The best after market Heatsink

[FMod]

Well, the real number of 8870 should be "Radeon 18870"...

They did 9800, then "X800", where X stood for 10, then X1800... then X changed to HD to underscore their new video decoders. So X or HD is the 10,000 sequence.

 

So they'll likely remember their roots and rather call the 20,000 sequence something new.

But I'm puzzled a bit about this. AMD's long game calls for 3 more generations of video cards - Sea Islands (already in production), Volcanic Islands (advanced development, 2014 release), Pirate Islands (early development, no info).

 

After that they have a big marketing campaign to run, rolling out a product that is no longer a video card, but a general processor. Might not even use PCI-Express, or an interface at all, rather come as a motherboard+fused processor type product. Or possibly keep a "motherboard", but without CPU or RAM, just a backplane to plug storage and peripherals in. We'll see.

It won't make much sense to market a whole new sequence before that, though. Or maybe it does, as the last transition between still having a CPU and not.

[Dan3345]

After that they have a big marketing campaign to run, rolling out a product that is no longer a video card, but a general processor. Might not even use PCI-Express, or an interface at all, rather come as a motherboard+fused processor type product. Or possibly keep a "motherboard", but without CPU or RAM, just a backplane to plug storage and peripherals in. We'll see.

It won't make much sense to market a whole new sequence before that, though. Or maybe it does, as the last transition between still having a CPU and not.

This really sounds disturbing for some reason.. Lets hope they don't do that...For AMD's sake..

[FMod]

Why not?

CPU-GPU separation isn't going to last forever. It was (and is) a temporary measure. Advanced evolution of technology, that is past its peak growth phase - and computers are past their peak growth rate, now in the early maturation stage - is, where it is possible, to simplify and unify things. Integrated HDD controllers, integrated network cards, integrated sound, integrated wireless.... CPU and GPU will merge, it's the next big thing.

 

Intel has its Xeon Phi, but that's HPC/server only, they will hold on to x86. Strong CPU+weak VPU (not quite GPU). Nvidia will integrate an ARM core into their next GPU architecture (Maxwell), although it's not meant for PCs quite yet; weak CPU+strong GPU. AMD's plan is to approach it from both ends simultaneously, from CPU as in Fusion and from GPU as in GCN+; solid CPU+strong GPU.

 

And, speaking about performance, it's the only way to make a significant leap ahead. x86 is exhausted. How much further can it go - a few more IPC; another 2, 3 GHz; another two cores, four, six?

[Dan3345]

What about us? people who like performance? What are we supposed to do when every chip is integrated with a GPU? I don't see them putting anything with anywhere near the amount of power as a 680 on a CPU anytime soon, and then how would you cool it? The same way you cool your CPU? Well todays GPU's waste so much energy and all that heat has got to go somewhere..

 

If AMD is thinking ahead thats fine, but I don't see this as something for people like myself to consider for a long time to come.

[FMod]

You're thinking in reverse. It's traditional CPU that are on the way out, not GPU.

 

I.e. Nvidia's Maxwell cards will be able to boot a compact OS (like Android) without any CPU. But Nvidia isn't allowed to build x86 cores, and they don't have any experience with them, even if they do get a legal way. Intel and AMD have own patents and cross-licensing agreements allowing either to do exactly that.

 

Intel's plan is a lot like what they did with Core 2 - to resurrect old architectures. Back then it was Pentium III, now they double back even further, to the original Pentium. But this time dozens of these cores on one chip and at higher frequency.

 

AMD intends to go with their GPU advantage, either integrating Pirates Islands or its successor GPU with an Excavator x86 core or possibly just an x86 translator, so as to run legacy wintel code on the GPU-derived core.

 

Whichever company you look at, they have similar end goals. Different approaches. Intel bets on super-multi-threaded simplified x86, Nvidia on Unix-based OS, AMD on wintel-compatibles with serious payload vectorized. These are the choices. There is no "status quo" option, no company plans on maintaining this CPU-GPU dichotomy. Perhaps Intel will try to drag it on for longer, but even they know and don't hide it's a lost cause, just try to squeeze the last high-profit-margin juices out of their legacy advantage in this market.

[Dan3345]

Ok I see what you mean.

 

However AMD has done this and done it well (APU's) yet FM1 is already dead, and sales of APU's are not where they were expected to be. Intel is playing the market, AMD is playing for the future. Sad thing is AMD is losing.

 

Oh and for the record I use Intel. No fanboys here. hehe

[Thor.]

Hey check this benchmark out from f1 2012, almost completely maxed out, beyond msaa. Something fancy i can't remember http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/confused.gif

 

I had a huge fps boost, beyond 50fps, at times 100fps increase. my older 1100T sure was a bottleneck http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/teehee.gif The 7950 sure excels at tessellation. its quite amazing what it can do.

You should see what Crysis 2 is like lol.

 

http://oi49.tinypic.com/2qtg32d.jpg

Edited December 26, 2012 by Thor.

[Thor.]

oopps, to many tabs grr Edited December 26, 2012 by Thor.

[FMod]

However AMD has done this and done it well (APU's) yet FM1 is already dead, and sales of APU's are not where they were expected to be.

FM1 is just the first step. That's a traditional CPU core doing its math, with a separate GPU next to it. The socket is only as dead as LGA1155 will be once 1150 comes out, it's otherwise fully modern.

 

The plan is to have CPU delegate its work on to the GPU, e.g. your browser would run on the GPU, and really just about everything. That being the final step before it's just everything.

[Thor.]

Well integrated everything does seem a bit more like a console, would you think. I would miss putting together parts like cpu gpu separately.

 

The is a bundled fx chip that does that already i think??? its a 4core???

Edited December 28, 2012 by Thor.