AMD Accelerates Energy Efficiency of APUs

AMD is so awesome that the company is able to measure processor energy efficiency in terms of a rate of increasing velocity instead of obsolete terms like watts! I can't wait until the next generation A-series that will use energy at 800 meters per second per second!

Isn't this a natural consequence of putting the GPU on die and improving/shrinking the process used for fabrication? My guess is they're using performance per watt as their measure and low-power highly parallelized workloads would enhance these claims.

Furthermore, they claim a "10x" improvement in the past six years. However, their APUs were inefficient then and still considerably less efficient than Intel's now.

I wonder what measure they are using. My hunch is the usual marketing drivel and highly specialized workloads, etc.

The funny thing is that AMD doesn't have fabs anymore and is dependent on semi foundries and their design rules. Any efficiency increases AMD has access to is available to the other foundry customers too.

What about architectural efficiencies? If I remember correctly, NVIDIA remained at 28nm with Maxwell, yet efficiency (measured as performance/watt) increased dramatically. At least that's what I've read on the Internet...

Also, why does everyone keep hating on AMD around here? I understand that they are not at the same performance level as Intel (who has billions more R&D money to throw around) and yet they are able to make an APU that does everything I need for a reasonable price while also drawing less than 100W from the wall for the entire system - while gaming! The fact that their APU solution had such great iGP performance was a catalyst in getting Intel to develop a better iGP just as their x86_64 architecture gave Intel the needed kick in the rear during the Athlon 64 days.

Underdogs have their place, even if their marketing has to be hyperbolic in order to garner any attention

I just wish AMD would try to make a processor on par with an i7. They seem to have stopped competing in the top end altogether lately.

fs123 said:

I just wish AMD would try to make a processor on par with an i7. They seem to have stopped competing in the top end altogether lately.

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I'm all for an awesome APU. If AMD could get to SB/IB i3 - i5 performance territory on the CPU IPC and add another 50%+ to the IGP performance in a generation or two while increasing energy efficiency (lowering power draw and heat output) while keeping prices nominal (tall order for all of that, I know)...well, then that would likely be the next processors to go in my back-up computers and HTPC.

Oh goodie! As a long time AMD fan I never get tired of hearing about how little power their cell phone CPU's use. I mean who cares about performance? Anybody can make a fast processor amirite? Tell me more about how little power I'll be using while gaming at 30 FPS.

fs123 said:

I just wish AMD would try to make a processor on par with an i7. They seem to have stopped competing in the top end altogether lately.

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They couldn't, they attempted to with Bulldozer, failed terribly so they delayed it to add more general cores to it which didn't help much either. Where they are at they are probably the best and that's where the money is as well. Keeping intel honest in the low and mid range and giving us APU's so we can build our annoying family members gaming rigs that cost under $400.

Criticising AMD for not have a top end i7 killer in its remit is a bit like complaining that Ford doesnt have a car to rival Ferrari's top sports car.

Cos you know back in the real world most of us travel at average 65-70mph.