AMD Piledriver rumours ... and expert conjecture

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We have had several requests for a sticky on AMD's yet to be released Piledriver architecture ... so here it is.

I want to make a few things clear though.

Post a question relevant to the topic, or information about the topic, or it will be deleted.

Post any negative personal comments about another user ... and they will be deleted.

Post flame baiting comments about the blue, red and green team and they will be deleted.

Enjoy ...
 
it is rough out there
I go on Google and search "AMD news 2012" and use advanced search and select "past 24 hours"
but man is AMD being tight with news
alot of stuff on Intel side but doesnt apply in this thread

does seem that a Trinity core base CPU with HD 7xxx series GPU is perfect for the PS4
I find it interesting that Sony is getting away from Cell
not 100 percent sure how Cell operates but going to a X86 CPU seems like a good thing for us desktop enthusiasts
and the sooner that the new consoles with DX11 come out I think will be better for the PC gamer
 
Ugh, June for Trinity...

I don't know if I'll be able to wait that long, hahaha. Maybe I'll just get an Ivy (if they're indeed good in mobile) with a GK107 incarnation from Asus if they arrive first. The GT660M sounds quite yummy, maybe on par with the 7690M or better.

And about the TV Tunner thingy... I haven't got any new info about it, since I left the Satellite dish back home, hahaha. Maybe I'll build it again and start experimenting with the TV-USB stick I got here (TV on a stick, can't get better than that, lol).

Cheers!
 
You think Intel is the only company on the planet that does this? Its called "exclusivity agreements", and are perfectly legal.

People REALLY need to start understanding that our economic system is designed specifically to benefit those who have the most money to spend.
Never said that, point is are we supposed to just "forget it happened" and praise Intel for being marketing gods and pretend they are all fairies and pixie dust?

And its perfectly legal IF your not a monopoly, ie Coke and Pepsi, neither one have enough power to put the other under.
 
it is rough out there
I go on Google and search "AMD news 2012" and use advanced search and select "past 24 hours"
but man is AMD being tight with news
alot of stuff on Intel side but doesnt apply in this thread

does seem that a Trinity core base CPU with HD 7xxx series GPU is perfect for the PS4
I find it interesting that Sony is getting away from Cell
not 100 percent sure how Cell operates but going to a X86 CPU seems like a good thing for us desktop enthusiasts
and the sooner that the new consoles with DX11 come out I think will be better for the PC gamer

Anyone expecting a huge jump in graphical quality is going to be VERY disappointed. Its not like there have been any huge graphical improvements in the DX API as of late [Tesselation aside]. New consoles are going to push 1080p, 120HZ [for 3D] and some AA on the side. Thats all I'm expecting in the long run.
 
Never said that, point is are we supposed to just "forget it happened" and praise Intel for being marketing gods and pretend they are all fairies and pixie dust?

And its perfectly legal IF your not a monopoly, ie Coke and Pepsi, neither one have enough power to put the other under.

I got news: X86 is not the dominant CPU architecture anymore, as ONLY the PC platform uses it. Hard to call Intel a monopoly on that basis alone. Nevermind that NOTHING is stopping AMD from moving to a different CPU architecture and competiting in some other market segment if they so choose.

If we are going to hold every company accountable for every "evil" deed they did, then we won't have anything left to purchase. How many people died because GM wanted to save a few bucks and stuff the gas tank under the back seat? Or how about Ford using a far to narrow wheel base on its SUV's for years on end, despite knowing this posed a rollover risk? Or taking your Coke analogy, guess what used to be a prime ingredient in coca-cola? Thats right: cocaine. Every company has skeletons in the closet, and I for the most part ignore them. I buy based on price/performance. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
I got news: X86 is not the dominant CPU architecture anymore, as ONLY the PC platform uses it. Hard to call Intel a monopoly on that basis alone. Nevermind that NOTHING is stopping AMD from moving to a different CPU architecture and competiting in some other market segment if they so choose.

If we are going to hold every company accountable for every "evil" deed they did, then we won't have anything left to purchase. How many people died because GM wanted to save a few bucks and stuff the gas tank under the back seat? Or how about Ford using a far to narrow wheel base on its SUV's for years on end, despite knowing this posed a rollover risk? Or taking your Coke analogy, guess what used to be a prime ingredient in coca-cola? Thats right: cocaine. Every company has skeletons in the closet, and I for the most part ignore them. I buy based on price/performance. Nothing more, nothing less.
If you can live with the highest level of corruption, then thats fine for you, I refuse to and will choose the lesser of two weevils, always. How many local businesses has Wal-mart put under? such a great place to shop, such a disaster for small communities.

As for trying to twist what a monopoly is, doesn't change anything. That would be like saying Pepsi has a monopoly in Pizza hut, you can always go to little ceasars.

A monopoly in the PC industry is still that wether or not you make other products, your still a monopoly in the PC industry. Are we seriously supposed to opt to use an android tablet to do all the work that a PC does? sorry, its not possible, as they are very different markets that share some common aspects. That doesn't make that product a PC.
 
Anyone expecting a huge jump in graphical quality is going to be VERY disappointed. Its not like there have been any huge graphical improvements in the DX API as of late [Tesselation aside]. New consoles are going to push 1080p, 120HZ [for 3D] and some AA on the side. Thats all I'm expecting in the long run.


I am thinking that with DX11 support in consoles that maybe the developers will be pushed to a higher level in coding?
 
If you can live with the highest level of corruption, then thats fine for you, I refuse to and will choose the lesser of two weevils, always. How many local businesses has Wal-mart put under? such a great place to shop, such a disaster for small communities.

As for trying to twist what a monopoly is, doesn't change anything. That would be like saying Pepsi has a monopoly in Pizza hut, you can always go to little ceasars.

A monopoly in the PC industry is still that wether or not you make other products, your still a monopoly in the PC industry. Are we seriously supposed to opt to use an android tablet to do all the work that a PC does? sorry, its not possible, as they are very different markets that share some common aspects. That doesn't make that product a PC.

Question: If Intel is a monopoly in the PC industry, then couldn't you argue ARM is an even greater monopoly in the mobile phone industry? You can't have it both ways.

Secondly, the "lesser of two evils" argument requires subjectivity, which automatically makes the argument prone to bias. Tell me, if AMD started to do the same thing, would you buy VIA, just because, performance be damned?
 
I am thinking that with DX11 support in consoles that maybe the developers will be pushed to a higher level in coding?

Define "higher level"? I mean, most Xbox360 stuff is done in assembly or through dev tools anyway, so its not like the 360 was holding the DX API back.

DX10 and DX11 are struggling for adoption for no other reasons then you need an entirely separate graphical pipeline [twice as much testing] and the fact that a larger part of the market can use DX9 then can use either DX10 or DX11, due in large part to the continued resiliance of Windows XP. Thats starting to change though, but you are still seeing the vast majority of games having to implement two entirely separate graphical pipelines, which will slow development and introduce significantly more bugs [which people then complain about].

The other limiting factor is the glut of DX10 era hardware. Its hard enough to implement both a DX9 and DX11 API, and having to add a separate fall back to DX10 is simply too much work to justify. Hence why most DX11 titles lack a native DX10 coding path. [As I predicted, DX11 has killed DX10, leaving a large part of the market to downgrade back to DX9 as a result.]

Trust me, I've heard the "higher level of coding" stuff hundreds of times before. I especially love the OOP people who claimed that Object Oriented would eliminate all horrid coding practices. Since then, we've produced an entire generation of people who create horrid OO code. [True story: A project I worked on had an object which could have one of 7 different states. Rather then make a single function that set the state and pass in the state that was required, the design that was implemented had seven different functions that each set a single state. Horrid OO design at its finest.]

Honestly, look at a Witcher 2 [DX9] and Dragon Age 2 [DX11 + Mega Texture Pack] screenshot/video, and tell me which one looks nicer. Even more ironic, is Witcher 2 runs smoother [at least on my rig...]. The DX API really didn't add significant graphical improvements post DX9, as most of the improvements have been process side [new WDDM for Vista kernel, faster running code, etc], with basically only a handful of new graphical effects, which while they look really nice, tend to be more subtle [god rays, etc] and expensive to implement [tesselation]. I find it no shock that NVIDIA/AMD are spending so much time working with shader based AA models, as those offer better IQ benefits then what we've gotten out of DX the past two revisions.

I'm saying it, and will not stop saying it: Anyone expecting a graphical jump because of new consoles is a fool. Consoles may see a benefit due to finally being able to push AA and having more memory, but I don't expect that to really improve the PC, considering we already have those things.
 
okay gamerk316 I would be classified as one of the fools hoping for improvement LOL
but that is okay since you provided a very informative and well thought out post

I now have a revised opinion of the situation

hasnt there been talk about DX12?

Unlike most people, I don't believe the "consoles holding back PC" argument. Thus, I don't see a new wave of consoles as significantly impacting the PC world. If anything, with consoles closer in power to PC's, you might see LESS features added for the PC version, in order to reduce development costs. [IE: Since consoles are not significantly weaker anymore, you don't have to pretty up the PC version of the game as much]. I hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case...
 
Question: If Intel is a monopoly in the PC industry, then couldn't you argue ARM is an even greater monopoly in the mobile phone industry? You can't have it both ways.

Secondly, the "lesser of two evils" argument requires subjectivity, which automatically makes the argument prone to bias. Tell me, if AMD started to do the same thing, would you buy VIA, just because, performance be damned?

Well... ARM is not backstabbing Samsung, Qualcomm nor TI till they're out of business... But, I'll concede that if ARM gets a fab to produce chips, we might see some bullying there. AFAIK, ARM doesn't produce chips directly, so they sell it (the designs) to partners to do the rest of the SoC. Intel doesn't sell designs, since they are glued to the x86 license and they own fabs and such. HArd to compare Intel to anything else... I'd say the closest one to compare is IBM, and we all know they're big bullies too, hahaha.

Anyway, I also object that new consoles won't bring more shiny into the gaming industry. DX9c has a lot of goodies, I totally agree there, and visually is very hard to best what you can do with DX9c today. Now, what DX9c lacks is a GPGPU lib. That will give you access to better coding paths for physics and better AI (PLEASE!). I know they're not exactly eye candy goodness, but the 2 things I listed are far from trivial for today's standards; not even PC games have come a long way there; the last one I thought had decent AI was FEAR. Other than that... I don't think we'll see better shiny from what's today on computers, just more of the same (bigger and more aliased, like you said, hahaa).

Cheers!
 
I do agree AI in game is seriously lacking
while Metro 2033 is a great game there are times that the opponents are just so unrealistic
If I am coming right at you with an automatic shotgun why would you crouch and start talking?!
Crysis 2 AI seems a little better than Metro but still lacking.
Seems like eyecandy has been more of a priority than good AI enemy strategy
 
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