Tom's Hardware Ask Me Anything – AMD - November 6

[Marcus Yam]

Ever wanted to ask one of the big hardware or software giants something directly? Why’d they do that? Where’d the idea come from for that last product? What’s in store next? Well, now you have the chance!

Tom's Hardware Ask Me Anything – AMD - November 6 : Read more

 

[biohazard918]

Holy crap ever since you started doing these i thought i would great if you could get AMD to do one this is very exciting.

 

[jdwii]

i think everyone needs to ask about steamroller and that's it and the x86 CPU's and maybe AM4

 

[littleleo]

I want to know if there are plans for more Gaming/Enthusiasts Socket AM3+ models or is that platform going to be discontinued.

 

[3ogdy]

AMD - Advanced Micro Devices.
Recheck this list:

• Robert Hallock, PR Manager for Enthusiast GFX and Gaming
• Ritche Corpus, Director of our ISV Relations & Alliances Team
• Devon Nekechuk, Product Manager for Enthusiast dGPU
• Dave Nalasco, Senior Technical Marketing Manager
• Shane Parfitt, Technical Marketing Manager for the Display & Power Technologies Domain
• Roger Quero, Technical Marketing Manager for the Multimedia Technologies Domain

Am I the only one blind enough not to see any product manager for CPUs?
Actually, most of the "key" people are actually from the GPU department wherease AMD not only manufactures GPUs . It is the CPU area that we have questions about!

 

[kristi_metal]

I think the new Ruby looks great )). She is beautiful )

 

[JD88]

The obvious big question here is what is to become of the FX line and will we be seeing high-performance Steamroller based CPUs without integrated graphics. I doubt the answer is going to be anything very concrete though.

 

[vmem]

@3ogdy
no, you're not the only one. I don't see how you're surprised. obviously as enthusiasts here at Tom's we're all interested in AMD's plans with both CPUs and GPUs, but the timing of this AMA clearly indicates that it is being used as extra publicity raise awareness and boost sales for their new line of GPUs.

Other than that, I agree, I've wanted an AMA from AMD for a long time. and just because the guests are biased toward GPUs, there's nothing in the rules saying we can't ask about CPUs

 

[littleleo]

AMD - Advanced Micro Devices.
Recheck this list:

• Robert Hallock, PR Manager for Enthusiast GFX and Gaming
• Ritche Corpus, Director of our ISV Relations & Alliances Team
• Devon Nekechuk, Product Manager for Enthusiast dGPU
• Dave Nalasco, Senior Technical Marketing Manager
• Shane Parfitt, Technical Marketing Manager for the Display & Power Technologies Domain
• Roger Quero, Technical Marketing Manager for the Multimedia Technologies Domain

Am I the only one blind enough not to see any product manager for CPUs?
Actually, most of the "key" people are actually from the GPU department wherease AMD not only manufactures GPUs . It is the CPU area that we have questions about!

Your 100% right the only questions I have for them are about CPUs so if it's just GPUs it's not going to be of interest to me. There has been lots of info about their GPUs, its the future of the FX line and the AM3+ socket that inquiring minds want to know. They don't need to send 5 guys to talk about GPUs, send someone with insight to what is happening with FX line.

 

[czerro]

When can we expect to see a Mantle performance demonstration? They must have some tech demos, and possibly third parties working on software that takes advantage of Mantle that have their own tech demos illustrating performance benefits.

 

[m32]

My favorite company is on "Tom's Hardware Ask Me Anything!" I can't wait!!!

 

[tomfreak]

Someone need to Ask them is there any new 4 module/8core Steamroller CPU release on AM3+(compatible with existing Am3+ board) ---> I on my bed in those timeframe

Because I am torn between going FM2+ or AM3+, all because of uncertain future of AM3+ platform + Kaveri HSA. AMD need to give us an easier time to make decision right now! Otherwise I gonna rage and I might just jump on 1150 platform. At least Intel make it pretty clear on this area. Every tock + tick CPU is compatible on 1 chipset. No other tricks, u can plan ur upgrade route nicely. AMD? Come on tell me when does AM3+ end, if it doesnt tell me will there be next gen(diff architecture chip) coming to AM3+

 

[ingtar33]

i wouldn't mind a kaveri with 6 or 8 cores... on the fm2+ platform, i just want a steamroller (APU or FX) with 6-8 cores.

 

[fourzeronine]

What happened to 12 core FX processors!?

 

[dimar]

All I want for AMD is to include support for ICC monitor profiles in games. If I forget to ask, I hope somebody will.

 

[ingtar33]

What happened to 12 core FX processors!?

it's called an opteron 6300... it comes in 12 and 16 core flavors.

doubt they'll put out a 12 core fx... that would be a bit of an overlap with their server chips.

 

[exosoft]

Hmmm, I love what AMD is doing in the tech market. The entire hUMA, HSA thing really tickles the IT nerd in me.

For people who are wondering why they're going full APU on us, it's pretty simple.
The CPU has certain core strengths, and the GPU has certain strengths. What AMD is probably aiming for is to remove the unnecessary CPU parts, that could easily be handled by the GPU in a full HSA setting.

In the future, APUs will turn out to be so powerful, that AMD won't release CPUs without a GPU part. An APU with the GPU part disabled reaches much lower GFlops/Float operations than an APU with the GPU enabled.

That said, I hope they can give us some more insight into future changes that Kaveri and Carrizo will bring. Love to see some APUs that can go from a low energy consumption at low utilization to a decent gaming machine.

 

[MagicPants]

Is there a way to output only audio over a radeon's HDMI? I'd like to run DisplayPort to my monitor(s) and hdmi audio to my receiver without the the wasted video.

 

[MagicPants]

Can I download the phoenix tech demo?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Are you ever going to make crossfire work properly? (Eg fix frame latency problems with eyefinity/dx9)

 

[falchard]

Whens you gonna make new workstation shit? You know what I'm saying?
I want all new tech in my next workstation. I want 2 physical AMD CPUs running steam roller. And 2 physical GPUs with x16 PCI-e lanes. As well as lots of SATA3 ports and USB3 ports. This with A bunch of DDR4 dims running at 3200mhz. Make it so plz.

 

[cinergy]

Why did Ruby get fat and old?

 

[DjEaZy]

... will there be a 17+ inch Kaveri APU based Laptop, with 2 SSD/HDD drive bays and 5.1 sound output digital and analogue...? ... last all AMD 17" Highend Laptop waz MSI's GX70....

 

[somebodyspecial]

I only want to know if they plan on matching gsync (if so how long before you expect to introduce it) or licensing, and if lic are you already in talks? Mantle, TrueAudio, Physx etc mean nothing to me as both sides must pay to get a dev to use them, so only going to be in a few titles tops for headlines each year by either side. Gsync will work great dev or not as they don't have to do anything or pay anything for it to work (hardware is needed, not game devs work or expense). The tearing/stutter side I mean, how long it takes devs to use up your extra gpu power that it gives them (freedom to use it anyway, no 60fps crap cap etc) is debatable. But Gsync has to be matched or licensed or I'm going NV. Drivers can't fix it all, they need hardware which is why NV created a $100 card to get it done.

Now that I know I can end stutter/tearing for good (not on a game by game basis, not by screwing with settings, not by turning things down, not by developer work or expense) etc I won't go any other way. Adapt, license it or die AMD. Monitor companies should note the same. Nobody in my family will buy a non gsync monitor in the future (3 households) and as an IT person I'll tell everyone that asks the same. If AMD gets this before I buy a maxwell the discussion inside my brain opens up again. But if not, it's over, no thought will go past do you have stutter/tear free or not? Any long term gamer has battled this for years (25+ for me...ROFL). You're dead to me if you can't check that box now...LOL.

That's not hating on AMD or anything, just common sense gamer choices. If asked AMD or NV, I'll respond with "would you like to end stutter/tearing NOW and possibly get better games eventually or not?". If they answer yes end stutter/tearing I say NV, hands down until they catch up or license it. Both price pretty much what the perf of the cards are (or extra features in the case of titan DP) so it's pretty much a stutter/tearing factor for me now.

 

[silverblue]

Are you ever going to make crossfire work properly? (Eg fix frame latency problems with eyefinity/dx9)

I believe they have a driver coming this year that will tackle that.

... will there be a 17+ inch Kaveri APU based Laptop, with 2 SSD/HDD drive bays and 5.1 sound output digital and analogue...? ... last all AMD 17" Highend Laptop waz MSI's GX70....

I remember looking at the GX70's performance (both of them) and wondering that something is severely killing performance above what you'd expect with CPU-bound performance.

As hUMA doesn't require copying to and from memory and graphics memory due to the shared memory space, I'm wondering whether GDDR5 was even necessary to begin with. The Garlic interconnect offers a much faster path to RAM than the standard bus, so with a large reduction in the copying of texture data, the effective bandwidth should be far higher... meaning that there should be less chance of running out of bandwidth (and no need for a RAM cache on-chip either). I wouldn't mind knowing how much hUMA improves matters. As far as I can see, GDDR5 would be an unnecessary expense and simply not suited for the main memory of an x86-based system. So, if somebody could confirm this, it'd be much appreciated.