AMD Unleashes the Dragon

[exfileme]

Consumers looking for elite-level computing branded with a low-end pricetag should look no further, as AMD today launched its "dragon" platform technology featuring the new AMD Phenom II X4 processor.

AMD Unleashes the Dragon : Read more

 

[one-shot]

Hopefully AMD will make a shift towards a better position than it currently is in with the hardware advances it has made recently.

 

[Pei-chen]

The Phenom II article is the only "Recommended Buy" ever on Tom's as Tom's don't have that category. Bert cut and pasted the conclusion from somewhere.

 

[blackened144]

If fact, according to the company, a Dragon platform desktop PC consisting of the new AMD Phenom II X4 processor, ATI Radeon HD 4870 1 GB graphics card, the AMD 790GX motherboard and 4 GB of DDR2-1066 memory can be purchased for approximately $900 USD; a comparable platform would cost over $2100 USD.

Exactly what "comparable platform" would cost $2100?

 

[Master Exon]

"in the hit PC game, Crysis"

 

[Guest]

seems like a reasonable buy indeed!

I would prefer if the device was not very powerhungry, since the majority of the people use their pc's for office tasks, and it would be a waste to buy a 350W idle pc, to do my mails, and my office documents; for the few hours of gaming I do per week.

I wish AMD would optimize their systems still more,reaching a sub 150W system in idle, that would still have the horsepower to run latest games. I understand that computing power is needed, and requires a higher wattage under full load.
However it seems to me AMD relies too much on software matic powerdown of a system, and has too little hardware support (eg: that would hardwarematic power down, or completely shut off parts of the internal hardware that are not needed (eg: Voltage capacitators (or something), shutdown of unused cores, reduction in USB Bus speed, ram speed, and PCIE speed when not needed; Run the 4800 card on 10% of it's hardware or less when doing 2D tasks like internet browsing, watching a normal non HD movie, doing Ms Word documents etc... In fact shutting down unused VRAM would be nice (reduce to eg:128Mb for 2D)!)

Something Windows 7 should need to support to be greener is relocating unused RAM, and shutting down RAM sticks that are not used.
Opposing Windows Vista which uses all RAM possible,even when not really necessary.

but this seems like a nice buy for the coming 4 to 5 months!

 

[Guest]

edit on prev post:
When running a graphics card on such low levels it would be nice to have 2 cores on a graphic card.
a powerful one, and a very tiny one; the tiny one that can get by being passively cooled by the large fan.
If gaming is extreme, it would be nice to see the small GPU helping out the larger GPU, and work in "raid" so to say, freeing the larger one from some tasks that only fill the pipelines and use threads in the VPU.

 

[squatchman]

[citation][nom]blackened144[/nom]Exactly what "comparable platform" would cost $2100?[/citation]

AMD still has it in their head that the PII can keep up with the i7.

 

[that_aznpride101]

[citation][nom]Pei-chen[/nom]The Phenom II article is the only "Recommended Buy" ever on Tom's as Tom's don't have that category. Bert cut and pasted the conclusion from somewhere.I'm pretty impressed already, I[/citation]

If you actually read the hardware reviews for Tom's Hardware, you would know TH does give "Recommended buy" for their hardwares. But I guess you're new.

 

[grieve]

""In fact, AMD is shooting for elite-level performance for under $900 USD with its just-announced Dragon desktop platform technology. The system comes jammed-packed with powerful AMD goodness including the Phenom II X4 processor (clocking up to 3.0 GHz), the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series graphics processors, and AMD 7-Series chipsets. ""



Last time i checked i could build a Q9550/4870 under $900... whats the deal here? i7 with a 4870 is under $1100.

 

[caamsa]

[citation][nom]grieve[/nom]""In fact, AMD is shooting for elite-level performance for under $900 USD with its just-announced Dragon desktop platform technology. The system comes jammed-packed with powerful AMD goodness including the Phenom II X4 processor (clocking up to 3.0 GHz), the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series graphics processors, and AMD 7-Series chipsets. ""Last time i checked i could build a Q9550/4870 under $900... whats the deal here? i7 with a 4870 is under $1100.[/citation]


Wow you are good.."sarcasm"...you can build an i7 system cheaper than Dell and use the 4870 where they had to use the 4850. Did you ever think that these AMD systems are complete system with OS and all for 900 bucks?

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dxdozy2&cs=19&dgvcode=ss&c=US&l=EN&dgc=SS&cid=27399&lid=627062

According to AMD, game benchmarks show a $900 Dragon configuration matches the performance of a $2,100 Core i7 system setup. Desktop vendors will ship Dragon machines later in the first quarter of this year, with Dell planning to use the platform in a new XPS 625 gaming PC. If this is true then that is an amazing deal.......

http://www.internetnews.com/hardware/article.php/3795306/CES+Inside+Palms+and+AMDs+Comeback+Plans.htm

 

[yoda8232]

Does this only work with HD 4870's or all HD 48**'s?
Some sites say different things. :S

Hopefully it would work on HD 4850's and HD 4830's too.

 

[grieve]

[citation][nom]caamsa[/nom]Wow you are good.."sarcasm"...you can build an i7 system cheaper than Dell and use the 4870 where they had to use the 4850. Did you ever think that these AMD systems are complete system with OS and all for 900 bucks? [/citation]

Ummm... I can build a complete i7 system easily under $1100 and easy build a competing Q94550/Q9550 for fewer than 900 bucks.

You shop @ Dell? LOL!

 

[grieve]

My point is that this AMD processor doesn’t match the entry level i7…. Dell is selling these underwhelming Phenom II X4 processor for the price ANYONE can purchase a new i7 rig from newegg and build it.

Overclocking: Core i7 Vs. Phenom II
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-phenom-ii,2119-10.html