I am very sorry to ask, but how many years we have been talking about Zen coming up next and being the savior?

It seems like every AMD CPU/GPU release is going to be their savior. But then fails to deliver.

It seems like every AMD CPU/GPU release is going to be their savior. But then fails to deliver.

I don't know anyone who ever thought that, other than the Zen release. We usually get enough info about future GPU releases to know if they're significant. As long as AMD sticks with GCN, there will not be some overwhelming win over Nvidia and anyone with half a brain can realize that. Besides, AMD isn't anywhere near as far behind Nvidia as people like to make them out to be, when you compare competing products. As for CPUs, nobody expected Bulldozer to have worse IPC or single-threaded performance, and nobody expected Sandy Bridge to be such an immense performance improvement. The most recent Opterons were very decent performers for their price, depending on the workload. That being said, Zen is really the only AMD product expected to "save" the company.

It all depends on the final clocks and the pricing. It seems it's close to Broadwell IPC, so performance shouldn't be a problem. If it offers REAL 8-cores at a similar price as a Skylake i5/i7, then Intel will really have to (finally) play catch, at least with prices.

I do believe that there is small advantage in ipc with broadwell -e vs broadwell tbh. But still if the IPC of Zen is the same +-2% it is roughly as fast as skylake in terms of IPC. Since skylake is only 2.7% faster then broadwell if you check everything.

It is about time for AMD to start making CPU's that can compete with Intel's i7 processors. When Zen comes out in February 2017 we will find out if it delivers the promised performance level close to Intel's Skylake CPU's, or maube outperform which I really doubt it. Cannot wait for the HH's review and benches of Zen 🙂

I just hope they price it better than Intell with their 2011 v3 X99 platform. If this new chip (the 8 core one) has to be the same price as a i7 6700K then they will have a very good launch.

I wish my i7-920 wasn't so VALUE, this CPU is 8yrs old and it's already 2016 but hardly any games (other than the open worlds) tax it that much... Sure it's OC'd, but just via air, but man this CPU is just amazing. I'd like to upgrade to a Zen, but I just don't have a need yet - and with so many console games having low CPU requirements, there isn't a need for a faster CPU. I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna run this rig into the ground until something fails, because I see no reason to get a new CPU or motherboard at this point: USB 2.0 still suits 99.99 of my needs, and with the addition of SSD's this PC is still a damn good gaming machine! Love to my R9 290X, without it gaming would be impossible :P

It surprises me that you still haven't jumped into 6-core Xeon X56xx bandwagon since you own X58 board and live in Texas. Many sellers (to be precise: most of them) on eBay selling most bang for the buck Xeon CPUs like X5650, X5660, X5670, X5675 are from Texas (OK and California too), $50 to $80 and so bucks for some of those CPUs is dirty cheap upgrade. OC it to 4.2 to 4.6GHz, thrown in decent PCIE SATA3 card and PCIE USB3.0 card and you wont be needing upgrade in next few more years. Today one more Xeon X5670 has arrived for my third X58 based rig, last one with X58 mobo who still runs i7-920 C0 OC'ed to 4GHz with HT on. Seller on eBay is from Israel, only $75 and free shipping, nothing more than bargain. Already own one more rig with X5670 @ 4.4GHZ HT and another one with X5675 @ 4.6GHz HT, both rigs with SATA3 + USB 3.0 cards, SSD's... Back on topic... Another delay for ZEN's, cmon people in AMD, we need those CPU's to shake the CPU market, Intel is raping our wallets past few years, no more delays, please 🙁

@schmidtbag

AMD isn't anywhere near as far behind Nvidia

2nd place is 2nd place. no matter if by 1 ns or 1s. my problem is, im willing to spend money on a new cpu/board/ram so i can get M2 and 3.1, but want it to be fast enough to keep for a few years (my 3770 now has 40-60% load when gaming), and not have the same issues i had with amds for my past 2 builds (20-30% slower on usb3/sata3 vs i7; BSODs that i didnt get after swapping the cpu/board for intel). and i dont care if they can/can't beat intel, but how many times has amd promised "us" a certain performance level, and actually delivered? sub (intel) cost shouldn't mean sub performance/experience. I'll wait till feb, any further delay, and its an intel again. and no, not a fanboy. been using amd's since single core 1ghz chip.

2nd place is 2nd place. no matter if by 1 ns or 1s.

That really seems like a wasteful and hypocritical notion to me. As a disclaimer, what I'm writing may not be specific to you, but anyone who buys a product for the sake of it being the best: So let's say you have a 60Hz 1080p display. For most games, an RX 480 will be sufficient for a few years, especially as the drivers mature and while we're stuck with current-gen consoles. What you're basically saying is you'd rather pay extra for a GTX 1060, because it has a few more FPS that you literally cannot see. But the fact of the matter is, the 1060 isn't "1st place". Or 2nd, or 3rd. There are several GPUs made by both AMD and Nvidia that are better than it. Sure, the 1060 may be #1 for it's class, but most participants in that class are winners, including some from previous generations (in terms of performance. Price and power efficiency is another story). You seek real competition, yet you only support the brand that is better in theory rather than better in practice. To clarify, I'm not saying the 1060 is worse in practice. Nvidia makes fantastic products and I still buy them. But buying something because it's #1 is, to put it bluntly, stupid. The GTX 1080 is one of the best processors ever made, but even if I were given the money to buy one, I would much rather get 2x 1070s, and pitch in a little bit of my own money if I have to.

and i dont care if they can/can't beat intel, but how many times has amd promised "us" a certain performance level, and actually delivered? sub (intel) cost shouldn't mean sub performance/experience.

All companies do this. Intel does it too, but the difference is Intel is basically competing against themselves, so people just get bored and ignore it. Meanwhile, AMD is under pressure, so they cherry-pick results and people [rightfully] get pissed that the product doesn't perform as advertised in just about everything else.

Oh AMD you break my heart I always cheer for the underdog. I had always purchased AMD cpu based desktops. A. They were always cheaper than Intel rigs. B. They were strong/fast enough with a decent gpu to run my direct-x 9 - 11 games and handle my other computer needs. But the past couple of years my rig was basically having a stroke, even with a strong gpu keeping up with later direct-x 11 and now 12 games. I had to lay down my underdog shield and build a new rig with an Intel cpu. Honestly it is night and day difference. I just don't see AMD coming out with a series of cpu's to win back, or even keep AMD believers. Their ZEN is outdated, out gunned, out resourced, out future proofed, and let's face it out of time. And it is yet to be released! The leadership over there at AMD act like a rich kid with daddy's money pretending to be a silicon company for sheets and giggles. AMD has gone under water twice, popped up for a last gasp of air with the ZEN, but will sadly drown with this one. :dead:

Their ZEN is outdated, out gunned, out resourced, out future proofed, and let's face it out of time. And it is yet to be released!

The only factual thing you stated here is that Zen is yet to be released... -Jim Keller designed architecture - scalable across all market segments -14nm process -Broadwell level IPC -8c/16t consumer desktop product segment -95w TDP -AM4 socket (new + longevity) ^These are some of the high-level principles of "outdated, out gunned, out resourced, out future proofed, and out of time?" Please explain your logic because I fail to see how your statement is anything but trollish garbage :bang:

For some reason I'm not convinced. Hope I'm wrong 'cause in that case Intel is gonna release a monster CPU for the masses. I'm really tired of the tiny incremental improvements of Intel's part in the name of profit. They simply have no reason to move faster. Why not make more money in more time -dammit. The only reason to upgrade my i5 4690 would be an other i5 with 6 cores and performance leap equal to that Sandy Bridge and a bit more since it's gonna have 6 cores. Common AMD. If they get slightly better performance than an i7 6900 with slightly less money, I'll get my i5 at last with a new Nvidia 1160 GPU. Same applies to GPUs of course. The goddamn cheapest 1060 atm in my country costs 320 euros. FU. If all these become true, time to move everything in smaller lithography and greater power and less power consumption. And DDR4 of course, although DDR4 is literally the last thing I'd like to upgrade. At last a machine like that would be handling 1080p in full details with VSYNC on on all games -since I never play without VSYNC. With that said, a machine like that would be costing less that 900 euros ( i5 6600-like and GTX1160 ). I know, I like to keep dreaming, but all depends on AMD. They can make my dream reality. P.S. 1 And by the way, forget the effin VR. Who the hell cares. Some niche douche-bags. I'm not talking about the end users, but devs who try to shove in our throats such things, like VR, 3D etc. P.S. 2 Please, forget my English. I'm not from an English-speaking country and thus I hope you can understand my point.

I want to build a new rig and i want to see how good Zen is but i don´t know if i can wait another 5 or 6 months for it...

Mate, can't be serious, right? I hope you're being sarcastic. You wait 8 years with your q9550 and you cannot wait a few months? Unless you have a better CPU but you didn't upgdate your specs.

Still running a 2500K @ 4.5 @ 60 degrees Celcius when maxed out on a cheap cooler AMD Zen 8-core is gonna be better than my 6 year old CPU ? I really want to upgrade to more cores.

It surprises me that you still haven't jumped into 6-core Xeon X56xx bandwagon since you own X58 board and live in Texas. Many sellers (to be precise: most of them) on eBay selling most bang for the buck Xeon CPUs like X5650, X5660, X5670, X5675 are from Texas (OK and California too), $50 to $80 and so bucks for some of those CPUs is dirty cheap upgrade. OC it to 4.2 to 4.6GHz, thrown in decent PCIE SATA3 card and PCIE USB3.0 card and you wont be needing upgrade in next few more years. Today one more Xeon X5670 has arrived for my third X58 based rig, last one with X58 mobo who still runs i7-920 C0 OC'ed to 4GHz with HT on. Seller on eBay is from Israel, only $75 and free shipping, nothing more than bargain. Already own one more rig with X5670 @ 4.4GHZ HT and another one with X5675 @ 4.6GHz HT, both rigs with SATA3 + USB 3.0 cards, SSD's... Back on topic... Another delay for ZEN's, cmon people in AMD, we need those CPU's to shake the CPU market, Intel is raping our wallets past few years, no more delays, please 🙁

Thanks for the reminder that my P6T Deluxe V2 (BIOS version 1202) can use a better CPU, I totally forgot that there are other CPU's to install. ...But I can't find any gaming reviews for the X5670. Will it be as good in games as my OC'd i7 920 @3.7GHz?

So... still no announced frequency or price then...

If it is the claimed 40% increase over my FX8350 i will be happy with the upgrade.

Isn't the 8350 plain old Bulldozer? AMD claim Zen is 40% faster clock for clock than Excavator which is clock for clock a bit faster than Bulldozer.

I am very sorry to ask, but how many years we have been talking about Zen coming up next and being the savior?

only this year, as it was never planned for zen to be released any time other then late 2016 to early 2017. Don't understand why people time and time again think otherwise.

Fingers crossed AMD can pull off what they are saying. They really need a "win" and Intel needs a fire lit under them to actually make more than these piddly single digit gains per gen because of lack of any competition. If AMD can hit their target and under cut Intel then we might finally get back to a 2 horse race again. It all looks good "on paper" but that means nothing...

So... still no announced frequency or price then... Isn't the 8350 plain old Bulldozer? AMD claim Zen is 40% faster clock for clock than Excavator which is clock for clock a bit faster than Bulldozer.

As stated several times in other threads, frequency doesn't matter that much. I forget what the calculation was, but I remember that it would have to be below 2.4GHz to not be competitive enough. As for the 8350, that is based on Piledriver, which is after Bulldozer but 2 steps behind Excavator.

Thanks for the reminder that my P6T Deluxe V2 (BIOS version 1202) can use a better CPU, I totally forgot that there are other CPU's to install. ...But I can't find any gaming reviews for the X5670. Will it be as good in games as my OC'd i7 920 @3.7GHz?

Hi there As above I would put there X5670 or X5675 etc,those chips are awesome and they OC very well Regarding gaming on X5670,have run with Titan X,R9 390X or GTX970 and all of them performed very well I've compared my tests with i7-5820k OC to 4.2GHz or 4790k OC to 4.6GHz and there has been small differences in results Have look on this,its blog of Kanu-Mara from OCN,he have there several benches which should help you http://www.overclock-and-game.com/hardware/computer-tech-reviews/28-x5660-review?showall=&start=6 Hope this helps Thanks,Jura

@@schmidtbag you weren't talking about a specific product nor about value. you said amd wasn't far behind, and i said behind is behind, no matter by how much. (no one cares about the 3rd person on the moon nor do most ppl remember the name.) the 1060 is actually more value to me than the 480 because it is faster (in the games i play) runs cooler and way more silent, even at ~300-350. the 980 with same performance cost how much when it came out? and i hate ppl whining about Nv melking ppl, when the "top" 3 cards haven't really changed when it comes to price bracket, e.g. a Nv 7900GT was around 250-300.