Motherboard makers are all now releasing new AM3+ boards. Do you think this means that AMD will release a new FX chip on AM3+? Maybe to tide us over because Zen is delayed? Desktop Carrizo maybe?
The only desktop Carrizo you're likely to see is already announced - the FM2+ Athlon 845 and 835. But that's obviously just an APU with a disabled GPU.
As far as Excavator on AM3+ goes, that's also pretty unlikely. I don't think they'd spend the resources to build such a chip at this point. The next time we see another Excavator release it will probably be Carrizo or Carrizo+ on AM4, in the form of 2-4 core APUs (and possibly APU-based Athlons in the normal fashion). I doubt we'll see chips with a high core count on AM4 until Zen.
I think you are right, spending resources to build a mildly update for AM3+ is not an option for AMD. They are pretty tight on money and the cost (design & manufacturing) - of such a new chip would be a real waste. Most likely, they are trying to keep the AM3+ platform alive until Zen arrives.
GA-990FX-Gaming has been a bit of disappointment for me. Fan control is really bad for a modern board. I had to use attenuators to bring my fans down to bearable speeds because the motherboard does not have a way to set speeds and temperatures like with most other recent boards. The "manual" option uses "slope PWM" setting that, in its minimal setting, left my 150mm fans rotating at almost 800 rpm when cpu temperature were at 25C.
The Tech Report's review of AMD's new Wraith CPU cooler uses the 990FX-Gaming board, and the reviewer got concerned about how hot the VRMs got on the board (214 F). And that was with a FX-8370 at default speed...
This is probably only relevant to Linux-users: When IOMMU is set to disabled (default) USB2 devices are flaky or do not work at all. They work fine when IOMMU is enabled but then network won't work. The get it to work Linux must be started with option "iommu=soft". It seems that there have been a similar problems with the SB950 chipset before but bios-vendors have fixed it. I'm not sure if there has been a regression in Linux or has Gigabyte (or American Megatrends) forgotten their fix in this new BIOS - annoying nevertheless.
So, the board looks nice but the BIOS is a letdown. From what I have read, this has been typical for Gigabyte's boards for years - at least on the AMD side.
Yea, I can confirm that there is something up with Gigabyte motherboards and having the IOMMU enabled. If you google the "VL805 usb3 linux", most people who talk about this topic owns a Gigabyte motherboard. The current workaround is to set "iommu=soft", but honestly speaking, I don't really think that should be _the_ solution over actually fixing the underlying problem.
My guess would be the only new chips likely to come out would be more piledriver chips, like FX-6320E or FX-8390 or something. Theoretically they could do for AM3+ what they did to FM2+... harvest the carrizo chips from mobile and box it as "FX-4500" quad core FX CPU or something similar. But they already said carizzo on FM2+ was purely an efficiency play, so it doesn't really match the platform.
It would seem that maybe FX is getting a die shrink or something. Or else AMD wants to have a back-up plan in case Zen is late or something. Even if/when Zen shows up I would think FX would be the budget bin cpu so why even bother with new enthusiast products for FX? let ECS or some other budget motherboard maker carry the FX flag.
While I think that would be neat, even a die shrink of an existing architecture would be a considerable investment of resources and a distraction from both their work on bringing new Zen chips out as well as their impending new platform AM4. In fact I'm not even convinced AM4 chips will be based on a new lith prior to Zen.
I think its a Catch-22...the FXs are really only competitive in gaming with the mid-range Intel parts, except in that rare case where a game engine is well threaded for 8 cores. But, at the same time, the 9xxx series requires REALLY beefy power phases, so if you want to support those cpus, you have to use mid to high end mobo components (especially for the 9590).
So, you have a midrange performing cpu (9590) that requires a high-end component equipped mobo, which I suppose is why something like this latest Gigabyte exists.
Bulldozer was such an epic fail that I'm surprised AMD will still be around to release Zen. Thank God they're apparently going to make it...we're already starting to see what a stagnant Intel looks like.
No new processor, just a platform refresh, to have M.2 SDD, USB 3.1 and other new interfaces for AMD platforms as well, till the new ZEN AM4 arrives...
Wonder if its the benefits of DX12 and the hole multi threading thing thats breathing new life in to the FX line up... and yes i cant wait for Zen either
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Shadow7037932 - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
Meh. Ancient chipset is ancient. Zen can't come soon enough...Flunk - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
Motherboard makers are all now releasing new AM3+ boards. Do you think this means that AMD will release a new FX chip on AM3+? Maybe to tide us over because Zen is delayed? Desktop Carrizo maybe?Flunk - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
Why would they bother otherwise?ToTTenTranz - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
Definitely not desktop Carrizo because this chipset doesn't support APUs. It doesn't even have any kind of video-out.extide - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
Yeah, I have been wondering what this out-of-nowhere wave of AM3+ boards is coming from...?Alexvrb - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
The only desktop Carrizo you're likely to see is already announced - the FM2+ Athlon 845 and 835. But that's obviously just an APU with a disabled GPU.As far as Excavator on AM3+ goes, that's also pretty unlikely. I don't think they'd spend the resources to build such a chip at this point. The next time we see another Excavator release it will probably be Carrizo or Carrizo+ on AM4, in the form of 2-4 core APUs (and possibly APU-based Athlons in the normal fashion). I doubt we'll see chips with a high core count on AM4 until Zen.
LiviuTM - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
I think you are right, spending resources to build a mildly update for AM3+ is not an option for AMD. They are pretty tight on money and the cost (design & manufacturing) - of such a new chip would be a real waste. Most likely, they are trying to keep the AM3+ platform alive until Zen arrives.SleepModezZ - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
GA-990FX-Gaming has been a bit of disappointment for me. Fan control is really bad for a modern board. I had to use attenuators to bring my fans down to bearable speeds because the motherboard does not have a way to set speeds and temperatures like with most other recent boards. The "manual" option uses "slope PWM" setting that, in its minimal setting, left my 150mm fans rotating at almost 800 rpm when cpu temperature were at 25C.The Tech Report's review of AMD's new Wraith CPU cooler uses the 990FX-Gaming board, and the reviewer got concerned about how hot the VRMs got on the board (214 F). And that was with a FX-8370 at default speed...
This is probably only relevant to Linux-users: When IOMMU is set to disabled (default) USB2 devices are flaky or do not work at all. They work fine when IOMMU is enabled but then network won't work. The get it to work Linux must be started with option "iommu=soft". It seems that there have been a similar problems with the SB950 chipset before but bios-vendors have fixed it. I'm not sure if there has been a regression in Linux or has Gigabyte (or American Megatrends) forgotten their fix in this new BIOS - annoying nevertheless.
So, the board looks nice but the BIOS is a letdown. From what I have read, this has been typical for Gigabyte's boards for years - at least on the AMD side.
superflux - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
Yea, I can confirm that there is something up with Gigabyte motherboards and having the IOMMU enabled. If you google the "VL805 usb3 linux", most people who talk about this topic owns a Gigabyte motherboard. The current workaround is to set "iommu=soft", but honestly speaking, I don't really think that should be _the_ solution over actually fixing the underlying problem.LarsBars - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
My guess would be the only new chips likely to come out would be more piledriver chips, like FX-6320E or FX-8390 or something. Theoretically they could do for AM3+ what they did to FM2+... harvest the carrizo chips from mobile and box it as "FX-4500" quad core FX CPU or something similar. But they already said carizzo on FM2+ was purely an efficiency play, so it doesn't really match the platform.Killrose - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
It would seem that maybe FX is getting a die shrink or something. Or else AMD wants to have a back-up plan in case Zen is late or something. Even if/when Zen shows up I would think FX would be the budget bin cpu so why even bother with new enthusiast products for FX? let ECS or some other budget motherboard maker carry the FX flag.Alexvrb - Thursday, February 18, 2016 - link
While I think that would be neat, even a die shrink of an existing architecture would be a considerable investment of resources and a distraction from both their work on bringing new Zen chips out as well as their impending new platform AM4. In fact I'm not even convinced AM4 chips will be based on a new lith prior to Zen.extide - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Yeah while a shrink would be cool, pretty much guaranteed not to happenblppt - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
I think its a Catch-22...the FXs are really only competitive in gaming with the mid-range Intel parts, except in that rare case where a game engine is well threaded for 8 cores. But, at the same time, the 9xxx series requires REALLY beefy power phases, so if you want to support those cpus, you have to use mid to high end mobo components (especially for the 9590).So, you have a midrange performing cpu (9590) that requires a high-end component equipped mobo, which I suppose is why something like this latest Gigabyte exists.
Bulldozer was such an epic fail that I'm surprised AMD will still be around to release Zen. Thank God they're apparently going to make it...we're already starting to see what a stagnant Intel looks like.
ThomasS31 - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
No new processor, just a platform refresh, to have M.2 SDD, USB 3.1 and other new interfaces for AMD platforms as well, till the new ZEN AM4 arrives...g12m0 - Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - link
Wonder if its the benefits of DX12 and the hole multi threading thing thats breathing new life in to the FX line up... and yes i cant wait for Zen either