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News AMD says Fusion CPU and GPU will ship this year

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 15 May 2010.

  1. Zurechial

    Zurechial Elitist

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    If both AMD and Intel were to integrate decent GPUs in the majority of their lineup then the PC gaming industry would get a huge boost by not being hampered by the lowest common denominator of shitty Intel GMA chips.

    Alas, I can't see that happening.
     
  2. Burnout21

    Burnout21 Mmmm biscuits

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    definitely interested in this for a future server/HTPC i've been drooling to build ever since the i3/i5 integrated GPU was released. However H55 plateform just seems so expensive for the performance given.

    Future laptops, mmmmm hopefully AMD will think fast and build a CPU with integrated FirePro workstation level graphics for moblie workstation laptops.
     
  3. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    If you do an MCM you can combine speed grades more easily, which means you don't have to sell a whole slice of silicon as a B just because one part of it is too slow to be an A.

    On the other hand you can probably make a single chip go faster and soak less power.

    Choices, choices.
     
  4. greigaitken

    greigaitken Minimodder

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    right now you can dissipate 200w cpu and 400w gfx with those numbers going up. IT would be really tricky to combine cpu & gfx with one cooler on the high end side in future so i guess this will be mainstream only for many years.
     
  5. Skiddywinks

    Skiddywinks Minimodder

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    I should imagine native designs also carry a decent advantage in terms of latency.
     
  6. Blackie Chan

    Blackie Chan What's a Dremel?

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    Psssh, we settled this argument years ago. We don't need discrete GPUs, just single powerful processors. Right? right?

    Anyone I'm gonna go play some starcraft.
     
  7. technogiant

    technogiant What's a Dremel?

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    I think it will be used in different way on different platforms, for the low end it will be used to provide lower power consumption, price and improved graphics capability. On high end machines a discrete gpu will still be needed in which case the fusion gpu will be used as an opencl co processor freeing the discrete gpu for graphically orientated tasks.
     
  8. Dragunover

    Dragunover What's a Dremel?

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    I look forward to getting one of these systems for my lowest end desktop PC.
    Looking forward to a specific date, availability, and pricing.
     
  9. technogiant

    technogiant What's a Dremel?

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  10. NethLyn

    NethLyn Minimodder

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    I wish it was, something the mag would benchmark and then we'd have some idea how good a portable you have.

    When looking around for laptops an AMD Turion doesn't tell me jack about its potential performance compared to a desktop Athlon II or Phenon II, same for the QLxx series, hence sticking with Intel for my rellies' portables where I knew it would be good as long as they stuck with the Core 2 family. Next Gen there will be Core i5 in the middle or even a high i3, immediately I can go back an old issue and compare the benchmarks. If the graphics performance is good, Fusion will sell by the truckload.
     
  11. Iorek

    Iorek What's a Dremel?

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    For mobile, I guess its a good thing.. for office / media pc's... maybe if it saves on power / heat etc. Small yet still usable office computers / media machines can't be a bad thing - not like a media pc needs a full on graphics card so long as it can output certain formats.

    For gaming PC's, certainly not - I'd much rather have separate chips for both bits - that way one can be upgraded without the other.

    My worry I think is the enforced "you will by a CPU with this" and then disable it if you don't want it... so long as there continues to be the option to buy a chip without it.
     
  12. HourBeforeDawn

    HourBeforeDawn a.k.a KazeModz

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    Well with AMD and ATI being the graphics Im sure this will be an area where AMD will do MUCH better then what Intel is offering in terms of on board graphics so Im looking forward to this and some implementations of this into a netbook style device.
     
  13. Action_Parsnip

    Action_Parsnip What's a Dremel?

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    Well intel went the same route too, so I can't really see what point your making there. Plus on the server side even 65nm phenom often bested 45nm intel quads. Communicating with seperate dies can under certain circumstances be a real drrrrraaaaaaggggggggggg ug ug ug ug
     
  14. Action_Parsnip

    Action_Parsnip What's a Dremel?

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    I think in this case tho. these chips will be relatively eensy weensy, with a mega omg lol wtf Cheesecake chip grading 2 slices would be an idea.
     
  15. Pharago

    Pharago What's a Dremel?

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    I don't know how they are going to work yet, but I can see an advantage if the integrated gpu is fast enough, with enough stream processors, basically concerning the access to ram.

    DDR3 ram is cheap and people is starting to be able to use 16GB etc, that's a lot of room and if it can be shared by a gpu without having to process stuff and store it first on the vram (1-2 GB) and then pass it through the PCIe channel so it can be processed by the CPU.
     
  16. Adnoctum

    Adnoctum Kill_All_Humans

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    1) Cost of manufacture. An MCM processor requires extra processes during manufacture. A two or more chip design costs more for a motherboard manufacturer, and the consumer.
    2) Interconnect speeds between dies is slower than data transfer within a single die.

    What happens with CPUs and GPUs now in the event of a flaw? The area will be fused off or bypassed and the product sold with different specifications. This is a non-issue.

    Have a look at the rest of this thread, this is what most people are talking about. Naturally, AMD is addressing this issue, as most people, even enthusiasts, aren't looking at the potential change this may have on how data is processed.

    Aussiebear has written elsewhere about Bulldozer, which is AMD's new high end CPU to take on Intel. Eventually, Fusion will come to the high end, but the most need is at the mainstream end. Llano, which is AMD's first Fusion chip and the one discussed here, is for mainstream and laptops. It is just a Phenom II core shrunk to 32nm and a GPU core integrated. The original design was for it to use the Bulldozer architecture, but for wherever reason, AMD has chosen to debut with the Phenom II core, probably for time, cost or resource reasons. They probably don't want Llano to delay the Bulldozer introduction by splitting resources.
    Is it really that big a deal? Does anyone really need more than a Phenom II-class dual/quad processor in their laptop/mainstream desktop?

    But you are still focusing on "integrated graphics". It is that, but it is also a very capable math "co-processor" for stream processing tasks. Discrete GPUs are not going to disappear, and these aren't designed to replace them. But it will replace all those HDx200 - HDx500 cards. As for gaming, how about your Fusion CPU doing all those physics calculations without impacting FPS?

    Why would you disable it? You wouldn't go and disable the FPU on your CPU, or your Memory Controller, or your L2 cache. This is Fusion Mk1, where the GPU side is still somewhat separate. In future, when Fusion is built into Bulldozer, the integration will be complete and it will be utilised for...well, that is up to developers.

    We all have a limited concept on how this is going to pan out, and that is why AMD is selling the "integrated graphics" part. GPGPU computing really hasn't taken off yet, and it is hard to see where it is going to go and what we are going to do with it. But having a GPGPU-capable module within all CPUs will allow developers to really show us something new.

    At the moment Intel is like many people here, only looking at the integrated graphics. AMD is looking past that, and if Larrabee is any indication, then perhaps Intel is too. If Intel can't sort Larrabee out, perhaps they should licence Nvidia graphics. Maybe Nvidia can be the ARM of the graphics world? ;)
     
  17. technogiant

    technogiant What's a Dremel?

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  18. EvilRusk

    EvilRusk What's a Dremel?

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    If you are a gamer, an on-chip GPU could maybe mean disabling discrete GPU when not gaming (massive heat/power saving) as well as giving you a built-in physics processor when you are gaming with the discrete card. It would be great for games! We might see developers doing more with physics like the promises of a couple of years back!
     
  19. bogie170

    bogie170 What's a Dremel?

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    Will they use these chips in netbooks? If so i'm excited!
     
  20. javaman

    javaman May irritate Eyes

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    I've saw rumours Apple could be looking to use Llano
     
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