AMD Phenom II 940 "Xtremely" Benchmarked

[JAYDEEJOHN]

?? I don't think Intel uses immersion for the D0 stepping since that is still 45nm. Where did you see this, or am I misunderstanding you?

I had thought I'd wait for Westmere before upgrading, but now I'm thinking June for a D0 version of the i7 920. Although very preliminary, based on Fugger's statement that he's got a C0 stepping that gets similar results, and that others like Team Finnland have even better D0 samples, it looks like D0 could be a magic stepping for i7, like G0 was for the Q6600.

Yeah, what I meant was that like immersion, then new D0 Rev consists of better thermals etc, like what we see with AMD, and see when Intel does implement it in the future, but like the G0, D0 does some of the same things, plus is better for the ecology

 

[Hellboy]

Hmmm... so hellboy I may be reading between the lines on this one but you're not a fan of this new AM3 platform? 😀

Im didnt say I wasnt a fan of the AM3 or Phenom II did I.

I do not tollerate fanboys, fanbois or whatever you may call them...

I am a fan of pioneering technology who ever makes it..

I am a fan of reliability and as Phenom hasnt had a good start, nor has any prior AMD based chipsets (not that was AMD's fault but down to Nvidia and et al - nforce 4 anyone ... ) to be honest until ATI got their finger out of their arse with the 780/790 series then AMD got better.. Nvidia only got better with the 7 series...

I build machines and have had less problems with Intel Chipset based motherboards.. fact...

I have had problems with Saphire ATI based video cards - infact all Saphires have gone wrong before their time... I will say my nvidia 7800 i have had for four years and not had a hitch with it...

All I want is something to be efficient, fast, reliable and stable.. In the year 2009 is that too much to ask from a processor and board combination... Last year was a complete nightmare for AMD and lets hope they can work wonders in the following months and years as i have said before its us who will benefit from speed increases...

I sold AMD AM2 socket motherboard machines on the basis that they were upgradable to the Phenom as AMD promised... and they werent.. Then some AM2+ were not truely compatible with the next generation Phenoms.. and to be honest they should of changed name from Phenom II.


Just had this emailed to me

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3482&tag=nl.e589

Good luck to AMD, looks like a price wars comming on... Looking forward to integrate Phenoms with 780 chipsets.

 

[yipsl]

Hmmm... so hellboy I may be reading between the lines on this one but you're not a fan of this new AM3 platform? 😀

Probably not, but he seems to be a fan of hamsters with lower GI tract issues.

Hey Hellboy, the AMD4wife will have to wait. I decided to wait from Friday to Monday to see reviews of the AM3 CPU's. The Phenom II X3 720 BE actually looks good at $145 when it becomes available and when there's a bios for this board that supports it.

Since I want an 880G or 890GX with SB800 when they arrive, I talked myself out of spending too much for just an AM2 CPU and new SB750 mobo. By that time, the rumored Phenom II X4 @ a native 3.6 might be out, but if the 720 can be overclocked to 3.8, then that looks good enough for a couple of years.

I got Futuremark Vantage Advanced Edition with the Sapphire 4870x2 but the meshugge program won't take the code. I even got a magnifier to read it. So, I e-mailed Sapphire and hoped they'd bump it over to Futuremark. All the other included software had easy to read registration codes, but ole Mad Onion must be Microsoft's new padawan in registration obfuscation (a dark side of the force skill).

If this Sapphire lasts a year, it will make me happy as it's a free replacement for the dead at almost one year MSI 3870x2. I would have liked one of the 4870x2's with a standard policy, but they didn't match the original $449 price I paid for the 3870x2.

Just when I'm thinking I was very lucky, the card will probably die in a week of intensive LOTRO, The Witcher and Oblivion. As far as it goes, I used to only buy built by ATI but you can't do that anymore, so it's find a partner who's card you hope lasts or which will get replaced in good order if it fails.


Newegg is great though, they deserve to go worldwide. No techie in any country should be without the egg.

 

[Hellboy]

Probably not, but he seems to be a fan of hamsters with lower GI tract issues.

Hey Hellboy, the AMD4wife will have to wait. I decided to wait from Friday to Monday to see reviews of the AM3 CPU's. The Phenom II X3 720 BE actually looks good at $145 when it becomes available and there's a bios for this board that supports it.

Since I want an 880G or 890GX with SB800 when they arrive, I talked myself out of spending too much for just an AM2 CPU and new SB750 mobo. By that time, the rumored Phenom II X4 @ a native 3.6 might be out, but if the 720 can be overclocked to 3.8, then that looks good enough for a couple of years.

I got Futuremark Vantage Advanced Edition with the Sapphire 4870x2 but the meshugge program won't take the code. I even got a magnifier to read it. So, I e-mailed Sapphire and hoped they'd bump it over to Futuremark. All the other included software had easy to read registration codes, but ole Mad Onion must be Microsoft's new padawan in registration obfuscation (a dark side of the force skill).

If this Sapphire lasts a year, it will make me happy as it's a free replacement for the dead at almost one year MSI 3870x2. I would have liked one of the 4870x2's with a standard policy, but they didn't match the original $449 price I paid for the 3870x2.

Just when I think I'm thinking I was very lucky, the card will probably die in a week of intensive LOTRO, The Witcher and Oblivion. As far as it goes, I used to only buy built by ATI but you can't do that anymore, so it's find a partner who's card you hope lasts or which will get replaced in good order if it fails.

Whoooaah there, I never and have never said I disliked AMD...

All im saying is AMD build nice houses its the garden thats crap... thats all... the SB750 is a garden with landscaping and a rock pool

You mean your not gonna pounce on the mrs in 4 months for the next upgrade.. bah I was counting on raising another glass of jack daniels... on ice of course...

Im gonna get me Neverwinter nights 2 out again need a good adventure to play. I loved Bards Tale but I haven loaded Oblivion yet even though ive had it since it came out...

you never know i might get another AMD system yet .. seems like intels been sleeping a bit of late...

I really want a 32 nm 8 core I Core 7.. for me upgrading me 9550 not worth bothering especially when my shower is being warmed off of it...


As for the video card, it is a Saphire... Id only buy Gigabyte, XFX, EVGA, Gainward or Asus video cards to be honest - Sparkle at a push but have been battered on them in the past too...

But for Saphire - I will never buy another one again.. every one has gone pop..

 

[EXT64]

yipsl, that card will be great in Oblivion. I just reinstalled the game (plus all of the mods for long range view, weather, 2GB texture replacements, etc.) And it looks amazing. I also did the trick that is supposed to force SM3.0 (rather than the stock 2.0) so it runs nice and fast and looks great with 4x AA and HDR. Enjoy it!

 

[yipsl]

Im gonna get me Neverwinter nights 2 out again need a good adventure to play. I loved Bards Tale but I haven loaded Oblivion yet even though ive had it since it came out...

The Bard's Tale remake is outrageously humorous, but it has console port stamped all over the gameplay and the language is like The Witcher's. I can only play it late at night on weekends because of our kid, at least until I set up a similar PC in the bedroom. No "M" rated games on our main PC's until our kid's a teen.

My favorite RPG's of all time are old school; the original Bard's Tale 1 and 2 on the C64. Betrayal at Krondor on the PC, TES: Arena and TES: Daggerfall on the PC. The Magic Candle II was great too. I missed Darklands but heard it was very good. RoA: Star Trail was fantastic for it's time. Sometimes, I wish they'd just remake games like movies. Take the plots and characters and update them, but few want party based single player games today.

I should also mention Might and Magic. Played them all since World of Xeen, and enjoyed the RTS's Heroes games too. I'm just not sure I'd consider Ubisoft's and Nival's games true Might and Magics.

Modern RPG's are mostly single character single player or else MMO's. Many are half finished games like Dungeon Lords (still had the greatest vampire quest I'd ever done in a city) or quarter finished games like Two Worlds where you could finish in five minutes when the end game bad guy appeared in the first town and was mobbed by peasants (what a glitch!). I played the first Icewind Dale and both Dungeon Sieges, but mostly liked Morrowind for a modern CRPG. Are the Fables any good?

Oblivion's okay, but the devs really didn't get permission to support modders the way they did with Morrowind. I blame the lawyers. I hope they go back to making it easy to mod for the next Elder Scrolls game. For some reason, Fallout doesn't interest me, not old school or Fallout 3. I was a TES addict for years before I gave up on Bethsoft and went over to an MMO.

I did enjoy KOTOR, and should finally play KOTOR 2, but I guess I'm hooked on LOTRO play now. That takes up most of the time I have to play games. My wife and I like it so much we went lifetime. Conan interests me, and it would be great if there were a Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser Lankhmar MMO, but it would be even more "M" rated than Conan.

As for the video card, it is a Saphire... Id only buy Gigabyte, XFX, EVGA, Gainward or Asus video cards to be honest - Sparkle at a push but have been battered on them in the past too...

But for Saphire - I will never buy another one again.. every one has gone pop..

I bought MSI for the 3870x2 because it was factory overclocked and thus covered. I have some interest in CPU overclocking but none in modding or overclocking GPU's.

Never owned a Sapphire before. This is the first time. It didn't cost me an extra $449. Can't argue with that (but I did notice the large number of Sapphire posts in a Google search).

Never said you hated AMD, just joked about a hamster fixation. I do wish ATI hadn't been bought so they could make Intel chipsets. At least AMD CPU's are going somewhere, if they can survive their new pricing.

 

[EXT64]

KOTOR 2 has some hilarious glitches (and some really annoying ones). A ton of stuff was cut too. It still is a really fun game (I just finished playing 1 and 2 again).

 

[Hellboy]

Never said you hated AMD, just joked about a hamster fixation. I do wish ATI hadn't been bought so they could make Intel chipsets. At least AMD CPU's are going somewhere, if they can survive their new pricing.

I just wanted to make sure no one gave me that fanboi moniker

If I made money on crap id be a fanboi of crap i guess. - Remember someone somewhere makes money on crap.. Its a crazy world folks but true..

KOTOR 2 has some hilarious glitches (and some really annoying ones). A ton of stuff was cut too. It still is a really fun game (I just finished playing 1 and 2 again).

I bought Starwars Galaxies from a guy in the States and had it shipped over here months before the official UK release.. Got the Deluxe Edition too...

Loaded it up

Waited
waited
waited

( get the picture )

OMG this game was so boring... It really was.... I had to read the manual 5 times, it took 50 commands to just fart... It was horrendous... So complicated.. had to do this had to do that .... talk to people on how to do that and only special people new what was going on...

About as exciting as listening to Slipknot doing the times crossword..

Ugh the worst online gaming experience ever period... I nearly gave up gaming and bought a Dell...but hey ho i got given another hobby from the wife... hence ...

So that I painted the kitchen and had more fun watching it dry - it was that bad...

KOTOR 1 was good but got a bit poxy with 2...

Why oh Why can't we just have another decent starwars game like dark forces with light sabres and a new Xwing Vs Tie fighter... This would be one of my three wishes that someone would do a proper decent job of these two games....... Please George Lucas make a midlife crisis man happy Id even forgive Ja Ja Binks

I would love to fly that X Wing down the Darth Star and become a hero....pppppppp pwease ( in a Roger Rabbits voice )

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Yeah, what I meant was that like immersion, then new D0 Rev consists of better thermals etc, like what we see with AMD, and see when Intel does implement it in the future, but like the G0, D0 does some of the same things, plus is better for the ecology

And now on the frontpage at Tom's, the news is showing Intel will release Westmere in time for volume shipping by Christmas. So now I'm back to sitting on my wallet, waiting for Westmere .

 

[dattimr]

On the other news, TSMC's 40nm has been delayed (a.k.a screwed) and it seems it will only give marginal advantages over the current 55nm. So much for "Intel is about to lose the process lead, blah, blah".

 

[yipsl]

And now on the frontpage at Tom's, the news is showing Intel will release Westmere in time for volume shipping by Christmas. So now I'm back to sitting on my wallet, waiting for Westmere .

Do you mean the 32nm i7's? Or is that the quad i5? The article on dual cores with IGP weren't westmere's, but clarkdale and arrandale. IMHO, I wish that Intel would kill dual cores and just go quad to force developers to actually code for more cores.

On the other news, TSMC's 40nm has been delayed (a.k.a screwed) and it seems it will only give marginal advantages over the current 55nm. So much for "Intel is about to lose the process lead, blah, blah".

You're confusing GPU process with CPU process. No one's going to 40nm for CPU's. The next step after 45nm is 32nm, which Intel will reach by years end and AMD sometime later (maybe Nvidia too LOL).

 

[archibael]

IMHO, I wish that Intel would kill dual cores and just go quad to force developers to actually code for more cores.

Even the dual cores are hyperthreaded, though, according to HKPC rumors. If developers are looking for widespread proliferation for four-threaded coding, that should do it.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Do you mean the 32nm i7's? Or is that the quad i5? The article on dual cores with IGP weren't westmere's, but clarkdale and arrandale. IMHO, I wish that Intel would kill dual cores and just go quad to force developers to actually code for more cores.

Yes, Westmere is the generic name for the 32nm shrink of Nehalem, and I was referring to the high-end (6-core?) version - Gulfdale I think . Intel is going a bit nuts with the naming - there's a Clarksdale, Clarksfield and also a Kentsfield - surprised they don't have a Clark-Kentsfield.

I tend to agree with others that DDR3 will be fairly mainstream in 7-8 months and so comparable in price to DDR2, so no reason to go with that for a new build as in the i5 series.

Besides, there's at least one hint that Westmere has some optimizations that didn't make it into Nehalem: Westmere

My source then went to say that the next version of Intel’s CPUs (Westmere) is so “awesome it hurts”, and will “smoke” the current i7’s by quite a large margin in a few” key” benchmarks.

Another piece of juicy info is that Westmere will not only be a shrink, but will also “greatly” improve on current technology used in Nehalem.

Of course this is merely an enthusiast blog, but on the other hand he was right about Westmere being pushed up by nearly a quarter. He may actually have some insider sources

 

[dattimr]

You're confusing GPU process with CPU process. No one's going to 40nm for CPU's. The next step after 45nm is 32nm, which Intel will reach by years end and AMD sometime later (maybe Nvidia too LOL).

Not really, I knew they were different and it was not a comparison, but many still thought it was such an achievement of TSMC and that Intel no longer would have the most advanced process in town. It's pretty much like IBM/AMD announcing their 22nm is on track faster than Intel's while showing a single 22nm SDRAM cell. Now they (TSMC) got a leakage as big as a "window in a submarine" (gotta love the Enquirer) and the enthusiasm soon fades away. Perhaps someone can design a better chip, but I really doubt someone will beat Intel on its best game.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

The leakage has been known for quite awhile, and so far, no one knows if all gfx cards will be effected or not.
http://www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp-01058-stratix-iv-40nm-process-node-custom-logic-devices.pdf
This shows a concern for the leakage early on. Time will tell. Just like the ATI 2900, further models worked out

 

[raider37]

These are some fantastic benchmark results for AMD, i'm glad to see they are finally back in the game, delivering an amazing product that can compete with the best, and still maintain a mainstream price. Way to go!

 

[dattimr]

The leakage has been known for quite awhile, and so far, no one knows if all gfx cards will be effected or not.
http://www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp-01058-stratix-iv-40nm-process-node-custom-logic-devices.pdf
This shows a concern for the leakage early on. Time will tell. Just like the ATI 2900, further models worked out

That's right, we gotta wait to see, but I'd rather not hold my breath.

 

[Reynod]

JD the conclusion was interesting.

Might take longer to get bootable silicon moving to the next node down.

I don't see that Intel will jump to 32 from 45 nor AMD - the 40nm conversion will be a big enough jump in the interim.

From your article:

"The 40-nm process comes with new design challenges to address, and the penalty for error is high. Mask costs grow
about 50 percent each generation and for the 40-nm node run as high as $3 million. Equally important, the cost of the
design effort is growing because of increasing gate count and chip complexity, and growing more rapidly than mask
cost. These barriers make 40-nm design prohibitive for all but a shrinking number of organizations."

 

[EXT64]

I may have fixed the issue with my new Phenom II system (that I mentioned earlier in this thread). If you're interested here's the link:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/256262-30-ma790gp-ds4h-phenom

Now all I need is fow E:TW to come out so I can really stress this thing.

On topic (sort of), why do processors use a different process (45nm vs 55nm, for example) than graphics cards? Was it done for a reason, or did it just sort of turn out that way?

 

[Hellboy]

JD the conclusion was interesting.

Might take longer to get bootable silicon moving to the next node down.

I don't see that Intel will jump to 32 from 45 nor AMD - the 40nm conversion will be a big enough jump in the interim.

From your article:

"The 40-nm process comes with new design challenges to address, and the penalty for error is high. Mask costs grow
about 50 percent each generation and for the 40-nm node run as high as $3 million. Equally important, the cost of the
design effort is growing because of increasing gate count and chip complexity, and growing more rapidly than mask
cost. These barriers make 40-nm design prohibitive for all but a shrinking number of organizations."

Can I have my boomerang back now as the wife wants to play with my didgery doo and with out the boomberang I have no protection

Im sure someone with billions will work out the 40nm problem....

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Its simply a balance power/materials/performance/design. Itll cost more as they say, as therell have to be more testing done to perfect the node with desired results. Sometimes companies hit it first time out, other times, its a failure. The 2900 had to be released, tho it had leakage problems, and was released anyways.
nVidias current 55nm product was delayed 3-4 months, and Im sure it was something like were seeing here with 40nm. The difference is tho, gpus turnover twice as fast at least as do cpus, so reaching a process thats doable can come rather quickly, sometimes due to luck, as in hitting it right from the beginning, or, in this case, since neither company has working 40nm product out, theres not the need to push something out quickly, especially in this eco climate.
1 thing I might add tho, going from 55nm, where nVidia seemed to have problems with this shrink on their 2xx series, it does make it harder, being as its been rushed to 55nm, and then again at 40nm, whereas ATI's 55nm has been out for quite awhile, and tho theres no guarantees, its usually found better to a new node on a well known product

 

[EXT64]

Seems like we should have a flop sooner or later. The 8800 was a huge jump in performance and the 4800 was a large drop in price (and respectable performance increase). We're use to above average results, so I wouldn't be surprised if the first iteration isn't as good as expected.

 

[Reynod]

I just finished reading couple of articles on 32nm.

Does seem to present some real problems.

Probably no point in raising them here because Hellboy is still playing peekaboo with his image in the mirror. Should keep him entertained for hours.

 

[Hellboy]

I just finished reading couple of articles on 32nm.

Does seem to present some real problems.

Probably no point in raising them here because Hellboy is still playing peekaboo with his image in the mirror. Should keep him entertained for hours.

And what did you do so bad to become an Australian

 

[EXT64]

Well, after fixing the EMI/Static issues I was having I can finally undervolt my CPU decently. It just passed a decent bit of prime95 (all 4 cores) at 1.25V (stock 1.35V) and 2GHz Northbridge. This lowered my load temps to 43C (which is about what my graphics card idles at) from 47C and idle to 28C (just 3C above my HD temp which is fairly close (2-3C above) room temp. According to Anand, this CPU was already near the new 95W Phenoms at load, and now with a .1V drop it should be way better. I wonder why it was rated 125W if it was (at stock) so close to the AM3's? Did they expect it to be higher? At any rate, mine should now be well within a 95W envelope. Oh, and CnQ is off, so that 28C is at a full 3GHz.