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High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

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11–20 of 98 posts

Re: High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

#11

The top CPU is almost 4 times faster than my CPU (i5 6600K). Is it just down to the GHz and number of cores? Besides those two elements, what makes this processor so much faster?

It's really neither of those things. Example: see Mediatek. They throw a billion cores and good cpu speed at a problem to no real results. Also see, AMD of the last 5ish years.

IPC is where the speed comes from, in conjunction with cores/hyperthreading. I won't attempt to explain it as I'm not qualified, but it's interesting reading.

Re: High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

#12

The top CPU is almost 4 times faster than my CPU (i5 6600K). Is it just down to the GHz and number of cores? Besides those two elements, what makes this processor so much faster?

L1/2/3 cache sizes, better instruction sets, improved instruction pipelines, more and larger registries... Some of the improvements come from having better SW too (e.g. better/more modern compilers). EDIT: grammar

Re: High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

#14

The top CPU is almost 4 times faster than my CPU (i5 6600K). Is it just down to the GHz and number of cores? Besides those two elements, what makes this processor so much faster?

That, and they literally pack multiple dies into a single "package."

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/253416-amd-explains-th...

Re: High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

#16

Wow! Hard to believe I would ever, ever, ever see AMD on the top of that list! Amazing! Forget about the price, just amazing to see AMD at the top, now factor in the price and wow Intel is screwed. Not because of this one release, but because they are getting pounded from all angles. Intel's strategy of limiting the PCI throughput to hold GPU manufactures back is over, and these AMD cpu's are going to be paired super…

> Intel's strategy of limiting the PCI throughput to hold GPU manufactures back is over, and these AMD cpu's are going to be paired super well with AMD, which is really making Intel look sad soon. Boat loads of major players have been irked by Intel holding back PCI throughput, AMD let it rip, and "thread ripped" too! In what way does the increase in PCI lanes stop holding gpu manufacturers back? To the best of my kn…

The vast majority of Intel's lineup--at least for the last few years--is only 16 lanes.

Re: High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

#17
post #5

I don't mean to diminish the efforts of anyone involved, but I truly feel one man more or less moves the direction of the CPU industry: Jim Keller. He, among others, invented x86_64 at AMD during its previous glory days. AMD dominated the competition. He led the Apple chips at A4, and Apple chips then and now dominate the mobile competition. He came back to AMD and helped create Zen, to obvious results. Apparently he…

The timeline looks about right, SA says he moved back to AMD in 2012[1], so figure 4 years to design a new core and get a few test runs in, then a year to ramp enough so you can sell said chip.

That being said, I think it has more to do with an overall culture change, the technical talent to build a good core has been at AMD this whole time. Jim Keller said as much back in 2014[2], and there is nothing special about Zen's architecture from a technical standpoint. What Zen is is a well executed conventional high performance CPU core.

By not splitting up resources like previous leadership at AMD, they were able to build a solid, competitive core. This type of investment takes 5+ years to come to fruition, from thought to test runs of silicon.

1 - https://semiaccurate.com/2012/08/01/apples-cpu-architect-jim...

2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOTFE7sJY-Q

Re: High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

#18
What makes PassMark a representative CPU benchmark? These one-company CPU benchmarks tend to be quite problematic (cf. GeekBench).

SPEC just came out with CPU2017. In SPEC there's at least a bunch of peer review, transparency and attention from academics.

Here are Anandtech's AMD vs Intel CPU2006 numbers: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11544/intel-skylake-ep-vs-amd-... http://www.anandtech.com/show/11544/intel-skylake-ep-vs-amd-...

Re: High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

#19
post #17
post #5

I don't mean to diminish the efforts of anyone involved, but I truly feel one man more or less moves the direction of the CPU industry: Jim Keller. He, among others, invented x86_64 at AMD during its previous glory days. AMD dominated the competition. He led the Apple chips at A4, and Apple chips then and now dominate the mobile competition. He came back to AMD and helped create Zen, to obvious results. Apparently he…

The timeline looks about right, SA says he moved back to AMD in 2012[1], so figure 4 years to design a new core and get a few test runs in, then a year to ramp enough so you can sell said chip. That being said, I think it has more to do with an overall culture change, the technical talent to build a good core has been at AMD this whole time. Jim Keller said as much back in 2014[2], and there is nothing special about…

Well...I don't know the entire history, but only my memory...which admittedly is never an accurate source. At that time, it was stated Jim Keller was brought back to AMD specifically to work on something which became codenamed 'Zen', since AMD was getting pounded in their previous ventures(Bulldozer et al). I was excited then, then forgot, and then Ryzen was born.

Re: High End CPUs – Intel vs. AMD

#20

Wow! Hard to believe I would ever, ever, ever see AMD on the top of that list! Amazing! Forget about the price, just amazing to see AMD at the top, now factor in the price and wow Intel is screwed. Not because of this one release, but because they are getting pounded from all angles. Intel's strategy of limiting the PCI throughput to hold GPU manufactures back is over, and these AMD cpu's are going to be paired super…

How many GPUs get anywhere near saturating 16 lanes?
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