No More 1MB Athlon X2

[thestain]

How come when AMD cuts total cache size from a max of 2 MB to 1 for both cores combined.. everyone focuses on the per core drop form 1024 to 512 KB's, and uses the 512 KB to compare to Conroes total or 2 or 4 MB.. strange..

Why not say Conroe has 1 or 2 compared to AMD used to having 1, but now 1/2?

and.. just a thought, but.. when AMD goes to quad core in a few months, as rumored.. that 1/2*4 plus L3 of at least 2 means combined.. the Quad Core will equal or exceed the cache on the Core 2 Duo.. so..

I think I will wait until july 24th.. I have a feeling AMD will announce the Quad Core then..
if they have it, which seems to be confirmed by their pulling the extra cache cpus.. now, if they pull the energy efficient.. that would pretty much seal the deal.

The Stain

 

[dmens]

Originally posted by: thestain
How come when AMD cuts total cache size from a max of 2 MB to 1 for both cores combined.. everyone focuses on the per core drop form 1024 to 512 KB's, and uses the 512 KB to compare to Conroes total or 2 or 4 MB.. strange..

Why not say Conroe has 1 or 2 compared to AMD used to having 1, but now 1/2?

and.. just a thought, but.. when AMD goes to quad core in a few months, as rumored.. that 1/2*4 plus L3 of at least 2 means combined.. the Quad Core will equal or exceed the cache on the Core 2 Duo.. so..

I think I will wait until july 24th.. I have a feeling AMD will announce the Quad Core then..
if they have it, which seems to be confirmed by their pulling the extra cache cpus.. now, if they pull the energy efficient.. that would pretty much seal the deal.

The Stain

waaaaaa... you want some cheese with that whine? maybe because merom in single thread can give all 2/4MB to the active thread? and in two thread, the 4MB is dynamically split? hey, you should say merom has X-MB cache. that sounds cooler.

will you repeat the whine when quad merom comes out with 8MB L2?

 

[broly8877]

Because core 2 duo has a unified L2 cache
While the X2's have 512KB per core.

I guess that's their reasoning.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: DidlySquat

Originally posted by: Oemo
I'd guess the 1MB cache chips are still going to be produced, they will just be sold as opterons instead of X2's. AMD has said before if needed they would focus on the server space. It makes prefect sense, sell your 1MB cache chips at a price premium, and "price war" with the smaller 512KB chips.

yep, AMD is throwing the towel on mainstream desktop CPU market, or more accurately they are admitting defeat in the performance war and are hoping to compete on price, thus they are repositioning their mainstream desktop CPUs (Athlon 64) as a budget choice in this market segment.

Ridiculous...

1. If Intel wanted to advertise on cache, they would have done so with Pressler (2+2MB cache). They learned their lesson with the "Mhz Myth" because while they had a nice little pop in sales for a short time from it, they also lost credibility (and sales) for years because of it.

2. CPU sales are ALWAYS about price/performance...if the other guy is doing better in performance, you lower (slightly) the price to bring the ratio back in line with your business plan. This is exactly what Intel has done with the PD and P4...

3. Conroe isn't AMD's competition this year because the volume is too low...the P4 & PD are AMD's competition and so the price/performance must be realigned to match while still making a profit. This means cutting costs without cutting performance much, hence the move away from the 1+1MB cache chips. If Conroe turns out to be as popular as many think, the price for it will climb substantially...this will reduce it's price/performance ratio and it will take care of itself from AMD's perspective.

 

[DidlySquat]

^^ well the wholesale price for CPU has NEVER increased nor will it increase for conroe. If conroe is really successful then the price cuts will be slower (and new faster versions will not be introduced soon, and when they do it wouldn't mean the existing versions price will be cut by much). Retail prices may vary and fluctuate based on current demand, so if conroe is successful it means there won't be too many discounts or specials on it from retailers. But asgain, wholesale price of CPUs can not increase, only fall.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: DidlySquat
^^ well the wholesale price for CPU has NEVER increased nor will it increase for conroe. If conroe is really successful then the price cuts will be slower (and new faster versions will not be introduced soon, and when they do it wouldn't mean the existing versions price will be cut by much). Retail prices may vary and fluctuate based on current demand, so if conroe is successful it means there won't be too many discounts or specials on it from retailers. But asgain, wholesale price of CPUs can not increase, only fall.

The retail price can increase dramatically...I don't know if you remember the 1GHz Piii, but it was very difficult to obtain and the retail price went up by as much as 40%.
As far as the OEMs, if volume is relatively low on a part, then the cost of the system is increased. It's very expensive to create the marketing, design, and production lines for systems, and this cost is spread out over volume. The higher the volume, the lower the cost...