[citation][nom]BigQuestionTom[/nom]Question?!? This actually sounded like a very interesting product and then I remembered it is bulldozer core. Does the 4 core really mean 2 cores like Bulldozer, or ahem, 4 'integer' cores? In other words, is this 4 cores like Intel's dual hyperthreaded cores or is it truly 4 actual full CPU cores? If it is a true 4 core, I might take a stab at one of these. If it is really a dual core with extra integer cores, then I'll go with Ivy instead.[/citation]
Since an integer core is what we refer to when we say core, yeah... it is a quad core CPU, not a hyper-threaded dual core like an i3. Besides, these are supposed to be piledriver cores, not Bulldozer cores. They should perform better. A module has two cores. The same is true for all other CPUs. Besides, the performance delta between Phenom II cores and Bulldozer cores isn't too big and if Bulldozer had been made better, it would perform better, hence we have piledriver as an improvement. It's still not as good as Intel, but it is better than Bulldozer and at least as good as Phenom, maybe a little better.
A Bulldozer module ins't like two 80% cores, it is two full cores. It performs so badly because of other reasons, not just the architecture. One such reason was automatic transistor paths in performance critical areas that are generally made by hand because computer generated designs tend to perform about 20% worse whilst using 20% more power, pretty much accounts for most of Bulldozer's poor performance and high power usage right there. We've heard many accounts of this problem with the new FX CPUs from several reputable sources, including Tom's if I remember correctly. Then there's the poor performance of AMD's SRAM caches... However, that's been a recurring theme, it's not limited to Bulldozer style architectures either.
Point is that Modular architectures like Bulldozer's aren't bad. We simply had AMD do a crap job of it.