Its a lottery. So, if one does not already own a Ryzen 5, this is not a suggestion to buy one in hopes of getting an 1800X.

Still, its interesting, to me. AMD did this with the very first Reference RX480 4GB GPUs -- they did not have enough -- so they put 8GB GPUs in the boxes and called them 4GB.

On the competition front: Intel is releasing their answer to AMD Ryzen. An article that links to dozens of Intel 8th Generation CPU reviews as they come on line.



Article

Competition is good

A new rumor.

For some folks, the latest Beta GPU driver from AMD (17.9.3) may disable CrossFireX.

I do not have CrossFireX on any of my several in-house computers; so, I can't verify the rumor.

An unsubstantiated rumor:



This one is a long way off (roughly a year from now). But, its the one I'm waiting for.

Navi is a new way to make GPUs. They tie together several smaller individual GPUs that work together like one BIG GPU (not like CrossFire or SLI -- rather like one BIG GPU). In principle, there is no limit to the shader count --- but the cost and risk are greatly reduced.

Its the same concept as Threadripper CPU which puts multiple CPUs in one package -- and they work like a single many core CPU. So, AMD has the experience to make this work.

We'll see. I expect Navi to be "late" relative to rumors and speculations because its a very new way to make a GPU and on the 7nm node. However, when it hits, Nvidia needs to have an answer ready -- rumor is, they are working on that "answer".

If you have a local Micro Center store:

Ryzen 7 1800X for $350 limit one per customer ($500 list). In store pick up only.

We have a Micro Center and I use it occasionally though its a long drive across the city. Excellent selection, good service, prices competitive. Select item on-line and its set aside at the store front ready for pick up in 18min. Easy no-hassle returns.

First priority -- letting SimHQ folks know about a cheap Ryzen. Secondarily giving Micro Center a "plug" because I think they are deserving (of course, depending on how your local store behaves, your experience may vary).

Rumor is that AMD is substantially rewriting/revising their Ryzen BIOS.



Pinnacle Ridge CPUs are speculated to be 6 to 9 months from now. Being the "first" update of the Ryzen design, they may bump Ryzen performance more than the customary 10 percent. We'll see.

Typically, a new AMD Ryzen-family CPU will not require a new motherboard -- just a BIOS update. AMD's stated policy is to have the current Ryzen motherboards support all new CPUs and APUs (otther than Threadripper) -- for at least a few years. That's another "bang per buck" feature of AMD's Ryzen-family.

Self driving cars and other "robot" devices are the future. Their "brains" need special circuits. Now the competition will be among Nvidia, AMD, Intel -- all three are developing such devices.

Competition is good But, while competition is good, it remains to be seen if "AI for everything" (including your job and mine) is truly going to make things better for folks.

AMD and Nvidia GPUs are used -- are in short supply and cost more because of Mining. Miners seem to prefer AMD "bang per buck". That's understandable. Mining is a business that's all about "cryptos per buck".

Original "guesstimates" said mining would be winding down this month -- and GPU prices would drop. But, not yet.

Hopefully, AMD will continue to actually make money (rather than lose it as they have for years). That way, they will stay in business.

AMD "competition is good" for everyone -- even Intel and Nvidia customers

Nice markdown so early in its lifetime. This one is for those who use multi-threaded, time-consuming applications for business (or pleasure). Its faster in multi-threaded applications and more "bang per buck" than the similarly priced Intel CPU.

Ryzen 7 1800X 8-core/16-thread does games and sometimes costs as little as $350 if one shops sales. Mine easily runs at 4GHz on all 8 cores all the time.

After flying "sky high", AMD stocks are leveling off or descending -- normal behavior at this time of year. But, it bears watching. To make money with any stock, one must sell at the correct time -- sell at the peak, then re-buy at the new valley (for some stocks)..

The above article was based on AMD provided information (not independent review of actual notebook computers). But, something to look forward to for ultrathin notebook users who want computational power and play games.

The author of the above article did not totally agree with the Morgan Stanley prognostication. On the other hand, most stocks that rapidly rise to new heights eventually fall back down partway -- including AMD, probably, eventually.

SAPPHIRE Radeon RX Vega 56 DirectX 12 100420L $399.99 at Newegg today

SAPPHIRE Radeon RX VEGA 64 DirectX 12 100410L $499.99 at Newegg

These are "Reference" model cards. The interesting thing (to me) is that they are selling for "list price" -- first time I've noticed an RX Vega not marked up because of bitcoin mining.

Hopefully, Black Friday will bring actual discounts from list price.

On the competition front:



GTX 1070 Ti (reference edition available $450 list) and AMD RX Vega 56 (reference edition available $400 list). At $500 (available) the Reference RX Vega 64 ahead of the GTX 1070 Ti in tests I've read.

But, they are all close together in performance. People probably could not tell the difference in a "blind test" (as was shown by a blind test conducted a few months ago between Vega 64 and GTX 1080).

Comes down to price and brand name preferences.

Competition is good

On the co-operation between competitors front:



Arrticle

I'll be interested to see how this competes with AMD APUs. AMD's APU advantage was excellent graphics (compared to Intel CPUs with their mediocre internal graphics).

Part of the rumor (from a while back) was that Intel had been trying to partner with Nvidia. However, that was rumored to be "not working out for Intel".

Just another article confirming the Intel/AMD partnership:



Article

Press release from Intel:



Source Article

It begins. Some high end new-games will require 8 and more threads -- now that AMD and Intel supply that many.





The 16 thread requirement (for best performance) is just around the corner (a couple years) for a few (not all) highest end games. In my opinion, of course

Also, in reading about how Assassin's Creed "overworks" CPUs -- due to high end in-game-environments (according to the developer its not DRM as sometimes reported), its worth noting that those high advertised CPU "boost" frequencies are only for temporary use on a couple threads. If you need to play a whole game at maximum performance -- and it's many threaded -- look at a CPUs "base" frequency (not "boost" frequency). Notably, base frequencies are often much less than boost frequencies. Of course, SimHQ veteran overclockers have this covered -- they make sure their CPU is well cooled for prolonged use at OC and "boost" frequencies.