AMD 2016 Zen CPU Speculations

[AnyOldName3]

Oh, please. This can't be the first time NV's bitten his head off. He knows what he's in for, and if he's got any sense, is sufficiently terrified.

[NaturalViolence]

>wake up sunday morning
>start working on shit I need to get done
>make the mistake of opening steam to download game I bought a couple days ago
>people pinging me to check dolphin-emu forums
>see some stupid thread about zen speculation
>"hehe....no"
>go back to cleaning patio

Here you go guys: http://screamintothevoid.com/

Spoiler: (Show Spoiler)

Alright fine I'll come back and post for real in a few hours.

[DatKid20]

(10-19-2015, 01:54 AM)Anti-Ultimate Wrote:

(10-19-2015, 12:09 AM)kirbypuff Wrote: Another thing you might want to do to improve the performance in Dolphin is change your GPU.

I recommend getting a *last-generation* AMD GPU with the TeraScale2 architecture (HD5000 or HD6000 Series).

The latest AMD GPUs with a GCN architecture (HD7000,HD8000,Rx and Fury Series) are still horribly unoptimized (the drivers have unusually high CPU overhead).

But last-gen GPUs are so optimized they perform even better than NVIDIA's GPUs, especially when using the Direct3D backend (e.g. 2100fps [HD6000 Series] vs. 1100fps [R9 Series] in text/logo screens at native res. That's a ~2x difference in driver overhead.)

Another advantage of getting an older generation AMD GPU is that it doesn't have any of those "smart" power-saving features which introduce a lot of performance-related / stuttering problems.
What's even funnier about these older cards is they end up being even more power-efficient than the current ones, despite lacking the smart power-saving "gimmicks" because they run the VRAM at 100 MHz when idle instead of 300 MHz.

FYI, Current NVIDIA GPUs have a VLIW5 architecture, just like last-gen (TeraScale2) AMD GPUs, which is extremely efficient.

This is so wrong, I'm not even gonna bother to explain the issue because you just triggered NaturalViolence.

To be honest that triggered me as well but I decided to let it go as there's way too much wrong.

[piccolo289]

ITS TIME FOR THE NATURAL VIOLENCE RANT GUYS. GET YOUR POPCORN

[ExtremeDude2]

You're welcome.

[sulblazer]

(10-19-2015, 12:09 AM)kirbypuff Wrote: Another thing you might want to do to improve the performance in Dolphin is change your GPU.

I recommend getting a *last-generation* AMD GPU with the TeraScale2 architecture (HD5000 or HD6000 Series).

The latest AMD GPUs with a GCN architecture (HD7000,HD8000,Rx and Fury Series) are still horribly unoptimized (the drivers have unusually high CPU overhead).

But last-gen GPUs are so optimized they perform even better than NVIDIA's GPUs, especially when using the Direct3D backend (e.g. 2100fps [HD6000 Series] vs. 1100fps [R9 Series] in text/logo screens at native res. That's a ~2x difference in driver overhead.)

Another advantage of getting an older generation AMD GPU is that it doesn't have any of those "smart" power-saving features which introduce a lot of performance-related / stuttering problems.
What's even funnier about these older cards is they end up being even more power-efficient than the current ones, despite lacking the smart power-saving "gimmicks" because they run the VRAM at 100 MHz when idle instead of 300 MHz.

FYI, Current NVIDIA GPUs have a VLIW5 architecture, just like last-gen (TeraScale2) AMD GPUs, which is extremely efficient.

I don't mean to offend, but why would I want to do that?  Even if anything you're saying is remotely true, you're assuming that the main purpose of my computer system is to run Dolphin (which it's not).  Why would I downgrade my PC for all my other applications and games even if it means better performance for Dolphin (which it won't).  Furthermore, I was already thinking about upgrading to an i7...so why would purposefully downgrade?  I don't have a phenom chip lying around to even test your proposal and I'm not going to go out of my way to procure one to just test your outlandish claims that it'll speed my system up.

Thanks for your suggestion....you're heart is in the right place, but your advice is not.  

[sulblazer]

(10-18-2015, 11:00 PM)kirbypuff Wrote: But how does that FX perform in Dolphin (using the latest dev. build)?


I see you have a decent AM3+ mainboard and some high-speed RAM. If you care about Dolphin performance, maybe you could try this just for fun:
Remove that FX CPU and replace it with a *dirt-cheap* Athlon II X2 280 or 270 (dual-core with 1MB L2 cache per core) and then overclock it to ~4.2 GHz (while still set to run at stock voltage!).

The Phenom II has higher IPC than any FX (Bulldozer/Piledriver), but it runs hot as ****, is hard to overclock without running into stability issues or losing the power-saving functionality and is far from being power-efficient.
But the Athlon II, when paired with high-speed (1866MHz+), low-latency RAM and overclocked to 4.1+ GHz has *the same IPC* as a Phenom II (with DDR3 RAM). Still better than any current FX CPU.
The increased memory speeds, doubled L2 cache and lower latency makes up for the loss of the L3 cache.
Even when heavily overclocked, it runs so cool and sucks so little power, it's unbelievable. And as a special bonus, you keep all the power-saving features.

I think you might get better performance in Dolphin by "downgrading" to the cheapest AMD CPU available today It's like AMD's version of the Pentium G Anniversary Edition.

Once again, thank you for the advice.  To get the thread back on topic, I was not looking for performance suggestions.  This thread is about the Zen chips and how it may perform on Dolphin emulation.  You're more than welcome to PM me your suggestions, but if we can keep the thread focus on the topic, I would appreciate it.

[DatKid20]

Sigh. Anyway Zen has already been taped out. http://wccftech.com/amd-zen-k12-taped/

[sulblazer]

Nice! The article you provided said the desktop versions will be appearing before servers. If that's the case, we'll know more sooner than I thought! Thanks for the link of the leak.

[Nintonito]

I really don't expect Zen to dramatic change AMD's position in emulation.  Even with a theoretical 40% they would still be unable to max out demanding games.  Couple that with it probably not being 40% they won't be able to compete at the high end.  They will certainly improve their market position and value proposition but at the end of the day for high speed emulation Intel will probably still win.