Discussion for AMD CPU/APU owners

[hagjohn]

I suggest wait for Piledriver in Q3 if you're not in a hurry. As much as I've heard they are going to fix somewhat the glitches in Bulldozer. Or go with an Trinity APU, they seem to be good :)

Edit: Q3 - Well they are hoping to release it in that timeframe but might take longer, we all know how long we had to wait for BD :D

True. Maybe I'll buy a graphics card now and wait for Piledriver.

If you have an AM2+ slot processor you can upgrade to an AM3+ board and transfer the processor over in preparation. Of course, I tried that and my Phenom didn't want to let go of the heatsink :cry:

I bought a AM3+ MB a few months ago. (Extreme3 990FX) ... I'm slowly upgrading everything, so I started with the motherboard first.

[Invizibleyez]

I know you're all talking strictly about performance and yes the FX-8150 has the advantage in some scenarios, price is now ok too. But when I buy a CPU I look at every aspect and where AMD loses horribly is the power consumption, an area where Intel excels nowadays, especially with Ivy Bridge. Was the other way around a few years ago and unfortunately it shows that while Intel has a lot of headroom left if they need it AMDs processors are working at their limits. Not a good sign for the near future.

I read this time and time again, and I am surprised that people are really saying this. POWER CONSUMPTION? Go hug a tree! This isn't a laptop, and we aren't talking about anything more than the difference between a bright lightbulb and a slightly brighter lightbulb. If I really cared, I would turn the light off when using my computer. Go pick a stat that actually means something.

[Invizibleyez]

i bough myself a fx8120 today (almost the 8150), i thought it was a bargain @ ?128, i looked up what a nice intel cpu would set me back and while lntel does have a great performing cpu lineup i just coudlnt justify the price for intel as you only get 10-15% performance, sometimes abit more, sometimes abit less, depends what ya wanna do, but you gotta pay 60% more for the I7 2600k and about 30% more for a I5 2500k its just not woth it for half a frame here 2 seconds there( when ya doing 100fps+ does 1 more really matter), i just felt that amd offered the best bang for buck as they did with the phenon II, intel cpus are good and are better but not better enough and not by enough for me to buy one. but thats just me.

3 2 1 cue fur flying

You didn't even mention that for a similar quality motherboard, an intel capable mobo cost ALOT more than the AMD capable mobo.

[PixilEyes]

This guy opens a thread trying to talk about FX-Series processors.

Instead this turned into a war. I really wished a mod would clean it up. Comon community you can do better than this. Let the guys with the FX processors talk about FX processors. There are plenty of AMD vs Intel thread's out there. No, I don't own an AMD processor chip (i5-2400)

If I was the OP it would really discourage me from posting another thread with good intention.

I thought I'd create a topic for people who have an FX-series CPU to talk about what you like about the CPU, what you hate about it and what you are expecting from next generations.

[giantpotato]

My Phenom X3 is starting to show it's age and I was recently looking to upgrade my CPU. I had a hard look at the FX series, but in the end I just couldn't justify buying one. I specifically had my eye on the FX-6200 since it has a high clock rate which should improve single threaded performance.It's basically a FX-6100 with higher clocks. I was about the buy it until I realized my current CPU cooler doesn't support the FX-6200. Upon further research I noticed it has a 125W TDP. Now after thinking about it a bit, it reminded me of the days of Pentium 4 vs. Athlon 64, except this time in reverse. AMD is running hot on an inferior architecture and the only way they are increasing performance is by upping the clock rate, just like intel did with the P4. The FX-6200 has 2 more cores, a higher clock and a higher heat output than the i5 2500k, but it's still slower. I'm a fan of AMD but to be honest Bulldozer is just not living up to my expectations. I decided to at least wait until Piledriver before my next CPU upgrade.

[Draconian Guppy]

when is pile driver due?

[Vice]

First of all, 3770k is a newer CPU then Bulldozer is so I can't understand why do you keep comparing them?

I just want to point out a few things. In your post you have compared the AMD Chip to a 990X which uses a 3 year old architecture. The 990X isn't even on sale anymore so why do you compare those? To prove your point right? Don't be disingenuous. I'd also like to point out that the 3930K has been out since last year and is allot faster than anything AMD has and doesn't cost $999 - It costs $599. It is around 40% faster than the 990X.

And also the K series by Intel are unlocked and it is expected that users will overclock them. And that is also why Intel now sells overclock insurance which anyone with a K or X series CPU can purchase. If you compare the OC potential of a 2600K you can readily hit 4.3GHz on the stock cooler with only a minor voltage bump. 4.5 and 4.6GHz are also obtainable with a better after-market air cooler.

When overclocking your CPU in this way for free it beats all the AMD processors. And that includes if you decide to OC the AMD FX chips as they don't overclock as high.

And again to come back to it, the 3930K on LGA 2011 is faster at stock. Don't forget that you are comparing an 8 Core AMD CPU to a 4 Core 2600K from over a year ago. Intel sells 6 Core CPU's as-well. To Intel the 2600K isn't even high end that is their mid-range. You are comparing AMD's high end to Intels Midrange. And yes I know that LGA 2011 is more expensive but that is what companies can charge when you have the fastest silicon on the market. Don't forget the FX-55 and FX-62 - AMD charged ?700 in the UK for those CPU's because they had the performance lead over Intel.

How quickly people forget the past :p

With all this aside though I do think the FX Processors offer great value possibly the best value of any CPU from a price to performance perspective. I've built probably 8 AMD machines over the past decade they have all been great rigs and I'll continue to build AMD rigs in the future. But to say they are offering high end competition to Intel is I think unrealistic.

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

when is pile driver due?

It's said to be due to Q3 2012, depends how GloFo can handle their wafers. (If GloFo will even deal with them, not too sure.)

hagjohn

Depends what You want to do in the future, if nothing with heavy work loads, have you thought about AMD APU's? They are cheap (well more or less) and you can use hybrid crossfire. :) Ofcourse that would mean that you'd have to buy an FM2 socket mobo :(

giantpotato

I doubt You'll find any lower TDP-s with Piledriver :(

You didn't even mention that for a similar quality motherboard, an intel capable mobo cost ALOT more than the AMD capable mobo.

Not to mention that AMD doesn't change sockets as often as I change my socks lol.

If I was the OP it would really discourage me from posting another thread with good intention.

Actually it was a bit my fault aswell as I couldn't resist arguing with them, now thats finished, I'm also hoping a mod would clean it up :)

[majika]

Does the Gigabyte 990 perform good? I made the stupidest mistake when I bought an 970 series from Gigabyte also, running on PCI-E on 4x lol :(

Now Im between Formula V and the one you got now (990 GB), if the GB one is okay I'll go with that because the price differnce is almost 100 euros :|

GA-990FXA-UD7

Most Def, The GA-990FXA-UD7 is a nice board, well thought out positioning of module placements, plenty of SATA3 ports and an rather neat little Combo port (eSATA and USB3 Combo port) which makes good for my Drobo SAS Storage device...

Overall I am happy with the 990FXA BIOS especially with the latest BIOS Update to F8 which added some nice features to be enabled like manually enable/disable CPU core's DirectCompute options etc.

Downside to this board is that it only allows 32GB or RAM and is Dual channel as opposed to quad channel memory architecture support like offerd by Sandy / Ievybridge platform and also with the lack of PCIEXP 3.0 support which is not really a HUGE issue for me yet as I am still waiting for my new GFX cards ;) but the results I have seen online show only a marginal improvement over PCIEX 2.0 technology's that is, until the game developers and driver devel. catch up !!!

This board allows for easy overclocks and keeps the voltage nice and stable no more issues with the dreaded Gigabyte VDroop. There is also the handy LED debug Display, and also Easy Clear Bios and On/Off buttons which light-up a nice blue color.

The placement of the PCIEX slots are decently spaced apart which allows for decent air-flow and will allow multiple larger GFX cards to be installed, which is always a good thing.

The All black PCB looks nice with a couple of UV lights carefuly placed inside the case.

So, overall as you can tell I am very happy with this board. It comes with x4 SATA3 cables and SLI/X-Fire X2, X3, X4 bridges which admittedly are a pretty standard extras for product at this price point, even so, its good all the same.

I have had no issues with this MB, the O/B Audio is capable of producing a good quality HD sound with the Dolby Digital manager. Includes Optical and SPIF coxal connector where you can truly hear this board sing curtesy of the Realtek HD Audio chip (Realtek ALC889 codec).

AMD FX-8120 (Bulldozer)

As for my FX-8120 CPU I have no negative issues with it what so ever.

All in all, I think the Bulldozer CPU's and this M/B go hand in hand with each other, even more so with the BIOS Flashed to version F8 with offers the 990FXA-UD7 lots of extra little features and overall increased stabillity when it comes to MB voltages and overclocks, IHMO..

Good, Stable, well constructed Motherboard. Very Happy purchase.!

Winning Combo !

Coolermaster HAF 932 Advanced - Case

I also Highly recommend the Coolermaster HAF 932 Advanced Case which is truly massive and sports lots of very nice Advanced features, which are in terms of overall design; forward thinking, again with placment of relevant modules like the HDD enclosure, PSU mounting options (Top/Bottom) and system cooling is immense with a truly HAF (High Air Flow) system design.

The paint job is an All black Matt powder coated paint finish both inside and out. Screwless design space for a water reservoir/Tank inside one of the X6 (5.25") bays and has a fill port top-up feature just under the top-side rubber matts.

There is loads more I can go on about this case I will just say that its one of the best Mid-range to High range PC Chasis I have ever used or seen.

Overclockers3D Review - Coolermasters HAF 932A

Thanks Coolermasters

Corsair TX850 V2 PSU

This is a nice Power supply that has been given good reviews check out Hardware Secrets Review of the Corsair TX850-V2 Power Supply

80Plus Bronze certification offers 85% efficientcy which is really good news for when my GFX cards arrive only neggative is that its not a moduler power cable design but with a big enough case cable managment is not that big of a challange.

So I hope you all get to enjoyed my rig overview...

:Thumbs_up:

[giantpotato]

I personally wouldn't buy a Gigabyte Motherboard because they don't support UEFI. With Windows 8 around the corner, I'd like to take advantage of all its features.

I also detest the slot layout of 99% of the AM3+ boards (Not just Gigabyte, but all manufacturers). I was literally only able to find 1 that had the slot layout I needed. I want to be able to fit 2x dual slot crossfire GPU's, +3 PCIe single slot cards. The only one I could find was the MSI 990FXA-GD80. This is another reason I delayed upgrading. Hopefully when Piledriver is released there will be better options for new motherboards to go with it.

I spent a whole lot of time doing research looking forward to upgrading, only to be disappointed with what's currently available, both in terms of Motherboards and CPU's.

[giantpotato]

I doubt You'll find any lower TDP-s with Piledriver :(

I wouldn't mind a high TDP as long as the performance was there to go with it, sadly with Bulldozer that's not the case. AMD is claiming 20%-30% improvement with Piledriver, but they also made big claims about Bulldozer, so I'll just wait and see when the actual reviews are in.

[Emn1ty]

I wouldn't mind a high TDP as long as the performance was there to go with it, sadly with Bulldozer that's not the case. AMD is claiming 20%-30% improvement with Piledriver, but they also made big claims about Bulldozer, so I'll just wait and see when the actual reviews are in.

I guess the biggest reason I am so satisfied with it is becuase I knew nothing about the processor before it came out. I had heard about Bulldozer a bit but it blindsided me when I was in the store and it was sitting in the case on a speciall for $130 (for the 6200). I figured it was a no brainer, :laugh:

[chris_h449]

You didn't even mention that for a similar quality motherboard, an intel capable mobo cost ALOT more than the AMD capable mobo.

amd looks after their cpu users alot better with thier sockets,chipsets and such i think, looking today at ebuyer i found a nvididia nforce 5 chipset mobo for socket am3+ cpu's, nforce 5 is ancient, yet for intel youre forced at every new cpu to upgrade to a new chipset and new mobo, sometimes even a new memory type (anyone remember rambus) , i personally stuck with amd because i though i was getting the best bang/buck all round option, i could upgrade at a slower pace while still getting a solid fast performing pc. from the first phenom with 7 series chipset and ddr2, then i put a phenom II in with the previous hardware then i jumped to 8 series mobo later and ddr3 with the phenom II, and now ive got a bulldozer in place of my phenom, so ive had 3 cpus and 2 sets of mem and 2 mobos in the time intel has had about a half dozen diffent sockets, to many chipsets to metion, ddr2 + 3, dual, triple a quad channel ram and a revision of each processor as well plus they cost a hefty lot more then a amd equivelent system to boot.

intel knows how to bleed you for cash if you like to keep on the cuttin edge or even just slighty behind it, amd does a hell of a job just trying to keep up.

[majika]

Neowinian Senior makes a good point about no support for UEFI on the GA-990FXA-UDx Series of Motherboards; Hopefully this is something that Gigabyte has indeed identified as a major lacking feature for their AM3+ current platforms.

Who knows, the Gigabyte Dev engineers could be looking at something along the lines of a hybrid approach by combining the Desktop API based GIGABYTE Touch BIOS tool with an abstract layer type of software that may mimic the UEFI spec. in some way.

I suppose even if they just emulated UEFI support into their current EFI spec boards most users probably wont care as long as they see the pretty colors of the GUI, IMHO

** I not quite sure if it would be possible to upgrade a EFI Bios to support the UEFI spec purly with firmware update - I would like to find out though ;) **

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

Neowinian Senior makes a good point about no support for UEFI on the GA-990FXA-UDx Series of Motherboards; Hopefully this is something that Gigabyte has indeed identified as a major lacking feature for their AM3+ current platforms.

Who knows, the Gigabyte Dev engineers could be looking at something along the lines of a hybrid approach by combining the Desktop API based GIGABYTE Touch BIOS tool with an abstract layer type of software that may mimic the UEFI spec. in some way.

I suppose even if they just emulated UEFI support into their current EFI spec boards most users probably wont care as long as they see the pretty colors of the GUI, IMHO

** I not quite sure if it would be possible to upgrade a EFI Bios to support the UEFI spec purly with firmware update - I would like to find out though ;) **

I'm not too sure why do you even need UEFI? For users that need to use BIOS can do it anyway and others who don't need it...well no need for GUI aswell?

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

Trinity APU graphics said to be 58% faster than the HD4000

Since it uses the Piledriver core I think it fits here aswell..

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_hd4000_ivybridge&num=4

Can't wait to see the damage that Trinity will do. :shiftyninja:

[hjf288]

Piledriver is apparently meant to bring some power improvements

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

Piledriver is apparently meant to bring some power improvements

resonant clock mesh, yeah hopefully that will work out for them. It said on some site that it'll bring the desktop to 4GHz+ on stock clocks along with other improvements for PD.

Altho the part I don't believe about it is the "ultra-low power consumption for CPU", doubt well see any top notch CPU's with less than 125TDP

[spaceelf]

As for UEFI, I no longer buy motherboards with BIOS. That's pretty much all there is to that.

I built an A8-3850 and loved it. I plan to no longer buy high end machines at all. Llano obviously isn't super powerful CPU-wise (though it does the job) so I'm hoping Trinity is a major boost on that side of things.

The FX procs aren't winning the performance war by any means, but I really dislike the pricing on everything Intel (including motherboards as mentioned earlier.)

I'm no longer much of an AMD fan after their disappointing performance ever since Core 2 came out, but they're still going great on the low end.

Meanwhile I'm using a Core i7 so I'm in no real rush to change anything.

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

Trinity wise it's said to be not a big improvement in the CPU. I think the real PD cores improvements are coming when the desktop CPU's will be out.

[spaceelf]

Trinity wise it's said to be not a big improvement in the CPU. I think the real PD cores improvements are coming when the desktop CPU's will be out.

We'll see. Either way though I'm not actually in the market. Currently only looking at Win8 ARM or x86 tablets for expensive purchases (whenever those show up.)

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

We'll see. Either way though I'm not actually in the market. Currently only looking at Win8 ARM or x86 tablets for expensive purchases (whenever those show up.)

Hopefully soon, also waiting on those :)

[spaceelf]

This DX58SO though is the most annoying motherboard I've ever had the displeasure of using. Poor layout with SATA connectors under vidcards and wanting a molex plug AND a sata plug directly into the mobo even though thats just retarded (especially with the SATA one so far away from where your actual SATA power cables will be.) I hope they fired whoever designed this thing. The only thing I like about it is the lack of PS/2 ports.

They say Intel motherboards are the gold standard. This is the first one I've owned...and I'd call it more the 'brown' standard :p

Enough ranting from me, but seriously. I can't believe *anyone* designs motherboards this crappy.

Slightly *cough* off-topic so I'll shut up now :shifty:

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

This DX58SO though is the most annoying motherboard I've ever had the displeasure of using. Poor layout with SATA connectors under vidcards and wanting a molex plug AND a sata plug directly into the mobo even though thats just retarded (especially with the SATA one so far away from where your actual SATA power cables will be.) I hope they fired whoever designed this thing. The only thing I like about it is the lack of PS/2 ports.

They say Intel motherboards are the gold standard. This is the first one I've owned...and I'd call it more the 'brown' standard :p

Enough ranting from me, but seriously. I can't believe *anyone* designs motherboards this crappy.

Slightly *cough* off-topic so I'll shut up now :shifty:

Looked up that board on google and I must say, thats the most idiotic layout I've seen in a while. LOL @ the molex.