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Articles & Reviews
We will talk about the mainstream and entry-level AMD FX CPU modifications based on Bulldozer microarchitecture and featuring eight-, six- and four-core design.
To study the design and functionality of the mainstream and entry-level chipsets for the AMD Bulldozer platform we decided to go with two mainboards from Asus: Asus M5A99X EVO and Asus M5A97 EVO, based on AMD 990X and AMD 970 chipsets respectively. In our today’s review we are going to compare them against one another as well as against the previously tested mainboards on the top Socket AM3+ core logic set.
This mainboard belongs to the “TUF” series (The Ultimate Force), which stands out due to unique design and high-quality components. The primary advantages of the mainboards in this series are superior stability and long life span.
Today we are going to talk about three Socket AM3+ mainboards based on a combination of AMD 990FX North Bridge and AMD SB950 South Bridge from the leading mainboard makers. They are Asus Crosshair V Formula, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7 and MSI 990FXA-GD80. We will check out their packaging and accessories, design and functionality, BIOS options, overclocking potential, performance and power consumption.
The great revolution that AMD has been talking about for so long has finally happened! Today we managed to meet an eight-core desktop processor based on the long-anticipated Bulldozer microarchitecture. Find out from our review if AMD managed to regain the long lost leadership this time.
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AMD Bulldozer
Abstract
AMD Bulldozer is the codename for the next generation microarchitecture of AMD’s high-performance processors. This microarchitecture should replace K8/K10 and is developed from scratch.
Bulldozer microarchitecture implies radically new internal structure of the multi-core processors, where pairs of cores form individual modules. Each dual-core module has a single floating-point co-processor shared between the two cores and a shared L2 cache. The modules within the same processor share an 8 MB L3 cache and a memory controller with DDR3-1866 support.
A dual-core module contains up to 2 MB of L2 cache memory and two 128-bit symmetrical floating-point units that may be paired up for 256-bit instructions processing. Each of the two integer cores in the module has two ALU and two AGU, thus enabling each core to perform up to 4 operations per clock cycle. The modules also have shared prefetch and decoding units. This processor architecture allows each module to process two computational threads at the same time, within a semiconductor die of a smaller size.
All Bulldozer processors support contemporary instruction sets including SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES and AVX.
Each module has 213 million transistors and is 30.9 sq.mm big.
The first processors with Bulldozer microarchitecture will be manufactured using 32 nm SOI process by GlobalFoundries and will be available in three modifications: 16-core server Interlagos for Socket G34 systems, 4-8-core server Valencia for Socket C32 systems and 4-8-core desktop Zambezi for Socket AM3+ systems.
News
Thursday, May 24, 2012
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AMD Rumoured to Start Production of Next-Gen FX-Chips in Q3.
AMD to Start Making FX "Vishera" Chips Next Quarter
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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AMD Reveals Trinity Accelerated Processing Unit for Embedded Decides.
AMD Unveils R-Series APU with Trinity Architecture
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
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AMD Welcomes Intel's Ivy Bridge with Massive Price Slash on Flagship Chips.
AMD Slashes Pricing of AMD FX-8150, Other Processors
Monday, April 16, 2012
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AMD Expects Significant Performance Improvements with Steamroller Microprocessors.
AMD to Revolutionary Redesign Micro-Architecture, System Architecture with Steamroller Chips
Thursday, April 5, 2012
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AMD to Formally Announce "Trinity" Fusion APUs for Notebooks on May 15.
AMD to Unwrap A-Series "Trinity" APUs for Laptops in Mid-May
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
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Globalfoundries Celebrates Shipment of 250 Thousand 32nm/HKMG Wafers to AMD.
Globalfoundries: 32nm Yield Problems Are Behind, Shipments to AMD Now Unconstrained
Monday, March 19, 2012
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AMD Introduces Single-Socket Server Platform for Cloud, Hosting Services.
AMD Unveils Opteron 3200-Series Processor Family
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
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AMD Piledriver Chips to Conquer 4GHz Milestone Thanks to Resonant Clock Mesh Tech.
AMD Implements Resonant Clocking Tech to Boost Piledriver's Clock-Speed to Over 4GHz
Monday, February 13, 2012
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AMD Fusion "Trinity" Desktop APUs to Hit 4GHz Clock-Speed.
AMD Projects Substantial Clock-Speed Increase for Trinity
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
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AMD Denies Building Chips at IBM's Factories.
AMD: IBM Only Provided Consultations to Boost 32nm Yields
Thursday, February 2, 2012
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AMD: Leading Graphics Performance Is Critical for Us.
AMD Puts Graphics on Central Stage as High-Performance CPUs Stagnate
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AMD Cancels 10-Core, 20-Core Server Processors.
AMD to Prolong Lifespan of Current Opteron Server Platform
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AMD Promises "Full" Fusion of CPU and GPU in 2014.
AMD's Chips in 2014 to Support CPU-GPU Context Switching
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
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AMD Quietly Adopting "Tick-Tock" Model for Micro-Architectures.
AMD to Use Slightly Different Micro-Architectures for APUs and CPUs
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
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AMD Ups Performance Projections for Next-Gen "Trinity" APUs.
AMD "On-Track" to Release Trinity in Mid-2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
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AMD Describes Piledriver Architecture Peculiarities to Software Developers.
AMD Starts to Get Developers Ready for Piledriver Chips
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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AMD Demos 17W Trinity Accelerated Processing Unit.
AMD Shows Off Next-Generation ULV A-Series APU
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AMD: Windows 7 Scheduler Update Brings 1% - 2% Performance Improvement.
AMD Expects Only Windows 8 to Provide Tangible Performance Boosts
Thursday, December 22, 2011
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AMD May Be Preparing Phenom II X8 Microprocessors.
BIOS Updates Reveal AMD Phenom II X8 Chips
Thursday, December 15, 2011
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Microsoft Releases Windows Patch to Boost Performance of AMD "Bulldozer" Chips [UPDATED].
AMD's Latest FX, Opteron Processors Receive Performance-Boosting Hotfix from Microsoft
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