Can Someone Explain to me AMD?

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turkey3_scratch

turkey3_scratch

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Jul 15, 2014
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I only really know Intel CPUs. There is the Pentium, I3, I5, and I7 with different models of different specs, in different generations.

I have no understanding of the AMD processors. Are there generations? What AMDs are equivilant to the Pentium and i7? Could someone explain to me AMD processo types. As well as the sockets, since I'm familiar with Intel's LGA sockets.
 
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also, in super simple terms, the pentium, i3, i5, i7 could be equated to the Athlon, FX-4***, FX-6***, FX-8*** while the FX-9*** chips are sorta like the LGA-2011 lineups.

However, the athlon chips suffer from being on the FM2 socket, meaning that there's not too much upgrade potential, unlike the pentium's that lie on the same boards as i7s.

Intel cores are also about twice as "wide" as AMD cores, while AMD tends to have twice as many as intel. Unfortunately, Intel's chips are much more efficient with their resources, and will be significantly faster given parity with threads and clockrates. From a gaming perspective, it might be more accurate to equate the FX-6*** series with an i3, and the FX-8*** with an i5. The intel chips will...
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noahhicks

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Both of the lists already posted are great. The Tom's list doesn't talk about socket types and the wikipedia list is a long read. I'll sum up things for you simply based on my limited knowledge. This is a broad explanation of the types of AMD cpus out there and is in no way precise.

Currently AMD is running a few different socket types but the most common are the AM3+ and FM2+ (those are also the most recent). FM2+ sockets generally support APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) type CPUs, while AM3+ supports regular CPUs. APUs have a graphics card built into the CPU chip. In terms of gaming performance, they're better than the majority of discreet graphics solutions, but not as good as a dedicated card.

In terms of naming schemes, there's been a few over the years. For AM3+ setups it's usually, from worst to best, Sempron, Athlon, Phenom. Ad X followed by a number usually indicates number of CPU cores (Phenom X4, 4 cores).

For FM2+ chips they have been using and A followed by a bunch of numbers. A5-3400, A6-5440, A10-???? (I made those up). Again, basically the higher the number, the better the chip. Sometimes they like to throw an "FX" into the mix as well just to confuse everyone.

I forgot to mention the A1 socket. It's designed for low power applications and hasn't really caught on. It's still pretty new.

Both Microsoft and Sony's consoles run AMD APUs.
 
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blue17echo

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also, in super simple terms, the pentium, i3, i5, i7 could be equated to the Athlon, FX-4***, FX-6***, FX-8*** while the FX-9*** chips are sorta like the LGA-2011 lineups.

However, the athlon chips suffer from being on the FM2 socket, meaning that there's not too much upgrade potential, unlike the pentium's that lie on the same boards as i7s.

Intel cores are also about twice as "wide" as AMD cores, while AMD tends to have twice as many as intel. Unfortunately, Intel's chips are much more efficient with their resources, and will be significantly faster given parity with threads and clockrates. From a gaming perspective, it might be more accurate to equate the FX-6*** series with an i3, and the FX-8*** with an i5. The intel chips will still be faster in games, but there are some heavily threaded desktop applications that take advantage of the hexa and octa core AMDs

FX chips also do not come with any kind of integrated graphics, meaning that unlike most (non xeon or s series) intel chips, they will not run without a discrete GPU. This can be problematic for someone who is trying to piece together a machine over the course of a few months. If you buy an AMD processor, you're left with either an APU that will quickly prove underpowered, or you will have an FX that you cant run unless you have a video card. Intel's HD graphics are slower than AMD's APU graphics generally, but they're more than enough for non gaming purposes.

Generally, also, the new FX-****e designation means a lower power draw chip, which also seems to be a downclocked chip.
 
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blue17echo

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incredibly so, the 2011 stuff absolutely blows the FX 9 series out of the water. But in terms of application and concept they are similar. The haswell-e chips are about as much faster than regular i7s as the 9570 is to the 8350. They also both draw more power, and demand special motherboards (2011 v3, and extremely high end AM3+ with 225w socket)

But yeah, you're right, from an actual performance standpoint, we are comparing $400-$1000 chips to $250-$300 chips. The FX-9*** series doesnt even properly stand up to normal i7s, let alone Haswell-e
 
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