AMD may be about to kill the Phenom name

[Frakk]

Well, AMD making an x8 version of its Phenom II CPU's may still happen yet.

But its not what you might hope for, oh no....

AMD May Be Preparing Phenom II X8

http://www.guru3d.com/news/amd-may-be-preparing-phenom-ii-x8/

BIOS updates for mainboards made by Elitegroup Computer Systems and Jetway reveal that Advanced Micro Devices may be preparing a new line of multi-core microprocessors called Phenom II X8. Based on alleged specifications of the products, the new central processing units (CPUs) will be aimed at cost-sensitive segment of the market as x-bitlabs reports:
Based on CPU support list of Jetway HA18 mainboard based on AMD 9-series chipset and AM3+ socket, AMD is preparing a series of new microprocessors based on Zambezi design (Bulldozer micro-architecture, 4, 6 or 8 cores) of different revisions with rather low clock-speeds and with 95W thermal design power. Jetway lists the new processors as "engineering samples", but a well-known Japanese observer/blogger Northwood.blog60.fc2.com points to an alleged ECS A890GXM-A2 CPU support list that calls the chips as AMD Phenom II X8.
The list of AMD Phenom II X8 microprocessors includes four models:

• <LI itxtHarvested="0" itxtNodeId="41">AMD Phenom II X8 2420: 2.40GHz, 95W, ZD242046W8K43 <LI itxtHarvested="0" itxtNodeId="40">AMD Phenom II X8 3020: 3.00GHz, 125W, ZD302051W8K44 <LI itxtHarvested="0" itxtNodeId="39">AMD Phenom II X8 2520: 2.50GHz, 95W, ZD252046W6443
• AMD Phenom II X8 2820: 2.80GHz, 95W, ZD282046W8K43

The "Phenom II X8" microprocessors can be actual early engineering samples of chips that now belong to AMD FX premium product line, however, listing of their support now implies that AMD is cooking something new.
Although AMD FX family does not play in the ultra high-performance segment of the market where microprocessors cost $400 or more, the Sunnyvale, California-based company clearly positions the chips as premium products. Therefore, the company is not interested in selling products with relatively low performance under the FX brand.
It is known that AMD does have a lot of Zambezi processors that have all cores functional, but which cannot work on high clock-speeds and therefore provide premium "FX-class" performance, but AMD is definitely interested in selling those chips. In a bid not to harm the appeal of the FX brand, the chip designer may sell low-frequency Zambezi processors with disabled Turbo Core dynamic clock-speed acceleration technology and/or cut-down L2/L3 cache under Phenom II X8 brand. AMD already sells some processors based on Llano APU design with disabled graphics engine under Athlon II and Sempron monikers, thus, a refresh of the Phenom II line should not be a complete surprise.
With low frequencies and without Turbo Core, the new eight-core Phenom II X8 will likely be considerably slower than the existing six-core Phenom II X8 processors based on Thuban design.

And here....

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157432

Besides the fact that they are carved out of the same piece of silicon by disabling components, all AMD FX series processors, from the quad-core FX-4000 series, to the eight-core FX-8000 series have one thing in common: they're all "unlocked", meaning they have an upwards-unlocked base-clock multiplier, which makes overclocking them a whole lot easier. Take that away and what do you get? A new Phenom II processor line. That's right, it is learned that AMD has a new line of Phenom II processors, eight-core for now, that are being carved out of the 32 nm Zambezi silicon.

Intuitively branded within the new Phenom II X8 and existing Phenom II X6 markers, these chips feature relatively lower clock speeds, meaning they will be priced low, competitive with Intel's sub-$200 Core i3 and Core i5 processors. AMD will also tinker with Zambezi's caches. The new chips came to light when some motherboard manufacturers leaked them on CPU support lists of certain motherboards, on their websites. For now we're getting to hear about two eight-core models, the 2.40 GHz Phenom II X8 2420, and 3.00 GHz Phenom II X8 3020; and two six-core models, the 2.50 GHz Phenom II X6 2520, and 2.80 GHz Phenom II X6 2820. Relevant details are tabled below. It beats us why AMD didn't take the opportunity (new silicon) to label these "Phenom III".

Already killed the FX name and for your next trick you will kill the XP name!

Why AMD why?????????

 

[Rotary]

amd is falling its sad really, i really like amd for how well the price is but they cant keep up.

 

[Frakk]

amd is falling its sad really, i really like amd for how well the price is but they cant keep up.

Piledriver should be pretty good and then theres Steamroller after that <- oh AMD please do stop polling 6 year olds on product naming


Anyway, someone on another forum had the insight to point out that these are probably early Bulldozer engenearing samples.

 

[Rotary]

i miss the good old days when it was head to head with amd and intel, amd needs MB like how intels x79 is

 

[petteyg359]

Piledriver should be pretty good and then theres Steamroller after that <- oh AMD please do stop polling 6 year olds on product naming

Would you rather have them ask bathroom-humor obsessed 12-year-olds for names? How about gutter-minded college partiers?

 

[Frakk]

Would you rather have them ask bathroom-humor obsessed 12-year-olds for names? How about gutter-minded college partiers?

They can do better than that, Trinity is a good name, so was Llano.

@ Rotary, Does the MB matter that much?

 

[Rotary]

They can do better than that, Trinity is a good name, so was Llano.

@ Rotary, Does the MB matter that much?

yeah it does matter because intel has better MBs

 

[petteyg359]

yeah it does matter because intel has better MBs

Better than what, exactly? Something can't be "better" if there is nothing to compare it too. AMD doesn't make motherboards. If you're referring to the chipsets, be a bit more specific. AFAIK, Intel's RAID controllers are often better, but anyone with a practical real-world need for RAID is using discrete controllers with more than 4 or 6 ports and dedicated CPU/RAM. I'll take the open HyperTransport standard over QPI any day, but beyond that, I don't see much difference in chipset features.

 

[Rotary]

^intel sockets vs AMD sockets

quad channel memory is one, intel nic card is another, can they even do quad sli/cf yet? i forgot pci 3.0

 

[woboy]

Low power locked versions for mass market?
Exactly what motherboards (at what price points) are these chips being "leaked" for?
They would seem to make Llano look good/better except for marketing brag.

 

[Aldakoopa]

Piledriver should be pretty good and then theres Steamroller after that <- oh AMD please do stop polling 6 year olds on product naming

I like the names. "Bulldozer", "Piledriver", and "Steamroller" all sound like strong construction equipment. Now, if the performance was something that could swamp Intel, it would have been even better to name their processors after something strong.

"Excavator" on the other hand is just trying to hard.

 

[ssjwizard]

This is old news we covered it HERE back in January.

No it looks alot like how the athlon brand used to be top dog but got pushed to the back when phenom took over. What im seeing is new low power 4c8t BD based chips coming out with the PHII branding to denote that they are below FX.

 

[Weatherlite]

I like the names. "Bulldozer", "Piledriver", and "Steamroller" all sound like strong construction equipment.

Sound like sexual positions to me!

 

[X@nder36]

Sound like sexual positions to me!

(though I did get a good chuckle)

 

[Aldakoopa]

(though I did get a good chuckle)

^ What he said.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Well, AMD making an x8 version of its Phenom II CPU's may still happen yet.

But its not what you might hope for, oh no....

AMD May Be Preparing Phenom II X8

http://www.guru3d.com/news/amd-may-be-preparing-phenom-ii-x8/



And here....

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157432



Already killed the FX name and for your next trick you will kill the XP name!

Why AMD why?????????

First of all your links are 5 months old.

Second of all, the model numbers that were at the ECS website for the so called "Phenom II X8" CPUs were actually AMD Bulldozer Eng. Samples, all stepping B0. (B1 shipped retail) ...

Piledriver should be pretty good and then theres Steamroller after that <- oh AMD please do stop polling 6 year olds on product naming


Anyway, someone on another forum had the insight to point out that these are probably early Bulldozer engenearing samples.

Then also, in the TPU thread you posted I explained why anyone thinking any of this was possible was a bit of an idiot.
There was no "probably". ...it is a fact.

So many websites now have pulled info from their (butts)...
We recently had the same, posted from Xbit:
Which is funny because this came after the thread I link below...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?277951-Phenom-x8-indecisive-AMD

1 week ago we concluded these were just entries for AMD FX-series Stepping B0 Engineering Samples. Hell, it even says B0 in the description. The model numbers correspond to Engineering Samples from 4-5 months ago...

The names correspond to the freq the ES was supposed to run at, that's all. They will never come out and articles like this show exactly what the media does to write around small bits of information...geniuses at ECS labeling these early ES's as "Phenom II X8" because apparently that's what they thought they would be.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?277788-Phenon-II-X8-ECS-bios-Update

 

[Frakk]

Then also, in the TPU thread you posted I explained why anyone thinking any of this was possible was a bit of an idiot.

People make discussion threads on rumors and information's that are out there.

That's not (fueling the rumours) that's, well, a discussion.

Getting angry and posturing your own position on it while suggesting anyone discussing such a subject an idiot will not win you many friends, at least not friends of the right sort.

PS: how do those 5770 perform in crossfire? do you play BF3 with them?

 

[mjw21a]

I don't think that we'll see AMD kill the FX branding for a while yet however it would make sense to revert to their Phenom brand as it's more recognizable to more people. Call a regular core locked chip a Phenmn X2, X4, X6 or x8 depending on modules, simply put an FX after it to denote core unlocked chips. Basically back to the way they did things in the Athlon64 era.

I don't believe AMD will get rid of the FX's until they can compete with Intel without the need to overclock. To do so would be insanity. I think we'll get 1 more generation of unlocked chips though. Looks like we don't have much longer to wait since Trinity is already shipping. I'm keen to get my hands on a PD core.

 

[BeepBeep2]

People make discussion threads on rumors and information's that are out there.

That's not (fueling the rumours) that's, well, a discussion.

Getting angry and posturing your own position on it while suggesting anyone discussing such a subject an idiot will not win you many friends, at least not friends of the right sort.

PS: how do those 5770 perform in crossfire? do you play BF3 with them?

Yes but threads like this don't make sense...4 months after the fact and it has already been proven to be false.

My 5770's perform okay. I'm not too much a gamer outside of CS:S where even a low end card could suffice. Look for 5870 results for BF3 and subtract ~10%. That should give you an idea of what performance will be.

 

[mjw21a]

Not a biggie if he'd not noticed. It's the first I'd heard of it so I'd probably have posted also.