AMD Piledriver

[neodymium]

Why do people only look at the Windows benchmarks for Piledriver and all CPUs in general? And why is it that the linux benchmarks end up to be in Piledriver's favor? If one were to look at a linux benchmark for Piledriver CPUs, they tend to outperform certain Intels, as in some i5's and i7's in the similar $180 to $250 range. I think this is because linux uses more integer-reliant processes than floating-points, though I'm not really sure.

 

[morgoth780]

Because windows has a much larger market share, especially for gaming.

 

[$hawn]

^+10

 

[melikepie]

I honestly don't think Linux even has a market share.

 

[rayy1212]

I believe that just like in the battle between AMD and Nvidia, the same holds true for AMD and Intel. AMD seems to have an edge in general computing but when you start adding alot of extra extended commands and loads that's when Intel begins to take the lead.

 

[melikepie]

I'm still waiting for INVIDIA.

 

[$hawn]

I've been using ubuntu on a trial basis for some years now, never felt really compelled to move towards linux, until I used 12.04 on my sisters lappy. Really light and snappy, and perfect for people who just wanna browse the net and watch movies, and do a little office stuff

But games are the single biggest obstacle in the way of linux. The day that games start to run natively on Linux, without any sort of emulation and stuff, would be the day windows dies a really bad death What these linux distro's need to do is have some uniformity amongst themselves though.

 

[melikepie]

Linux has no problems running games. It's just that no developer cares about Linux.

 

[Rohan Rathi]

If I may interrupt, I read somewhere that Windows 7 (maybe even 8) does not utilise the cores properly. For intel, it does first use the physical then logical cores. But Windows cant utilise the cores in AMD. I'm gonna search it and look for the article where I read it.
My point is, maybe that's why linux's benchmarks end in AMD's favor, it can utilise it properly.

 

[melikepie]

Windows had a patch for that, as well as Windows 8 has it build in already. It's like the performance improvement from Bulldozer to Piledriver.

 

[$hawn]

Windows had a patch for that, as well as Windows 8 has it build in already. It's like the performance improvement from Bulldozer to Piledriver.

And both the Windows7 patch and Windows 8 were tested and found to deliver very little improvement if any at all !

 

[cjl]

And both the Windows7 patch and Windows 8 were tested and found to deliver very little improvement if any at all !

That may be, but Windows 8 definitely uses one core per module first, and only loads the second core on each module if there is already high utilization on the all of the modules' first cores (similar to how it treats hyperthreaded intel cores).

 

[neodymium]

I've been using ubuntu on a trial basis for some years now, never felt really compelled to move towards linux, until I used 12.04 on my sisters lappy. Really light and snappy, and perfect for people who just wanna browse the net and watch movies, and do a little office stuff

But games are the single biggest obstacle in the way of linux. The day that games start to run natively on Linux, without any sort of emulation and stuff, would be the day windows dies a really bad death What these linux distro's need to do is have some uniformity amongst themselves though.

Can't wait for the steam box.

 

[M McKenzie]

That may be, but Windows 8 definitely uses one core per module first, and only loads the second core on each module if there is already high utilization on the all of the modules' first cores (similar to how it treats hyperthreaded intel cores).

This is sensible, and how serious OS's scheduled the PowerPC CPU's ~ 10 years ago (Apple and IBM). It surprises me how many AM3+ MB do not allow the "odd" cores to be taken out in the same way HT can be disabled on Intel.

I also wonder how much more I would pay for more on-die cache.

 

[8350rocks]

Linux has WINE for gaming...and over 1500 titles run on it, of those, roughly 600-700 are gold/platinum rated which means little or no adjustment.

Ubuntu has something in the neighborhood of 30 million users in the US if you count the private sector, businesses run it because the malware/virus factor is low, and it's very expandable and scalable to fit their needs. If you count worldwide, ubuntu has closer to 150 mil users...many foreign governments and school systems use ubuntu because it's cheaper to acquire, just as easy to maintain, and again is scalable and moddable to do what they want, where windows is clearly not.

Windows is notorious for being triple redundant and having a lot of excess rubbish in the code that bogs down hardware. Ubuntu even runs faster than windows on intel CPUs for example. On AMD CPUs ubuntu is something on the order of 50% improvement in speed.

If you really want to test drive ubuntu linux you can...it costs nothing to download, and if you burn it to a DVD you can test drive without installing. It's a great system. If your games run on ubuntu you might be worth it to switch.

Some games that run on WINE in ubuntu:
KOTOR I/II
SWTOR
WoW
DOTA
Crysis 1/2/warhead (they're working on Crysis 3)
Champions Online
Aion
TERA
EVE
Skyrim
TES IV: Oblivion
Fallout 3 GOTY
Dragon Age 1/2
Mass Effect Trilogy

 

[melikepie]

It's kinda sad about that. The problem is no one makes software for Linux anymore. I would use Linux, but I would have to loose most of my software which I use all the time. I'd say if more people made software on it, Windows will take a hit.

 

[8350rocks]

Adobe and many manufacturers actually make software for it, and WINE will run nearly any windows software for you. The office document extensions will even line up with windows versions. There's also a version of photoshop and other software for it on ubuntu. More and more each day are starting to make software for it as well.

 

[logainofhades]

I've been using ubuntu on a trial basis for some years now, never felt really compelled to move towards linux, until I used 12.04 on my sisters lappy. Really light and snappy, and perfect for people who just wanna browse the net and watch movies, and do a little office stuff

But games are the single biggest obstacle in the way of linux. The day that games start to run natively on Linux, without any sort of emulation and stuff, would be the day windows dies a really bad death What these linux distro's need to do is have some uniformity amongst themselves though.

Can't wait for the steam box.

Yea, Steam might be the only way we will ever see a decent push for Linux capability with games. I really wish WoW would have been Linux capable. I have read that there was testing for it in early betas, but it got scrapped. Given how big WoW has been over the years, I think it would have helped some with getting more games supporting Linux.

 

[melikepie]

I was actually thinking about making my own Linux distribution simply based off liked OS features and compatibilities. The major problem is that making an OS requires a big amount of time just working with the kernel. Anyway kinda back to the original question, Piledriver isn't that bad of an architecture. Just Windows doesn't use it properly. It would be a great deal for a CPU if your looking into using Linux.

 

[8350rocks]

I've been using ubuntu on a trial basis for some years now, never felt really compelled to move towards linux, until I used 12.04 on my sisters lappy. Really light and snappy, and perfect for people who just wanna browse the net and watch movies, and do a little office stuff

But games are the single biggest obstacle in the way of linux. The day that games start to run natively on Linux, without any sort of emulation and stuff, would be the day windows dies a really bad death What these linux distro's need to do is have some uniformity amongst themselves though.

Can't wait for the steam box.

Yea, Steam might be the only way we will ever see a decent push for Linux capability with games. I really wish WoW would have been Linux capable. I have read that there was testing for it in early betas, but it got scrapped. Given how big WoW has been over the years, I think it would have helped some with getting more games supporting Linux.

WoW is supported on Linux through WINE. Even the newest expansion...I forget the name of it...I always called it the Kung Fu Panda expansion because of the commercials.

 

[juanrga]

Why do people only look at the Windows benchmarks for Piledriver and all CPUs in general? And why is it that the linux benchmarks end up to be in Piledriver's favor? If one were to look at a linux benchmark for Piledriver CPUs, they tend to outperform certain Intels, as in some i5's and i7's in the similar $180 to $250 range. I think this is because linux uses more integer-reliant processes than floating-points, though I'm not really sure.

People who will be using Windows or people who does not know the existence of linux (or for what it is used) will only look to windows benchmarks. Many people who makes serious work (workstation, servers,...) looks at linux benchmarks. For instance the piledriver FX-8350 competes with an i7-3770k under linux (the FX can be even a 30--70% faster than the i7 in some tests).

Now the big question why? Because Windows and the 90% of windows applications are optimized for intel chips, but not for amd chips. Surely you heard about "Wintel" acronym. It is also related to the fact that most windows applications are built using Intel compiler and the Intel compiler cheats

http://www.osnews.com/story/22683/Intel_Forced_to_Remove_quot_Cripple_AMD_quot_Function_from_Compiler_

Moreover an operative system as W7 is not prepared for the advanced bulldozer/piledriver architecture

Microsoft released a pair of patches for W7 but did not work. It seems that W8 has a better scheduler and can improve the performance of some applications up to a 10%, but the overall gain must be more close to 2-5%.

Linux is much more robust and faster (gaming on linux is faster than in W7 with either Intel or AMD chips) and can use all the potential of the AMD chips.

 

[juanrga]

The problem of wine is that you must configure/tune it for each Windows application. PlayOnLinux is a much better alternative, because it already includes the configuration/tuning config files for lots and lots of titles. E.g. playing WoW on linux is so easy as clicking a pair of buttons instaling and ready!

But playing native games is better. Steam is porting games to linux after the fiasco of W8 as gaming platform.

 

[juanrga]

It's kinda sad about that. The problem is no one makes software for Linux anymore.

You must be kidding.

 

[melikepie]

I don't mean NO ONE makes software for Linux anymore. I mean there are plenty of people out there who only make just for Linux. I mean people used to use all sorts of operation systems including Linux but since Windows and OSX have taken over, not as many people use Linux, which means not as many developers.