 5K, and 6K series. Those are there current Dual core offerings.

They are all K8, they are a generation old. Why did AMD decide to engineer the K10 around a quad design?

 

[mpilchfamily]

can't be looking at the K8 as a generation old. Those are the dual cores. The quad cores are a totally differnt design so they take on a different design designation. The K10 design is a quad design and will not support dual core. The only reason it supports 3 cores is because AMD has had allot of manufacturing trouble with the quad cores. So the ones that didn't pass quality control where reduced to 3 fuctinal cores so they are not loosing allot of money. So the K8 are the recent generation of Dual cores and teh K10s are the 3and 4 core chips.

Intel uses the E's and T's for the dual core chips while they use Q for there quads. Just like AMD with there K8 and K10. Its just differnt designs not differnt generations. Though the E's form Intel are the older desing while the T's are the new ones.

Looks like AMD may be reserving K9 for there next gen dual cores.

 

[corkyg]

"What in the world is AMD doing?"

Essentially, they are trying to survive in a very difficult period from general economics and serious pressure from Intel.

AMD

 

[RebateMonger]

Intel's message to System Builders has been that AMD chose a route to dual- and quad-cores that requires redesign of the entire chip with each version. That takes a long time to design, test, and tool for.

Intel's design supposedly allows them to scale up the number of cores with much less design effort, allowing them to ship new designs faster.

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
Looks like AMD may be reserving K9 for there next gen dual cores.

Or, maybe they didn't want a chip called "K9".

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Or, maybe they didn't want a chip called "K9".

LOL, why Not?

"K-9 The CPU that Barks really Loud".

If fresh water would be in short all over the World human being would be in sever trouble.

If soft drinks would disappear we would easily adapt.

Adequate CPUs for work = Drinking water.

Adequate CPUs for Gaming considerations = Soft Drinks.

 

[crimson117]

AMD is competitive at sub $125 price points. Above that, Intel takes the lead hands down.

For gaming PC's, performance is important, so it's generally worth shelling out $125+ for a CPU.

But when you're building a $400-$500 office PC, the price of the CPU starts to matter a lot more, and AMD's low-power offerings become very attractive.

 

[doormatderek]

How long HAS the K8 been around?? Since it was 'winning' . LONG TIME ago. But it's been around long enough that different reiterations of it have used both DDR and DDR2. I just recently updated my dual core Opti, Socket 939/DDR for x2 , Socket AM2/DDR2. My old build is definitely no slouch either. Intel needs a new mobo with every processor.

 

[JackMDS]

Welcome to AnandTech Forums.

Originally posted by: doormatderek updated my dual core Opti, Socket 939/DDR for x2 , Socket AM2/DDR2. My old build is definitely no slouch either. Intel needs a new mobo with every processor.

Hmm... and moving from Type A to 939, and to AM2 did not entail each time a New Mobo?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: OverVolt
Why did AMD decide to engineer the K10 around a quad design?

Because multi-core designs are the future. Dual core chips will be sliding into the low end in a year, arguably, they sort of have already.

Intel did the same thing with the i7, its a native quad core design too. And they'll likely do the same thing AMD has done with the K10 chips, namely, disable cores to sell them in lower end markets.