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AMD Set To Launch Ryzen Before March 3rd (anandtech.com)
An anonymous reader shares an AnandTech report: Thanks to some sleuthing from various readers, AMD has accidentally let the cat out of the bag with regards to the official Ryzen launch date. While they haven't specifically given an exact date, the talk to be given by AMD at the annual Game Developer Conference (GDC) says the following: "Join AMD Game Engineering team members for an introduction to the recently-launched AMD Ryzen CPU followed by advanced optimization topics." The GDC event runs from February 27th to March 3rd, and currently the AMD talk is not on the exact schedule yet, so it could appear any day during the event (so be wary if anyone says Feb 27th). At this time AMD has not disclosed an exact date either, but it would be an interesting time to announce the new set of Ryzen CPUs right in the middle of both GDC and Mobile World Congress which is also during that week. It would mean that Ryzen news may end up being buried under other GDC and smartphone announcements.
Ryzen from the dead!
Be or ben't
But history shows AMD hasn't been able to be that kick in the past 10 years....
5 years ago I did the research and it was AMD Phenom II x6 which was at the sweet bang-to-buck spot. Worse in single-threaded but for compiles/etc kicked the ass of similarly priced Intel chips.
And despite its age I still don't feel an urge to upgrade -- it's adequate for software I work with, I don't compile anything bigger than the kernel these days. So unless I'll need to run big bisects or something, it stays for now. Being one of the last non-backdoored CPUs from both sides of the aisle is a big bonus.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
I would say the fact that their processors compete with Intels $1,000 processors and will be expected to be between $500 to $800 for that level of performance would cause a great deal of competition.
They don't have to beat them and their highest of high end offerings, the just have to match them at the levels the consumers buy which they appear to be doing just that. So I expect to see some great competition between them with Intel also being forced to lower their prices to remain competitive with them.
I have it on good authority that it'll be Feb. 29th.
Where is the competition though? I still feel like as far as speeds go Intel wins. So what is keeping AMD alive, price and a new flashy name...?
Price is enough. Half the performance for 25% of the price is a pretty compelling package for some of us, which is roughly how the current chips come out, maybe better. If the new chips are in the same ballpark, they'll sell like hot dogs.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That the older processors probably do a better job of 'respecting your rights', whereas the new ones from Intel, AMD, and ARM licensees all have Clipper Chip on steroid built in and very difficult if not impossible for the end user/hardware owner to disable.
Hackaday just posted an article that claims to be able to disable the Intel ME via firmware hacking, but in order to do it you need either a socketed bios chip, or a programmer with clip leads to read, modify and reprogram a soldered down one.
What that leaves is Broadwell on the Intel side (GPU firmware signing on either Broadwell or Skylake, plus the ME code.) and FM2 (not +) and AM3+ as the max on the AMD side.
Anything newer by either company, or anything touting trustzone that doesn't have an unsigned stage0/1 bootloader is essentially a trojan horse awaiting activation.
There is no sane reason for individuals or companies to be buying processors of newer generations that they cannot guarantee are secure, and yet people are continuing to do so with the weak and extremely dangerous excuse of 'Don't you think if they were going to do that, they would have done it by now?' rather than noting that giving a few generations for complacency before bringing down the hammer always works better to trap people inside technological or institutional oppression, by which point they no longer have a mechanism to get back out.
If you can, buy last generation systems that didn't have it, can be disabled, or can be circumvented while you still can, and hope I and others like me just get proven as unfounded kooks, rather than having our concerns brought to light in the sort of oppressive sweep we might not get another opportunity to step out of.
I'm holding off on buying a new chip until ryzen comes out. Maybe it wouldn't make sense for Intel to do this kind of thing, since they might even prefer you buy one of their existing chips rather than waiting for the new one to clear out some old inventory, but for AMD, you might be holding off on buying a current Intel product to wait to buy a new AMD product. I'm sure as hell not buying an excavator now, and I don't think anyone else is either, and I think AMD knows that.
OK mate, I've read enough of your BS to know there's no point arguing with stupid people: they beat you down to their level and then win from experience.
Have a nice life...
Why, yes I do. Simply put, all the low hanging fruit x86 processor development has been picked already. The only remaining advancements are incredibly expensive to make, both in time and money, and as a result even Intel can't appreciably speed up x86 processors anymore.
Now that Intel is mostly standing still, AMD has a chance to catch up. It can benefit from all of the research work, process developments, etc, that have occurred, and implement its own version of the same advancements that Intel made over the past 7 years or so, much more cheaply than Intel did. AMD's limited budget may just be enough.
I actually don'tt think that Ryzen will be as fast as Intel's best. But I expect it to come within 25%, and for a reduced cost. My prediction is that x86 won't get much faster as AMD becomes more competitive with Intel, but it will become a lot cheaper. Intel's high end consumer chips that cost $350 now will be available for $100 in a couple of years, whereas without AMD's Ryzen providing the competition, they probably would only have come down by $50 or so.