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Overclocking the AMD Spider
An anonymous reader writes "AMD has released two videos that show an overview of the new AMD Spider platform and how easy it is to overclock it with a single tool. The AMD Spider is based on AMD Phenom processors, the newly released ATI Radeon HD 3800 series discrete graphics and AMD 7-Series chipsets."
Where do I add the extra leg?
In either case, here at Microsoft, we feel standards are important. And we have fun, too. Doug Mahugh, Microsoft
My old PC can't handle Crysis and I've been waiting to see the Phenom before upgrading!
Does he even show any overclocking?
Maybe it was a problem my end, but he just talked about this mythical tool for a while, then just as you really start to get into it - the video ends.
It felt like a poorly edited high school project. I closed my window when I saw the spinning transparent spider swish pan. I mean, seriously. This could be something that would be well-received by the overclocking community. Less fluff, more stuff please!
I was kinda enthused by the fact that he's an active member of the overclocking community, but to stop the video right before it actually starts with the overclocking, and then call it a video about overclocking the platform, seems...specious.
From the first video, the platform looks interesting, but will it be able to do any of those things with just one video card (rather than FOUR)?
I really don't see where the need to overclock comes from anymore. Today's speeds are pretty darn fast and I'd assume that if you actually have a real need for more processing power, that you should be able to come up with the couple hundred bucks for another socket/proc.
Lately I've been undervolting to build silent systems. The latest AMD Brisbane processors at 2.1GHz can be undervolted to 1.05V and still pass my stress tests at speed, and stay below 40C with the 'silent' fan modes.
Here.
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The marketing train...
I felt like I just got ran over. Nice job AMD. Actually, the first flashvert was pretty slick with the transformer, and was fairly informative. Honestly, I didn't quite extract much information from the overclocking one, except for it's awailable date.
Forgive me, but it's early Saturday morning here. And in the spirit of todays morning cartoon ritual, while munching on some Lucky charms cereal I fully expected the overclocking advert to finish with...
"Shh! Be vewy vewy qwiet, I'm on my AMD hunting for more raw bits! Eh. Heh! Heh! Heh! Heh!"
I hope, when they die, cartoon characters have to answer for their sins.
Thanks for the groaner... I could hear Mel Blanc (RIP) in your joke!
Discrete = distinct, seperate. Discreet = subtle, low-key. That is all.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
It looks like a lame marketing hype video anyway. I hate the way it's edited, like someone trying to be hip with all sorts of video effects and transitions. And now that you mention it, the story telling is pretty bad too, one error sounds like like leaving the resolution out.
Perhaps I'm missing something, but this is noting new at all, is it? I mean, the only "innovation" here is that one company is making the CPU, chipset and graphics card. You know, like Intel have been for years. But AMD make one where the graphics card is targeted at gamers. Whoop-de-fucking-do.
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Sucking up mass jigawatts of power off the grid to juice 4 video cards for gaming is insane. The target groups for this rig are people with compensation problems or ones with no concept or care for energy conservation. We're moving in the wrong direction folks.
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I'm desperately waiting for the ATI Imageon imbedded next-gen smartphones and pocket pcs. I'm overclocking my Blackjack, and when I get dedicated graphics, things will be no different.
Looks great. Where can I buy one of these Phenoms? Oh wait... I can't get one that's even as fast as good ol' Q6600. Intel it is then.
What, those billions from Abu Dhabi not enough for AMD to pay for some regular advertising? They have to resort to astroturfing like this?
In order to get to and from the office in a small European city car, with about the same real world consumption as a Prius, I use enough fuel to produce about 6KWH of electricity, enough to run a 4-GPU 2-screen rig for a morning (including the monitors). That is on the very low side for commutes; the guy who commutes from the next large city in his SUV uses as much fuel in a day as I do in two weeks. If one of the ultimate goals of these systems is virtual working in a photo realistic environment, they could be big enough to need a substantial water cooling system and still reduce global warming.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I can't imagine the cinematic quality of watching a movie with 4!! GPUs (right next to each other for maximum cooling inefficiency) in my home. Maybe if it was the perfect storm, or a movie about propeller aircraft would it not be noticeable. Don't get me wrong, I MIGHT like to have that system (OK probably would love it), but it seems like an non elegant way to do something.
..........FULL STOP.
As a lurker for years I've observed several trends in comments here.
In 2000, slashdot posts were anti-Nintendo/pro-Sony, wattage was an afterthought, performance was king.
In 2007, slashdot posts are anti-Sony/pro-Nintendo, vehemently and sometimes threateningly anti-religion (you guys scare me), and people bitch that their CPUs are too fast.
I'm sorry, but I always need a faster CPU, so F you. I'll take power savings when my machine is idle, but not when I need it.
This is slashdot. Home of the beowulf posts.
After all these years whining about "imagining a beowulf cluster of these", you FINALLY HAVE YOUR WISH!
And now you bitch that it's the "wrong direction"?
Make up your minds.
Well, maybe not on
I mean, the only "innovation" here is that one company is making the CPU, chipset and graphics card. You know, like Intel have been for years. But AMD make one where the graphics card is targeted at gamers. Whoop-de-fucking-do.
Soon ATI/AMD will be releasing a new high-end GPU series, called Stream, as a competitor to nVidia's Quadro FX series.
Traditionally, ATI supported only 24-bit floating point numbers on their consumer-grade GPU's [whereas nVidia & Matrox supported 32-bits on their consumer-grade GPU's], but Stream will support 64-bit floating point numbers, which, in combination with the AMD hypertransport bus, has the potential to produce a signal-processing workstation which might very well find itself on the DOD "Banned-For-Export" list.
If AMD really wants to show that they're serious about letting the overclocking community have there way, why don't they just unlock the clock multiplier on the CPU? I remember that way back with the original Athlon, you could accomplish this with just a mechanical pencil and be well on your way to melting your CPU (with the plus side of not having to change your frontside bus, thus keeping other system components like chipset and memory fairly happy as well). The problem was, of course, that there higher-end chip sales really were being undercut by this, so they worked on making the process a lot harder. If AMD were serious about overclocking, they would let you change the multiplier, but really they're serious about making a slick-looking system so that kids can feel like they're really rad while they play with the system settings.
That guy wishes he was Tommi Makinen!
One thing to note: remember the days of before with CPU locks and other various schemes to prevent overclocking by the owner. Now it seems like we've come full circle.
Even Intel is embracing it.
One thing I do continually find funny is the constant disclaimer of "fried" CPUs. Anyone who overclocks a CPU knows it's fairly difficult to actually damage it unless one is doing something incredibly stupid.
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There goes the credibility.
Who else would have a motivation to overclock a quad core already running at 2.2GHz?
Why overclock? Why not? That's my question? Pretty damn fast? for who? For a slashdotter who's programming in FORTRAN or for a gamer who needs more clocks?
With today's heatsinks, at most what you'd need is a $40-50 heatsink and your cpu can reach speeds of a processor that costs double or triple the one you have. Most video cards out there can overclock without any modifications to the cooling.
Overclocking is safe too, if you know what you're doing. If your PC starts displaying artifacts on the screen you know you've reached your limit without hurting your hardware. Oh I know, you'll tell me that your reducing the hardware's lifespan! Blablabla, how many of you honestly use the same processor after a few years? I know that as geeks, we have old hardware lying around that can be made into pr0n file servers, but most hardware can already last more than a decade.
Of course, it's never a guarantee in overclocking so don't be surprised if your hardware isn't reaching the speeds of someone else you know, but generally you can get extra boosts out of what you have with very little to add onto, at most a good cpu heatsink.
"If one of the ultimate goals of these systems is virtual working in a photo realistic environment, they could be big enough to need a substantial water cooling system and still reduce global warming."
I doubt it is the goal. We're still quite a ways from a photo-realistic VR environment even on the high end let along the commodity level. Plus no one has proven that photo-realism is even necessary for the telecommuting experience.
I think the AMD Spider platform would rock if I was going to make a GPGPU cluster (Onboard low latency 10gbE would make it truly rock!)
If you want to have an uber gaming rig, I would overclock a quad core penryn, and SLI of a high end nvidia card, because nvidia is doing AA better than ATI right now.
I really don't get it. Having been a regular AMD user since 1989, I see AMD's market share gained during the last years slipping, its lead position overtaken, its finances floundering.
Of course, Spider has the potential to win the hard-core gamers and overclockers (and maybe the energy-conscious underclockers). But - I didn't do the research here, wild guessing - per one hard-core gamer 10 or 100 CPUs are sold to the general public (desktop). And 10 or 100 CPUs are sold to be used in servers.
In order to survive, AMD needs numbers, not a dedicated hard-core user group.
Having preferred ATI to NVIDIA for years as well, now I use (and recommend) NVIDIA. Because NVIDIA has finally reached a reasonable coverage of its video drivers for Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. Plus, their drivers install and configure okay.
I am afraid, AMD has got the priorities not correct, except of in the field of low power consumption (and even there the 35 W EE is moving to a 45 W basis).
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