I know it's not coming out 'till Sept 03, but I'm sure I know what the story is going to be.
I was really rooting for AMD on the A64, but then I found out it was only going to be single channel DDR. IMHO that is a stupid mistake for them to make espesially when they already have a dual channel design in the Opteron.
Even if the latency will help out in a lot of apps it will still never compete where outright bandwidth counts ie VIDEO. If they want to be seriously viewed as a good media platform they can't just do games well. The biggest reason the current Athlon can't do as well in media apps even with dual channel DDR is because the CPU can't make use of it all through the FSB. Now theyre going to give us a direct link to the memory and castrate it right off the bat by only using one channel? How is AMD really going to support their argument of total platform performance over outright CPU speed when Intel will have the speed AND the bandwidth! In order to make waves AMD will really have to make a jump in performance over Intel, and that doesn't seem like it's what they're is trying to do. When the benchmarks come out I am sure its going to be pretty close between the two with AMD winning on some and Intel on others.
I know you could say "Just buy the Opteron!", but you know since its got the Server Label it carries a premium price tag. PLUS desktop chipset makers most likely won't touch it keeping prices high and the features down. Why not take the Opteron and give it only 2 HT links, decrease L2 cache and call it the A64? That would make the most sense. Why settle for being around the same speed at a lower price than Intel? People that like Intel products don't really have much of a reason to make a change right now and the P4 IS a moving target. By the time Sept rolls around they will be faster than they are now.
Basically I think if AMD keeps the A64 at one channel DDR they are blowing a good oppurtunity to have a product that wouldn't force enthusiasts to compromise in any one aspect and risk losing those sales to Intel.
Ok, enough ranting...
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by BlackLoTuS on 04/21/03 09:04 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
I was really rooting for AMD on the A64, but then I found out it was only going to be single channel DDR. IMHO that is a stupid mistake for them to make espesially when they already have a dual channel design in the Opteron.
Even if the latency will help out in a lot of apps it will still never compete where outright bandwidth counts ie VIDEO. If they want to be seriously viewed as a good media platform they can't just do games well. The biggest reason the current Athlon can't do as well in media apps even with dual channel DDR is because the CPU can't make use of it all through the FSB. Now theyre going to give us a direct link to the memory and castrate it right off the bat by only using one channel? How is AMD really going to support their argument of total platform performance over outright CPU speed when Intel will have the speed AND the bandwidth! In order to make waves AMD will really have to make a jump in performance over Intel, and that doesn't seem like it's what they're is trying to do. When the benchmarks come out I am sure its going to be pretty close between the two with AMD winning on some and Intel on others.
I know you could say "Just buy the Opteron!", but you know since its got the Server Label it carries a premium price tag. PLUS desktop chipset makers most likely won't touch it keeping prices high and the features down. Why not take the Opteron and give it only 2 HT links, decrease L2 cache and call it the A64? That would make the most sense. Why settle for being around the same speed at a lower price than Intel? People that like Intel products don't really have much of a reason to make a change right now and the P4 IS a moving target. By the time Sept rolls around they will be faster than they are now.
Basically I think if AMD keeps the A64 at one channel DDR they are blowing a good oppurtunity to have a product that wouldn't force enthusiasts to compromise in any one aspect and risk losing those sales to Intel.
Ok, enough ranting...
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by BlackLoTuS on 04/21/03 09:04 PM.</EM></FONT></P>