WILL AMD KEEP 3DNOW!

[rcf84]

I HAVE A QUESTION WHEN AMD NEXT GENERATION PROCESSORS WILL HAVE SSE2. WHAT ABOUT 3DNOW! ARE THEY GOING TO DUMP IT?

 

[Guest]

From what I've heard, they are going to use both. But in all honesty, 3DNow was never that successful, I think it is a matter of pride that they keep it, rather than improved performance.

 

[girish]

well, i think they wont! after all, 3D Now! has a pretty good following as of now, including MS-DirectX 6.0 and many other apps.

besides, its just addition to the instruction set which uses the same MMX registers. supporting new instruction set needs to allocate cpu resources, and may cause contention with other instruction set enhancements. but backward compatibility has to be maintained. future AMD processors the Sledgehammer and Clawhammer, the Thoroughbred et al will all support MMX, eMMX, 3DNow!, e3DNow!, LDT, and SSE/SSE2 also! In fact I think even intel will start suporting 3DNow!, that it has already got sizable support and large installed base of AMD 3DNow! processors!

girish

 

[mpjesse]

A lot of people call 3D Now! a failure. I disagree. If it was so horrible then why does DX5-8, WinAMP, Quake 2-3, Unreal, and any other multimedia app use the instructions? It may not be as strong as SSE, but it came out an ENTIRE year before the P3 or SSE.

-MP Jesse