Does Your AMD FX Platform BSOD with Steam? Read This.

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]The i5-2500K is NOT a cheap CPU. It's not exorbitantly expensive, but there is no way that a $200+ CPU is cheap and most certainly not very cheap. Highly effective, yes, but not cheap.[/citation]
I guess its relative. I normally look to spend $500-$600 on a CPU I want to last me for more than 1 year. I'd go with the Extreme version if it wasn't just for gaming. ...given that those run in the $1000 range...$200 is cheap. ...to me.

 

[s3anister]

[citation][nom]greeneman510[/nom]I get that from time to time. I run a 1055T and a Sabertooth 990FX. I thought it might be my hardware, but after reading this, I think it's the BIOS. Good thing I still have my i3 2100 handy.[/citation]
You say this but the article clearly states it's a problem with 9xx series motherboards and Bulldozer. Your processor doesn't apply.

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]sarinaide[/nom]It never ceases to amaze me how like light to the flies the Intel and Nvidia users are attracted to something AMD related.It is universally accepted that BD was not all it can be, but Bulldozer is redundant soon and paper talk on PD is that it is looking rather good, new radical architectures are almost certain to run into teething issues, and this is the case here.As for the GPU's, I had been a Nvidia fan for a very long time and honestly apart from the GTX 580 Nvidia have not done a thing over AMD/ATI since the 8800 days, as for the HD 7900 vs 670/680 I think you will find the 6month older lower clocked 7900's aptly stack up to the by standards power hungry Keplers, oh and the ghz edition 7900/7870 cards are out soon, that will more than redress the balance.[/citation]
Yes, we come like flies to sh*t...the attraction is similar. I don't know...they said BD was good on paper too. ...not so much.

 

[Guest]

So this issue is only a problem for the two or three people out there who thought buying an AMD FX processor was a good idea?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]Yes, we come like flies to sh*t...the attraction is similar. I don't know...they said BD was good on paper too. ...not so much.[/citation]

Bulldozer's architecture is great on paper. It isn't the problem with the Bulldozer CPUs, it's ridiculously horrible implementation is the problem. The Bulldozer dies were designed by automatic tools instead of at least partially hand designed transistor-by-transistor by expert engineers like pretty much all other CPUs from Intel and AMD are and this increased die size and power usage by about 20% while decreasing performance by about 20% (computers know the fastest way to design a CPU, not the way to design the fastest CPU).

Bulldozer based FX's poor memory controller also hurts (it's bandwidth is 25% lower than a Sandy Bridge controller with memory at the same frequency and amount of channels), but their cache's huge latency probably hurts even more (between two and four or five times higher than Sandy Bridge). There are even more problems (some more severe than others) and all of these aren't related to the architecture, just it's implementation. The modular architecture is actually one of the fastest and most efficient (in more ways than one) architectures made for X86 CPUs so far, if not the best.

 

[captaincharisma]

so now AMD is so bad it will not even let you play games anymore

 

[blazorthon]

so now AMD is so bad it will not even let you play games anymore

The problem was fixed MONTHS ago, before most people even knew about it. It's only still a problem for people too ignorant to update their BIOS.

 

[BulkZerker]

[citation][nom]tical2399[/nom]Man its just gettin worse for AMD lately, with the under performing bulldozer, the latest top flight nvidia cards besting the high end HD 7xxx series, and now the mobo issues, things aint looking great for AMD at the moment[/citation]

I don't know why AMD would worry about the Vaporware coming from Nvidia

 

[chiefbox]

BIOS Fix = Silicon Bug Workaround >> Performance hit !

 

[captaincharisma]

The problem was fixed MONTHS ago, before most people even knew about it. It's only still a problem for people too ignorant to update their BIOS.

still AMD CPU's to have a shaky track record with common software compatibility. this and how MS had to make a fix for AMD cpu's because it killed windows XP systems after installing service pack 3. if joe blow knew stuff like this why would he go with a system that has many problems with common windows software?

oh and last time i checked there is still some RISK when upgrading the BIOS. so once again i have to risk wrecking my system because of some low end CPU doesn't work with common windows software?

in the end AMD FANBOI'S you do get what you pay for

 

[halcyon]

@blazorthon

Thanks, I learned yet something else from you. You've always got something useful to say.

 

[DroKing]

[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]@blazorthonThanks, I learned yet something else from you. You've always got something useful to say.[/citation]

I agree because I did learn something new from him as well =D. Kudos

 

[blppt]

"the 0901 update was patched about december of last year although it didnt go into specifics it did enhance stability over 0701."

I had a Sabertooth and a FX-8150 and got tired of waiting for weeks to play my Steam library. Matter of fact, we got a 3rd party hack from somebody on a messageboard that fixed the problem before we got a working microcode patch from ASUS. That was a good month and a half IIRC between the 07xx (October?) bios and the working 0901.

 

[blppt]

"I think you will find the 6month older lower clocked 7900's aptly stack up to the by standards power hungry Keplers, oh and the ghz edition 7900/7870 cards are out soon, that will more than redress the balance."

Erm, didnt most reviewers conclude that a stock 680 draws lower power than a stock 7970? Now, in Crossfire/SLI, AMD has the advantage of ULPS mode, which virtually shuts off the 2nd card, but this is also known to be somewhat buggy (I get BSODs all the time unless I disable ULPS on my CF 7970s).

 

[halcyon]

I have never had a BSOD on my rig (kinda surprising to me, actually). ...and I'm using CF 7970s as well. Even when HAWX crashes (routinely) Windows 7 just b*tchslaps it and I an restart the game no problem. The only thing I've done to my reference 7970s is overclock 'em.

 

[blppt]

It doesnt happen to everybody, but atikmpag.sys routinely crashes for me with a BSOD unless I disable ULPS on my Gigabyte 7970s (mild factory overclock to 1ghz).

 

[daswilhelm]

this is why i stay away from AMD.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]still AMD CPU's to have a shaky track record with common software compatibility. this and how MS had to make a fix for AMD cpu's because it killed windows XP systems after installing service pack 3. if joe blow knew stuff like this why would he go with a system that has many problems with common windows software?oh and last time i checked there is still some RISK when upgrading the BIOS. so once again i have to risk wrecking my system because of some low end CPU doesn't work with common windows software? in the end AMD FANBOI'S you do get what you pay for[/citation]

If a service pack kills AMD compatibility, then the problem seems to be M$'s fault, not AMD's. Last I checked, the risk from updating a BIOS is almost completely eliminated when the person updating the BIOS isn't an idiot and pretty much all motherboard companies recommend updating your motherboard to the latest BIOS. Also, Intel has their problems too. Did you not hear about the chipset recalls caused by Intel's faulty SATA ports? Then there's Nvidia's recently acknowledged stuttering/V-Sync problem right now and less recently, their 196.75 or whatever driver that just happened to kill cards that got updated to it. AMD never released a driver that killed the graphics card. All of the companies have problems and focusing on only one company is ridiculous. I've noticed extreme bias in pretty much all of your comments and it's getting old.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]@blazorthonThanks, I learned yet something else from you. You've always got something useful to say.[/citation]

[citation][nom]DroKing[/nom]I agree because I did learn something new from him as well =D. Kudos[/citation]

Thanks guys, I try.

 

[A Bad Day]

[citation][nom]pwnbroker2[/nom]first rule of system building, check for bios updates. it even tells you to do so in the handbook that comes with the mb. ive built 2-3 dozen of these systems all with 970 or 990 chipsets from asus. the 0901 update was patched about december of last year although it didnt go into specifics it did enhance stability over 0701. in the burn in tests, i didnt have any trouble with steam but it was a quick run of 4 games. for those with asus mb forget the 0901 and download 1101, the newest version which has some stability fixes for the 1090t and 1100 as well.all mb's have bios problems even with SB or IVB chips. i cant tell you how many times a customer brings in a system that they have tried to build and thinks it has a defective mb, memory slots or gpu when all was needed was the latest bios fixes. asrock gen3 is notorious for this and look at the gigabyte ud3h board didnt certify some memory with IVB, particularly gskill.it just makes me laugh sometimes, but then again, laughter is good for the soul.[/citation]

Here's my rule of thumb:

Don't install new firmwares, ESPICIALLY WHEN THE MANUFACTURER WARNS YOU THAT IT MAY KILL THE PRODUCT.

I bricked a Treadnet wireless router when I attempted to update it through Ethernet. There's a reason why my mom doesn't trust me with computers, even though her laptop is still using the vanilla Windows xp, McAfee OAS that hasn't be updated since 2009, and Flash 8.

 

[blppt]

"Here's my rule of thumb:

Don't install new firmwares, ESPICIALLY WHEN THE MANUFACTURER WARNS YOU THAT IT MAY KILL THE PRODUCT."

But...if you dont, you will never,ever be able to play a steam game again, LOL.

Especially with new tech, this is a bad stance to take. Usually as a first adopter to a new mobo chipset or cpu revision, it will take a couple of BIOS updates to iron out the issues with said chipset/cpu. This was unusual in the sense that it took months before you were officially able to launch a steam-CEG game, it took that long for ASUS to get patched Bulldozer microcode into one of their higher-end mobos, the Sabertooth 990FX. Luckily, some intrepid programmer over at xtremesystems (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-276698.html?s=9e12563e206e22a88c9e13f5c0057e1a) took it upon himself to patch the problem himself. I reposted it on Hardocp http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1038086766&postcount=314.

 

[sonofliberty08]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]If a service pack kills AMD compatibility, then the problem seems to be M$'s fault, not AMD's. Last I checked, the risk from updating a BIOS is almost completely eliminated when the person updating the BIOS isn't an idiot and pretty much all motherboard companies recommend updating your motherboard to the latest BIOS. Also, Intel has their problems too. Did you not hear about the chipset recalls caused by Intel's faulty SATA ports? Then there's Nvidia's recently acknowledged stuttering/V-Sync problem right now and less recently, their 196.75 or whatever driver that just happened to kill cards that got updated to it. AMD never released a driver that killed the graphics card. All of the companies have problems and focusing on only one company is ridiculous. I've noticed extreme bias in pretty much all of your comments and it's getting old.[/citation]
i remember last time i update the bios for the intel desktop board and it cannot support the pentium 4 cpu that it support before the update, i have to put on an older and lower clocked pentium 4 on the desktop board for flash back to the older version bios, it was kind of shame that the newer version bios i grap from intel website for the intel desktop board can't even support their own intel pentium 4 that the motherboard support before the bios update, i never buy any intel desktop board since then......

 

[captaincharisma]

I've noticed extreme bias in pretty much all of your comments and it's getting old.

and yet you keep responding to them which leads me to believe you are almost as bias about a product then me. add to the fact you blatantly use a dollar sign to abbreviate Microsoft which proves you're bias even more


also even if it is MS or steams fault at the end of the day its only one brand of CPU that is affected so what does that tell you?

 

[whimseh]

hahahaha AMD, right.. like I'm going to buy anything AMD. funny.

 

[billgatez]

AMD says Steam is the problem. If steam is the problem then would not a steam update fix this problem? Not a bios update?Sound's like AMD is trying to push the blame on to some one.