Heard on the radio this morning that some retail chains were offering a 2 for 1 deal on all laptops with AMD processors. Seems like they're trying to get rid of them to make room for new stock. So i guess it could be around the corner.

As far as I know the Server Version of the next gen CPU has been released, I think they are still calling it the Opteron.

As for the Desktop(Bulldozer) version I heard next month, October some time.

I see on Tomshardware that intel upgrades their quad-core s155 i7 line to 6 cores... not sure about i5 though... might worth your time to check the preview

Cool. Thanks. Maybe I can swap my old work computer about Christmas.

Chewhacca wrote:

Heard on the radio this morning that some retail chains were offering a 2 for 1 deal on all laptops with AMD processors. Seems like they're trying to get rid of them to make room for new stock. So i guess it could be around the corner.

2 for 1? Who's doing this?

Harvey Norman I think. http://www.smartoffice.com.au/Technology/Industry/P8V5F9F9

Bulldozer gets launched tomorrow. Retailers are already taking orders. No reliable benchies available yet, but for the record I'm definitely buying one. Have to, I've bought every AMD architecture since A64 939- so can't break that 6 year streak, can I? Even if it turns out to perform like arse, I MUST buy one.

such dedication...

Can't wait for the reviews tomorrow. New CPU launches are always an exciting event.

In general I tend to never buy the very first product though.

Especially interested to see how the Bulldozer 6 core (or 3 modules) compares with to the 1100T!

Wait... No eight-core Zambezi yet? I was planning getting one of those to replace my ancient Sempron processor at work.

[Merged with my other related topic]

Dang! Not to say it performs like arse but no improvement in gaming compared with my ancient 955BE (which is faster for such useful tasks than Thuban, ehem...)? I was expecting, well frankly, more.

Any reviews links?

No reason to upgrade from a 955BE.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldo … fx8150-tested/8

Still will get one a them new fangled 990x boards and clocked the shit outta my 955 though.

Current review shows AMD Bulldozer to be a great dissapointment. 😒

I was going to buy one to replace a work's computer but I think I am going Intel after all these years being an AMD fanboy. Not much need for multi-threaded applications. Too bad Ivy Bridge is still far from release.

Something I find interesting is that all the reviews kinda use the same benchmarks. Nobody does something unique, thinks outside the box or attempts to come up with some more real-life like testing.

E.g. I used to have a Phenom II X4 CPU but then upgraded to an i5 2400. I could really feel the difference in areas no review site looks into: Booting and shutting down. How fast windows open and close and general responsiveness.

I also work a lot with Microsoft OneNote and when you print a 80 page PDF or Word File into OneNote the Intel machine just rips through it.

Bulldozer feels like Phenom 1.0. In general I try to never ever buy something new (hardware 1.0) because you just play beta tester. Intels Core 2 E6600 was one of the few products I bought at launch. Simply because it was totally dominating all the benchmarks. And even with Intel there were a few issues with these jmicron controllers and other bits and peaces.

But AMD launches I'm especially careful. Phenom II is a really stable and mature platform now and I would rather get a 1100T over a Bulldozer.

In some ways Bulldozer is Phenom 1.0 all over again. With Phenom 1, even the boards had shitty support- remember the 125-140w TDP support issues and Gigabyte 790x boards catching fire? 😳 I had one, I know... 😒

Now, we have some great boards- that Asus Sabretooth looks real good. If you're currently running something slower than a Phenom II/ Thuban, then IMO this is as good an upgrade as an i5/i7 system. It performs in the ballpark- which is good enough and I doubt anyone will feel the difference between a 2500k and a Bulldozer rig.

Plus it clocks up to 4.5-4.6 easily which is 600mhz-1ghz more than Phenom II/ Thuban on average. At those speeds, it'll play/ do anything pretty fucking fast.

I have a feeling of deja vu here - 3+ years ago I built a system for my bro. He wanted an Intel E8xxx system cause that was all the rage then, but being an AMD fanboi, I persuaded him to go with a 9850BE system. 3 years later, an E8xxx system with it's dual cores is positively outdated whereas that 9850BE clocked to 3ghz is still up there playing the latest shit, near Phenom 2 levels.

Perhaps history will repeat itself here and AMD release some uber iterations of Bulldozer. At least I hope to god it does.

It hits home when you look at the transistor count.

1100T has ~ 900M transistors. Bulldozer has ~2B!

Intels Gulftown has only 1.17B transistors and wipes the floor with Bulldozer.

A shame for us customers as Intel will now sit back and slow down with new products. I was hoping that AMD would keep the pressure up, but this isn't going to happen.

A whole Bulldozer module struggles to compete with a single Intel core and can't compete once you deal with HT.

Looking at the transistor count I'm actually totally shocked and it really shows how bad this chip is...

I can't really say I'm surprised. There was a lot of hype building up for this, so much so that it actually reminded me of the lead up to the Geforce FX release. In my experience anything with that much hype tends to be a dissapointment.

It is a shame though, AMD really needs to come out with a competitive product. I'd hate to see what would happen to the PC marketplace if Intel became a monopoly.