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People need to understand that X86 CPUs are not the future, GPGPUs are the future. And that's what they're designing for. We're not quite there yet, but it really sucks that Intel is basically kneecapping them right when they need it least. I miss the days when Intel and AMD actually competed...
 
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People need to understand that X86 CPUs are not the future, GPGPUs are the future. And that's what they're designing for.

gpgpu:

freight.jpg


cpu:

car.jpg
 
Now there's a problem with the 4 core CPU: will they use the 1620 v3 at "only" 3.5GHz or the 1630 v3 at 3.7GHz? Remember that Ivy was 1630 v2 at 3.7GHz, at the price point of now the 1620 v3, with power speed. This is something that will look bad for buyers. But the 1630 v3 is almost a 100USD more expensive. Even with the increase of performance, it's a tough situation to explain.

they're probably considering a price drop (or- it's not unheard of for updates to come with lower prices).. so maybe keep the price the same but use the more expensive cpu.
?
 
I wish indeed that x86 CPUs were not the future, but I keep seeing otherwise.
I was so hoping Itanium would pick up. OK, it's intended for other workloads but imagine desktop and workstation parts based on it.
I know it wasn't still up to the task of replacing x86, but with enough resources it would get there, it could be on pair even now.
Legacy compatibility always slowed things down, although needed by accumulated stuff from all the years passed.
But as times keep passing, it gets worse.
Although it seems now development seems to be more universal.

But CPUs will always be needed, better for some tasks even. And now there's Xeon Phi, which can even be both. And x86 keeps creeping up...

flat, that's wishful thinking. I hope that is so, but I doubt it. OK, we've seen lately some price drops on the iMac, but was it really? Specs dropped. Unless they do the same with the nMP, which is almost impossible since the base models are already at the minimum - except for the new Haswell 1620 CPU.
On the contrary, prices have been rising - OK, here in Europe to level things up or so they say. There was again a small price raise this week here, but it seems it was only here, don't know why.
Anyhow, they don't seem to be in need to lower prices, and now again with the new iPhones 6S coming up, and hoping to make 90 million units, why would they care about about the DT/WS business?!

Great news regarding CL on El Cap. Things start to get in place I guess.
 
It means that AMD is trying to close the gap between OpenCL and CUDA. If they succeed then AMD users (nMP users particularly) will have better performance and more capabilities (in OpenCL supported operations) than currently available.
 
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Not exactly. However, quad Core Zen APU with 2 GB of HBM and a GPU with 2048 GCN cores will be really powerful. Those Zen cores will be as fast as Quad Core i5 From Intel.

Whole package would be closed in 95W power envelope. That 2 GB of HBM is only eDRAM. 16 times more with twice the bandwidth of current eDRAM on Intel CPUs. You can add to that DDR4 RAM with up to 2400 MHz. You can see how big opportunity this is for AMD. Its not said it will change anything. It is just opportunity. Lets hope they can get it done properly.

P.S. Arctic Islands is completely new version of GCN.

P.S.2 There is a well informed source in the internet and it says AMD is testing Tonga XT. However, nobody is sure if that version of Tonga is 384Bit or has HBM. If I would bet, its 384 Bit with 2048 GCN 1.2 Cores and it will be next D310 for Mac Pro.
 
At least it will put them on pair with Intel on process node. Important none the less.

Yes, there are no details on AI but, besides HBM2 new GCN cores should come up.
Now, That Tonga XT is good news, maybe 6GB D310 as entry level, Grenada 8GB for the remaining.
Or just double prior cards, Tonga/Antiqua with 256b and 4GB, Grenada capped to 384b and 6GB for D510 and full Grenada in D710.
Who knows?!
 
Im reading the specs of Thunderbolt 3, and... Im missing something? It says plainly Display Port 1.2, which means, it does not support 5K display on single cable.

Missing the ability to count? Two DP 1.2 streams is all that is needed for 5K. TB v3 can transport two DP 1.2 streams on a single cable. (similar to how TB v1 could support two DP v1.1a streams on a single cable). What exactly is missing for 5K ? As long as the TB controller physically has two DP v1.2 inputs at the source and has two DP outputs at the monitor node that is all you need; have bandwidth and physical pins to connect to.

So what would be the point of Thunderbolt 3 apart from twice the bandwidth,

Twice the bandwidth opens two higher (than 1.1) bandwidth DP streams. Since TB v2 carries one full capacity DP 1.2 stream, TB v3 can carry two.
 
Yeah, I'm really happy I went for the nMP back in January after finding a great deal on both the stock 6-core machine and a 1TB Apple SSD from Amazon. System runs solid for me, I have the option of moving to a 5K monitor in the future when prices become reasonable, gaming performance in Windows is rather decent with the right driver tweaks.

Good luck to those waiting on the refresh, I have no doubt it's going to be awesome when it finally drops :)
 
Lisa Su announced FinFET GPUs Artic Islands are indeed coming in 2016, as well as Zen.
Will AMD give Intel a run for it's money, now that they're slowing down?

In the context of a Mac Pro, Zen isn't going to make AMD a player.

They are all slowing down (spending more time on a process nm level). Intel is about to release its 3rd generation FinFET design before AMD gets out their first. Putting process size differences aside, Intel still has a substantial experience/maturity lead over others.

Reasonable implementations of Arctic Islands and Zen far more so mean that AMD doesn't implode more so than putting Intel into an extremely competitive situation. More so a "stop the bleed" than make Intel have sleepless nights event.
 
I wasn't saying Zen was going in the nMP, far from it. That never crossed my mind. It would really be a show stopper for me really.
Yes, Intel has the experience advantage but it's a good sign AMD being on the run still, specially on the same node, although they still have a lot to sweat before they get near Intel.
But at least that could make Intel look back...
 
ZEN is AMD hail mary... It better score or it will break AMD. Their financial situation won't survive another bulldozer fiasco.
 
There is something going on, because whole staff of AMD buys AMD stock in big amounts, and Intel Staff is selling Intel stock in high amounts.

Also Intel just cut R&D by 1/3. From 10.5 Billion USD to 7.7 Billion. And its R&D mostly on fabs. Maybe some "naysayers" in the internet are right, that behind the shiny surface Intel is not doing that well as people think... ;).
 
That way of thinking can only get you into big trouble. There is a lot of companies that went down, just because they didn't bothered about R&D, when they had technological lead.

If you are on your knees and you are cutting R&D expenditures, you still can win. If you are standing up, and cutting R&D expenditures, "because you can" - thats where you get into trouble.
 
Nope, it isn't. The cut of R&D was exactly from new processes. Intel R&D is 90% going into fab process. Die shrinks, experiments with new materials, etc. That is exactly what has been cut by 1/3 of expenditure.
 
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