Use(less) 8-Core?

[maddangerous]

PP Mguire, can you link me your thread on why AMD 8 core cpu's arent "true" 8 cores? im interested, because it seems to me like you're stating that simply because they share a cache or two between multiple cores, IC's, and something else i'm probably not aware of. I mean, there are 8 physical cores right? so why not "true" 8 core?

now don't get me wrong, i really don't know much about CPU (or GPU, for that matter) architectures, but i know a little bit, i'm just trying to see where you're coming from on this is all. to be honest, i had not heard this argument before earlier either, so i'm further intrigued.

 

[Wildside]

Think of the 4 cores being like Hyper-Thread like Intel does. It looks like 8 cores on the PC but it is really just 4. AMD is doing, or started off, what Intel has done for many years.

 

[PP Mguire]

PP Mguire, can you link me your thread on why AMD 8 core cpu's arent "true" 8 cores? im interested, because it seems to me like you're stating that simply because they share a cache or two between multiple cores, IC's, and something else i'm probably not aware of. I mean, there are 8 physical cores right? so why not "true" 8 core?

now don't get me wrong, i really don't know much about CPU (or GPU, for that matter) architectures, but i know a little bit, i'm just trying to see where you're coming from on this is all. to be honest, i had not heard this argument before earlier either, so i'm further intrigued.

True cores have individual resource pools and calculate individual tasks at any given time. 1 module has 2 cores sharing L1, L2, and FPUs. This is as I explained it a more physical version of Intel's HT which simply adds a virtual core per physical core. It is not a true 8 core. I've tossed the wiki around a few times explaining this but I'll link it again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldozer_(microarchitecture)

 

[Wildside]

^^Page does not exist

 

[PP Mguire]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldozer_(microarchitecture)

Works for me.

 

[Thorax_the_Impaler]

Think of the 4 cores being like Hyper-Thread like Intel does. It looks like 8 cores on the PC but it is really just 4. AMD is doing, or started off, what Intel has done for many years.

That's so stupid all they're doing is doubling the workload on existing cores. Isn't that technically false advertising? (Not that I think it makes much of a difference if it is)

 

[PP Mguire]

That's so stupid all they're doing is doubling the workload on existing cores. Isn't that technically false advertising? (Not that I think it makes much of a difference if it is)

Not really. Think of it more like a double lane highway on ramp that eventually merges into the single right lane of a highway. Terrible analogy but essentially what is happening. HT does make a difference in things like rendering where 8 or 12 things get processed instead of 4 or 6. I can attest to that as I witnessed the difference on my 3960x.

 

[Thorax_the_Impaler]

Not really. Think of it more like a double lane highway on ramp that eventually merges into the single right lane of a highway. Terrible analogy but essentially what is happening. HT does make a difference in things like rendering where 8 or 12 things get processed instead of 4 or 6. I can attest to that as I witnessed the difference on my 3960x.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that. Let me see if I understand it; two processes in a side-by-side like format merge into one lane without any type of collision or problems? Here's my shot at an analogy: Basically two identical pipes that merge into one without a change in the flow of water?

 

[PP Mguire]

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that. Let me see if I understand it; two processes in a side-by-side like format merge into one lane without any type of collision or problems? Here's my shot at an analogy: Basically two identical pipes that merge into one without a change in the flow of water?

Except there is change in flow. If there wasn't it would continue being two

 

[Thorax_the_Impaler]

Except there is change in flow. If there wasn't it would continue being two

Okay that makes sense. lol I was under the impression that the flow did not change at all, and that's where I was confused. I think I see why that could be more beneficial in some cases.