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All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

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Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enthusiast here - can confirm, an array of nvme's makes a huge difference over single standard SSD. I set this up last year, check the benchmark results, it's night and day. http://imgur.com/a/N4FpD note: be sure to note the scaling at the bottom. 4-500MB/s old vs 3000+ MB/s new

Do games actually load any faster? I went from a Samsung SSD(I think the 850 pro) to an Intel nvme ssd, and load times in games didn't seem much faster. I definitely notice it when booting up VS though.

I use the system more for work than games but one game it did make a very noticeable difference in was Minecraft believe it or not. Long-view distance + pre-generated map (world border fill) = move/fly fast without chunks taking friggin forever to load :-)

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt we'll be seeing desktop ARM systems any time soon, especially high end workstation or enthusiast systems. The problem is that the ARM64 architecture is completely different from x86-64, which almost every desktop application is compiled for exclusively . Remember when Microsoft launched an ARM Surface? It had a special version of Windows, and almost nothing would run on it, as very few applications are compil…

> It had a special version of Windows, and almost nothing would run on it, as very few applications are compiled for Windows on ARM. That wasn't the reason. It was because Windows RT was artificially locked-down to only allow sandboxed "apps" from the Windows App Store to run. There's not much of a use-case for only glorified web-service clients on a machine with a desktop UI regardless of the ISA they're compiled fo…

And now we have 10S that... requires the app store. Will it meet the same fate? One can only hope.

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#93
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple switched processors several times. They provided an emulator for old programs, so they could run without the user noticing anything (except worse performance). You could probably do the same for ARM.

It's worth understanding the Mac software ecosystem is mostly made up of people who love the platform and OS. Windows just isn't the same, lots of devs making software the same way the made it 15+ years ago and not wanting or even caring enough to change no matter what the benefits.

also, apple do a really good job on compilers etc to make it easier to write code and systems that jump between systems quite well. Lots of people dev on windows without using the latest tools from Microsoft this is just not how it works with apple.

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you say that, MS just announced they're taking another stab at it. https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/31/15711334/microsoft-window...

Interesting, was watching the video on the new MS Surface Laptop at the end, I saw 4 gig of Ram and shut down the page...

It's designed to run UWP / Store apps exclusively. In the default configuration, it will not run win32 programs at all.

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#95
post #6

I was of the opinion that Intel will only face real competition when arm reaches parity with desktop class cpu. Nice to see AMD rise back up again. Hope Intel is not able to strong arm the oems like last time when AMD had design wins but Intel using anti competitive practice stalled its growth till it was able to catch-up and later go ahead.

I doubt we'll be seeing desktop ARM systems any time soon, especially high end workstation or enthusiast systems. The problem is that the ARM64 architecture is completely different from x86-64, which almost every desktop application is compiled for exclusively . Remember when Microsoft launched an ARM Surface? It had a special version of Windows, and almost nothing would run on it, as very few applications are compil…

We had ARM on the desktop: The Acorn Archimedes [1] ;)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Archimedes

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#96
post #42

Competition is supposed to bring prices down, yet Intel released i9 processor for an insane prize (nearly 2000$). If AMD manages to ship similar performance (not necessarily higher) at a lower price... Sooner or later Intel will have to slash its prices. Looking forward to such times.

But it did. Intel reduced their 8 core processor prices from 1000$ to 600$. See their new lineup: http://imgur.com/a/LSpau

Basically Intel has been greedy / hasn't had the competition. The result of Moore's law is still quite possible it seems. Even with a slowdown in chip density; computing prices can fall on similar historical curves now that AMD is competing.

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#97
post #6

I was of the opinion that Intel will only face real competition when arm reaches parity with desktop class cpu. Nice to see AMD rise back up again. Hope Intel is not able to strong arm the oems like last time when AMD had design wins but Intel using anti competitive practice stalled its growth till it was able to catch-up and later go ahead.

I doubt we'll be seeing desktop ARM systems any time soon, especially high end workstation or enthusiast systems. The problem is that the ARM64 architecture is completely different from x86-64, which almost every desktop application is compiled for exclusively . Remember when Microsoft launched an ARM Surface? It had a special version of Windows, and almost nothing would run on it, as very few applications are compil…

> as very few applications are compiled for Windows on ARM.

Why is that? I mean what is preventing anyone to just compile those apps to arm64?

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#98
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt we'll be seeing desktop ARM systems any time soon, especially high end workstation or enthusiast systems. The problem is that the ARM64 architecture is completely different from x86-64, which almost every desktop application is compiled for exclusively . Remember when Microsoft launched an ARM Surface? It had a special version of Windows, and almost nothing would run on it, as very few applications are compil…

> as very few applications are compiled for Windows on ARM. Why is that? I mean what is preventing anyone to just compile those apps to arm64?

Well they also pushed the Windows Store hard, which hasn't exactly been a resounding success.

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#99
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we have the sources for most of the software, it can be recompiled. Not true for Windows, especially old closed source software.

Doesn't that make this an argument against closed source, not against ARM? I agree the issues are related, but if us people in open source can switch in an afternoon and you people in closed sourced land can't ever switch it highlights a problem.

If the windows ecosystem magically switched to the OSS repo model then ARM would become instantly viable to the maximum extent, no doubt about it.

Re: All AMD ThreadRipper CPU's will have 64 PCIe Lanes

#100
post #6

I was of the opinion that Intel will only face real competition when arm reaches parity with desktop class cpu. Nice to see AMD rise back up again. Hope Intel is not able to strong arm the oems like last time when AMD had design wins but Intel using anti competitive practice stalled its growth till it was able to catch-up and later go ahead.

As with most things the devil is in the details. In particular the ARM I/O and memory bus infrastructure has not had as long to develop as PC systems have.

The trick to understanding that is to look at the history of the personal computer and the demands placed on the CPU and supporting chipset that evolved with the changing demands of the platform over time.

The ARM systems evolved from 'system on chip' or SoC designs where everything was on one chip. And even the latest ARM server designs don't have anything like the notion of an ARM server system where you can choose from a variety of CPU skus and drop them into a baseboard socket.

That isn't to say that they won't eventually get to something like that, it is only to stress that ARM systems design is still a 3 - 6 years behind personal computer systems design. And to date it isn't getting pushed very hard to close that gap.

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