Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-A Review

Mar 24 2008 @ 09:47PM by jimmy

Think Computers has reviewed the 790FX based Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-A. Buy.com has this motherboard here for $233.99 with free shipping.

The major point of frustration was incessant crashing in Windows XP 64-bit while the main SATA controller was in IDE mode. This should not happen Ever. ASUS was unable to reproduce the error, though. I'm sure it's the board or Windows itself, as I tried multiple hard drives and rearranged RAM in multiple configurations. A second point of frustration may or may not be ASUS's fault: I could not get USB mass storage devices to function properly in Ubuntu, even with ASUS's official drivers. After a few megabytes were transferred, USB would die except for my keyboard, which allowed primary input but the extra keys would not work (Logitech G15 Gamer). I'm still tracking this down, and am hoping that it's a kernel issue solved in a kernel more recent than that which is included in Gutsy (2.6.22). Hardy beta will be released by the time this article is published, perhaps I'll report in the forums if it works.

 

More Quad-core, Tri-core Phenoms Roadmapped

Mar 23 2008 @ 08:50PM by jimmy

DailyNDA Break has details on AMD's Phenom roadmap.

"AMD's first updates to its performance segment will take place a quarter of the way into Q2 2008, AMD will unveil two new Phenom processors: the AMD Phenom 9750 and the Phenom 9850. The Phenom 9850 features a 125 Watt thermal envelope and runs at 2.5 GHz, while the Phenom 9750 runs at 2.4 GHz and features a 125 Watt TDP. Around this time another configuration of the Phenom 9750 will be released, but this processor will feature a lower 95W TDP.

 

DDR3 Support in AMD 8 Series Chipsets Next Year

Feb 29 2008 @ 09:30PM by jimmy

Fudo also discusses chipsets from AMD. Apparently DDR3 support will hit in their 8 series chipsets coming next year by Cebit time.

"AMD is about to launch its RS780 chipset that will bring Hybrid Crossfire to life. After 790FX and 780G chipsets it will be the time to go for 8 series of AMD chipsets. Don’t worry this won't happen in 2008 as the chipset upgrade happens once a year. The new 8 series of chipset should be done by Cebit 2009."

 

AMD > NVIDIA...IGP

Jan 01 2008 @ 09:24PM by jimmy

The battle of the integrated graphics chips is heating up, and the latest rumor is that the AMD RS780 will offer better performance then the NVIDIA MCP 78S. A few years ago many people wouldn't care what kind of graphics performance their IGP could produce, but these last few generations of on-board video have done a great job closing the gap with low-end add-in cards.

Keep in mind that this is just a rumor, but here's the skinny:

“The RS780 is reported to have 15-20% better performance than the MCP 78S in 3DMark 05 and 06 tests, while the higher-end MCP 78U cannot function normally with the original passive northbridge heatpipe due to the higher core frequencies of the graphics engine. Adopting a larger heatpipe or fan will cause costs to rise significantly, pointed out the sources. Nvidia is still struggling with the problem, they added.

Additionally, motherboard makers have not yet taken delivery of MCP 78 chipset supplies, which means that the original launch schedule of motherboards might have to be postponed back to the end of January or beginning of February, noted the sources.”

 

All Athlon 64 Models

Oct 03 2007 @ 02:57PM by jimmy

Hardware Secrets has a list of all of the Athlon 64 models.

All new processors from AMD found on the stores nowadays are based on AMD’s Athlon 64 architecture, also known as x86-64 or “hammer”. In this tutorial we will list all Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64 X2 models released so far and the main differences between them.

These three CPUs plus Sempron are targeted to desktop PCs, with Sempron targeted to low-end computers, Athlon 64 targeted to mid-range computers and Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64 X2 targeted to high-end computers. Athlon 64 X2 is the dual-core version of Athlon 64. There are three other CPUs based on Athlon 64’s architecture: Mobile Athlon 64 and Turion 64, which are argeted to mobile computers, and Opteron, which is targeted to servers.

 

AMD's 3GHz K10 to break 30,000 3DMark06

Aug 28 2007 @ 10:45PM by jimmy

The Inquirer details some additional Barcelona performance. I could barely break 20K with an Intel QX6850 Quadcore with an 8800 Ultra in SLI mode in 3DMark06.....

In the real world, our Intel Kentie 2.93GHz test bed will score around 7.5 GB/s, Athlon 64 X2 5000+ shoots around 8.3-8.8 GB/s, depending on the memory latency, and now Phenom scores even better – pretty close to a five figure range. But regardless of missing the 10 GB/s mark, it is still faster than any DDR3 memory on an Intel system, regardless of the clock achieved by the DDR3 memory. If you put the memory on 1066 MHz, 11GB/s bandwidth was smashed with read, write and copy tests and that was by quite some margin.

 

AMD versus Intel Redux

Aug 27 2007 @ 09:00PM by jimmy

Business Week covers AMD verus Intel yet again.

"It's no secret that Intel has been trying to put a world of hurt on rival Advanced Micro Devices. Is AMD marketing and sales czar the latest casualty? News that the outspoken Henri Richard is "departing of his own accord," according to an AMD statement, does little to quell speculation that the smaller chipmaker may have seen its best days gone by. Richard, known for his great one-liners and promises of utter annihilation of the competition, was the man in charge of actually translating AMD's chip advancements into real-world profits."

Full article

 

AMD's Henri Richard

Aug 27 2007 @ 08:54PM by jimmy

The Inquirer reports on an AMD memo on Henri Richard's leaving the company.

"We are sad to announce that Henri Richard has made the decision to leave AMD.

When Henri joined AMD in 2002, his primary mission was to establish a world-class global Sales and Marketing organization. It is safe to say that he has accomplished that mission, and he is now ready for a new challenge in his career. While we will certainly miss him, it’s a measure of his success that the organization he leaves behind is fully poised to succeed and capable of maintaining and building the momentum that we have built."

 

The Desktop CPU Comparison Guide

Aug 27 2007 @ 08:49PM by jimmy

Tech ARP has updated their desktop CPU comparison guide to revision 3.6.

There are so many CPU models that it has become quite impossible to keep up with the different models or even remember their specifications!

Therefore, we decided to compile this guide to provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications of the various desktop CPUs in the market, as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete.

Currently covering over 590 desktop CPUs, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare up to 18 different specifications for each and every CPU!

 

With AMD Riding Waves of Volatility

Apr 30 2007 @ 12:29AM by jimmy

Thanks to John Chludzinski for this link to the New York Times talking about AMD stock. A.M.D. finds it hard to beat its nemesis because it keeps beating itself, analysts and fund managers who follow the chip industry say. The company is known for accomplishing the critical aspects of semiconductor production flawlessly — but seldom all at the same time.

“A.M.D. is a company that has really struggled to execute on all cylinders,” said Telis D. Bertsekas, manager of the MFS Technology fund. “Historically, it would have windows of technology leadership, then it would flub the manufacturing and distribution. Customers could never really trust them.”

In the latest episode of the rise and fall of A.M.D., the company seemed on the verge of slashing into Intel’s leadership late in 2004, when it developed a microprocessor that produced less heat than others available at the time, a feature that made it ideal for use in industrial servers.

 

AMD Updates First Quarter Outlook

Apr 10 2007 @ 11:37AM by jimmy

AMD Updates First Quarter Outlook

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - April 9, 2007 -AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced it expects to report revenue of approximately $1.225 billion in the quarter ending March 31, 2007. Revenues declined sharply quarter-over-quarter for the Computing Solutions segment, primarily due to lower overall average selling prices and significantly lower unit sales, especially in the resale channel. AMD plans to restructure its business model to increase operational efficiencies and lower its operating cost structure. AMD will reduce 2007 capital expenditures by approximately $500 million, which the company believes will not materially impact capacity plans for the year. AMD will also significantly reduce discretionary expenses and limit hiring to critical positions. The company will provide more details during its conference call to report first quarter 2007 financial results on April 19. AMD will report first quarter 2007 financial results after market close on April 19, 2007. AMD will hold a conference call for the financial community at 2:00 p.m. PT to discuss first quarter results. A real-time audio broadcast of the teleconference will be provided at www.amd.com and www.streetevents.com. The webcast will be available for ten days after the conference call.

 

Chip Price War Staggers AMD

Apr 03 2007 @ 11:52AM by jimmy

Stock Off 60% In Past Year As Company Grapples With A Resurgent Intel. AMD stocks are hovering above $12 a share.....

Bad news for existing share holders, while on the other hand, people looking to invest to make a good buck in a year or two giving that AMD refinances, thier stock will most probably bounce right back up again.

"Its shares have plunged more than 60 percent during the past year on fears about the company's ability to continue gaining share without hurting profit margins. Meanwhile, Intel's stock has dropped far less.

Investors are concerned that AMD is spending too heavily to keep up with Intel's aggressive transition to next-generation manufacturing technology.

AMD's fall has wiped out about $10 billion in shareholder wealth. Analysts say the exodus will likely continue until the company resolves fears about its dwindling cash reserves and high capital expenditures."

More details

 

AMD Strengthens Embedded Offerings with Graphics Chipset, Development Board for Embedded Designers

Apr 03 2007 @ 11:41AM by jimmy

AMD Strengthens Embedded Offerings with Graphics Chipset, Development Board for Embedded Designers

AMD M690 Chipset for Embedded Designs and AMD Socket S1 and AMD M690 Chipset Development Board Enable Faster Time-to-Market for Embedded Designers Embedded Systems Conference

SAN JOSE, Calif.--At the Embedded Systems Conference this week, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced the continued expansion of its embedded product offerings with the release of the AMD M690 Chipset for Embedded Designs, which provides a stable and reliable commercial embedded computing platform that includes cutting-edge graphics and performance features along with outstanding connectivity options. Supporting the availability of the AMD M690 Chipset for Embedded Designs, the company also announced the AMD Socket S1 and AMD M690 chipset development board, for high-performance capabilities with a low power envelope.

The AMD M690 chipset gives embedded system designers a choice when using the leading-edge capabilities of AMD64 technology. The AMD solution boasts graphics and enhanced video performance and numerous display and connectivity options – key capabilities for next-generation thin client, point of sale, gaming and single board computing systems, among others.

 

Fastest CPU For End of 2007?

Apr 03 2007 @ 11:37AM by jimmy

Tech Report has a poll up asking who will make the fastest CPU. Intel is ahead 52% to 48% at present with 3483 votes total in.

 

Could AMD Be The First To Ship 8-Core CPUs?

Apr 03 2007 @ 11:33AM by jimmy

While it's a short news post, it does contain an interesting tidbit of information. It seems that AMD is planning to follow the strategy of rival Intel by sticking two of their upcoming quad-core CPUs on one die and calling it an 8-core CPU. Intel is using the same strategy at the moment with their quad-core designs, which are really two dual-core CPUs on the same die.

So the question is, can AMD double up their native-quad core CPUs before Intel can either figure out a way to put 4 dual-core CPUs on a single die, or develop a native quad-core?

"HOW DO YOU get from Montreal to Shanghai? If you are AMD, you put two Shanghais on an MCM and get to eight cores. How? HT3."

 

AMD Launches New 690G and 690V Chipsets

Feb 28 2007 @ 01:59AM by jimmy

DailyNDABreak reports that tomorrow AMD will launch the 690G and 690V chipsets.

AMD will finally launch its long-awaited 690-series chipset-family tomorrow. Two variants will spearhead the release: the RS690-based mainstream AMD 690G with ATI Radeon X1250 graphics, and the RS690C-based value AMD 690V with ATI Radeon X1200 graphics.

AMD’s 690-family hit plenty of snags along its development cycle. Early roadmaps showed a 2H’2006 launch, however, AMD kept pushing the launch back. Motherboard vendors blamed the delayed launch on AMD for multiple delays with the RS690. AMD’s discrete RX690 variant that was to launch in the same timeframe as RS690 has yet to make an appearance.

The integrated ATI Radeon X1250 and X1200 graphics cores are identical, in terms of 3D capabilities. Although the ATI Radeon X700-series provides the foundation for the ATI Radeon X1250/X1200 IGP, it is a neutered derivative. The ATI Radeon X1200-family IGP features two pixel-pipelines and two vertex-shaders. Unlike some ATI Radeon X1000-series GPUs, the pixel-pipelines have not been decoupled – the ATI Radeon X1200-family only has two pixel-shaders. AMD specifies a 400 MHz GPU-core clock for reference designs.

 

Athlon 64 X2 5200+ vs Core 2 Duo E6400

Feb 28 2007 @ 01:56AM by jimmy

Legion Hardware compares the Athlon 64 X2 5200+ versus the Core 2 Duo E6400.

"Of course the Athlon64 X2 5200+ was never meant to cost just $220 US, especially in the first quarter of 2007, but for obvious reasons it does. Even though the 5200+ never won a gaming benchmark it was able to match the E6400 on a number of occasions. Given the age of the Athlon64 X2 this is a tremendous achievement and although the 5200+ does have a fair clock advantage, it is still rated at well below 3.0GHz! These Athlon64 X2 processors will have to do for now, as backup is not expected until 2008 and even then AMD does not expect a speedy transition to their new platform."

 

AMD predicts slow transition to K8L

Feb 24 2007 @ 12:42PM by jimmy

In a bit of sad news for AMD fans, Hector Ruiz, Chief Executive for the company, has stated that K8L will not take off this year. K8L is the future answer to Core, and represents a significant change in architecture that could vastly improve the performance of AMD processors.

That is something sorely needed right now, with the Core and its variants again and again winning the performance battle. However, AMD instead will continue to push their existing architecture for a while yet.

That doesn't mean they aren't going ahead with their plans for launches – just that propagation and adoption aren't going to be anything impressive. AMD is estimating it will be around 9 months to transition their desktop products to the new technology, whereas with Intel it was around 6 months to transition to Core. Given the blazing success of the Core as it stands and these figures, it could easily be early 2008 before we see them make a comeback.

Source: Xbitlabs

 

G90 will be a 65nm G80 with 512-bit GDDR4

Feb 24 2007 @ 12:33PM by jimmy

While we debate the current R600 rumors, The Inquirer is claiming that their "senior industry sources" have let loose the first G90 details rumors. The G90 will undertake the monumental task of putting the G80 through a die shrink. If all goes well, this will allow for very high clocks, much lower power consumption, and a lower production cost. NVIDIA also hopes to get hold of some GDDR4 for the G90, and will put it on a 512-bit bus.

 

AGP is not dead - NVIDIA brings the G84 AGP

Feb 24 2007 @ 12:29PM by jimmy

NVIDIA plans to introduce a DirectX10 and AGP compatible graphics chip in April of this year. The G84 AGP will be pin-compatible to the GeForce 7600 GPU, so it should not be that complicated to build a graphics card around it. More on the Inquirer

 

New Blu-ray laser can result in write speeds of up to 10x

Feb 24 2007 @ 12:27PM by jimmy

Nichia's new laser diode is able to emit pulsed light at 320mW, while it offers a stable operation of 1,000 hours, according to the company. The diode could be used for optical discs including Blu-ray and HD DVD, allowing 10X speed recording with a double-layer disc and 2X speed recording with a four-layer disc.

Nichia hopes to make these available by mid 2008. Of course, Blu-ray disks have to be made that can actually support this gigantic boost in burn speeds.

 

AMD Sees a Heterogeneous Future

Feb 24 2007 @ 12:14PM by jimmy

HPC Wire says that AMD sees a heterogeneous future. The interview AMD's Phil Hester.

"HPCwire: How about homogeneous multi-core? Does your roadmap stop at eight cores for AMD's Opteron line?

Hester: There are classes of workloads in the SMP server space that scale pretty well with homogeneous cores. As we scale up, I'd say the biggest single problem is not the number of cores, but the balance of memory bandwidth with the compute capabilities of those cores. As I'm sure that you know, there's a growing disparity between the rate at which the parallel execution units can consume data and the memory technology to deliver it. So we don't think as much about the absolute number of cores as how we balance the system with the available memory technology and board-level interconnect technology. In many cases, you can actually get better system level performance for a given affordable die size, by devoting more of the die to the memory hierarchy as opposed to cores.

We really approach it from the standpoint of the market requirements to determine how we spend the silicon. The cores are certainly a visible piece, but at the system performance level, it's now my view that it's more important to deal with the memory hierarchy than anything else."

 

New AMD Desktop Processors Designed for Both Performance-Hungry and Energy-Conscious Users

Feb 24 2007 @ 12:09PM by jimmy

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Feb. 20, 2007 - Underscoring its commitment to delivering the right products at the right time, AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced desktop processors designed for users seeking the ultimate in energy-conscious or high-performance computing. The new energy-efficient 45-watt AMD Athlon(tm) 64 single-core processors 3500+ and 3800+ can help consumers and businesses save energy and experience significant performance-per-watt benefits. And for those who crave high performance, AMD has also introduced the AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 dual-core processor 6000+. These new processors are expected to be immediately available in the channel and from OEMs including Alienware, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Systemax and Voodoo, representing the latest in a succession of innovations based on the award-winning AMD64 processor architecture.

 

Seven GeForce 8800 series graphics cards compared

Feb 16 2007 @ 12:09PM by jimmy

NVIDIA'S GEFORCE 8800 SERIES is a jaw-dropping marriage of performance and image quality that has raised the bar for PC graphics substantially. Not since ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro have we been so impressed by a single graphics card. The G80 GPU is simply a marvel, and if you're looking to buy a high-end graphics card today, it's the only chip you want. Of course, your quest for the best graphics card won't end there; you also have to choose between GTS and GTX flavors of the GeForce 8800. And you're still not done, because GeForce 8800 GTS and GTX cards are available from a wide variety of manufacturers, each of which tries to bring something unique to the table, be it through bundled extras, tweaked clock speeds, or exotic cooling. As daunting as the selection of GeForce 8800 series graphics cards may be, choice is a good thing. To help you wade through the options, we've rounded up a collection of GeForce 8800 series cards from BFG Tech, EVGA, Foxconn, MSI, OCZ, PNY, and XFX to see how they stack up.

Read on to see which cards rise to the top and which get lost in the reference card shuffle.

 

AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 Overclocking

Feb 16 2007 @ 12:06PM by jimmy

Firing Squad has overclocked the Athlon 64 FX70.

Without a doubt, the Quad FX CPU we’re most enthusiastic about right now is AMD’s Athlon 64 FX-70. The FX-70 has got all the key specs found in the rest of AMD’s Quad FX lineup, only it runs a little slower at 2.6GHz and most importantly, FX-70 processors can be had for a few bucks over $300. This isn’t a bad price considering the features of the processor (although the equivalent X2 CPU, the X2 5200, is now officially priced at $232), although it’s a shame AMD didn’t shave a few bucks off the FX-70’s price with their latest round of price cuts...at least the FX-70 has the unlocked clock multiplier.

The real upside to 4X4 will be when Barcelona is moved to it, and you have a full 8 cores