GDDR6 Memory Coming in 2014!

If you didn't know about AMD's involvement in GDDR RAM, now is the right time! 

When it comes to graphics memory it's the AMD i.e. Advanced Micro Devices company that is actually behind the creation of GDDR memory standard. Their GDDR3 memory which launched in 2004 was very successful and is still in wide use on low end graphics cards and other applications. GDDR4 never really took off, because the advantages over GDDR3 weren't great enough! GDDR5 is the current standard and can bring more than 250GB/s of achievable bandwidth. Now, the technical standards to define the next generation GDDR6 memory are currently being worked out by AMD working with memory industry standards body, JEDEC. 

GDDR6 is expected to be launched in 2014 and should last beyond 2020. It's generating a lot of interest from all the usual suspects such as NVIDIA, Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, CISCO and many others. This is the field where AMD is the company in charge, and regardless for whom are you rooting for, without AMD's memory team - our present (and the future) would look significantly different.

"GDDR5 as a memory standard was designed as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Single-Ended GDDR5 i.e. Dr. Jekyll was created to power the contemporary processors, while the Differential GDDR5 i.e. Mr. Hyde was designed to "murder Rambus and XDR". Ultimately, the conventional S.E. GDDR5 took off better than expected and clocked higher than anyone hoped for. While the estimates for the top standard were set at 1.5GHz QDR, i.e. 6 "effective GHz" with overclocking, we got both AMD and NVIDIA actually shipping retail parts at 1.5GHz, with overclocks as high as 1.85GHz (7.4 "GHz"). This brought us to more than 250GB/s achiveable bandwidth, meaning that the purpose of Differential GDDR5 was lost." 

Just around the time of DDR4 as well. Sounds like a good combination to me! It will be interesting to see what kind of speeds and bandwidth can be achieved and if it can really last 6 plus years! 

More news:  

(vr-zone.com) GDDR6 memory coming in 2014

(legitreviews.com) GDDR6 to debut 2014

2YUHCR2M7RYB

By: Air T. 

NVIDIA "Kepler" GeForce GTX 680 official specifications sheet leaked!

The slide leaked from PCOnline.com.cn site and it seems to be the real deal. The specification list reveals already rumored and pretty much confirmed numbers of a single core flagship GeForce GTX 680.

The Nvidia GTX 680 will have a very high GPU clock at a quite impressive 1006MHz.


Specifications and price:

Kepler GK104 will have die size of 294mm^2 and 3.54 billion transistors
CUDA Cores: 1536
Base Clock: 1006MHz
Boost Clock: 1058MHz
Memory Config: 2GB of GDDR5 paired with a 256-bit memory interface and clocked at 6.0Gbps
TDP: 195W
Power Connectors: in line two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors
Outputs: 2x DL-DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort 1.2
Bus Interface: PCI-Express 3.0 x16 bus interface

Price: MSRP of US $549
Release date of GeForce GTX 680 is set for March 22nd.

GeForce GTX 560 Ti, GTX 570 and GTX 580 are getting price cuts up to $50 (GTX 580 is already available at lower price).

 Credits: (diy.pconline.com.cn)
 

Interesting comparison Geforce GTX 680 vs. Radeon HD 7950 / 7970

Credits: (3dcenter.org)

And some more specs:

Two pictures of GeForce GTX 680 came from Chiphell.com

Credits: (chiphell.com)

More news:  

(pconline.com.cn) GeForce GTX 680 Specifications

(3dcenter.org) Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 Vs. Radeon HD 7950 / 7970 chart comparison

By: Air T.

AMD A10-5800K Black Edition is a Top Trinity with Turbo at 4.2GHz

AMD’s flagship of the Trinity lineup is the A10-5800K Black Edition and it comes in early Q2!

 

The top of the range Trinity APU the quad-core A10-5800K Black Edition series is designed for gaming which has an HD 7660D integrated GPU with 384 Radeon cores (2.0). The GPU is running at 800Mhz while the CPU clocks at 3.8Ghz and can do 4.2Ghz in Turbo mode.

Trinity is a big thing for AMD. The company has high hopes with this chip in both mobile and desktop space. In near future we could expect quite a few interesting mobile Trinity parts, including low-voltage versions for ultrabooks.

According to road map the release date seems to be the second quarter and third quarter. All members of AX-5000 quad-cores series will appear in Q2 (April). While the double-core models will appear in Q3 (July).


For full specifications list of next AMD APU family with AMD A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, A6-5400K and the A4-5300 check out the table bellow!

Credits: (donanimhaber.com)

There is no clear information about prices! But we could expect them to be released soon!

More news:
(donanimhaber.com) AMD A10 Series A10-5800K Black Edition
(cpu-world.com) AMD-A10-Series (Bulldozer) - A10-5800K
(guruht.com) AMD A10-5800K - A10-5700 - A8-5600K

By: Air T. 

Nvidia GK104 PCB pictured with some unusual power connector design!

First "real" Kepler (GK104) PCB shot from Asian website chiphell! They claim to be a real picture of the reference PCB.

The PCB is green in color and it's obviously an early engineering sample. The final product (branded GeForce GTX680 / GTX670 Ti) will likely have a black-colored one. The estimated length of the card is about 25 cm. On the picture we see the front side of PCB of a total 8 memory chips, which confirms the heavily rumoured 256Bit wide memory interface, with likely 2 GB of GDDR5. But it may be even 512-bit interface if the memory chips are placed also on the back side!
 

On the CAD drawing of NVIDIA's GeForce Kepler 104 (GK104) reference board we see that there are two SLI bridge connectors, giving it 3-way and 4-way SLI support. Two way SLI bridge interface appears only on the flagship graphics cards! It seems that NVIDIA could potentially aim with the GK104 as a high-end product to compete with AMD's flagship card Radeon HD7970! 

Other connectors on the card are dual DVI, one HDMI and one DisplayPort output. The card is loaded with a 5+2 phase power design (5-phase NVVDC configuration).

On the last two pictures we see a strange double-decker power connector. External power supply has a new plug with two 6pin PCI-E + 8pin PCI-E connector!

More news, pictures on:
(Computerbase.de) Erscheint Nvidias KEPLER als GK104 grafikchip am 23.maerz
(Vr-zone.com) Nvidia GK104 PCB pictured
(Techpowerup.com) GK104 PCB Pictured in Full

By: Air T. 

ASUS Maximus V Gene - mATX (intel Z77 chipset) specifications revealed!

Asus does it again! Beautiful and a lot of features on a micro ATX (mATX) motherboard for the latest Intel Core i7/i5/i3 3nd generation processors (LGA1155 socket), that even fits in compact gaming PC case! It's the ASUS Republic of Gamers motherboard based on upcoming Intel Z77 chipset.

Credits: (maximum-tech.net)

ASUS ROG Maximus V GENE LGA1155 Z77 Motherboard Details:

 
 Specifications:

- LGA1155 socket for 3nd generation Intel Core procesor-based platform and 2nd Generation Core i7/ i5/ i3/ Pentium/ Celeron processors
- 8 phase CPU power design + 4 -phase iGPU power design Extreme Engine DIGI+ II power design
- 4 DIMM, Dual-channel DDR3 2600+ MHz (O.C.)
- 2 x PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots
- 1 x PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slot
- 1 x mPCIe combo add-on card
- supports both NVIDIA SLi and AMD Crossfire
- 2 x SATA 3Gb/s (Black)
- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s (Red)
- 1 x eSATA 2 Gb/s
-  2 x USB 3.0 (blue)
- 4 x USB 2.0 (1 for ROG Connect)
- 1 x Clr CMOS switch
- 1 x ROG connect button
- 1 x S/PDIF out (Optical)
- Intel Gb LAN
- 7.1 channel HD audio I/O (SupremeFX III circuitry).

It comes with an HDMI and a DisplayPort for display connectivity.
 

One of new interesting features is called a mPCIe COMBO! 

 

Video: How To Use The Maximus V GENE mPCIe Combo card

Finally some impressive mATX motherboard! Really like the arrangement on this motherboard. It looks much better than the Gigabyte Z77 G1. Sniper M3.

The exact pricing details and release dates are unknown, but we could expect them to be released soon!

By: Air T.

AMD is releasing three new 95W Zambezi FX CPUs in Q1

AMD is apparently preparing another refresh line of FX-series dekstop CPUs

  

 (Credits: donanimhaber.com)

According to current leaked road map, AMD is planning to add three new 95 Watt thermal design power models four, six and eight-core CPUs to its product range! 

AMD's new 95W eight-core processor will be the model FX-8140 - featuring clocks of 3.2 GHz and Turbo Core up to 4.1 GHz with Turbo Core 2.0 technology. and 16MB of cache.

 

 AMD's new 95W six-core processor will be the model FX-6120 - featuring clocks of 3.5 GHz and Turbo Core up to 4.1 GHz with Turbo Core 2.0 technology and 14MB of cache

AMD's new 95W quad-core processor will be the model FX-4150 - featuring clocks of 3.9 GHz and Turbo Core up to 4.1 GHz with Turbo Core 2.0 technology and 12MB of cache. 

 

The exact pricing details and release dates are unknown, but we could expect them to be released in March.

Entire NVIDIA "Kepler" series GPU Specifications leaked!

 

Nvidia Kepler specs are "finally" out! Lineup has been "fully detailed", with specifications including clock speeds, memory totals and bus bandwidth.

(Credits: lenzfire.com)

Bumping through the list, specs shows us that reference GTX680 will have just 2GB! But even with 1GB less than HD 7970, Nvidia GTX680 is able to perform 45% faster. Also GTX680 boasts double the amount of stream processors compared to GTX580. We already know that the entire Kepler series will be PCI-E 3.0 compliant and that is manufactured on TSMC’s 28nm technology. For a $100 more than HD 7970 you’ll be getting almost a 45% faster card! GTX680 is priced at $649 and will be released in April 2012.

(Credits: lenzfire.com) 

The GTX 680 will apparently perform 45% better than the HD 7970. Well, this is a bold claim as AMD's new HD 7000 series cards made big performance gains over the past generations already. I’d like to see some TDP ratings as well. 

 Only time will tell!  So i would take this specs with a grain of salt.


By: Air T.

Asus shows off X79 motherboards "LGA 2011"

 Asus images and some specs of motherboards that support Intel's new Sandy Bridge E chips. Asus has three of its upcoming X79 products, P9X79 DELUXE, P9X79 Pro and Rampage IV Extreme

 ASUS P9X79 DELUXE

Picture source: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk

ASUS P9X79 Pro 

The biggest difference between P9X79 Pro and Deluxe is the 16+2+2+2 VRM setup on the Deluxe over the 8+2+2+2 setup on the Pro. The higher amount of power phases means that overclocking ability should be a little better on the Deluxe version. The DELUXE board has Triple card SLI / CrossFireX making it that little bit more enthusiast orientated. It has another Gigabit networking port with two extra USB 3.0 ports and a new BT V3.0 GO similar to P8P67 DELUXE - BT GO V2.1.
Another interesting feature is USB 3.0 Boost. Asus claims a performance increase of up to "170%".More about USB 3.0 boost you can find here: (vr-zone.com) - Asus-launches USB 3.0 speed booster UASP support for ASMedia

ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME

Picture source: http://www.tweaktown.com


The ASUS Rampage IV Extreme looks to be one of the best ROG boards to date from the company.

The Rampage IV Extreme is a overclocking motherboard and it's going to be "expensive". This is going to be one of the most hardcore options on the market and any true ROG fan is going to absolutely love what ASUS has brought to the table.

All of Asus boards will support UEFI BIOS and one-touch USB BIOS "flash" updates. It allows you to flash the BIOS of a motherboard with literally nothing in the system. It gets handy if you get a motherboard and a brand new CPU that wasn't supported on the shipping BIOS. With a USB flash drive you can get to the latest BIOS without the need of getting an older compatible CPU.


Intel's X79 brings support for four memory channels resulting in a possible eight DDR3 DIMMs, plus USB3, AMD Crossfire and Nvidia SLI support.

Intel is expected to release its Core i7 39XX range of chips in the coming weeks, which are set to replace the LGA1366 Core i7 Nehalem chips that launched the Core-series chips back in 2008. Socket LGA2011 mainboards will also support the so-called Sandy Bridge E chips, which are Core i7 processors marketed for workstations.

While pictures are out, Intel's NDA still hasn't expired so there's no official word on pricing, but expect both Asus and Gigabyte to price their X79 boards from £200, with the RoG and Assassin boards coming in at £300 or above.

 More news, pictures on: 

(expertreviews.co.uk) Asus-motherboards show off
(tweaktown.com) Asus P9X79 Pro and Deluxe motherboard preview
(tweaktown.com) Asus_RAMPAGE IV EXTREME_motherboard_preview

Time to get excited! Gigabyte X79 motherboards "LGA 2011"

New Gigabyte images and some specs of motherboards that support Intel's new Sandy Bridge E chips. Gigabyte has four of its upcoming X79 products, G1.Assassin 2, X79-UD7, X79-UD5 and X79-UD3.

These LGA 2011 boards make use of 3-way digital power technology, and have four or eight (only UD5) DDR3 memory, slots, up to ten SATA ports (both 6.0 Gbps and 3.0 Gbps), three (G1.Assassin 2, X79-UD5) or four (X79-UD7, X79-UD3) PCI-Express x16 slots, Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, USB 3.0 connectivity, and various other, model-specific goodies. The G1.Assassin 2 for example includes a Killer 2100 NIC and a Creative X-Fi audio processor, while the X79-UD7 boasts with two SATA port connectors and overclocking buttons.

Expect an official announcement from Gigabyte in the coming weeks.

G1.Assassin 2 

GA-X79-UD7

GA-X79-UD5

 

GA-X79-UD3

Picture source: http://sinhardware.com

Some quick info about Gigabytes BIOS/UEFI on screenshots from (anandtech.com):First looka at Gigabytes UEFI setup on X79

I'm not an ASUS fanboy either. But if you compare these boards to ASUS! You can see an instant change. ASUS includes 8 DIMMS on every motherboard, and their SLI support increases as the boards become higher-spec. ASUS's layouts make much more sense than Gigabytes.

Facebook page:
GIGABYTE USA page:
http://www.facebook.com-Gigabyte X79

Intel's X79 brings support for four memory channels resulting in a possible eight DDR3 DIMMs, plus USB3, AMD Crossfire and Nvidia SLI support.

Intel is expected to release its Core i7 39XX range of chips in the coming weeks, which are set to replace the LGA1366 Core i7 Nehalem chips that launched the Core-series chips back in 2008. Socket LGA2011 mainboards will also support the so-called Sandy Bridge E chips, which are Core i7 processors marketed for workstations.

While pictures are out, Intel's NDA still hasn't expired so there's no official word on pricing, but expect both Asus and Gigabyte to price their X79 boards from £200, with the RoG and Assassin boards coming in at £300 or above.

AMD Radeon HD 7000 GPUs listed in leaked driver (drivers download)

AMD Catalyst driver 8.91, presumably preview for 11.11, has leaked on the internet, containing references to AMD's next-gen Radeon HD 7000 family. In addition to previously leaked codenames, the 8.91 driver also lists final branding, ranging from Radeon HD 7300 to Radeon HD 7600 series

 

The relevant names are listed as follows:

AMD6778.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7000 series"
AMD68FA.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7300 Series"
AMD6850.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400 Series"
AMD6858.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400 Series"

AMD6859.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400 Series"

AMD677B.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400 Series"

AMD6772.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400A Series"

AMD675D.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7500 Series"

AMD6742.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7500/7600 Series"

AMD6841.7 = "AMD Radeon HD 7500M/7600M Series"

AMD675B.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7600 Series"

AMD6751.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7600A Series"

AMD6840.7 = "AMD Radeon HD 7600M Series"

AMD683B.1 = "CAPE VERDE PRO"

AMD683F.1 = "CAPE VERDE PRO"

AMD6839.1 = "CAPE VERDE XT"

AMD683D.1 = "CAPE VERDE XT"

AMD6838.1 = "CAPE VERDE XTX"

AMD682F.1 = "CHELSEA PRO"

AMD6824.1 = "CHELSEA XT"

AMD682D.1 = "CHELSEA XT"

AMD6831.1 = "GREAT WALL"

AMD6821.1 = "HEATHROW PRO"

AMD6827.1 = "HEATHROW PRO"

AMD6820.1 = "HEATHROW XT"

AMD6825.1 = "HEATHROW XT"

AMD6819.1 = "PITCAIRN PRO"

AMD6818.1 = "PITCAIRN XT"

AMD6799.1 = "SI NEW ZEALAND"

AMD679A.1 = "SI TAHITI PRO"

AMD6798.1 = "SI TAHITI XT"

AMD6830.1 = "SUMMER PALACE XT"

AMD9901.1 = "TRINITY DEVASTATOR DESKTOP"

AMD9904.1 = "TRINITY DEVASTATOR LITE DESKTOP"

AMD9903.2 = "TRINITY DEVASTATOR LITE MOBILE"

AMD9900.2 = "TRINITY DEVASTATOR MOBILE"

AMD9991.1 = "TRINITY SCRAPPER DESKTOP"

AMD9990.2 = "TRINITY SCRAPPER MOBILE"

AMD6800.1 = "WIMBLEDON XT"

 

There are a string of Radeon HD 7000, containing Radeon HD 7300, 7400, 7500, and 7600 Series. For notebooks, HD 7500M and HD 7600M are listed.  Also mentioned are HD 7400A and HD 7600A Series for All-in-one PCs. 

 

In addition, several codenames have been revealed. Most codenames, such as Heathrow, Chelsea, Thames, New Zealand, and Wimbledon (mobile GPUs) and Tahiti, New Zealand and Cape Verde (desktop GPUs) have been revealed before. We have two new codenames leaked with this driver - Summer Palace and Great Wall. Unlike the mobile GPU codenames which are locales in London and desktop GPUs which refer islands; these two codenames refer to monuments in China. New Zealand and Tahiti now contain the prefix "SI" or Southern Islands. 

 

Finally, a host of integrated graphics codenames for Trinity APUs are also confirmed. We know that Trinity will be available in two forms - quad and dual core, over three segments, presumably A8, A6 and A4. Likewise, the GPU in quad-core parts are codenames Devastator, in both mobile and desktop variants. Devastator will be part of A8 while Devastator Lite will be integrated in A6 APUs, with some units disabled, like the Llano A6 APUs. The dual-core Trinity will most likely feature a scaled down GPU, codenamed Scrapper. Devastator and Scrapper fit in well with the Piledriver CPU cores in Trinity, at least linguistically. 

 

Judging by the concrete brandings, which only go up to HD 7600, it appears AMD is following a similar strategy to NVIDIA - releasing mainstream parts before performance/enthusiast GPUs. Moreover, AMD's demonstrations have all been mainstream notebook GPUs. The die AMD recently showed off is also believed to be a mid-sized mainstream GPU. This strategy makes sense for both AMD and NVIDIA as it allows to learn the unfamiliar 28nm process before delving into complicated large die performance GPUs. 

 

The first AMD Radeon HD 7000 GPUs are expected to release in December, while NVIDIA is aiming for Q1 2012. 

 

Source:(VR-Zone) AMD Radeon HD 7000 GPUs listed in leaked driver

 

 

The 8.91 drivers are available from official site: http://support.amd.com or from direct link: 

Win7 -Vista AMD Catalyst 11.10 preview3 - Win7 - Vista

Win XP: AMD Catalyst 11.10 preview3 - Win XP 

 

 

From tweeter acount (@CatalystCreator):

 
CatalystCreator: Cat 11.10 V3 - will be released officially tomorrow (we wanted to do some Rage testing) - but I see that it's already out in the wild...
CatalystCreator: BattleField 3 - there will a CAP update later this week to resolve CrossFire issues - use in combination with the either V2 or V3 driver
CatalystCreator: Cat 11.10 V3 preview only includes additional Rage fixes from V2
CatalystCreator: Cat 11.10 official release will happen Oct 31 - but Catalyst 11.10 V3 is pretty much the identical driver, so use with BF3 (plus new CAP)

 

Release Notes from AMD site:

AMD Catalyst™ 11.10 Version 3 Preview Driver Features:

• Reduces random crashing and stability encountered when playing Rage on Windows® 7 32-bit edition
• Reduces object / animation flickering and texture corruption encountered when playing Rage
• Reduces stuttering seen on Dual CPU and Tri CPU core systems
• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on single GPU configurations using the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 series of products.
• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on AMD CrossFire™ configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 series of products.
• Improves performance in Rage on single GPU configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000, AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series and AMD Radeon HD 4000 series of products.
• Reduces intermittent crashing seen loading levels in Rage
• Reduces flickering of NPCs in Rage
• Enables automatic Vsync for Rage
• Enables support for AMD Eyefinity 5x1 display (portrait and landscape) configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 series of products.
• AMD Vision Engine Control Center: User Interface enhancements have been implemented for the AMD CrossfireX™, GPU AMD Overdrive™ and Information Center pages.

AMD Bulldozer "Zambezi" FX-8150 is here!

AMD launches FX Series Bulldozer CPUs!  

 

Today was the offical launch day for four parts, two octa-core FX-8150 and FX-8120, one hexa core, FX-6100 and one quad core, FX-4100.

AMD finally lifted the NDA veil off its FX Series desktop CPUs based on the Bulldozer architecture and 32nm manufacturing process. The entire FX Series lineup includes seven parts. The much anticipated AMD FX family of CPUs are finally here!

Suggested retail price (U.S.):

• FX-8150: Eight cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.9 GHz Turbo Core, 4.2 GHz Max Turbo), $245 ($345 w/ water cooler)
• FX-8120: Eight cores, 3.1 GHz CPU base (3.4 GHz Turbo Core, 4.0 GHz Max Turbo), $205
• FX-6100: Six cores, 3.3 GHz CPU base (3.6 GHz Turbo Core, 3.9 GHz Max Turbo), $165
• FX-4100: Four cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.7 GHz Turbo Core, 3.8 GHz Max Turbo), $115

 Suggested retail price (EU):

• FX-8150: Eight cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.9 GHz Turbo Core, 4.2 GHz Max Turbo), €229
• FX-8120: Eight cores, 3.1 GHz CPU base (3.4 GHz Turbo Core, 4.0 GHz Max Turbo), €189
• FX-6100: Six cores, 3.3 GHz CPU base (3.6 GHz Turbo Core, 3.9 GHz Max Turbo), €162
• FX-4100: Four cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.7 GHz Turbo Core, 3.8 GHz Max Turbo), €115

The first four CPU models will be available the next few days. AMD advises you to combine them with AMD 9-series chipset motherboard and AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards to create the AMD “Scorpius” platform for “an astounding gaming and HD entertainment experience.

CyberPower rolls out AMD Bulldozer-powered gaming systems: www.tcmagazine.com or on official site: www.cyberpowerpc.com - AMD PCs

 

Reviews, overclocks:

(Fudzilla) AMD FX-8150 overclocked to 8030.15 MHz
(HotHardware) AMD FX-8150 8-Core CPU Review: Bulldozer Is Here
(Guru3D) AMD FX 8150 processor review
(HardwareHeaven) AMD FX-8150 Black Edition 8-Core Processor vs Core i7-2600K Review
(Hardware Canucks) AMD Bulldozer FX-8150 Processor Review
(KitGuru) AMD FX 8150 Black Edition 8-Core Review (with Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
(TweakTown) AMD FX-8150 (AM3+) 3.6GHz Bulldozer CPU Review
(Legit Reviews) AMD FX-8150 Processor Review - Bulldozer Arrives
(Hexus) AMD Bulldozer FX-8150
(VR-Zone) AMD FX-8150 overclocking-review
(VR-Zone) AMD FX-8150 Memory Scaling Investigation - Feeding the Bulldozer
(Bit-tech) AMD FX-8150 Review
(Anandtech)The Bulldozer Review: AMD FX-8150 Tested
(Bjorn3d) AMD FX-8150 CPU: Bulldozer
(Bbitlabs) Bulldozer Has Arrived: AMD FX-8150 Processor Review
(Tomshardware) AMD FX-8150 Review: From Bulldozer To Zambezi To FX
(Hardocp) AMD Bulldozer / FX-8150 Desktop Performance Review
(Hardocp) AMD Bulldozer / FX-8150 Gameplay Performance Review

Some interesting comparisons when it comes to performance! AMDs high-end FX-8150 as a Core-i5 2500K beater, whereas it plays pretty evenly with Intel's Core i7-2600K with some benchmark wins and some benchmark losses. Of course this will depend quite a lot on the benchmarks. AMD FX-8150 doesn't really stand out in most of the tests! It's quite badly beaten in some tests. But in many cases, AMD's FX-8150 is able to close the gap between the Phenom II X6 and Intel's Core i5 2500K. Given the right workload, Bulldozer is actually able to hang with Intel's fastest Sandy Bridge parts.

Judging by reviews it doesn't look like the FX-series will be enough for AMD to oust Intel from the performance position in most benchmarks. Real world performance is much more important and if AMD can show that it has what it takes. Then we could see its new FX CPUs gaining some popularity. Either which way we look at it, we're getting a lot of CPU for our money.

AMD still has to work on its Bulldozer architecture to reach a full potential....

The Good
- Modern design, elegant modular architecture
- Attractive pricing
- AM3+ socket is backwards compatible

The Bad
- Not as fast as Thuban (1100T) in light-load apps
- Under-load power-draw not ideal
- Arguably still behind Intel's SB as an all-round chip

By: Air T.
 

AMD Socket FM1 Llano A8-3870K Black Edition and A6-3670K first official unlocked Llano models

AMD is planning a major update to Fusion-A series processors. The first details emerged before, "K" series won a formality Fusion processors are unlocked multiplier.

  (Credits: donanimhaber.com)

AMD A8-3870K and A6-3670K will not only have free settings for the multiplier for bus-free overclocking, the new APUs will also be the flagships of each respective category.

AMD A8-3870K will be the first Llano circuits to reach 3.0 GHz and it does it with four CPU cores and a powerful GPU with 400 Radeon cores. The GPU is still set to 600 MHz, as the TDP is set to 100 watt.

AMD A6-3670K in turn raise the clock frequency from A6-3650 to 2.7 GHz, while the GPU and TDP is maintained from the base model.

More news:
(Nordichardware.com) AMD A8-3870K and A6-3670K unlocked Llano models
(Xbitlabs.com) Advanced Micro Devices Readies “K” Unlocked A-Series APUs for Overclockers
(TechPowerUp.com) AMD Readies Two Unlocked A Series APUs

A price-performance shock from AMD! Bulldozer FX 8150 beats Core i7-980X and Core i7 2600K in benchmarks!

It looks like AMD's Bulldozer shocked, Intel in price-performance war.

 In the press deck of AMD FX Processor series leaked by DonanimHaber ahead of its launch, AMD claims huge performance leads over Intel. To sum it up, AMD claims that its AMD FX 8150 processor is looking Intel's Core i7-980X in the eye in game tests, even edging past it in some DirectX 11 titles.

It is performing on par with the Core i7-2600K in several popular CPU benchmarks such as WinRAR 4, X.264 pass 2, Handbrake, 7Zip, POV Ray 3.7, ABBYY OCR, wPrime 32M, and Bibble 5.0. AMD FX 8150 is claimed to be genuinely benefiting from the FMA4 instruction set that Sandy Bridge lacks, in the OCL

Performance Mandelbrot test, the FX 8150 outperforms the i7-2600K by as much as 70%. 

 Lastly, the pricing of the FX 8150 is confirmed to be around the $250 mark. Given this, and the fact that the Core i7-2600K is priced about $70 higher, Intel is in for a price-performance shock.

"Bulldozer - based new generation of AMD's FX traders are prepared to announce it on October 12"


if this is real..imagine what an 5GHz FX can do...then the competition in the CPU market is back!

Source: Donanimhaber.com All about Bulldozer, AMD: Processors (Google translate)