ZEN IS HERE…. NOW!
S
o, it seems even though we will not be getting any
AMD CPU goodness this year, we just may have
something to look forward to. Based on what AMD
has presented and from those in the know, the ZEN based
CPUs are modern day CPUs with relevant performance
figures. Something that has not been a case in a decade
or so. As we have to remember, when the Core2 dropped
in 2006, it was lights for AMD and it has been the case
since. Could we be looking at a future where we have real
CPU and platform choices?
One would certainly hope so.
It all seems a distant dream
when we had two viable CPU
manufacturers to choose
from and when the FX brand
actually meant something.
Perhaps much like INTEL
retired the Pentium brand
to the doldrums of low
performance history, AMD
may do the same with the FX
or Phenom family names. At
this point there isn’t a single
surviving name in their entire
line-up that has not been
desecrated from years of
ineptitude.
That is going to change it
seems and unlike with the
previous years and CPU
architectures, the claims seem
to be legitimate. That AMD
was willing to divulge so much
technical detail at their press event, is a positive sign of
the confidence the company has in their CPU line-up. I will
reserve judgment on the Blender performance claims, as
the cautious side of me is skeptical about making up such a
spectacular performance disadvantage in a single CPU
cycle. Whichever way it turns out, we will at the very least
have a modern day platform that for all intents and
purposes will be better in every respect that what AMD is
currently offering. I do wish that they had illustrated the
performance gains versus their most powerful 5GHz CPU.
Obviously this would have given more reliable performance
figures, but perhaps that was the point. To not tell too much
before the product is ready.
After the release of the RX480, I was rather
underwhelmed, which is obviously not the case anymore
with the AMD press day event. There are several pieces
of literature to be found with some technical analysis and
speculation of just what the new CPU has in store. Do check
out the brilliant analysis over at Anandtech. It is not only
informative,but objective in a way that most editorial isn’t
these days.
Going back to the RX480. In this issue we cover a little
LN2 overclocking we took part in courtesy of the eVC tool
from elmor labs. This neat little tool is easy to setup and
configure and once you have it ready, with the right LN2
BIOS. RX480 overclocking
is spectacularly simple and
somewhat a lot more fun that
anything NVIDIA has to offer at
present.
In an odd turn of events,
I find that I am far more
interested in AMD GPU
overclocking than I am in
anything NVIDIA has to offer.
From a casual and DIY
enthusiast perspective, the
GeForce GTX 1000 series is
near perfect in how it is far
easier to extract maximum
performance out of a core
without extreme cooling.
NVIDIA has done a great job
here. Be sure to check out the
Geforce GTX Trinity feature in
this issue as well. In one fell
move, NVIDIA took the legs
out from their entire GTX 900
series GPUs, making them
worth absolutely nothing overnight, save for the 980TI
oddly enough (at least for extreme overclocking).
With KabyLake following only in 2017, the last thing we
have to look forward to this year is perhaps a GPU from
AMD. If the company can manage to release this GPU this
year as initially stated, with real retail availability (I’m
looking at your RX480 phantasm), who knows we just may
find ourselves drawn to those GPUs for extreme
overclocking instead of NVIDIA’s lineup right now. With that
said, Issue 39 took fart longer than I had hoped, but that’s
fine, as there was plenty going on. We will see you again in
Issue 40, which for some reason I feel should be special, of
course not as much as 50, but you get what I mean.
Until then, do take care and catch you on the flip side.
[ Neo Sibeko - Editor ]
Issue 39 | 2016 The OverClocker 3