AMD Launches Carrizo • Hacker News Board

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#21

Post by c3d » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 5:55 AM UTC

Peak 3D performance does not matter.

With Tao3D, I keep pushing graphic cards to their limit, on laptops and desktops. This raymarching example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUMqT9W5BG8 runs fine on my Macbook Pro for about 20 seconds. After that, the heat becomes high enough to throttle the system down. And you end up with a very unpleasant "fast/slow/fast/slow/fast/slow" experience as the system tries to cool down its graphic chip.

So you really don't care about PEAK performance. What you care about is sustained performance, and power consumption in that scenario (not just running idle).

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#22

Post by lewisl9029 » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 5:56 AM UTC

nimos wrote: post #2

I wonder if stagnating CPU requirements might make AMD competitive again. I have a 4 year old i5 laptop that can handle 100% of general office/home use. Battery life and gaming are the only two weak points. AMD aren't going to compete with Intel on battery life but with overall cpu/gpu power consumption falling it's not as big of a problem as it used to be. Wish they weren't stuck on 28nm still. It seems like Intel w…

CPU perf requirements may be stagnating, but perf/watt definitely isn't.

And it seems very unlikely for AMD to ever be competitive on that front.

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#23

Post by lewisl9029 » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 5:59 AM UTC

ausjke wrote: post #17

These days when I read news like this, my first response is that, does AMD have any chance to survive at all? The technical details for any new chip is secondary. Dr.Su did not have a good tracking record and I never got it why she was picked as the CEO, but it's not all her fault though, AMD has been in decline for years, I just hope someone will buy it before it totally collapses. Additionally, Intel is battling wi…

I'd have thought that the XBox One and PS4 GPU deals would have given them quite a boost, but it seems like they're still struggling these days.

Can anyone enlighten me on why those deals might not be helping as much as I thought they would?

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#24

Post by BinaryIdiot » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 6:01 AM UTC

ausjke wrote: post #17

These days when I read news like this, my first response is that, does AMD have any chance to survive at all? The technical details for any new chip is secondary. Dr.Su did not have a good tracking record and I never got it why she was picked as the CEO, but it's not all her fault though, AMD has been in decline for years, I just hope someone will buy it before it totally collapses. Additionally, Intel is battling wi…

> These days when I read news like this, my first response is that, does AMD have any chance to survive at all? The technical details for any new chip is secondary.

I know what you mean. When I started reading my first thought was "ugh, why don't you guys just give up" which is a terrible sentiment for me to have. Carrizo looks promising but I just can't see them gaining a whole lot of market share back from Intel.

When I used to build my own computers I always picked the best processor and graphics card at the time, no brand loyalty at all. It was about the time AMD was kicking Intel's butt and it made me so happy to use the "underdog's" products. Now it's probably been a decade since I've used a single AMD processor. It makes me sad.

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#25

Post by BinaryIdiot » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 6:03 AM UTC

yuhong wrote: post #9

nimos wrote: post #2

I wonder if stagnating CPU requirements might make AMD competitive again. I have a 4 year old i5 laptop that can handle 100% of general office/home use. Battery life and gaming are the only two weak points. AMD aren't going to compete with Intel on battery life but with overall cpu/gpu power consumption falling it's not as big of a problem as it used to be. Wish they weren't stuck on 28nm still. It seems like Intel w…

I wonder what would happen when the process shrinks stop in say 5 to 10 years.

Will it? Sure we're getting close to the physical limits of our current types of designs but a processor that uses light instead can get significantly smaller and 3D. Perhaps we will end up transitioning to systems that use light and continue shrinking.

Not sure what happens after that though.

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#26

Post by neilmovva » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 6:05 AM UTC

lewisl9029 wrote: post #23

ausjke wrote: post #17

These days when I read news like this, my first response is that, does AMD have any chance to survive at all? The technical details for any new chip is secondary. Dr.Su did not have a good tracking record and I never got it why she was picked as the CEO, but it's not all her fault though, AMD has been in decline for years, I just hope someone will buy it before it totally collapses. Additionally, Intel is battling wi…

I'd have thought that the XBox One and PS4 GPU deals would have given them quite a boost, but it seems like they're still struggling these days. Can anyone enlighten me on why those deals might not be helping as much as I thought they would?

Console hardware is always high volume and low margin; MS and Sony usually breakeven on costs or even eat losses at the start of a new console generation. For AMD, it was the volume they needed just to keep orders going to the fab and a cash stream of some sort, but actual profit is slim by nature of that market.

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#27

Post by pbowyer » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 6:10 AM UTC

nimos wrote: post #2

I wonder if stagnating CPU requirements might make AMD competitive again. I have a 4 year old i5 laptop that can handle 100% of general office/home use. Battery life and gaming are the only two weak points. AMD aren't going to compete with Intel on battery life but with overall cpu/gpu power consumption falling it's not as big of a problem as it used to be. Wish they weren't stuck on 28nm still. It seems like Intel w…

> It seems like Intel will be pushing 10 before they get down to 20/22...

Intel seem to be struggling though, with shrinking not working out as they planned. They've missed one upgrade-round with the delay to Broadwell, and if the rumours are correct and they're releasing a couple of CPUs and then jumping to Skylake - that's quite a hit to ROI given the investment they've put in to an 'unused' chip family IMO.

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#28

Post by kayoone » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 6:13 AM UTC

lewisl9029 wrote: post #23

ausjke wrote: post #17

These days when I read news like this, my first response is that, does AMD have any chance to survive at all? The technical details for any new chip is secondary. Dr.Su did not have a good tracking record and I never got it why she was picked as the CEO, but it's not all her fault though, AMD has been in decline for years, I just hope someone will buy it before it totally collapses. Additionally, Intel is battling wi…

I'd have thought that the XBox One and PS4 GPU deals would have given them quite a boost, but it seems like they're still struggling these days. Can anyone enlighten me on why those deals might not be helping as much as I thought they would?

My guess is that AMD probably wanted those deals so bad that their margin is not very healthy.

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#29

Post by threeseed » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 6:17 AM UTC

afsina wrote: post #19

Lack of VP9 support is bad for Youtube (and Google). I wonder if it would be too hard to support both codecs.

VP9 was always going to be dead in the water. There are just too many influential companies part of the MPEG-LA to compete with. With Netflix, Amazon and Apple moving to HVEC and the PS/XBox refresh rumored to have HVEC support there is simply too much content: legal and illegal to bother with adding VP9 support.

Plus is anyone expecting a lot of YouTube 4K content ?

Re: AMD Launches Carrizo

#30

Post by kayoone » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 6:18 AM UTC

pbowyer wrote: post #27

nimos wrote: post #2

I wonder if stagnating CPU requirements might make AMD competitive again. I have a 4 year old i5 laptop that can handle 100% of general office/home use. Battery life and gaming are the only two weak points. AMD aren't going to compete with Intel on battery life but with overall cpu/gpu power consumption falling it's not as big of a problem as it used to be. Wish they weren't stuck on 28nm still. It seems like Intel w…

> It seems like Intel will be pushing 10 before they get down to 20/22... Intel seem to be struggling though, with shrinking not working out as they planned. They've missed one upgrade-round with the delay to Broadwell, and if the rumours are correct and they're releasing a couple of CPUs and then jumping to Skylake - that's quite a hit to ROI given the investment they've put in to an 'unused' chip family IMO.

Broadwell was delayed but Skylake is well on track. While there are not many Broadwell Desktop CPUs worth buying right now (Core i7-5775C and i5-5675C offer superb perf/watt though, especially the iGPU) the new round of mobile CPUs is still impressive and will certainly sell well before skylake comes around.