Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT: Zalman and OC The Yorkfield delayed ASUSTeK: GeForce 8800 GT 1 GB A bugged TLB on the Opteron / Phenom

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Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT: Zalman and OC   Posted on 05/12/2007 at 22:04 by Nicolas

	Gigabyte has just announced two new factory overclocked GeForce 8800 GTs. The NX88T512H-P has 512 MB of GDDR3 with GPU/shader core/memory frequencies of 700 / 1700 / 950 MHz representing respective gains of 16%, 13% and 5.5%. Its price should be around 238€. The NX88T256H’s GPU is set to the same frequencies but memory is decreased to 700 MHz. Of course this is normal for a GeForce 8800 GT 256 MB according to specifications established by Nvidia; however, it does make it much less interesting. No price was given. Both come equipped with a Zalman VF700 AlCu fan and include NeverWinter Nights 2. The two cards should be available in mid-December.

The Yorkfield delayed   Posted on 05/12/2007 at 21:46 by Marc

	According to our sources, while the dual core Penryn (the Wolfdale) will indeed be launched in mid-January, quad core versions (the Yorkfield) will not be available before the end of February / beginning of March. The reason for this delay is a very rare bug that causes a system crash and was only detected in the lab with a new test procedure. It’s also something Intel intends to correct before the launch of its CPU. Strangely, the QX9650, which is probably one of the processors concerned, is still on sale as well as the Xeon version of the same processor that was launched recently. Either way, this should try the patience of those waiting for the Q9300, Q9450 or even Q9550 to improve or upgrade their configuration.

ASUSTeK: GeForce 8800 GT 1 GB   Posted on 05/12/2007 at 21:07 by Nicolas

	ASUSTeK should soon announce a GeForce 8800 GT equipped with 1 GB of GDDR3. There will be very standard GPU/memory frequencies of 600/900 MHz; however, the Taiwanese giant has opted for a cooling system that includes an original copper heatsink. While the additional 512 MB probably aren’t totally useless, it should increase prices more than performances.

A bugged TLB on the Opteron / Phenom   Posted on 05/12/2007 at 12:53 by Marc

	Like all processors, K10s aren’t perfect and there is a certain quantity of defects the majority of which are documented by AMD. However, according to The Tech Report, there is an undocumented defect that is problematic to the extent that AMD has stopped shipping quad core Opterons except in specific OEM contracts. This erratum causes system hangs when the TLB (Translation Look-aside Buffer, a part of the CPU which accelerates translations between virtual memory addresses and physical memory addresses) is in heavy use, AMD giving the example of virtualization. The problem can be remedied by an update of the CPU microcode to the motherboard’s bios, but this is to the detriment of performances. In fact, the update deactivates the problematic portion of TLB in L3 cache and consequently reduces its efficiency. The impact on performances in practice should only be a few percentage points in normal applications while in certain specific cases this can attain 10%. Note that this bug should be definitively resolved via the B3 revision of K10 processors planned for the end of the first quarter of 2008. In the meantime, motherboard manufacturers should quickly offer bios integrating an update of the microcode while AMD will offer to activate or deactivate the erratum’s correction through its AMD Overdrive utility. For the desktop, the risk of system hangs actually seems very low and this is something we didn’t encounter in our tests of the Phenom 9600.