Apple and the AMD Fusion

[Eidorian]

Apple managed to show up on a few slides at AMD's presentation. Given the razor thin internals and lack of board space it's a solution to escape from Core 2.

http://fudzilla.com/processors/item/20817-apple-to-embrace-amd-fusion

Fusion GPU performance has been rumored to hover around HD 5400 - 5500 desktop performance.

 

[Hellhammer]

Damn you were 10 minutes faster than me! Looks interesting though. Hopefully 13" lappies will use AMD so the GPU will at least be decent.

BTW, any idea on the release schedule? Q1 2011? Any leaked specs like TDPs or number of cores or frequencies? I know I should be aware of these but been so busy lately that have had no time to follow the news

 

[iMacmatician]

Damn you were 10 minutes faster than me!

10 minutes faster than me too!

BTW, any idea on the release schedule? Q1 2011? Any leaked specs like TDPs or number of cores or frequencies? I know I should be aware of these but been so busy lately that have had no time to follow the news

Ontario and Zacate: Q1 2011
Llano: H1 2011
Bulldozer desktop: Q2 2011

Zacate specs:
E-350: 1.6 GHz, dual-core, 500 MHz HD 6310 (80 SPU), 18 W
E-240: 1.5 GHz, single-core, 500 MHz HD 6310 (80 SPU), 18 W

 

[Eidorian]

Damn you were 10 minutes faster than me! Looks interesting though. Hopefully 13" lappies will use AMD so the GPU will at least be decent.

I actually spent some time looking for a duplicate first.

BTW, any idea on the release schedule? Q1 2011? Any leaked specs like TDPs or number of cores or frequencies? I know I should be aware of these but been so busy lately that have had no time to follow the news

Anandtech and Tom's Hardware have preview articles right now. 9 and 18 W are the targets currently. AMD does appear to be aiming these products at Intel's Pentium line up just above Atom but below Core.

It appears to be a two chip system with the CPU/GPU and a platform controller. The biggest issue right now is on the notebook side where you have to juggle around the PCIe lanes and throw on a SB750 in order to have discrete graphics. Don't expect USB 3.0 either.

 

[darkplanets]

Hardware and performance wise how would these stack up against the current C2D, i3-5-7, or pending sandy bridge revisions? I'm not entirely familiar with AMD's offerings outside of the desktop/mobile GPUs.

The bar seems a little low for anything but the MBA, which of course makes sense if they are pitting this against the Pentium lineup. Also, what's the intended meaning of using Apple images in an AMD presentation? I highly doubt that Apple would publicize such a choice at this time, even if they did decide to use them for an upcoming revision.

 

[Eidorian]

Hardware and performance wise how would these stack up against the current C2D, i3-5-7, or pending sandy bridge revisions? I'm not entirely familiar with AMD's offerings outside of the desktop/mobile GPUs.

I haven't seen any concrete number yet.

The bar seems a little low for anything but the MBA, which of course makes sense if they are pitting this against the Pentium lineup. Also, what's the intended meaning of using Apple images in an AMD presentation? I highly doubt that Apple would publicize such a choice at this time, even if they did decide to use them for an upcoming revision.

That doesn't stop AMD and it didn't stop nVidia.

Hellhammer should recognize these codenames for AMD mobile GPUs.

 

[Hellhammer]

Hellhammer should recognize these codenames for AMD mobile GPUs.

Yeah, that's old stuff. You showed me the roadmap like 6 months ago

 

[SkyBell]

Slap an AMD in a MacBook or a Mini and I might actually consider buying one.

 

[res1233]

Slap an AMD in a MacBook or a Mini and I might actually consider buying one.

As it stands, AMD is Apple's best option for their lower-powered devices like the Mac Mini, MacBook, and MacBook Air, because apple would be forced to include Intel's integrated graphics with any Core iX processor if they were to include it. Apple knows as well as anyone how terrible Intel's graphics are compared to Nvidia and ATI. It's either they stick to the Core2 Duo, or they ditch Intel. I doubt this is going to change with any future offerings from Intel either, but ya never know.

 

[acurafan]

If there is one thing Apple users appreciate, it's eye candy.

Ain't that the truth!

i don't care as long as i can run my windows vm's on the new mbp's.

 

[Eidorian]

Slap an AMD in a MacBook or a Mini and I might actually consider buying one.

Why is that?

As it stands, AMD is Apple's best option for their lower-powered devices like the Mac Mini, MacBook, and MacBook Air, because apple would be forced to include Intel's integrated graphics with any Core iX processor if they were to include it. Apple knows as well as anyone how terrible Intel's graphics are compared to Nvidia and ATI. It's either they stick to the Core2 Duo, or they ditch Intel. I doubt this is going to change with any future offerings from Intel either, but ya never know.

It will be interesting to see how Sandy Bridge's IGP holds out. AMD does have the upper hand that they have ATI folded in but they're still missing out on the GPGPU wagon that I'm enjoying with nVidia.

 

[darkplanets]

I don't have much faith in Intel's IGP, sandy bridge or not.

If Fusion was aimed at the lower Core line instead of the Pentium line, then I'd be quite pleased, but right now the initial impression is a bit... lackluster.
Also, since you guys seem to be more hardware oriented, a question: why haven't we seen any SLI or Crossfire implementations in the Mac Pro? I realize Intel makes the motherboard nowadays (or so I think), but what if Apple switched the mobo to support SLI or Crossfire?

 

[chrmjenkins]

I see no verbiage that indicates Apple is a fusion partner. They merely suggest that Apple uses AMD products, which they do in their iMac and Mac Pro lines. They've used them in their other lines previously as well.

 

[jav6454]

I hope Apple adopts ATI GPUs from now on and let nVidia know their current GPUs are cr@p. I don't see nVidia surviving much longer if they keep up this high watt consumption and heat production stuff.

GTX580 was a pull in the right direction, but as it stands. They are becoming sitting ducks.

 

[Eidorian]

I don't have much faith in Intel's IGP, sandy bridge or not.

If Fusion was aimed at the lower Core line instead of the Pentium line, then I'd be quite pleased, but right now the initial impression is a bit... lackluster.
Also, since you guys seem to be more hardware oriented, a question: why haven't we seen any SLI or Crossfire implementations in the Mac Pro? I realize Intel makes the motherboard nowadays (or so I think), but what if Apple switched the mobo to support SLI or Crossfire?

Intel is going to have GPU Turbo pickup where the execution units fail. All mobile parts have 12 units vs. the 6 or 12 on desktop processors.

I hope Apple adopts ATI GPUs from now on and let nVidia know their current GPUs are cr@p. I don't see nVidia surviving much longer if they keep up this high watt consumption and heat production stuff.

GTX580 was a pull in the right direction, but as it stands. They are becoming sitting ducks.

ATI and nVidia are both stuck on 40nm right now. nVidia has the feature set, SLI, and GPGPU though.

 

[jav6454]

ATI and nVidia are both stuck on 40nm right now. nVidia has the feature set, SLI, and GPGPU though.

Very true, and at both fronts I have to accept the fact nVidia has a better foothold there.

However, they can still do better. I miss the nVidia from the 6000 seres and 8000 series.

 

[Eidorian]

Very true, and at both fronts I have to accept the fact nVidia has a better foothold there.

However, they can still do better. I miss the nVidia from the 6000 seres and 8000 series.

I was a big ATI fan until I got my recent GTX 460. ATI can do well for lower power and mobile GPUs.

The G80 debacle was ATI's own fault and they've been recovering since then. Late to the game and the 2900XT was lackluster compared to the 8800 lineup. nVidia was able to set prices over $500 in those days. Now it's a sparing match and constant price war between the two.

I sure loved my AMD cards but I haven't had any weird driver issues and enjoy the CUDA folding power.

 

[jav6454]

I was a big ATI fan until I got my recent GTX 460. ATI can do well for lower power and mobile GPUs.

The G80 debacle was ATI's own fault and they've been recovering since then. Late to the game and the 2900XT was lackluster compared to the 8800 lineup. nVidia was able to set prices over $500 in those days. Now it's a sparing match and constant price war between the two.

I sure loved my AMD cards but I haven't had any weird driver issues and enjoy the CUDA folding power.

Very true. Right now, the GTX580 looks fine for Macross; however, the price is waaay to high for my liking $1k for a SLI configuration. That and I'll need a new PSU (since 1000W won't cut it on a 3.8GHz OC'd CPU).

 

[Eidorian]

http://pcper.com/article.php?aid=1036

Next week I will be allowed to share with you the performance of Brazos platform and how it compares to other currently available platforms with similar pricing points and power levels. Until then, sit tight and absorb as much information about the Bobcat CPU architecture and AMD’s first APU provided in this preview.

Soon!

That graphics portion is made up of 2 x 80 unit SIMDs, so it has a grand total of 160 stream processors.

This tidbit is probably the most interesting. It should place it just over the HD 5400 lineup and at 500 MHz for the 18W Zacate processors.

 

[TSE]

As long as AMD's APU is all that it is cracked up to be and offers decent battery life, Apple would be hurting us consumers if they picked Intel's processor + crappy GPU over AMD's APU.

 

[jav6454]

As long as AMD's APU is all that it is cracked up to be and offers decent battery life, Apple would be hurting us consumers if they picked Intel's processor + crappy GPU over AMD's APU.

At this point in time, all AMD really has to do is increase their overall efficiency when it comes to CPUs. They've got great prices for the number of cores, it's just the performance leaves much to be desired.

Intel is roasting AMD on that front. Sandy Bridge is almost out and all we hear from AMD is Bulldozer and it's variants. I hope Bulldozer pulls it off or AMD might find itself into more financial distress on the CPU block.

 

[iMacmatician]

This tidbit is probably the most interesting. It should place it just over the HD 5400 lineup and at 500 MHz for the 18W Zacate processors.

160 SPUs? That's new…

 

[Eidorian]

160 SPUs? That's new…

You're going to love this even more from LegitReviews.

CPU, UVD 3, and Direct Compute workloads simultaneously.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1464/1/

 

[SkyBell]

Why is that?

No good reason really, just always kind of preferred AMD over Intel.

 

[CaoCao]

You're going to love this even more from LegitReviews.

CPU, UVD 3, and Direct Compute workloads simultaneously.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1464/1/

I'm sure AMD would easily make some pimped out Zacate for Apple (it would get them a foot in the door especially if those chips were done well)