If you think that there are too many CPUs today, from both AMD and Intel, with features and performance too close to each other to make much difference, you are not alone.
Back in the old days, we used to have distinct grades of CPU lines, and they were clearly defined by speed and performance changes in integral increments, instead of minor gradations.
Think back to the 486, if you can, it first came out in 20MHz, then 25MHz, then 33MHz, and then 50MHz, there was no 486-38MHz, or 486-43MHz processor. Today, it seems like there are so many grades of processors, and they are brought on by the companies wishing to keep processor prices up, and make every chip workable. Again, back in those days, the plan was that each new processor brought a higher lowest speed grade (referred to as ‘bin’) than the previous one, For example when 386 chips came out, the lowest speed grade was 16MHz. When the 486 chip was released, the very lowest binning was 486-20MHz. By the time of the first Pentium chips, the very lowest chips were binned at 60MHz – those chips that wouldn’t function correctly at 60MHz were considered bad, and were trashed.
No more today. If a chip comes out that can’t make a minimum speed grade, the manufacturers make up a new speed, simply so they can make claims of higher yields, and have fewer bad CPUs per silicon wafer. While that is nice for them, it leads to a great deal of customer confusion.
Intel has made things worse with the Core2 processors, as some speed grades are not even about speed, but instead about how much cache is available. The average user isn’t really competent to decide whether a minor speed bin upward is really worthwhile, how can they tell if these changes in cache are economically sound?
Now AMD seems to want to muddy the waters further, by eliminating so of the older processors, and making certain processor models, very close in performance, but far apart in pricing stand out. For example, the Athlon II X4 that operates at 2.8GHz is shown (on Tom’s hardware) to have roughly 95% of the performance of the Phenom II X4 part of the same clock speed, yet the price difference can be as great as a 2-to-1 ratio.
Maximum PC shows the parts to be phased out, and replaced (or not) in the next few months –
According to AMD’s updated CPU release schedule, the chip maker plans to put several Phenom II X4 900 series chips on the chopping block. The company has already stopped taking orders for the Phenom II X4 910 (2.6Ghz) and 945 (3.0GHz) and will stop shipments in the second quarter of 2010.
Starting in the first quarter of 2010, AMD will no longer take orders for its Phenom II X4 965 (3.4GHz) and 925 (2.8Ghz) processors, while orders for the Phenom II X4 955 (3.2GHz) are scheduled to end in the second quarter.
In addition to the above named parts, AMD will start phasing out its Phenom II X4 800, X3 700, and X2 500 series, and Athlon II X4 600 and X3 400 series sometime next year.
To replenish its CPU lineup, AMD plans to launch a 95W Phenom II X4 955 processor in Q2 2010, as well as its six-core desktop chip codenamed Thuban. The 2.8Ghz Thuban part will be built around a 45nm manufacturing process and come with 512KB of L2 cache and 6MB of L3 cache.
Image Credit: AMD
While we are anxious to get hands on a six core for the desktop, the first ones out the gate are going to be slower than the earlier quads, simply because AMD has to keep the power envelope within reason. As it is, there are only a few motherboards that will be stable with 140W chips, and far too many second tier boards can’t really handle the power, yet come with ratings that say otherwise. Fried motherboards don’t help the reputation of either the motherboard vendors or AMD, so it begs the question why AMD would release these chips, without either shrinking the die, or doing something else to reduce power consumption.
After all that, I will most likely be in line to get one of those first six-core procs when they become available. I’ll also be shopping for the latest gargantuan (but light weight) CPU heat sink and fan combo, to deal with the extra heat.
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