Will AMD's Bulldozer plow through Intel's Sandy Bridge?

I'm not totally sure, but I don't think the 'reduced functionality' has to do with the chipsets, but may have to do with the difference between AM3 and AM3+ in configuration of the power planes. Similar to the 'reduced functionality' when an AM3 chip is used on an AM2/AM2+ board.

If AM3 chips can work on AM3+ boards, but not the other way around, may suggest that BD is multi-plane only or works best on a multi-plane (more than 2) voltage board. Though, honestly, I don't know.
 
wasn't Rambus better at the time? just didn't catch on like Beta tapes which had superior image to VHS

Rambus had more total bandwidth at the time, but also had higher latency which meant that it performed almost identically to DDR. Add that to the fact it was much more expensive to manufacture and you get why it didn't really have much of a chance in the consumer market.
 
I don't think that quote was right. The statement about 3.5GHz is a statement about the architecture, not a particular product. Merging that into a statement about the TDPs of 4100 and 6100 would make it look lie the server parts are going to be 3.5GHz in the same TDP; we have never made that statement.

Yeah, my BS detector went off when I read that. ;)
 
wasn't Rambus better at the time? just didn't catch on like Beta tapes which had superior image to VHS

Especially when compared to low cost DDR memory that performed "almost" as well for 99% of situations, RDRAM just didn't make financial sense. Not only that, but I hear that RDRAM also ran really hot. I guess now, Rambus can go back to their regular day time job of being a patent troll.

I always thought Intel's religious dedication to RDRAM at the time hurt them in the consumer market because of the high cost. I went AMD with DDR memory back in those days, but mostly because I started using AMD ever since the original K6-2 days.
 
@JF-AMD: Are there plans to move the high end onto the server sockets like Intel did with LGA1366? I am just hoping for a AMD equivalent to the EVGA SR-2 (2x server board with lots of O/C potential) when Interlagos comes out.
 
@JF-AMD: Are there plans to move the high end onto the server sockets like Intel did with LGA1366? I am just hoping for a AMD equivalent to the EVGA SR-2 (2x server board with lots of O/C potential) when Interlagos comes out.

This has already been discussed thoroughly, and the answer is a resounding no. So far, AMD has no intentions on making another enthusiast-level platform, although, it would be loved and appreciated by many.
 
This has already been discussed thoroughly, and the answer is a resounding no. So far, AMD has no intentions on making another enthusiast-level platform, although, it would be loved and appreciated by many.

Couldn't Nvidia fill that gap? It wouldn't seem to far-fetched since they've done it before.
 
Remember, Nvidia has left the chipset business, with the exception of Ion. So, nope.

That's too bad. I had an nforce4 that ran rock solid oc'ed for years. I know they've refocused on gpus and mobile chipsets, but I'd love to see them come back to the desktop chipset world.
 
The market is far too small to make money on an enthusiast 2P board. And with core counts continuing to go up, the market continues to get smaller.
 
Didn't nVidia and Intel kiss and make up a couple weeks ago? Something about a partnership between the two, so it sounds kind of like nVidia putting a ton of dough into AMD boards may not be likely anyway.
 
Still doesn't matter, Nvidia's emphasis is on ARM(Tegra) and GPUs. Ion was the last chipset from Nvidia, and the 780a/980a was the last AMD chipset from them. Nvidia chipsets are a thing of the past.

If a board mfg wanted to, they could make a C32/G34 based dual socket enthusiast board, but you'd still have to purchase Opterons to go into it.
 
Still doesn't matter, Nvidia's emphasis is on ARM(Tegra) and GPUs. Ion was the last chipset from Nvidia, and the 780a/980a was the last AMD chipset from them. Nvidia chipsets are a thing of the past.

If a board mfg wanted to, they could make a C32/G34 based dual socket enthusiast board, but you'd still have to purchase Opterons to go into it.

I know, you need Xeons with the SR-2, I just want 2x BD Opterons with Crossfired high-end GPUs. I don't even care about OCing, but I would love it.
 
I know, you need Xeons with the SR-2, I just want 2x BD Opterons with Crossfired high-end GPUs. I don't even care about OCing, but I would love it.

Dual C32 with "Crossfire": http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=b9Vaqw4iFXWF9ZS5&templete=3 or http://www.msi.com/product/server/MS-91F7.html
The MSI board may not support Crossfire, though.

Dual G34 with "Crossfire": http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=4AUqWniKqYByIAxw&templete=3

AMD has a list of Server boards: http://products.amd.com/en-us/ServerMotherboardResult.aspx
 
Last edited:
LucidLogix will probably make one like they have before.

P.S. So I don't think it's doubtful at all...

But how long would it take for them to get into the server market?

From when it was first introduced on a P55 platform, it took nearly a year to be incorporated onto an AM3 platform, and that's with the same company (870A Fuzion). And then nearly another half year to jump companies (Asus Crosshair IV Extreme). To date, there are only 3 (4 if you count the second revision of the Fuzion board) motherboards with the Lucid chip (I believe).

Servers/workstations need to have all reliability/performance issues ironed out before they can be marketed. And that means Lucid would need some serious driver updating to provide a complete stable platform that can be fully utilized.

Edit: If you're talking about just vanilla bulldozer... then Asus or MSI will probably come out with one soon after Bulldozer's launch. The Crosshair IV Extreme and 870A Fuzion already set precedent for that. Problem is right now is that SLI isn't as good on the Lucid chip as regular SLI.
 
very very doubtfull since AMD directly competes with nVidia

but they would be killing off alot of potential sales if they dont support SLI. i was hoping if Bulldozer is good that i would make the switch back to AMD but if they dont support sli then looks like im stuck with intel once again.
 
but they would be killing off alot of potential sales if they dont support SLI. i was hoping if Bulldozer is good that i would make the switch back to AMD but if they dont support sli then looks like im stuck with intel once again.

AMD has been doing this ever since they acquired ATI, which was 3? 4? years ago. It seems to have worked out for them. No SLI on AMD chipsets, no crossfire on nVidia chipsets. And since nVidia is out of the chipset business, we won't see any nVidia chipsets soon.
 
i think its pretty rotten though. I mean if i WANT bulldozer for my next build, I have to go with something beyond my control. I should indeed have the right to choose which videocard i want(and that would be determined by the best card i can afford in my price class, it has no bearing which camp its from for me personally).
 
Rambus had more total bandwidth at the time, but also had higher latency which meant that it performed almost identically to DDR. Add that to the fact it was much more expensive to manufacture and you get why it didn't really have much of a chance in the consumer market.

Don't forget the massive price fixing scheme all the DDR manufactures were caught up in to kill rambus.
 
i think its pretty rotten though. I mean if i WANT bulldozer for my next build, I have to go with something beyond my control. I should indeed have the right to choose which videocard i want(and that would be determined by the best card i can afford in my price class, it has no bearing which camp its from for me personally).
There's a SLI hack to enable it on AMD chipsets but I believe you lose a little performance. For the vast majority of the market (being single-card systems) the chipset doesn't care which brand you use.
 
i think its pretty rotten though. I mean if i WANT bulldozer for my next build, I have to go with something beyond my control. I should indeed have the right to choose which videocard i want(and that would be determined by the best card i can afford in my price class, it has no bearing which camp its from for me personally).

I don't think AMD wants not to be able to add SLI to there chipsets, I thought Nvidia prevented them adding SLI support to the AMD chipset and said they would have to add seperate chipsets if they wanted SLI on their motherboards. Which AMD left to the vendors to do if they so chose, but which only a few did as they're relatively expensive. At least that was how it was explained to me but perhaps I misunderstood.
 
If bulldozer is any good they will add it for free. Anyways both companies offer(or are going to offer) dual gpu cards so it really shouldn't be that big of a deal, of course if you have 2 cards now its an easy pick to just go Intel.
 
I don't think AMD wants not to be able to add SLI to there chipsets, I thought Nvidia prevented them adding SLI support to the AMD chipset and said they would have to add seperate chipsets if they wanted SLI on their motherboards. Which AMD left to the vendors to do if they so chose, but which only a few did as they're relatively expensive. At least that was how it was explained to me but perhaps I misunderstood.

I thought it was just an issue of Nvidia drivers not accepting AMD boards(Nvidia doing the blocking). Since there are hacked drivers I thought it was just that easy!?
 
I thought it was just an issue of Nvidia drivers not accepting AMD boards(Nvidia doing the blocking). Since there are hacked drivers I thought it was just that easy!?
I don't see AMD paying a competitor to license a technology that only works on the competitor's products
 
I thought it was just an issue of Nvidia drivers not accepting AMD boards(Nvidia doing the blocking). Since there are hacked drivers I thought it was just that easy!?

No any non Nvidia chipset requires the use of a NF200(??) bridge chip on the motherboard. Now since they are not making chipsets any more, its more of a tech that on gets placed on Intel Chipset boards. As far as I know even before the AMD buyout there hasn't been a restriction on what boards a Radeon can be crossfired on, and it might have been a board driver from Nvidia that prevented Xfire on their chipsets.
 
It's Nvidia doing all the blocking. There are no real hardware limitations here, it's all licensing.

The NF200 southbridge is required for licensing purposes only. AMD's south-bridge is perfectly capable of supporting SLI; hacked drivers with Nvidia's software lock-out removed can get SLI up and running on AMD chipsets.

Crossfire should work in any motherboard. Crossfire does not work on Nvidia motherboards because the BIOS specifically disables Peer-to-Peer writes when two ATi cards are detected. Peer-to-Peer writes are required for crossfire to work. I believe "XDNA" got around this by spoofing the cards manufacturer ID so the motherboard wouldn't disable Peer-to-Peer writes
 
Crossfire should work in any motherboard. Crossfire does not work on Nvidia motherboards because the BIOS specifically disables Peer-to-Peer writes when two ATi cards are detected. Peer-to-Peer writes are required for crossfire to work. I believe "XDNA" got around this by spoofing the cards manufacturer ID so the motherboard wouldn't disable Peer-to-Peer writes

Ok I'm still confused. What do you mean by "Nvidia motherboard"? Not counting older generation boards, nvidia does not make chipsets anymore...

So, why does Crossfire not work on any board intended for Intel CPU? Again?
 
Crossfire works fine for Intel chipsets. Its on nVidia chipsets you run into issues and only because nVidia is ran by assholes since they purposely nerfed Crossfire just to try and "encourage" people to buy nVidia GPU's only.

nVidia is also the reason why you can't run SLI on a Intel/AMD chipset unless the mobo manufacturer slaps a nVidia chip on it. There is no technical limitation, its all due to licensing issues.
 
Oh really? Ok cool... I don't keep up with some of this stuff. I thought crossfire works ONLY with an amd cpu socket/chipset motherboard.
 
Back
Top