Major_A wrote:Couple things...
1) When are AVX instructions used? I see they upped the performance from Sandy Bridge but I'm confused when they would come into play, playing games perhaps?
2) When Intel provided the ES to review did they ask that you compare it against the A10-5800K? I've noticed that in most reviews the FX processors were left out and the A10 was used. Or is this just a matter of you have 2 days to get the review live?
On a whole I'm a little disappointed with the results. Hopefully Richland won't disappoint.
AVX instructions are a 256-bit instruction set extension to Intel SSE and mainly is for applications that are Floating Point intensive. Actually, from what I understand, AVX is basically floating point only. There are many applications that can take advantage of it, but Intel specified to me that image, audio/video processing, scientific simulations, financial analytics and 3D modeling and analysis will see the most benefits.
As for what to compare it against... No, Intel just gave us a processor and said to have fun. We updated the test bench in May and sadly we ordered parts 5 weeks ago and some didn't arrive in time due to shipping errors. We made the move to Windows 8 for the very first time this week and started testing the processors. I have 2 Corsair 240GB Neutron GTX drives, so I had to pick two platforms. I wanted to use integrated graphics, so LGA1120 and AM3+ were out. I also feel those are the high-end platforms for enthusiasts and power users. I see LGA1150 and FM2 as being the mainstream platforms. Sure there is a major price difference between the A10-5800K and the 4770K, but I can't change that. Plus, like you noted Richland is right around the corner. So, it's a made rush now to get more processors tested on the new setup and to fix some issues we encountered. Not enough time in the day lately. It's been running benchmarks on 3 systems for 12+ hours a day for the past several weeks. You should see my test room. I got 4 monitors on the video card test machine. I got 2 more monitors on the CPU test stations and then I got my triple-monitor setup on my writing PC. 9 monitors, 4 systems and 20+ feet of bench space covered with hardware. Not going to want to see the power bill this month.
What are you disappointed by the most?