Windows and to an extent other OSes are now familiar with Intel’s HyperThreading and tend to be able to schedule threads in an optimized manner, but what about the eight ‘cores’ in the AMD A8-3850? The Tech Report found a way to test this and the results are conclusive; Windows 7 is not optimized properly for Bulldozer. The Bulldozer has two cores on each module, easy to see in the picture below. By playing with the core affinity via the command line you can run benchmarks using specific cores, to test the impact clustering together 4 threads in two modules versus spreading out the threads to one per module. As it turns out, there is a noticeable difference when you do set the processor to run with one thread in each cluster.
"Is an awareness of the shared nature of AMD’s Bulldozer architecture the key to unlocking its performance? We investigate."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer on Asus Crosshair V @ The Inquirer
- DIY Guides: How To Install/Remove AMD Socket FM1 CPU and Heatsink @ PCSTATS
- AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer Tested – Windows 8 vs. Windows 7 Performance @ Frostytech
- Mobile CPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- CPU Performance Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Intel Core i7 2700k @ kitguru
- Intel Core i7 2700k Flagship Showdown Review @ eTeknix
Bulldozer is only good for
Bulldozer is only good for one thing. Shovelling Bullshit.
But this is precisely the
But this is precisely the opposite to what is being considered in windows 8 where they are going to sequentially fill each module with two threads before utilizing the next module so they can save power by so called module parking….looks like Bulldozer has a nice reduction in performance to look forward to in win8.
AMD have totally abandoned the high performance desktop space,
BD is a server chip and apu’s are for the low/mid end and portable sector.