I got such an incredible deal that I could not resist purchasing a new AMD CPU (2600X) to replace my 2400G, and two 16 GB of G.SKILL ram... for a whopping 32 GB of memory now.
She's all up and running right now... performance seems fine now. Gained an additional 4 threads of CPU power @ a higher speed.
Showing posts with label AMD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AMD. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Back to Solus
So I had mentioned in my previous post that I was back on linux. My reason for LEAVING linux was actually quite sudden: it stopped working.
Ha! When I say it like that it sounds like linux has a problem but it did not, I did. In an effort to always improve performance with my motherboard/CPU combination, I upgraded my BIOS to the most recent rev. As soon as I did that linux started crashing on boot.
Now, I realized it was my BIOS update that caused the issue, and I tried to figure out what to do with it, including backing out to an older version of the BIOS... but then I would be losing performance enhancements that were specifically made for the CPU I am running.
So instead of losing that I went to Windows. Heh, unfortunately for me, around the same time I became very disappointed in the frequency the bad capacitor in my monitor caused it to start flashing on and off. So... I bought a new monitor.
Thing is, this new monitor looked HORRIBLE with Windows 10 font rendering. The only thing that would fix it was to install an obscure program written in China (with much of the text not translated) that enabled Mac OS X-like font rendering on Windows. But even that did not apply across all applications.
Sooooooo... I worked HARDER to figure out why linux would not boot and found a flag I could set in my BIOS that enabled linux to continue past that crash-point during boot. And here I am back on Solus, which is really the best distro of linux out there. :) Yeah I am biased I guess. And oh... my fonts render beautifully, thank you very much.
PS - When I was troubleshooting the font rendering I first went to Samsung, they told me it was Windows problem. I went to Windows and opened a case, they told me it was Samsung's problem... so yeah...
Ha! When I say it like that it sounds like linux has a problem but it did not, I did. In an effort to always improve performance with my motherboard/CPU combination, I upgraded my BIOS to the most recent rev. As soon as I did that linux started crashing on boot.
Now, I realized it was my BIOS update that caused the issue, and I tried to figure out what to do with it, including backing out to an older version of the BIOS... but then I would be losing performance enhancements that were specifically made for the CPU I am running.
So instead of losing that I went to Windows. Heh, unfortunately for me, around the same time I became very disappointed in the frequency the bad capacitor in my monitor caused it to start flashing on and off. So... I bought a new monitor.
Thing is, this new monitor looked HORRIBLE with Windows 10 font rendering. The only thing that would fix it was to install an obscure program written in China (with much of the text not translated) that enabled Mac OS X-like font rendering on Windows. But even that did not apply across all applications.
Sooooooo... I worked HARDER to figure out why linux would not boot and found a flag I could set in my BIOS that enabled linux to continue past that crash-point during boot. And here I am back on Solus, which is really the best distro of linux out there. :) Yeah I am biased I guess. And oh... my fonts render beautifully, thank you very much.
PS - When I was troubleshooting the font rendering I first went to Samsung, they told me it was Windows problem. I went to Windows and opened a case, they told me it was Samsung's problem... so yeah...
Saturday, July 29, 2017
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
Built out a new system.
It is an AMD Ryzen system, the 6 core unlocked with 16 GB RAM a raid 0 pair of 2.5 inch 1 GB server drives (not laptop drives) for system and a 4 TB Toshiba HD for data.
I also splurged and picked up an Nvidia 1080 GTX graphics card w/8GB VRAM, a step up to my 1070 GTX. I did this primarily because I have a 1440P monitor and I have found that the 1070 struggles with games a tiny bit.
This system performs very well. If you are hemming and hawing about purchasing one of the new AMD CPUs, don't. They have made vast improvements over the bulldozer series of CPUs... in fact these Ryzen CPUs bring them back into direct competition with Intel. Pretty amazing they were able to pull off this chip!
That is all for now!
It is an AMD Ryzen system, the 6 core unlocked with 16 GB RAM a raid 0 pair of 2.5 inch 1 GB server drives (not laptop drives) for system and a 4 TB Toshiba HD for data.
I also splurged and picked up an Nvidia 1080 GTX graphics card w/8GB VRAM, a step up to my 1070 GTX. I did this primarily because I have a 1440P monitor and I have found that the 1070 struggles with games a tiny bit.
This system performs very well. If you are hemming and hawing about purchasing one of the new AMD CPUs, don't. They have made vast improvements over the bulldozer series of CPUs... in fact these Ryzen CPUs bring them back into direct competition with Intel. Pretty amazing they were able to pull off this chip!
That is all for now!
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
On Godzilla and Drivers
Saw the Godzilla movie and it was worth seeing, as I mentioned in a previous post. I think I will invest in the DVD when it is available and sit and watch it on the privacy of my computer... so I can stop and analyze each scene. :) I do want to go back and be able to compare elements of the movie with previous movies, especially the original which this really does hearken back to.
Onto drivers.
Not the automobile kind of drivers, but the computer type, more specifically graphics drivers. Most specifically the latest AMD video driver, 14.6.
I have been gleefully installing their drivers as they come out to take full advantage of my R9 270x graphic cards and/or my A10-7850K. This time I had problems from the start.
I performed the recommended uninstall of previous drivers followed by the install of the new driver[s]. The installation did not go smoothly, computer even crashed once. Started over again and the second time it went through.
I noticed weird things after that... including not being able to reboot or sleep my computer and have it waken properly. On reboot (not hard shutdown) my desktop would never come back, tho' the mouse was clearly visible. Similar issues befell sleep, tho' I have forgotten what they were (other issues blur the memory) as I have had graphical freezes, video driver stop/restarts, the black screen on reboot, etc.
I finally gave up and rolled back to 14.4 and all is once again sailing along smoothly.
So, it might have just been me, but be wary of the 14.6 AMD video driver. I think I will wait for the next version before attempting to upgrade again.
Onto drivers.
Not the automobile kind of drivers, but the computer type, more specifically graphics drivers. Most specifically the latest AMD video driver, 14.6.
I have been gleefully installing their drivers as they come out to take full advantage of my R9 270x graphic cards and/or my A10-7850K. This time I had problems from the start.
I performed the recommended uninstall of previous drivers followed by the install of the new driver[s]. The installation did not go smoothly, computer even crashed once. Started over again and the second time it went through.
I noticed weird things after that... including not being able to reboot or sleep my computer and have it waken properly. On reboot (not hard shutdown) my desktop would never come back, tho' the mouse was clearly visible. Similar issues befell sleep, tho' I have forgotten what they were (other issues blur the memory) as I have had graphical freezes, video driver stop/restarts, the black screen on reboot, etc.
I finally gave up and rolled back to 14.4 and all is once again sailing along smoothly.
So, it might have just been me, but be wary of the 14.6 AMD video driver. I think I will wait for the next version before attempting to upgrade again.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Overclocking
The motherboard I purchased, the Asrock A88X Extreme6+, has a plethora of overclocking features, better still it works with Asrock's overclocking software so you can do it from the comfort of your desktop, in Windows.
So I fired up the tuning tool, allowed it to run its own tests and determine the best overclocking values for the CPU... it now has my system running at 4300 MHz (4.3 GHz) up from the base clock of (I believe it is) 3.7 GHz. I have also optimized the fans and the average temperature for my system (when not gaming or doing something else heavy) is 45C. Warmer than I want, but not horrible. Fans DO ramp up a good bit when doing anything CPU intensive.
I had been running the system at 4.0 GHz... I thought I was pretty bold at that point (given that these 28nm CPUs from AMD are not baked into performance silicon, since this size is all new for AMD and it has helped them cram everything, GPU-wise, onto the chip with the CPUs). But if Asrock thinks it can get away with another 300 MHz, then who am I to argue?!
The system has been pretty stable and I played a couple of games to see if it would cause a BSOD, but it worked fine! The added 300 MHz DOES help with single CPU performance and multi-CPU performance so I am pleased with it, so far.
One thing I am noticing, all of a sudden, is a high pitched, fluctuating whine. But I have NO idea where it is coming from. A fan? A graphics card (fan)? Or is it my APU cooler? I just cannot tell. It doesn't bother me if I am wearing my headphones, but without it I can definitely hear it, even tho' it is very faint.
The system is about a year old now... so all the fans and disks are "older" components, and it could be those and not the new components. OR... it could be a new component that is being stressed by the overclock. So difficult to know.
Anyway, going to run her at this speed for awhile to see how she holds up!
[edit]
Just should note that the overclock has improved, for example, JBOSS startup times by up to 2 to 3 seconds. Not bad. On par, if not better, than my FX-8350 and my old i7.
So I fired up the tuning tool, allowed it to run its own tests and determine the best overclocking values for the CPU... it now has my system running at 4300 MHz (4.3 GHz) up from the base clock of (I believe it is) 3.7 GHz. I have also optimized the fans and the average temperature for my system (when not gaming or doing something else heavy) is 45C. Warmer than I want, but not horrible. Fans DO ramp up a good bit when doing anything CPU intensive.
I had been running the system at 4.0 GHz... I thought I was pretty bold at that point (given that these 28nm CPUs from AMD are not baked into performance silicon, since this size is all new for AMD and it has helped them cram everything, GPU-wise, onto the chip with the CPUs). But if Asrock thinks it can get away with another 300 MHz, then who am I to argue?!
The system has been pretty stable and I played a couple of games to see if it would cause a BSOD, but it worked fine! The added 300 MHz DOES help with single CPU performance and multi-CPU performance so I am pleased with it, so far.
One thing I am noticing, all of a sudden, is a high pitched, fluctuating whine. But I have NO idea where it is coming from. A fan? A graphics card (fan)? Or is it my APU cooler? I just cannot tell. It doesn't bother me if I am wearing my headphones, but without it I can definitely hear it, even tho' it is very faint.
The system is about a year old now... so all the fans and disks are "older" components, and it could be those and not the new components. OR... it could be a new component that is being stressed by the overclock. So difficult to know.
Anyway, going to run her at this speed for awhile to see how she holds up!
[edit]
Just should note that the overclock has improved, for example, JBOSS startup times by up to 2 to 3 seconds. Not bad. On par, if not better, than my FX-8350 and my old i7.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Kaveri Update
Been a week! I am running a lightly overclocked A10-7850K setup. I have had crashing issues so updated drivers and BIOS, still had issues... looks like my RAM could possibly be going (old RAM, I had to send the original set I ordered back because it did not work) so I ordered a new set yesterday. We shall see if this is some sort of MB or CPU issue.
Oddly, since I placed the order for the new RAM my system hasn't had a single hiccup. I am running her at 4.0 GHZ and she has been running smooth as butter.
I DID download and install the latest version of A-Tuning and through it, modified the FAN algorithms. I have the fans running a little more aggressively.
Tonight I should try running CIV V again because it seems to be able to crash my system easily and frequently.
As far as performance goes... I can play my games with little or no noticeable difference to my old setup, despite having fewer cores running at a slower speed than my FX-8350 (again, this is running at a light overclock of +400 MHZ). Compilation of large Java programs runs barely 1/2 second to 3/4 second behind, and the startup process of a large, JBoss website has similar results.
I am pleased with the performance of this chip. I really think future revisions will only get better, and perhaps faster clock speeds will be released as the production processes improve.
Still the reason for going with this chip is the PROMISE of excellent performance using the proper development APIs / techniques. I am hoping developers, even just a few, will embrace this direction and show off the strong points of this APU.
I still go back and forth in my head as to whether I made the right decision to go with the FM2+ APU instead of simply sticking with the AM3+ platform and simply purchasing a revved up Piledriver CPU. I think I did. While in many respects the A10 series are somewhat limited, they do contain a much improved core in regards to execution, and the built in memory and data sharing with the processor cores and the graphic cores is a welcomed advancement. I am not entirely thrilled with the motherboard I chose but I think I can live with it and I believe any of its shortcomings are BIOS related, not construction related, as many of the components are obviously very good.
Perhaps the build decision that I might come to either love the most or regret the most was the purchase of 2 discrete graphics cards running in Crossfire, vs. a single, more powerful card. The crossfire decision limited the amount of VRAM I could have, and that could affect performance in a negative way in many games. On the other hand, the processing power of the two cards is immense, surpassing the highest end graphics cards. Time will tell.
Oddly, since I placed the order for the new RAM my system hasn't had a single hiccup. I am running her at 4.0 GHZ and she has been running smooth as butter.
I DID download and install the latest version of A-Tuning and through it, modified the FAN algorithms. I have the fans running a little more aggressively.
Tonight I should try running CIV V again because it seems to be able to crash my system easily and frequently.
As far as performance goes... I can play my games with little or no noticeable difference to my old setup, despite having fewer cores running at a slower speed than my FX-8350 (again, this is running at a light overclock of +400 MHZ). Compilation of large Java programs runs barely 1/2 second to 3/4 second behind, and the startup process of a large, JBoss website has similar results.
I am pleased with the performance of this chip. I really think future revisions will only get better, and perhaps faster clock speeds will be released as the production processes improve.
Still the reason for going with this chip is the PROMISE of excellent performance using the proper development APIs / techniques. I am hoping developers, even just a few, will embrace this direction and show off the strong points of this APU.
I still go back and forth in my head as to whether I made the right decision to go with the FM2+ APU instead of simply sticking with the AM3+ platform and simply purchasing a revved up Piledriver CPU. I think I did. While in many respects the A10 series are somewhat limited, they do contain a much improved core in regards to execution, and the built in memory and data sharing with the processor cores and the graphic cores is a welcomed advancement. I am not entirely thrilled with the motherboard I chose but I think I can live with it and I believe any of its shortcomings are BIOS related, not construction related, as many of the components are obviously very good.
Perhaps the build decision that I might come to either love the most or regret the most was the purchase of 2 discrete graphics cards running in Crossfire, vs. a single, more powerful card. The crossfire decision limited the amount of VRAM I could have, and that could affect performance in a negative way in many games. On the other hand, the processing power of the two cards is immense, surpassing the highest end graphics cards. Time will tell.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Evolution of my computer...
When I built my current machine I did so safe in the knowledge that there would be an upgrade path; I counted on that when I made my choices. It seems that my upgrade path has fallen by the wayside and won't be happening within the next two years - if at all.
So I made a decision, one that also might nip me in the behind in a year or two but we shall see. I wanted to stay with AMD and since the AM3+ platform has fallen by the wayside, my only option was to pursue the FM2+ platform if I wanted to delve into Steamroller (3rd gen AMD CPU core architecture). So this is what I am doing.
There are a lot of debates as to whether or not FM2+ will continue past next year as well, but AMD has said it would and that Excavator (the next generation CPU architecture... or should I say the FINAL version of the current series of architectural changes to AMDs CPU lineup) WOULD support FM2+... so that means FM2+ should be around another 3 years, minimum. At that point it will be getting VERY old and lacking in features. Also, AMD has said something in the past then changed direction and recanted (prime example being the situation I am in right now).
So, pursuant to my previous statement, I placed an order for the components I would need to build this FM2+ / Kaveri machine out. I have a fine case and power supply, and I don't need to worry about my disk drives, all fairly new components. But to make this work I would need the CPU (of course), a new motherboard, memory to go with that motherboard (2133 as opposed to the 1866 I currently have) and while I was at it I decided to go with a new graphics card setup. My current build components can be handed down to my children.
Ahhhh! Why a discrete graphic card? Isn't Kaveri supposed to excel without? It does, but not enough for the kind of gaming I tend to do. So, while my GTX 770 is a wonderful card, I decided to go with something new and exciting (at least to me): I purchased TWO R9 270X (Sapphire Toxic) cards and will run them together. Theoretically they put out more performance than almost any other SINGLE high-end graphics card available... epic performance in some cases... and cheaper too!
Based on everything I've seen I can absolutely expect (at least at first) to see some performance hits in day to day activities where software is unable to take advantage of the Kaveri architecture for OpenCL and HSA... mostly because my current CPU has 8 cores and the extra level 3 cache was designed for desktop use. Even so, I don't expect the perceived slow downs to be drastic and most often probably not noticeable. Where software DOES take advantage of the AMD architecture, I suspect the speed ups WILL be noticeable.
Well, I know I am in for a bumpy ride getting set up. The motherboard will post with the new CPU but will require a BIOS update immediately to really make use of the CPU and its features. I am hoping I won't have to reinstall Windows... by uninstalling my current graphic drivers and having my Windows 8 disk on hand, I HOPE Windows will start to boot and complain and ask for a "repair disk" or the installation disk. If it does I will be golden. If it doesn't... well... oh well I have to reinstall a bunch of applications.
Anyway, I will post a new blog once I get set up.
So I made a decision, one that also might nip me in the behind in a year or two but we shall see. I wanted to stay with AMD and since the AM3+ platform has fallen by the wayside, my only option was to pursue the FM2+ platform if I wanted to delve into Steamroller (3rd gen AMD CPU core architecture). So this is what I am doing.
There are a lot of debates as to whether or not FM2+ will continue past next year as well, but AMD has said it would and that Excavator (the next generation CPU architecture... or should I say the FINAL version of the current series of architectural changes to AMDs CPU lineup) WOULD support FM2+... so that means FM2+ should be around another 3 years, minimum. At that point it will be getting VERY old and lacking in features. Also, AMD has said something in the past then changed direction and recanted (prime example being the situation I am in right now).
So, pursuant to my previous statement, I placed an order for the components I would need to build this FM2+ / Kaveri machine out. I have a fine case and power supply, and I don't need to worry about my disk drives, all fairly new components. But to make this work I would need the CPU (of course), a new motherboard, memory to go with that motherboard (2133 as opposed to the 1866 I currently have) and while I was at it I decided to go with a new graphics card setup. My current build components can be handed down to my children.
Ahhhh! Why a discrete graphic card? Isn't Kaveri supposed to excel without? It does, but not enough for the kind of gaming I tend to do. So, while my GTX 770 is a wonderful card, I decided to go with something new and exciting (at least to me): I purchased TWO R9 270X (Sapphire Toxic) cards and will run them together. Theoretically they put out more performance than almost any other SINGLE high-end graphics card available... epic performance in some cases... and cheaper too!
Based on everything I've seen I can absolutely expect (at least at first) to see some performance hits in day to day activities where software is unable to take advantage of the Kaveri architecture for OpenCL and HSA... mostly because my current CPU has 8 cores and the extra level 3 cache was designed for desktop use. Even so, I don't expect the perceived slow downs to be drastic and most often probably not noticeable. Where software DOES take advantage of the AMD architecture, I suspect the speed ups WILL be noticeable.
Well, I know I am in for a bumpy ride getting set up. The motherboard will post with the new CPU but will require a BIOS update immediately to really make use of the CPU and its features. I am hoping I won't have to reinstall Windows... by uninstalling my current graphic drivers and having my Windows 8 disk on hand, I HOPE Windows will start to boot and complain and ask for a "repair disk" or the installation disk. If it does I will be golden. If it doesn't... well... oh well I have to reinstall a bunch of applications.
Anyway, I will post a new blog once I get set up.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Kaveri A10-7850K - Why I like AMD CPUs
I'm a person who has had all kind of hardware over the years running a wide variety of operating systems. I like to think every hardware type, every operating system has something that makes it unique or worth using. That may or may not always be true, but that is my mindset.
I think that many hardware and gaming enthusiasts are very down on AMD because of the products they have released over the past 2 or 3 years. They feel "let down" because of performance issues that have plagued the new (young) architecture that AMD is pursuing.
I had been (primarily) an Intel CPU enthusiast for many years and despite a foray into AMD with a Phenom, I remained convinced that Intel had it right and they were going to continue to dominate and eradicate all other CPU designers / manufacturers. A little extreme, I know. But when AMD began talking about "Bulldozer" and the new architecture I became intrigued. Still, it was NEW and had not been tested so I held off and stayed with Intel. I was, in fact, glad that I did because the performance levels of Bulldozer were a step backward as far as practical applications go. Despite that I held onto the idea of the direction CPUs were heading in regards to distributing processing over more threads and when Piledriver arrived I took the plunge.
But I did so KNOWING that Piledriver would give way to Steamroller, and then to Excavator. But it hasn't. Instead AMD ran into manufacturing issues (moving from 32nm to 28nm die) and partway through decided to restructure and refocus. My AM3+ platform suddenly became obsolete. I wasn't very happy about THAT but I STILL held out hope... and I am glad that I did.
Tomorrow the FM2+ based A10-7850K APU (more on that later) will be released for sale and I plan on continuing with AMD. When AMD started releasing figures for the new CPU people became excited with some of the numbers being bandied about. Then CES arrived, no new data, but several companies that had the APUs in hand ran some test and posted the results and ... ffffzzzzzzzzzzzzttttttttttttt. The results were terrible. At first glance the new APUs seemed slower than the previous models they were replacing. People began ranting and raving and complaining and swearing and... well you get the picture. The internet was awash with nay-sayers. That has changed today, as other groups have run (and leaked) more extensive and impressive tests indicating that yes, Kaveri is better. Some of the figures appear identical to "Richland" (the APU predecessor) but Kaveri is underclocked... that is, it runs at around 400Mhz slower than Richland. Even running slower, the vast majority of tests have proven out that it is indeed faster than its predecessor and in some cases blows it away. Even compared to an Intel i3 with a discrete graphics card, it wins.
That leads me to what an "APU" is. It stands for "Accelerated Processing Unit". What it is, is a combination of CPU cores and "next generation" GPU cores that are linked by special memory and other architectural mechanics allowing processing to be off-loaded (in some cases) to the GPU when it is not being used. Effectively, instead of having 4 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores you have a combination of 12 cores capable of sharing on-die memory and instructions. AMD has also produced APIs and drivers that will take advantage of their HSA compliant CPU/GPU sharing. This allows the APU to provide exceptional graphics performance (without a discrete graphics card) and also to perform a wide variety of computational algorithms that take advantage of the combination of processing units. If that wasn't enough, they've added sound preprocessing... it provides very good 3D sound to the user (sort of like surround sound, but not really... it manages the sound to produce a very realistic surge and fade depending on how the sound would effectively move around the user).
AMD has taken what started as a very promising (if not implemented well the first time around) idea and forged into something that could very well drive the industry in new directions.
For my part, I plan on building out an FM2+ system, which is risky since FM2+ is already becoming an old architecture and while AMD claims Excavator will be backward compatible, I have to think it very well might NOT be since Intel is quickly advancing the motherboard chipsets to be able to handle the ever increasing bandwidth and speed of PCI, SATA, USB and other bus technologies, especially memory bus technology. So AMD will HAVE to address a new bus architecture and soon if it wants to continue to compete and enjoy any amount of success (and I do believe they will as this APU, while well hyped, seems to be the "real deal" offering very good performance at a decent price).
Going back to my own hardware preferences over the years (as opposed to operating systems) I did have one that thrilled me and that was the Amiga PC. Amiga understood YEARS ago that off-loading functions from the CPU allowed them to split processing and allow chips that specialized to do a far better job than the CPU alone could have done. In a way that is where CPU/GPU/APUs are headed now... but instead of divvying up the processing they are recombining various types of processing units into a single die, all of them able to quickly and efficiently communicate with one another, off-loading math, sound and graphic processing to improve speed and efficiency.
It's an idea that worked well for Amiga, implemented in a far more efficient and powerful way.
To me these are exciting times.
I think that many hardware and gaming enthusiasts are very down on AMD because of the products they have released over the past 2 or 3 years. They feel "let down" because of performance issues that have plagued the new (young) architecture that AMD is pursuing.
I had been (primarily) an Intel CPU enthusiast for many years and despite a foray into AMD with a Phenom, I remained convinced that Intel had it right and they were going to continue to dominate and eradicate all other CPU designers / manufacturers. A little extreme, I know. But when AMD began talking about "Bulldozer" and the new architecture I became intrigued. Still, it was NEW and had not been tested so I held off and stayed with Intel. I was, in fact, glad that I did because the performance levels of Bulldozer were a step backward as far as practical applications go. Despite that I held onto the idea of the direction CPUs were heading in regards to distributing processing over more threads and when Piledriver arrived I took the plunge.
But I did so KNOWING that Piledriver would give way to Steamroller, and then to Excavator. But it hasn't. Instead AMD ran into manufacturing issues (moving from 32nm to 28nm die) and partway through decided to restructure and refocus. My AM3+ platform suddenly became obsolete. I wasn't very happy about THAT but I STILL held out hope... and I am glad that I did.
Tomorrow the FM2+ based A10-7850K APU (more on that later) will be released for sale and I plan on continuing with AMD. When AMD started releasing figures for the new CPU people became excited with some of the numbers being bandied about. Then CES arrived, no new data, but several companies that had the APUs in hand ran some test and posted the results and ... ffffzzzzzzzzzzzzttttttttttttt. The results were terrible. At first glance the new APUs seemed slower than the previous models they were replacing. People began ranting and raving and complaining and swearing and... well you get the picture. The internet was awash with nay-sayers. That has changed today, as other groups have run (and leaked) more extensive and impressive tests indicating that yes, Kaveri is better. Some of the figures appear identical to "Richland" (the APU predecessor) but Kaveri is underclocked... that is, it runs at around 400Mhz slower than Richland. Even running slower, the vast majority of tests have proven out that it is indeed faster than its predecessor and in some cases blows it away. Even compared to an Intel i3 with a discrete graphics card, it wins.
That leads me to what an "APU" is. It stands for "Accelerated Processing Unit". What it is, is a combination of CPU cores and "next generation" GPU cores that are linked by special memory and other architectural mechanics allowing processing to be off-loaded (in some cases) to the GPU when it is not being used. Effectively, instead of having 4 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores you have a combination of 12 cores capable of sharing on-die memory and instructions. AMD has also produced APIs and drivers that will take advantage of their HSA compliant CPU/GPU sharing. This allows the APU to provide exceptional graphics performance (without a discrete graphics card) and also to perform a wide variety of computational algorithms that take advantage of the combination of processing units. If that wasn't enough, they've added sound preprocessing... it provides very good 3D sound to the user (sort of like surround sound, but not really... it manages the sound to produce a very realistic surge and fade depending on how the sound would effectively move around the user).
AMD has taken what started as a very promising (if not implemented well the first time around) idea and forged into something that could very well drive the industry in new directions.
For my part, I plan on building out an FM2+ system, which is risky since FM2+ is already becoming an old architecture and while AMD claims Excavator will be backward compatible, I have to think it very well might NOT be since Intel is quickly advancing the motherboard chipsets to be able to handle the ever increasing bandwidth and speed of PCI, SATA, USB and other bus technologies, especially memory bus technology. So AMD will HAVE to address a new bus architecture and soon if it wants to continue to compete and enjoy any amount of success (and I do believe they will as this APU, while well hyped, seems to be the "real deal" offering very good performance at a decent price).
Going back to my own hardware preferences over the years (as opposed to operating systems) I did have one that thrilled me and that was the Amiga PC. Amiga understood YEARS ago that off-loading functions from the CPU allowed them to split processing and allow chips that specialized to do a far better job than the CPU alone could have done. In a way that is where CPU/GPU/APUs are headed now... but instead of divvying up the processing they are recombining various types of processing units into a single die, all of them able to quickly and efficiently communicate with one another, off-loading math, sound and graphic processing to improve speed and efficiency.
It's an idea that worked well for Amiga, implemented in a far more efficient and powerful way.
To me these are exciting times.
Monday, September 9, 2013
AMD product path...
My current build is based on the belief that AMD would finish and release the desktop version of the steamroller architecture, and that it would indeed be AM3+ compatible.
The FX-8350 (Piledriver) performs very well, but it was the next generation, whose tweaks promised much-improved single core execution, that I was planning for. I am feeling an ominous cloud hovering in regards to AMD ever releasing Steamroller. All the road maps that have been released over the past year leave off the desktop CPU path and focuses on APUs and server CPU SOCs.
Much has been written about how AMD has restructured itself in an effort to better compete with Intel, to focus on niches where they have traditionally beaten Intel... how (this is from memory, it could be 60%-70%) almost 80% of their focus will now be APU and SOCs. I am beginning to think I wasted my build $$$. This build must last me 2 years... I suppose if AMD does ditch its desktop workstation line of CPUs I will simply HAVE to look at the new Mac Pro. :)
Anyway, I hope my worriers are unfounded.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Continuing thoughts on my AMD build...
The tests are slightly unfair as my disk optimizations (I previously used RAID 0 - but when installing everything I messed up, forgot to set my RAID in the BIOS beforehand and Windows doesn't really like you changing from AHCI to RAID after it has been installed/configured). So I forwent RAIDing my drives and keep a USER drive and a WORK drive. My point is that read and write times will be slower. That being said, some things to note:
Large system compilation went from an average of 58 seconds on the Intel build to 72 seconds on the AMD build. No surprise as single thread execution is known to be slower in some cases.
The flip side is WinZip decompresses the WAR files MUCH more quickly in the AMD build. It is so fast I don't have time to do my usual little things (closing my selection windows for the war, emptying the trash, stuff like that). I click "Expand to" and *BOOM*... done. The AMD CPU is practically made for this sort of work tho'...
Starting JBOSS (after a FRESH deploy) the first time on my AMD build took 13 seconds. That's not bad... I've only done it once so far... taking into account slightly slower disk read times that's not too different from the 9 to 10 seconds it took on the Intel build. Again, all of this doesn't surprise me either, since Java doesn't seem to be overly multi-thread friendly (the Java app itself, not its capabilities).
More soon!
Large system compilation went from an average of 58 seconds on the Intel build to 72 seconds on the AMD build. No surprise as single thread execution is known to be slower in some cases.
The flip side is WinZip decompresses the WAR files MUCH more quickly in the AMD build. It is so fast I don't have time to do my usual little things (closing my selection windows for the war, emptying the trash, stuff like that). I click "Expand to" and *BOOM*... done. The AMD CPU is practically made for this sort of work tho'...
Starting JBOSS (after a FRESH deploy) the first time on my AMD build took 13 seconds. That's not bad... I've only done it once so far... taking into account slightly slower disk read times that's not too different from the 9 to 10 seconds it took on the Intel build. Again, all of this doesn't surprise me either, since Java doesn't seem to be overly multi-thread friendly (the Java app itself, not its capabilities).
More soon!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Trigger has been pulled. New build on its way.
My new PC is on its way here in pieces. There have been a few changes from my original build specifications. Here is what I got:
Corsair Graphite 600TM
Asus Sabertooth 990FX
Gigabyte 770GTX w/4GB VRAM
Corsair HX850 PS
AMD FX-8350 CPU
Samsung 500GB SSD
GSkill 1866 RAM, 16GB (4GB x 4)
Seagate 1 TB HD x 2
Corsair H60 CPU Cooler
Cougar 120MM Case Fan x 2
Windows 8 Pro
The changes from the original build are the graphics card, the power supply (newer version of same PS), a single SSD instead of 2 in RAID, and I threw in one more fan.
I was also going to reuse my current Windows 8 DVD but... decided since I am passing my current computer down to my son it would be easier to simply create an account for him on this box, and reinstall all of my stuff fresh.
The most important change was probably the graphics card... the NVidia 770 is ... well, it's a souped up version of the 680, but much cheaper than the 680 and most other cards in its class. It is quite the bargain. Apparently Nvidia has decided to become a little more aggressive in their pricing and are pressing ATI not only with excellent performance but excellent value.
So the parts are on their way! I should (theoretically) have all the pieces by Friday, and can begin putting them together over the weekend. Very exciting!
Corsair Graphite 600TM
Asus Sabertooth 990FX
Gigabyte 770GTX w/4GB VRAM
Corsair HX850 PS
AMD FX-8350 CPU
Samsung 500GB SSD
GSkill 1866 RAM, 16GB (4GB x 4)
Seagate 1 TB HD x 2
Corsair H60 CPU Cooler
Cougar 120MM Case Fan x 2
Windows 8 Pro
The changes from the original build are the graphics card, the power supply (newer version of same PS), a single SSD instead of 2 in RAID, and I threw in one more fan.
I was also going to reuse my current Windows 8 DVD but... decided since I am passing my current computer down to my son it would be easier to simply create an account for him on this box, and reinstall all of my stuff fresh.
The most important change was probably the graphics card... the NVidia 770 is ... well, it's a souped up version of the 680, but much cheaper than the 680 and most other cards in its class. It is quite the bargain. Apparently Nvidia has decided to become a little more aggressive in their pricing and are pressing ATI not only with excellent performance but excellent value.
So the parts are on their way! I should (theoretically) have all the pieces by Friday, and can begin putting them together over the weekend. Very exciting!
Friday, May 17, 2013
Steamroller
While I have been happy with my now aging, pre-Ivy Bridge intel processor, I am planning on returning to AMD. I know, your first thought is "he's gone off the deep end." You would probably be right to think that, too...
I have a little bit of a soft spot for AMD CPUs. I admit that is part of my reasoning, if not a GREAT part. But I fell in love with the idea of the Bulldozer CPU when AMD first announced it years ago. The technology was different, uniquely AMD. Even so, I was cautious and did not buy into Bulldozer but instead went with Intel for my current computer iteration, replacing my Phenom 6 core with my 2600K build. At the time it was the right decision, as Bulldozer's performance was... not good.
When Piledriver was introduced performance (overall) increased between 12% and 15%. It helped but while heavily threaded applications had soaring performance (even better than the top-of-the-line Intel CPU in some cases), single core execution still fell WELL short of Intels offerings... and unfortunately the vast majority of the applications you use in your day-to-day interaction with your computer execute on a single core. The top-of-the-line Piledriver (which is the followup to Bulldozer) is about on par with an Intel i3 or a low end i5 as far as non-threaded performance goes. That's not to say Piledriver is a bust, it isn't. It out performs the last generation top-of-the-line AMD CPUs (pre-Bulldozer) and in some aspects, such as certain types of encryption/decryption, it out performs Intel CPUs across the board. It also still performs well in general use, just not on the level of an i7.
HOWEVER... there is hope. AMD is finishing work on the Bulldozer architecture with its final release, Steamroller. Steamroller starts "rolling out" late in 2013. There have been widely varying claims as to the performance of Steamroller which reportedly tweaks the architecture in all the right places to maximize single core performance and instruction caching/access, which have been the weaknesses of this architecture from the get go.
Steamroller fits in the same socket as Bulldozer and Piledriver, AM3+. So this is my plan: Build my system based on the best Piledriver CPU available, the FX-8350, and in 6 months when the desktop Steamroller CPU is available, swap it out. Keep in mind that the top-of-the-line FX-8350 costs about the same as a low to mid-range, locked i5 CPU. It's very inexpensive. When the Steamroller arrives it will be about the same price. I would be able to purchase two CPUs for a little more than the price of a high-end i7.
The rest of the components would be solid... AMD 7970 gHz edition graphics card, decent-speed DDR3 RAM, 2 SSDs in RAID 0 and 2 enterprise class hard drives in RAID 0 for data storage, water-based CPU cooler... and a pretty superior case to hold all the components.
Well, that's it for now... just thought I would share.
I have a little bit of a soft spot for AMD CPUs. I admit that is part of my reasoning, if not a GREAT part. But I fell in love with the idea of the Bulldozer CPU when AMD first announced it years ago. The technology was different, uniquely AMD. Even so, I was cautious and did not buy into Bulldozer but instead went with Intel for my current computer iteration, replacing my Phenom 6 core with my 2600K build. At the time it was the right decision, as Bulldozer's performance was... not good.
When Piledriver was introduced performance (overall) increased between 12% and 15%. It helped but while heavily threaded applications had soaring performance (even better than the top-of-the-line Intel CPU in some cases), single core execution still fell WELL short of Intels offerings... and unfortunately the vast majority of the applications you use in your day-to-day interaction with your computer execute on a single core. The top-of-the-line Piledriver (which is the followup to Bulldozer) is about on par with an Intel i3 or a low end i5 as far as non-threaded performance goes. That's not to say Piledriver is a bust, it isn't. It out performs the last generation top-of-the-line AMD CPUs (pre-Bulldozer) and in some aspects, such as certain types of encryption/decryption, it out performs Intel CPUs across the board. It also still performs well in general use, just not on the level of an i7.
HOWEVER... there is hope. AMD is finishing work on the Bulldozer architecture with its final release, Steamroller. Steamroller starts "rolling out" late in 2013. There have been widely varying claims as to the performance of Steamroller which reportedly tweaks the architecture in all the right places to maximize single core performance and instruction caching/access, which have been the weaknesses of this architecture from the get go.
Steamroller fits in the same socket as Bulldozer and Piledriver, AM3+. So this is my plan: Build my system based on the best Piledriver CPU available, the FX-8350, and in 6 months when the desktop Steamroller CPU is available, swap it out. Keep in mind that the top-of-the-line FX-8350 costs about the same as a low to mid-range, locked i5 CPU. It's very inexpensive. When the Steamroller arrives it will be about the same price. I would be able to purchase two CPUs for a little more than the price of a high-end i7.
The rest of the components would be solid... AMD 7970 gHz edition graphics card, decent-speed DDR3 RAM, 2 SSDs in RAID 0 and 2 enterprise class hard drives in RAID 0 for data storage, water-based CPU cooler... and a pretty superior case to hold all the components.
Well, that's it for now... just thought I would share.
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