AMD
by Doug Aamoth on June 8, 2009

AMDAMD CEO Dirk Meyer recently revealed that his “company is currently developing a platform that features lower-power, smaller-sizes, more complete functionality, and a cheaper price than Intel’s Atom for netbooks,” according to DigiTimes. Sounds great. The fact that AMD owns ATI should make for an awesome mish-mash of processors and graphics. So let’s start rolling these things out, eh?

Whoops, not so fast. The platform won’t be ready until next year.

by Dave Freeman on June 5, 2009

Don’t count AMD as being out. In response to the ever growing netbook/small laptop market, AMD has announced their new CPU “Congo”, along with putting it into the updated HP Dv2 which is coming out on June 10th. We liked the original Dv2 — however, adding a little more grunt to it with the improved AMD processor can only be a good thing.

by Devin Coldewey on May 26, 2009

Last week AMD invited CrunchGear down to Austin to check out an overclocking event they were holding, at which many, many liters of liquid nitrogen and the much colder liquid helium would be consumed by thirsty processors.

They asked us, however, not to video the entire event, since they’d have their official video coming out shortly and some of the technology being used was still in development. No problem, we said, we’ll just dip our pulled-pork tacos in the spare liquid nitrogen.

Live at AMD’s Austin overclocking event
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by Devin Coldewey on May 21, 2009

I'm eating lunch in the conference here in AMD's Lone Star campus while they're getting their custom cooling setup down to -250°F. Yes, -250°F, 120 degrees above absolute zero. Then they’re going to go for a couple world records while pouring liquid Helium onto the processor. It’s kind of awesome, in a really nerdy sort of way. We’ve got a gallery here and we’ll have video tonight or tomorrow; it’s actually pretty cool to watch.
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by Ivan Beres on May 18, 2009

AMD launched the Break Free Page: a collection of articles and quotes ramming about Intel’s bad behavior. I understand that Intel was a bad boy and revenge is sweet but making a website about it seems a little cheap. Maybe the time and effort put in slapping Intel should go to making processors.

by Doug Aamoth on May 12, 2009

AMDAMD gained 4.6 percent of the CPU market this past quarter, making it the first time in five quarters that AMD’s made up some ground against Intel. It’s now got 22.3 percent to Intel’s 77.3 percent, according to analysts at IDC.

by Devin Coldewey on May 7, 2009

The Phenom II X4 has been shown to be an excellent overclocker, and recently the world record was set by a group called Limit Team, who took the 3.2GHz stock processor and took it up to an insane 7127Hz. That’s an increase of just over 221%. Of course, while with good ventilation you could probably overclock yours a good 10-15% with no ill effects, this particular hack required “exotic cooling materials” in AMD’s words. Does that mean… like a piña colada?

Tomorrow is AMD’s 40th birthday!
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by Devin Coldewey on April 30, 2009

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Please join me in a celebration of one of the hardware world’s biggest movers on their 40th birthday. The last few years have been pretty rough on AMD, but they’re still rocking out and competing convincingly with their arch-rivals, Intel and NVIDIA. To celebrate their middle-age debut, they’re doing a couple contests, so if you want to win a new processor or video card, step right this way.
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by Nicholas Deleon on April 23, 2009

What’s the matter with AMD? The number two chip maker in the whole world just posted some numbers that don’t reflect too kindly on its performance over the last few months. The big, bad Sunnyvale, Calif.-based corp lost $416 million last quarter; about $195 million of that was related to a corporate spinoff (see: GlobalFoundries). When put into scary percentages, AMD’s sales fell off 21 percent. Meanwhile, Intel, what with its Core 2 Duo and, more importantly, its Atom, continues to hum along nicely, expecting sales to rise for this same quarter. So what gives, AMD?

by Devin Coldewey on April 6, 2009


The eternal quandary for system builders has been much less quandarious (to coin a term) for the last year or so. Intel processor, AMD video card — anything else would be uncivilized. AMD’s 48xx series has been the only choice for a while, but the latest products from AMD and NVIDIA are a little less starkly separated.

For around $250 (the mid-high sweet spot), the 4890 and GTX 275 are remarkably well-matched — more so than any two equivalently priced cards from the companies have been for some time. So which do you buy?

by Devin Coldewey on March 19, 2009


As much as we like the giant-killing 4870 graphics cards from AMD, they have been around for quite a while now. It’s past time when more needs to be done than tape two together and call it “X2.” Luckily, they’ve had the successor to the 4870 in the pipe for a while now, and someone’s just gotten their dirty hands on one.

by Devin Coldewey on March 12, 2009

If you didn’t already have enough reasons to buy a Radeon 4870 in one of its many forms, well, here’s another one. AMD’s been trying to push sales of its graphics cards, hoping to lower inventory and get a little dough, maybe to offset the enormous loss they posted this last quarter.

Their strategy was to lower the 512MB 4850 to ~$120, and its big brother the giant-killer 4870 to an incredible $150. But their partners said “no thanks,” comparing the 4870’s performance to much higher-priced NVIDIA cards. So wait, it’s too good?

by Matt Burns on March 9, 2009

SATA 3.0 is about to bring the goods - and fast. Seagate and AMD partnered together to demo just what the hopeful revision will be capable of with a prototype Barracuda drive and AMD chipset. If Seagate gets its way. - you see, not all manufacturers are signed on just yet including Western Digital - SATA 3.0 will be a full 200% faster than the current generation while still being backwards compatible.

CrunchDeals: Sapphire Radeon 4870 512MB, $150 shipped
3 Comments
by Devin Coldewey on March 6, 2009

onefitty
It wasn’t so very long ago that the 4870 was the king of the hill. They offer it all the way up to 2GB right now, but 512MB should suit anybody shopping in the mid range. And $150 (with the $15 mail-in rebate) is an absolutely excellent price for this card. If I weren’t completely broke right now, I’d buy one myself. Maybe one of you guys could buy two and I’ll pay you back when I’ve got more GP?
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by Dave Freeman on March 5, 2009

Video card technology seems to compete with CPU technology, both of them continuing to obey Moore’s law, and becoming faster and faster with each iteration. Many manufacturers have also taken to increasing the amount of memory on their existing cards to make them run better. Most the time, this results in at least noticeably better performance, as we’ve seen.

by Dave Freeman on February 24, 2009

Currently, if you want a netbook, you’re going to get an Intel atom chipset. This is just understood. They are fast, have low heat and power consumption, and are the defacto standard. But AMD is looking to get in on some of that action, and they could be a serious threat to Intel.

by Devin Coldewey on February 9, 2009

AMD enthusiasts should mark February 9th as a red-letter day. Five new processors have been unleashed by the ailing but effective CPU company, and they look like a serious value. If you’re looking to upgrade your box right now, these new processors are pretty much the only reasonable option.

Plus, you can upgrade now with your DDR2 setup, and then move to a new DDR3 setup in six months and keep the processor, since it’ll be compatible with both. More deets inside.

by Devin Coldewey on February 6, 2009

While Intel is working on taking on the GPU sector (and may just have a deal with Sony to do it), its main rival, Nvidia, is looking to get into the x86 processor business. The video hardware giant is assembling a team from scratch to make a competitor to the Intel and AMD’s CPUs — but doesn’t seem to care that the technology is proprietary and must be licensed from the very companies they’re trying to overthrow.

by Devin Coldewey on February 5, 2009

A little creative thinking over at the Inquirer has led them to suggest that Nvidia may get left out in the cold come the new generation of gaming consoles. Intel and AMD are set to split the spoils between them, leaving Nvidia (in its glory and its ego) to play with the PC market, which, as we are constantly being reminded, is dying.

by Devin Coldewey on February 2, 2009

A Dutch retailer briefly lists a “Radeon 5870 X2,” along with specs — conspiracy? Coincidence? Sham? Legit? Or just a typo?

Well, check out the specs and then… you be the judge.

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