Like having 2 graphics cards? How about 4? And why not add 4 CPU cores too...

Posted By: Max Zuckerman | Nov 19th, 2007 @ 12:00 AM

About a year ago if you asked a PC building enthusiast what processor to use, he/she would probably have pointed you toward a slick 64-bit AMD chip which at the time was some of the best performance at a sweet price, win-win right?

That all changed when the Intel Core 2 Duo chips came out with better performance and even lower price points. The Intel fanboys rejoiced as the top spot had returned to the chip making giant. To this day Intel has remained in the lead with multiple iterations of the Core 2 Duo architecture with increased speeds and even doubling the cores (Quad Core chips) thus solidifying their top dog status.

AMD, however, has not given up... not by a longshot. While we all have waited to see the results of their ATi acquisition, today I had the chance to check it out firsthand. That's right, folks, AMD has its own triple-play to show off: new true quad core 64 bit CPU--the Phenom, a new Radeon 3800 series set graphic cards, and to support it all... a fancy new chipset known as "Spider."

One of the key differences with the AMD Quad Core architecture versus the Intel is that the cores are all capable of communicating on-chip. Intel's solution requires communication through the chipset since it is actually two dual-core processors on the same die.

The Spider chipset brings some fun toys to the table like a faster hypertransport bus and more importantly, the ability to connect up to 4 graphics cards in crossfire mode. And to top it all off, these new ATi 3800 series cards support Direct X 10.1--yeah before you all say "so what?" I agree that it may not be the most useful feature today but when Vista becomes the standard gaming platform and games leverage DirectX 10.1, then you'll be happy you have it.

So how well does this new platform fare in Vista? Let's just say I have never seen so many 5.9 ratings... ever (pop in a couple of Western Digital Raptors and even the hard disk rating could join the party). Keep in mind the system rating is determined by the lowest score, in this case the hard disk.

Having used this machine for 2 days I have to say I am very impressed with what I can only call SNAPPY behavior. Opening and closing applications just feels downright smooth... even when I opened 56 instances of Windows Explorer, Expression Web, Expression Blend, 11 Internet Explorers, Windows Movie Maker (playing a movie), and notepad. Why did I have so many instances of Windows Explorer open you ask? I just think it's fun to hold down "win+e" and watch the windows fly open and cascade along my screen... and it's even more fun when the system just does it without hesitation. It's important to note that while this machine was equipped with 4 gigs of RAM, the machine entered an infinite reboot loop with 64 bit Vista (AMD claims it will be fixed by launch) so I had to resort to 32 bit which while theoretically can address up to 4 gigs, that would only happen if there were NO other memory addressing space taken up by devices like graphics cards etc.

The only hiccup I had was during video editing in Windows Movie maker, it seemed like it took longer than expected to play through tracks when I dropped them into the timeline. My guess is that movie maker isn't taking advantage of either the multiple CPU cores or it is not hardware accelerating via the 4 graphics cards. When it came down to publish my video, it handled a 1 minute 30 second video from MPEG4 to 1080p WMV in under 2 minutes.

With this new platform, AMD has also introduced a new overclocking utility called "OverDrive" that combines voltage setting, status, benchmarking, and stability tests all in one tool. My favorite part is the novice mode which allows you to "safely" (meaning overclock at your own risk with proper cooling) automatically adjust your settings for better performance. For those of you who laugh at the word "novice," there's an expert mode where you can ~~burnup~~ overdrive your processor for some nice performance gains over the standard 2.3GHz stock clock speed.

All in all, this throws a few new options into the decision making process these days for those of us building or buying a new high end PC.

So what do you think, is this AMD's big comeback?

Tags: AMD, phenom, radeon 3850, spider

Rating:

Comments (11)

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Slubber

Man, all of that for a 5.9? I got one card and I'm getting a 4.9.

MaxPowerhouse7

In reply to Slubber

#Nov 19th, 2007 @ 12:26 AM

I should note that currently, 5.9 is the highest possible rating. Over time, we will open it up to higher ratings as new hardware comes out. Probably every 6 months we will update the rating system.

In fact, there may be a good chance this system is higher ranked than 5.9 and we will find out at the next ranking update... stay tuned.

Trix.rox

My oooold ATI x1900XT 512MB single card....gets a 5.9, and it still can't run the latest games on high. Windows Expierence Index means nothing...absolutely nothing. Supreme Commander says 4.0 minimum and 5.0 reconmended, I have a 5.3 (hard drive is the loweset) and that game runs horribly with a moderate amount of units.

Plus I hate to say it, I have an AMD platform myself, still stuck with DDR 1 with the 939 socket...and as I mentioned before the older x1900xt, but AMD is loosing. You simply can't get the best bang for the buck with AMD. Nvidia's 8800GT smashes AMD's midrange, and Intel's Core 2 Duo and Quad chips tear AMDs apart. AMD needs to push furthur ahead...they have to.

And not to be too nitpicky either, but when you said "...when Vista becomes the standard gaming platform.." it stunned me. I like Vista, quite a bit, but I know that the ethusiasts and mainstream journalists don't. Vista will never become the standard plataform, by the time it would even have a chance, hopefully "Windows 7" would be out (with the 3 year cycle rumored). Seriously, if Microsoft wants Vista to become the standard gaming platform, they better do something magical. Gamers don't like loosing their frames per second when moving to Vista, what ever happend to the performance increase for games by moving to Vista?

"DirectX 9 on Vista will run faster throughout due to the better device driver model...which is a great thing because just upgrading the operating system on the same rig, you get a better gaming experience"

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/crysis/news.html?sid=6154899&page=2

I honestly geniuely want to know.

sobitthen

In reply to Slubber

#Nov 19th, 2007 @ 12:26 AM

How many watt psu was required to run this new chipset with 4 video cards? How hot would the internal temps be with cards so close to one another? Just doesn't look too feasible... All the fans required to cool, the higher watt psu, all the vid cards fans running, prob sound alright next to a heloport... 8^)

djscratchex

In reply to sobitthen

#Nov 19th, 2007 @ 8:39 AM

Yeah I can only imagine the temps as well as the PSU required for this config. You would pretty much need a separate psu just for the cards. I'm running dual 8800 GTX cards w/ a quad core proc and can keep my temps pretty stable even w/ a 850w psu. Tri cool fans by antec are a must though. Can only imagine how this system sounds. Smiley

Slubber

In reply to Trix.rox

#Nov 19th, 2007 @ 4:03 AM

If there has been one area that consoles have owned the PC on is the ability for a consummer to walk into store with one peice of information, the name of the system, and know that whatever game they pick out, it will run right out of the box.
I mean, if my wife who doesn't game knows that the kid has a X360, so long as the game has X360 on the banner, it's going to work on X360. If she's getting a PC game, she doesn't know if the game is going to run unless she gets into what the specs are for the game compaired to the PC running it.

Right now the Vista numbers don't mean that much but they at least gives the non techie that single data point for what they have under the hood.

MaxPowerhouse7

In reply to Trix.rox

#Nov 19th, 2007 @ 4:03 AM

Yo Trix:

1) I agree that Intel is trouncing AMD these days, I'm hoping this kicks up the competition to a new level (the consumer always wins if there is choice in the market, which is why I'm actually happy there is a Google out there to push our Windows Live services for example)

2) There was a time people would have said Windows XP will "never be the gaming platform." But as you say today, XP SP2 is the preferred choice and my speculation is give it some time, Vista may come out on top or you could have called this one and it will not... we shall see.

As for the Vista rating system, I agree it's not 100% fool-proof yet, but it's a nice guideline for the less-extreme out there Wink

Nice comment.

MaxPowerhouse7

In reply to sobitthen

#Nov 19th, 2007 @ 8:39 AM

That's the cool part, AMD loaded this guy up with 4 cards and it was rock solid using an 850 Watt power supply.

Both the CPU and graphics cards aren't as power-hungry as AMD/ATi of the past and it definitely helps with the heat too... That's why that whole system was air cooled and just a hint above whisper quiet.

I will add, however, that was one monster air-cooled CPU heatsink... But it definitely got the job done and then some.

linkyshinks

That is one amazing chipset, I bet it is a killer on the PSU, and the noise levels must be ridiculous lol. I bet it would breeze through the graphics programmes I have to use. It would be pretty sweet with the odd game also of course Smiley