AMD pulls a rabbit out of their Agena hat

[BaronMatrix]

Yes folks, my prayers have been answered. And AMD has an answer to Intel's single threaded prowess, sort of. What's he babbling about you say? Well, a few months ago I thought that with the split planes and individual core voltage it would be possible for AMD or an OEM to create a utility that would allow you to adjust the frequency of a single core while turning the others down.
Well, according to the folks over at Expreview, they have such a utility being readied for the Phenom launch. Here is a pic of the utility.

So that means you don't have to run all four cores at 3.2GHz, you can just run on ethat high and keep the others at their default or lower speed. Tis will increase single-threaded performance and keep power down. I guess this is what they were talking about in the article a few days ago.

I was oping they'd say they got a retail chip and it's 10-15% faster than the ES. Still good news for AMD enthusiasts though.

 

[Ycon]

A rabbit?
I was hoping theyd finally pull some processors out of it.

 

[elbert]

Yes folks, my prayers have been answered. And AMD has an answer to Intel's single threaded prowess, sort of. What's he babbling about you say? Well, a few months ago I thought that with the split planes and individual core voltage it would be possible for AMD or an OEM to create a utility that would allow you to adjust the frequency of a single core while turning the others down.
Well, according to the folks over at Expreview, they have such a utility being readied for the Phenom launch. Here is a pic of the utility.

So that means you don't have to run all four cores at 3.2GHz, you can just run on ethat high and keep the others at their default or lower speed. Tis will increase single-threaded performance and keep power down. I guess this is what they were talking about in the article a few days ago.

I was oping they'd say they got a retail chip and it's 10-15% faster than the ES. Still good news for AMD enthusiasts though.

That is one possibility but it also allows for tweaking of each core so all the cores can be pushed to their max. IE no 2 cores run at the same temperature if all have the same multiplier and fsb. Now if 1 core is holding you back you can lower its multiplier and increase the other 3.

This may save a small percentage of quads which other wise would be tri core. IE a 2.2GHz Phenom running 3 cores at about 2.3GHz an the fourth at only 1.8~1.9.

 

[Kari]

I think thats mainly meant to be an overclocking feature, all cores will probably be running at the same speed when leaving the factory, so to speak...
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,6995.html

 

[enewmen]

This is good to hear. Shows the Phenom is a true quad core die.
Anyway, it looks like all 4 cores can be better managed depending on the workload.

 

[drysocks]

Does the Wikipedia definition of a Troll have the follow quote as an example? LO

Aw, fer cryin' out loud. Give it up. Stick a fork in AMD and just walk away. Some of you guys (mostly Baron) belong in the Flat Earth Society. Phenom is an embarrassment, a failure, a joke, and the most uncompetitive product since the Edsel... Wake up and smell the benchys!

 

[runswindows95]

What benchmarks? I haven't seen a RELIABLE benchmark for Agena as of yet. Until THG, Ananatech, or a reputable site does benchmarks, everything is speculation about its performance at this point.

 

[chunkymonster]

Aw, fer cryin' out loud. Give it up. Stick a fork in AMD and just walk away. Some of you guys (mostly Baron) belong in the Flat Earth Society. Phenom is an embarrassment, a failure, a joke, and the most uncompetitive product since the Edsel... Wake up and smell the benchys!

It's always nice to hear from the peanut gallery. The last thing this thread needs is to turn into an Intel-fanboy-flame-the-Baron-fest. Here's $.25, now go post in another forum.

 

[elbert]

That's my point, bright eyes. Benches talk and B.S. (as well as B.M.) walks. I don't give a good damn about power draw or clock for clock. What does Phenom/Barcelona do? Is there any sane person on this earth (and we know who I'm excluding) who thinks that Phenom is going to beat a Q9650 in the next 18 months?

Phenom has more to worry about from the Q6850 in the short term as the penry has to run dangerously high 1.45 volts to get 4GHz. Penry while can do this risks burning out in as short at a few months at 45nm. The Phenom has to hit dangerously high 1.5 volts to get 3GHz but at 65nm its a little less risky. The 65nm Q6850 also runs high voltage for 4GHz but not much higher than the penry. Point is the penry may be forced to run at only 3.8GHz for a reasonably long life and the 7% clock for clock advantage over the Q6850 want hold verses a OC'ed 4GHz Q6850.

Most information was taken from tomshardware review of the Q9650.

 

[chunkymonster]

DELETED

Dont use that word again.

Turpit

 

[runswindows95]

I agree, chunky. That is an impressive feature.

 

[pete4r]

DELETED

 

[weskurtz81]

I cannot remember, but this guy really sounds like someone who has posted under another name. CaptRobertApril? Maybe it was someone else, I cannot remember.

 

[james_8970]

Drysocks, mangez mois SVP.

Are you trying to say bit me in french? Cause you failed at that to.
I'm going to have to agree with the members here, this is impressive, if ti comes to be true.
Till the product is released I'm staying neutral, not jumping on either bandwagon till I see some number, and features?
James

 

[joefriday]

I think the utility is an excellent idea, and should enable overclocking of the best core for single threaded applications as Baron states. Despite the initially unimpressive showing of AMD's Barcelona, one feature I found envious over Intel's current implementation was the individual clock/vcore adjustments put into practice. It's ingenious, and it just might save the day for AMD. I look forward to seeing the experiments carried out with this tool.

 

[BaronMatrix]

Hey, Chunk, so it's ok for Baron to spam this forum for years with his B.S. and it's not alright for someone to come in and say the Emperor has no clothes? Who died and left you King... or Emperor... or Baron?

Do you know me from somewhere? I don't spam. I post relevant CPU news. Phenom was right behind Yorkfield with an engineering sample in the CrySis tests so what are you talking about. And in that test, the Intel dual cores were just as fast.

 

[BaronMatrix]

Phenom has more to worry about from the Q6850 in the short term as the penry has to run dangerously high 1.45 volts to get 4GHz. Penry while can do this risks burning out in as short at a few months at 45nm. The Phenom has to hit dangerously high 1.5 volts to get 3GHz but at 65nm its a little less risky. The 65nm Q6850 also runs high voltage for 4GHz but not much higher than the penry. Point is the penry may be forced to run at only 3.8GHz for a reasonably long life and the 7% clock for clock advantage over the Q6850 want hold verses a OC'ed 4GHz Q6850.

Most information was taken from tomshardware review of the Q9650.

Perhaps you should see the post called "Will the real Agena please stand up!" It clearly states that for the retail version 2.3GHz is achieved at .9V so 3GHz should be around 1.3V, which is not too bad, but then it may be lower by the time AMD releases it.

 

[joefriday]

I would consider the Crysis demo to be lose-lose for everyone involved. Can't wait for real data to come in about Phenom X4 (and especially how the new architecture affects the X2). Too bad it seems AMD won't be selling Barcelona-based dual cores for quite some time.

 

[sailer]

I cannot remember, but this guy really sounds like someone who has posted under another name. CaptRobertApril? Maybe it was someone else, I cannot remember.

I remember the Captain and he was fairly likeable, not like this guy at all. Maybe you're thinking of Rob, who posted under a variety of names before disappearing.

 

[BaronMatrix]

April? Yeah, he was one of the guys Baron and his gang of Jabba The Trolls pissed off so much that they fled to ***. If you guys really cared about this forum you would have banned Baron before you lost guys like that. But no, Junior Investigator, I've never posted here under any name. I've just been reading to try to get some valid information out of the pile of steaming crap that Baron and his friends have buried this forum under.

Wow, another disgruntled Intel employee, maybe. I may be whatever but I never come into a post and call names and disparage companies. Besides, I don't have any friends here, just people who post. Could it be you're mad that AMD has effectively switched their tactics due to what the server OEMs wanted?

They didn't want HT3 for Barcelona, so the actual 10h FULL IMPLEMENTATION is in AgenaFX.

An employee of AMD posted on several sites that B2F was a full 10-15% faster than the BA rev of Barcelona and with the added "bandwidth headroom" Agena should add another 5% or so. I'd say that will give similar clocked Yorkfield a run for its money.

You can disagree, but please refrain from the name-calling. As a matter of fact......

 

[spaztic7]

OK... either way, I want to see good benchmarks. I want to see 3d marks scores, see graphs of cpu usage, graphs of how fast they can get tasks done. Non of the stuff that I have seen here has really proven anything yet. At least to me. I want to hear true credible benchmarks. Now, nothing against AMD or Intel, I just care about benchmarks.

For the posts about setting each core to a different speed. That may be a nice idea, but I think it lacks the usability. Who would want to have certain cores OCed to high clocks and others at slower clocks? The only good I see in this is for running at idle, for power saving. This may have been how they were able to get the agiea to run at so low voltage? Maybe, I do not know.

For quadhardcore: DELETED If AMD dies then how will I be able to afford my next CPU!!! Seriously think before you write!

 

[weskurtz81]

I remember the Captain and he was fairly likeable, not like this guy at all. Maybe you're thinking of Rob, who posted under a variety of names before disappearing.

This guy is a ****, but kind of funny. I think he just needs to calm down a bit and stop the attacks. If he could post some useful info and stop the above, everything would be fine!!

 

[Thanatos421]

Quad, does it really matter if it will out perform the Intel offerings? No. What is important is that it will perform WITH them. Put down your thesaurus and stop posting inflammatory crap.

 

[james_8970]

To post 13 posts and already be hated by everyone in this thread. Congrats, you did what most cannot (or try not) to do. Not even Rob was this bad to begin with.
While it is true Baron is incredibly bias towards AMD, he hasn't really posted any BS in this thread as of yet and only posted relevent information, therfor he hasn't deserved your responses. The information he provided was both interesting and it'll be nice if it comes true.
So please do us all a favor and DELETED. Thank you and have a great day.
James

 

[BaronMatrix]

To post 13 posts and already be hated by everyone in this thread. Congrats, you did what most cannot (or try not) to do. Not even Rob was this bad to begin with.
While it is true Baron is incredibly bias towards AMD, he hasn't really posted any BS in this thread as of yet and only posted relevent information, therfor he hasn't deserved your responses. The information he provided was both interesting and it'll be nice if it comes true.
So please do us all a favor and DELETED.. Thank you and have a great day.
James

I'm not biased at all. I just have a preferred vendor. Try working on a P4 2.8GHz with 512MB RAM and perhaps you'll understand why I don't buy Intel. People like quad had no problem with the CrapBurst that is slowing down offices all over the world so I have a problem with him.

Intel is just a company. They do some questionable things, but I don't hate them.