Preview: AMD's FX-9590 Eight-Core At Up To 5.0GHz On Linux

[Michael]

Better Question: Why the hell is Michael benchmarking this CPU NOW? if he was going to do it he should have done it oh about a year ago when it was originally released

AMD just sent over the CPU now.... I guess due to the price drop. See today's FX-8370 reviews - http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=20841

[blackiwid]

To be honest, the title "Preview: AMD's FX-9590" is really confusing...

Concerning AMD vs Intel, I also changed side last year for Intel because AMD is no more competitive...

I really hope the Ati / AMD fusion can lead to great CPU with integrated GPU but even on this side Intel is far higher right now.

At the moment I find it difficult just a bad time to buy stuff, but u said something about last year, so u did not buy a Haswell Intel cpu.

A haswell core i 7 today costs 250 euro what did u pay for a core i7 last year sandy bridge 300 euro? Or more, or did u buy a Core i5 Sandy bridge. I doubt that a sandy bridge Core i5 is in gaming extremly much faster than a FX6300 or is much more power efficiant.

So I dont see that, Intel has some good cpus but they are expensive and there are very few games where it matters, except maybe u pay 500 Euro Grafics cards or more.

On the non-gaming field, often Kaveri wins because of HSA or opencl. So I dont see it so onesided, I used to see it the way till I reserched it in detail because I wanted a new system and look it deeper.

Yes its true that Intel is ahead, but the prices are insane, under 150 euro u only get a slow as hell Core i3, even a expensive 150 euro core i5 is not much faster than a good amd cpu, and 250 euro for a core i7 what has also only 4 cores and nothing to exciting over a core i5 is just redicales.

If I would not have any pc here I would maybe have bought a Xeon cpu for 200 euro with a new motherboard, but when u have already a amd system am3 or am3+ the switch makes in most cases no sense at all.

The Problem is I bought my fx4100 for around 100 euro, why the hell would I now start buying cpus for 150 to 250 euro for gaming where the gpu is and was always the more important part?

The only reason would be that u have a pc that delivers enough power so that games that come out in a year work still very well. But it made much more sense to me to buy this 80 euro cpu and buy if I really need it in a year a good ddr4 system, because ddr3 is done it makes no sense to make better cpus with that big bottleneck ddr3 ram.

Current Intel system are eighter to small step and expensive Core i5 or a good step forward Core i7 for a stupid price.

[Kivada]

At the moment I find it difficult just a bad time to buy stuff, but u said something about last year, so u did not buy a Haswell Intel cpu.

A haswell core i 7 today costs 250 euro what did u pay for a core i7 last year sandy bridge 300 euro? Or more, or did u buy a Core i5 Sandy bridge. I doubt that a sandy bridge Core i5 is in gaming extremly much faster than a FX6300 or is much more power efficiant.

So I dont see that, Intel has some good cpus but they are expensive and there are very few games where it matters, except maybe u pay 500 Euro Grafics cards or more.

On the non-gaming field, often Kaveri wins because of HSA or opencl. So I dont see it so onesided, I used to see it the way till I reserched it in detail because I wanted a new system and look it deeper.

Yes its true that Intel is ahead, but the prices are insane, under 150 euro u only get a slow as hell Core i3, even a expensive 150 euro core i5 is not much faster than a good amd cpu, and 250 euro for a core i7 what has also only 4 cores and nothing to exciting over a core i5 is just redicales.

If I would not have any pc here I would maybe have bought a Xeon cpu for 200 euro with a new motherboard, but when u have already a amd system am3 or am3+ the switch makes in most cases no sense at all.

The Problem is I bought my fx4100 for around 100 euro, why the hell would I now start buying cpus for 150 to 250 euro for gaming where the gpu is and was always the more important part?

The only reason would be that u have a pc that delivers enough power so that games that come out in a year work still very well. But it made much more sense to me to buy this 80 euro cpu and buy if I really need it in a year a good ddr4 system, because ddr3 is done it makes no sense to make better cpus with that big bottleneck ddr3 ram.

Current Intel system are eighter to small step and expensive Core i5 or a good step forward Core i7 for a stupid price.

Intel has also stratified their new high end platform to the point that they are going to gouge the hell out of the multi GPU market as the only way to get all or the PCIe lanes to work is to buy the most expensive Extreme Edition.

Want to not be bottlenecked by running 3-4 GPUs, M.2 SSD and SATA Express SSDs? Pay us $1200.

[ParticleBoard]

What revision of the GA-990FXA-UD3 did you have? As I understand, revisions 1 and 2 were garbage. 3 can handle the FX-series a bit better, and 4 (current) is the most ideal.

Rev 3, it can just barely handle it, and by barely I mean imho if I didn't put on a bunch of after market cooling this board would have burnt out or warped itself under the heat by now. Word to the wise when they say water cooling takes away the fan blowing on all the components surrounding the cpu they were not kidding.

[dsx724]

Phoronix: Preview: AMD's FX-9590 Eight-Core At Up To 5.0GHz On Linux

Since last year AMD's had the FX-9590 as the top-end Vishera CPU that can top out at 5.0GHz with its Turbo Frequency, but initially this processor was only available to OEM system builds. Over time the OEM version of the FX-9590 became available to consumers while earlier this summer AMD launched a retail version of the FX-9590 that included the eight-core CPU with a closed-loop water cooling solution. Today we're reviewing this highest-end Vishera CPU to see how it compares to other AMD and Intel processors on Ubuntu Linux.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=20833

The results look like they're suffering from VRM overheating issues. A lot of the partner boards cannot handle 200W constantly because of poor cooling on mosfets and chokes. Slap a heatsink/fan on those babies and you should be able to get consistent numbers.

[Luke]

Both AMD and Ebay are alternatives to Intel's gouging

Intel has also stratified their new high end platform to the point that they are going to gouge the hell out of the multi GPU market as the only way to get all or the PCIe lanes to work is to buy the most expensive Extreme Edition.

Want to not be bottlenecked by running 3-4 GPUs, M.2 SSD and SATA Express SSDs? Pay us $1200.

Or buy last year's proc and board on Ebay from a gamer who just updated, alternately buy AMD and tell Intel where to stuff their demands. If AMD didn't exist Intel would probably not sell any proc for less than $200, maybe for less than $1,000. If you recall the Pentium cost about that much-in 1992 dollars, and the Pentium Pro quickly supplanted it as top of the line, at an even higher price. The Pentium sold so high Intel had to offer one more version of the 486, clocked at 100 instead of 66MHZ. Intel threw a fit with other companies copied their procs and busted their pricing structure, if AMD didn't continue to do so, all those Intel procs that barely equal Piledriver or the newest APU would double in price overnight.

[Kivada]

Rev 3, it can just barely handle it, and by barely I mean imho if I didn't put on a bunch of after market cooling this board would have burnt out or warped itself under the heat by now. Word to the wise when they say water cooling takes away the fan blowing on all the components surrounding the cpu they were not kidding.

Why you get a case that has top case fans and has the PSU on the bottom so that you can get better airflow over the mobo. Though unless you going for a big custom water setup a good air cooler is more reliable and cools just as well, a Noctua NH-C14 would be a great candidate for cooling the voltage regulation directly with the CPU heatsink as unlike most high end coolers it's a down blower like a stock cooler does where most high end coolers are towers that like the water blocks diverts airflow from the voltage regulation.

[Luke]

Taming bulldozer/piledriver on air

Why you get a case that has top case fans and has the PSU on the bottom so that you can get better airflow over the mobo. Though unless you going for a big custom water setup a good air cooler is more reliable and cools just as well, a Noctua NH-C14 would be a great candidate for cooling the voltage regulation directly with the CPU heatsink as unlike most high end coolers it's a down blower like a stock cooler does where most high end coolers are towers that like the water blocks diverts airflow from the voltage regulation.

Here's what works for me in the relatively small aluminum Diablo "fly" case, keeps socket temp under 62C and indicated CPU temp at no more than "50C" (huge offset in the sensor). Thermaltake FriOCK cooler, original fan box removed and fans mounted with zip ties. This is necessary to get it into the case, its's a very tight fit. Shim the zip tie locks to remove. A CD spindle cover tube was cut, removing the top disk and using it as an exhaust pipe to duct all hot air out of the case, except for a deliberate leak at the bottom, directly over the far hotter VRM heatsink. The original restrictive fan grate is gone, replaced with a screen to control RF and chome finger guard for physical protection and looks. From the back it looks a bit like a jet engine as the tube goes right to the number 2 fan on the tower cooler. Above this is a squirril cage blower meant to fit in one expansion slot, fitted here to extract hot air from over the motherboard.

PSU on the bottom, draws from vent in bottom of case. Second bottom vent feeds bottom front fan, also there is a 140mm front fan. All case fans are on a fan controller and can be all the way down to minimum RPMs except when editing video. The FriOCK fans are turned down a bit in normal use too. A 40mm fan is on the northbridge cooler, it and the PSU fan are what you hear at idle.

For a full load like video rendering, the case fan controller goes to half, and CPU fan goes all the way up, and the voltage controller turns it up a lot more. Very loud wide open, but that's for short duration video rendering runs only! Very quiet the rest of the time. Games like Oad load only one core, the CPU fans come up only moderately and there is no need to turn any of the case fans up. The fan on the Radeon HD6750 is resistored down a bit to shut it up, I still never see more than about 55C under hard loads-as long as I don't turn the case fans all the way off! That wil give GPU temps closer to 65C under max GPU load that Scorched3d, Criticalmass, or 0ad can deliver.

There is one caveat: The FriOCK does not use PWM fans, and voltage regulated fans get only a narrow range, forcing use of manual fan control. If you set a full load video render job and don't turn it up, the CPU temp will rise and Kdenlive's "melt" process (the render job) will crash. No damage will occur and the OS stays up, you can turn the fan up and restart the render job! It's just that CPU stability of this particular FX-8120 at 4.4GHZ or more is very dependant on keeping it cool so transistors can switch all the way off. Voltage increases help OC by helping them turn all the way on, at the expense of making turning them all the way off more difficult, just like leakage current in a transistor used over it's intended frequency range in ham radio gear. Thus, the more you overclock, the colder the CPU must be kept, even as the voltage requirement rises! Air is all I've ever played with.