Gaming News From Past

Some interesting Gaming News From obr hardware.

This content was previously published on OBR Hardware but after site merge its being published on this site.

AMD FX2 (PILEDRIVER) IS HERE, LAST AMD PERFORMANCE CPU EVER!

Today I bring you two important news from the world of AMD. Both are related to Piledriver CPU architecture. On the VR-Zone magazine appeared article, where the author speculates that AMD desktop Piledriver CPU architecture (FX2-8300) will not be launched, and AMD will wait for architecture Steamroller. Its total bullshit! FX2-8300/6300 processors are in the final phase of ES production and will go to the market on schedule. In one fact is VR-Zone correct – CPU performance FX2-8300 is only a few percent over the FX-8100. Performance is the same shit as Bulldozer. Piledriver (FX2-8300) = Bulldozer C0 revision!

The second news is shocking. I have secret internal AMD document here, and there is something big: AMD FX2-8300/6300 (Piledriver Vishera) desktop processor is the last performance desktop CPU ever! Yes, it’s true you read it correctly! All next processors in desktop will be only APU. AMD completely ends production of performance desktop CPUs! FX2-8300/6300 processors for socket AM3 + are the last competitors against Intel-DT platform. AMD gives up the fight against Intel here, and in the future will launch only APU with mainstream performance! Vishera + AM3+ are the last representative of an AMD performance CPU platform! Buy it, someday it will be a valued historical artifact.

PS. My FX2-8300 CPU was delivered today, will test it soon! Stay tuned …

Dnes vám přináším dvě zprávy ze světa AMD. Obě se týkají procesoru architektury Piledriver. Na VR-Zone se objevil článek ve kterém autor spekuluje, že AMD procesory architektury Piledriver (FX2-8300) vůbec neuvede, a počká až na architekturu Steamroller. Je to toální kravina! Procesory FX2-8300/6300 jsou ve fázi finální ES revize a půjdou na trh dle plánu. V jednom se ale VR-Zone nemýlí, výkon procesoru FX2-8300 je pouze několik procent nad FX-8100. Výkon je stejná sračka jako Bulldozer. Piledriver (FX2-8300) = Bulldozer C0 revize!

Druhá zpráva je šokující. AMD FX2-8300 (Piledriver Vishera) desktop procesor je poslední výkonný čip do desktopu vůbec! Ano, je to pravda čtete správně! Všechny další procesory do desktopu budou už jen APU. AMD zcela končí s výkonným desktopem! Procesory FX2-8300/6300 pro patici AM3+ jsou poslední procesory stojící proti Intel-DT platformě. AMD vzdává boj a bude už v budoucnu vydávat jen APU s mainstreamovým výkonem! Vishera je poslední zástupce svého druhu! Kupte si ji, půjde o ceněný historický artefakt.


WORLD EXCLUSIVE: RELEASE DATE OF APUS RICHLAND!

Hi there, here is a world exclusive leak with release dates of APUs Richland and Kabini. Launch date of APU Richland for PGA socket (FM2) is March 19, ULV chips in BGA for notebook are planned for May 7. Kabini APUs will be released in late May. And new FX (Piledriver core) have release date in late June. Enjoy this info!


WHY IS IVY BRIDGE HOT, POWER HUNGER AND BAD CLOCKER? – IMMATURED 22NM PROCESS …

TDP should be 77W but its 95W?

Maybe you know, Ivy Bridge are around the corner. Maybe you knows too, they are worst clocker then Sandy Bridge. We know why …

As you know, Intel is with the 22nm production late. Production is not good, and there are big problems with the chips. The original “on paper” concept of 22nm chip with Tri-gate transistors is extremely low supply voltage. But, with current revisions Intel can not keep voltage in planned values. This is a problem. The chips have a higher voltage than planned, broadly comparable with Sandy Bridge. And that’s wrong.

Tri-gate transistor needs to switch to a lower voltage. But for a correct recognition of the I/O status needs more current than planar transistor. Three-gate area is greater than one-gate and the current is several times higher than in Sandy Bridge chips. When Intel reach a planned low voltage, everything will be fine. Lower voltage means acceptable currents, less leakage and a great consumption. Unfortunately, it does not meet the current “E1” revision.

Current 22nm chips have high voltage, higher than they should have. The values are similar to Sandy Bridge chips. Properly should be the default voltage below 1V and it is not now. But Ivy Bridge needs a lower voltage, at the same voltage as Sandy Bridge consumption and temperature is significantly higher due to higher currents in the chip.

Basic Ivy Bridge idle voltage is above 1V, higher than Sandy Bridge. The load voltage is lower than that of Sandy Bridge and consumption is lower, but temperatures are higher. If the Ivy Bridge voltage increases, consumption and temperatures extremely jumps up. This problem can be solved only by improving the production, so maybe its time for another revision. Indeed it may be a potential problem in laptops with the highest third-generation Core i7 models.

In the desktop this problem occur with less overclocking than Sandy Bridge and significantly higher power consumption and temperatures. If you have a nice 5GHz + Sandy Bridge, keep it for now. Ivy Bridge ends with overclocking on the air somewhere around 4.6 to 4.7 GHz. But slightly lower overclocking then Sandies compensates higher performance per clock, so it is not a major problem.


INTEL HASWELL IN QS SAMPLES …

CPU part of Haswell is still Core-Tweaked architecture, Sandy (Ivy) Bridge architecture on steroids. But GPU part is 2x bigger then Sandy Bridge iGPU. Look at dies, 22nm Haswell is bigger then Ivy Bridge die …

All chips are 4-Core with HT. Ivy Bride die size is 162 mm2, Haswell die size is +/- 185 mm2.


KEEP YOUR SANDY BRIDGE! E1 IVY BRIDGE ARE SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE OCERS ON AIR!

I have two older Engineering Samples stepping 8 (E0) and they are really good “on air” Ocers. Retail E1 stepping 9 is noticeably worse. It is worse than any Sandy Bridge. All Sandy Bridge I saw last year are better than all available E1 Retail stepping Core i7-3770K!. Ivy Bridge E1 is not good on air ocer! Do not buy them instead of your 5 GHz Sandy! Only for LN2, there make sense … never for on air ocing! Keep your 5+GHz Sandies, no E1 Ivy is capable that clock on air.

PS. This is first time in last ten years, i dont recommend “on air” overclockers to upgrade older Intel CPUs for new.


Exclusive – 28nm GeForce Specs ….

CES started and there always someone leak a behind the scenes informations. I heard some specs of first Kepler-based GeForce VGA. Specifications are shown in the picture above. This is probably the successor of the GeForce GTX 560Ti, which would be about 10-15 percent over the current GeForce GTX 580. This brings us to a common level with the Radeon HD 7950 and HD 7970. Power consumption is good, no problem with clocking GPU above 1100 MHz. Please note that this is unofficial info … Believe it or not, time will tell.

PS. Launch is sooner than you (and me) thought … 🙂


EXCLUSIVE! – SOME GEFORCE GTX 7X0 DETAILS …

At this moment there are no known details about the GeForce 600 successors and I will not say that I know anything. One thing is certain, and the information comes from the traditionally well-informed source. Successor GeForce GTX 670/680 will NOT be based on core GK110. These cards will be based on a completely different, new core … more detail later.


EXCLUSIVE: GUIDE HOW TO DISABLE GPU BOOST @ GTX 670/680

Many people complain of GPU Boost, although I do not understand why, but it’s true. GPU Boost is a great feature to increase performance, lower power consumption and GPU core temperature. Today we prove that the disabling GPU Boost and stabilization of clocks does not increase performance, only increasing power consumption and noise of the card! First, let’s see how the GPU Boost off.

You need only Nvidia Inspector utility (version 1.9.5.4) and cmd – command line in Windows. At first, look at screens and results, disabling GPU Boost really works!

GeForce GTX 680 at deafult settings, clocks oscillate under load between 1006-1110 MHz. GPU Boost is activated, score in 3DMark 11 is 3305 points.

GeForce GTX 680, GPU Boost deactivated. Clocks are for the all tests still at 1006 MHz. Score is worst, only 3121 points in 3DMark 11.

GeForce GTX 680, GPU Boost deactivated. Clocks are for the all tests still at +/- 1100 MHz. Score is +/- the same as on default with GPU Boost activated. !Card with a fixed frequency 1100 MHz has the same performance as card with GPU Boost activated with max clock 1110 MHz! Disabling of GPU Boost provides no performance benefit, but only a higher power consumption/noise of the card. But look at overclocked results too …


How to disable GPU Boost

There are two ways to off GPU Boost, first is reduce the Turbo bins in the BIOS or shutdown the highest P-state (GPU Boost pstate) under Windows. First method is complicated and dangerous. The second is a simple and functional. The principle is this: We need to force the card to work on the P-state P2, state for Base clock frequency. That’s all.

Go to folder with Nvidia Inspector and run there cmd. Write ” …nvidiainspector.exe – forcepstate:0,2″. Thats all. Now you can open Nvidia Inspector and raise clocks for P2 State (as on picture above). GPU Boost is disabled and clock is still on your set value, in every game and test. !You can overclock that GPU Boost off VGA only in Nvidia Inspector, not in Afterburner/Precision. Afterburner/Precision tweaks P-state0 (GPU Boost pstate) with offset, but now we have this P-state off, you have to increase P-state P2 – base clock pstate! Enjoy, and thanks Christian Nay for help …

PS. Max clock only 1110 MHz in P2 P-State? – Go in Nvidia Inspector to P-State 0, raise the clocks above that 1110 MHz, go to P2 P-State and set required frequency. Then type again ” …nvidiainspector.exe – forcepstate:0,2″ in cmd screen.

Hint: You can make an easy batch file with commands for Nvidia Inspector, with Power Target Value, GPU/Mem clocks, Voltage, GPU Boost off. One click, have overclocked card with GPU Boost off. One click back to normal … enjoy!


RADEON HD 7970 SUCCESSOR – TENERIFE XT, RADEON HD 7990 CANCELLED?

Successor of Radeon HD 7970 has (by that slide – maybe Fake, maybe not) 20 percent higher Compute Power (not gaming performance), based on EGCN (Enhanced GCN) and will be launched Q3/2012 or Q1/2013. Specification: 2304 Stream processors, 384-bit mem bus, 3GB GDDR5 6 GHz. TDP 250W, idle 3W.

Next info is about Dual monster Radeon HD 7990, the original information was, that it will be launched in Q1. From a reliable source I know that AMD still can not produce sufficient cooler for card with higher power consumption than Radeon HD 6990. The card disappeared from the roadmap for Q1 and is not in the Q2 too. It may be completely canceled, or may come out later.


AMD Radeon HD 7000 fiasco as Bulldozer – likely Yes!

AMD sent to several manufacturers info-slides about the new Radeon HD Graphics 7000. According to first estimates results in the slides, AMD-fans will be disappointed. Game performance against the current shitty-slow cards with Cayman not significantly increased, but consumption is relatively high for an advanced 28nm process. Stay tuned …. some slides will be here soon!

PS. Specs floating web in these days ARE all BS! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !


EXCLUSIVE: (UPDATED) INFO ABOUT NVIDIA KEPLER

GeForce (Kepler) will be launched in April. In February, will be launched only new cheap GeForce GTX 560. The first cards based on Kepler architecture are GeForce 600 not 700! Who’s talking about launching in February, is wrong, this info is based on the old roadmap (from July). According to the last one is launch in April. According the old one, launch was supposed for january/february, now is planned for april.

First VGA based on Kepler – launch April. Performance is unbelievable, this is a new G80. HD 7970 is like a toy against this VGA. Not an updated Fermi but brand new, unseen architecture with many news features. Wait for it, dont buy that Tahiti crap 🙂 You will see soon! Sampling to manufacturers is starting …


EXCLUSIVE! – SOME GEFORCE GTX 7X0 DETAILS …

At this moment there are no known details about the GeForce 600 successors and I will not say that I know anything. One thing is certain, and the information comes from the traditionally well-informed source. Successor GeForce GTX 670/680 will NOT be based on core GK110. These cards will be based on a completely different, new core … more detail later.


Exclusive – 28nm GeForce Specs ….

CES started and there always someone leak a behind the scenes informations. I heard some specs of first Kepler-based GeForce VGA. Specifications are shown in the picture above. This is probably the successor of the GeForce GTX 560Ti, which would be about 10-15 percent over the current GeForce GTX 580. This brings us to a common level with the Radeon HD 7950 and HD 7970. Power consumption is good, no problem with clocking GPU above 1100 MHz. Please note that this is unofficial info … Believe it or not, time will tell.

PS. Launch is sooner than you (and me) thought … 🙂


AMD FX-8350 RETAIL PERFORMANCE

Here is, Retail CPU FX-8350, produced 29. week this year. It is Two months+ old CPU. Look at performance of this chip. Tested in: 7-zip, Aida64, Arena Chess, Blender, Cinebench R10, Cinebench R11.5, Dos Box, DbPoweramp (MP3), VirtualDub and Xvid, Euler3D, Excel 2010, Fritz Chess, Mainconcept encoder H264, PCMark 7, PhysX Fluidmark, Photoshop, Pov-Ray, Stream 64, SunSpider JavaScript, SuperPi 1M, Truecrypt, WinRAR, wPrime, x264 Benchmark, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat, Lost Planet 2, Aliens Vs Predators.

Single-Thread calculated from: Arena Chess, Dos Box, DbPoweramp (MP3), VirtualDub a Xvid, Mainconcept encoder, Photoshop, SunSpider JavaScript, SuperPi, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat, Aliens Vs Predators.
Multi-thread calculated from: 7-zip, Blender, Cinebench R10, Cinebench R11.5, Euler3D, Excel, Fritz Chess, PCMark 7, PhysX Fluidmark, Pov-Ray, Stream 64, Truecrypt, WinRAR, wPrime, x264 Benchmark, Lost Planet 2.

Average performance of FX-8350 is about 8.5 percent higher than the FX-8150. In single-thread performance is new CPU better about 4.2 percent, in the multi-thread performance of 11.2 percent. Not bad for only tweaked BD, but still far from performance of Sandy/Ivy Bridge.


WHAT WILL BE THE “BIG” KEPLER?

Some tasty info ive got today. Its about a “big” Kepler chip based “Gaming” card. Info is not too detailed, but some little details are quite interesting. Launch month is ……..ber! and is not December or November 🙂 Chip is really big but smaller then GF110. Membus is 512-bit with 4GB od GDDR5. There are really lot of CUDAs 🙂 with fair performance gain above GK104. Source are talking about 20-25 percents above GeForce GTX 680. It seems legit to me … but will see


AMD FX-8350 RETAIL PERFORMANCE

Here is, Retail CPU FX-8350, produced 29. week this year. It is Two months+ old CPU. Look at performance of this chip. Tested in: 7-zip, Aida64, Arena Chess, Blender, Cinebench R10, Cinebench R11.5, Dos Box, DbPoweramp (MP3), VirtualDub and Xvid, Euler3D, Excel 2010, Fritz Chess, Mainconcept encoder H264, PCMark 7, PhysX Fluidmark, Photoshop, Pov-Ray, Stream 64, SunSpider JavaScript, SuperPi 1M, Truecrypt, WinRAR, wPrime, x264 Benchmark, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat, Lost Planet 2, Aliens Vs Predators.

Single-Thread calculated from: Arena Chess, Dos Box, DbPoweramp (MP3), VirtualDub a Xvid, Mainconcept encoder, Photoshop, SunSpider JavaScript, SuperPi, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat, Aliens Vs Predators.
Multi-thread calculated from: 7-zip, Blender, Cinebench R10, Cinebench R11.5, Euler3D, Excel, Fritz Chess, PCMark 7, PhysX Fluidmark, Pov-Ray, Stream 64, Truecrypt, WinRAR, wPrime, x264 Benchmark, Lost Planet 2.

Average performance of FX-8350 is about 8.5 percent higher than the FX-8150. In single-thread performance is new CPU better about 4.2 percent, in the multi-thread performance of 11.2 percent. Not bad for only tweaked BD, but still far from performance of Sandy/Ivy Bridge.


Radeon HD 7700 (real) SPEC!

Some fake specs of HD 7700 from 3DCenter.org are floating web this day, this server is only for fun, everything there are (funny) speculations, fakes and kiddos articles. Here are REAL spec of Radeons HD 7700 “Cape Verde”. Enjoy and tell the world …

All vendors card looks like an HD 6770 cards, same coolers …


SEMIACCURATE IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG ABOUT KEPLER … AND LENZFIRE TOO!

Charlie Demerjian knows nothing about Kepler, just speculating. In essence, copied the information from my blog. I first talked about the problems with PCIe 3.0. I talked about the new PhysX feature, a small core with low power consumption. But the truth is different, the source from which he drew (the same as my is faked by Nvidia itself). Kepler has no PhysX block, and its performance is great against Tahiti everywhere – not in games from RG, the performance is still true what I said long ago, an absolute 7970 killer …

PS. This is last Kepler info here till some chinese real leaks, with spec … but i can tell you, REAL specs are floating web … but you have to find them … 🙂 Closest to truth is this table: http://www.chiphell.com/thread-338350-1-1.html but not 100 percents! But very close!

Update: Lenzfire specs are total bullshit, someone from Lenzfire heard any right info, but 99 percent from published spec are BS 🙂


EXCLUSIVE: (UPDATED) INFO ABOUT NVIDIA KEPLER

GeForce (Kepler) will be launched in April. In February, will be launched only new cheap GeForce GTX 560. The first cards based on Kepler architecture are GeForce 600 not 700! Who’s talking about launching in February, is wrong, this info is based on the old roadmap (from July). According to the last one is launch in April. According the old one, launch was supposed for january/february, now is planned for april.

First VGA based on Kepler – launch April. Performance is unbelievable, this is a new G80. HD 7970 is like a toy against this VGA. Not an updated Fermi but brand new, unseen architecture with many news features. Wait for it, dont buy that Tahiti crap 🙂 You will see soon! Sampling to manufacturers is starting …