Need Bulldozer owner volunteers

[Neuromancer]

Since Bulldozer is having threading issues that are apparently are fixed on windows 8 I was wondering if anyone that owns or has access to A bulldozer chip could test something out.


Try these tweaks in windows 7!!!


First of all... Disable core parking. This was mentioned by Rick last year? There is a non-destructive way of doing it now.. since windows does this (even with high performance set in power themes) it makes sense that sleeping half a module would cause more issues.

In short, here is the better method from sky60234:-

- Go to Regedit

- Find this key:- " 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 "

- Within this key, there is a value called: " ValueMax "

- This value represents the % number of cores the system will park - the default 100% ie: all Cores are potentially park-able

- Change the value from 64 to 0 so the " ValueMin " and " ValueMax " are both zero

- You will have to find the key a few times and repeat the process for each time it is found - the number of instances will depend on the number of power profiles in your system [ in my DAW it was only found twice ]

- Do a full shutdown and power-off and cold-re-start

Source= TomG at cakewalk. link (http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1861804)


The other thing is a windows service.

Note that enabling this feature will prevent windows from going into a sleep state. This one I am not as sure of I played with it a bit but never accurately tested it. By the definition it could improve or impede performance.

Go to services, set "Thread Ordering Service" to automatic.

AFAIK Only Bz has access to one ATM, I cant afford one so no testing here, and will probably skip it as it will require LN2 to bench. Now for a desktop Llano is my next experiment :)

Thanks guys I will post this over at OCF as well.

[BenchZowner]

Will do mate as soon as possible.
I plan to test it on Linux, Win7 & Win8 for a few apps & games, and then push it hard on LN2.

I did a little test with a SB in Win7 & Win8 in various apps & games, and I did notice some improvements in some tests, a lot of draws, and a few decreases.
Win8 developers preview is still in a very very alpha stage, very unstable and highly... incompatible, tried like 80 apps & games, with only 30 or so working properly, a few working.... kind of, and a lot of them causing crashes/freezes or not opening at all.

I shall be back with more stuff during the weekend

[Neuromancer]

Oh sory , I meant try the tweaks in Windows 7

I will update OP Thanks man. I think that hte core parking is going to be the big one (no one does it)

[BenchZowner]

Will do everything ;)
You know how I am, it's all or nothin' :D

[Cecil]

I spent a few hours testing core parking to relise that core parking only works on Intel I3/I5/I7 CPUs, nothing else. The CPU has to be capable of it.

I still tried to do the changes in regedit to test, and there was no difference either way.

I did figure out a couple of things while testing that though.

With 4M 4C active (by setting afinity, so all 8 "cores" were on), turbo still works on the other cores. With 2M 4C active (same as before, by setting afinity with all 8 "cores" on), turbo does not work on the other cores.

2M 2C share 1 thread 80%/20%, while 1M 2C shares 1 thread 98%/2%.

[Neuromancer]

Thanks Cecil for testing and the info

Core parking should be enabled on the BD as it works on the Llano/Lynx platforms.

At least according to Anand.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2933

Also

http://techreport.com/articles.x/19514/3

Although this states power gate is on a per module not a per core basis, which I figured was part of the problem.

[Cecil]

Didnt know Llano added it, havent really looked at Llano.

I did this method to disable core parking,
Open Regedit
Go to,
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
ControlSet001
Control
Power
PowerSettings
54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00
Then select "0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583", right click ValueMax and "Modify" from "64" to "0"
The go down more to
ea062031-0e34-4ff1-9b6d-eb1059334028
Right Click Attributes, and "Modify" from "1" to "0"

Then go back to SYSTEM, and close ControlSet001, repeat steps for ControlSet002 then repeat again for CurrentControlSet

File and Exit out of Regedit. Shutdown, and cold restart. Core parking should now be disabled.

Made no difference for me. At default even with power saving features on, none of the cores would park.


And OT a bit, dont try to use an 8 series BD on the 990FXA-UD3. I was running Prime at 3.8 with 1.28V and the NB and VRMs got over 70C, and in a few minutes shut down and killed both the board and the CPU. The heatsink on the vrm melted skin off my knuckles when I touched it.

[BenchZowner]

LN2 dewar filling pending ( approx 7 hrs of waiting :p ).
Shall have some tests done by tomorrow morning.

[BenchZowner]

BenchZowner benching for GHz.gr - FX-8150 CPU-z @... LN2 (http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2058148)

Numbers with the FX-8150 @ Stock ( 3.6GHz, Turbo Core Disabled ) - 4GB DC DDR3-1866 9-9-9-24 - GTX 480 Stock - Ubuntu Linux 11.10 x64

PTS ( Phoronix Test Suite )

test # - result
39 = 858C/s
119 (x264) = 100.12fps
89 = 30.84s
58 = 59.18S/s
75 = 1542.55Mflops
8 = 35.11s
86 = 112.2
115 = 68.2s
65 = 2.962s
50 = 322.43s
12 = 24981.3MB/s
79 = 14658.34MB/s
2 = 17535MB/s
10 = 50.66s

CineBench 11.5 x64 = 4.91pts multi /// 7.57pts @ 5619MHz
WinRAR = 3421kb/s
3D Mark Vantage CPU Score = 16329
3D Mark11 Physics Score = 5734

http://www.benchzone.com/as_tragoudisoume/screen072.jpg

[BenchZowner]

http://www.benchzone.com/as_tragoudisoume/ptsbd.png

The Stream benchmark is suffering on the Sandy Bridge because of the low memory frequency ( upping the RAM to 1866 7-7-7-22 nets 19964MB/s ) and the 7-zip test also suffers a performance loss due to the low RAM clock ( 1333 ) against BD's 1866

[Neuromancer]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?276190-AMD-PSCHECK-for-Bulldozer&p=4979264&viewfull=1#post4979264


Controll of core multis for BD/Thuban/Phenom

Not sure what this does (dont have a BD) but AOD let you control individual core multis too...

[Kal-EL]

Not familiar with ubu but unless I'm reading it wrong, seems like its performance is on par with intel.

[Mr.Scott]

Not familiar with ubu but unless I'm reading it wrong, seems like its performance is on par with intel.
You're not reading it wrong. It would seem that the Windows OS has a detrimental effect on BD. Thanks for doing this BZ. It's an eye opener.

[BenchZowner]

I wouldn't call it on par tbh.
But it ain't that bad as some people make it look ( the FX-4100 vs Thuban x4 is a different story, it's scary, very scary ).

I have the numbers from the 2600K with the RAM @ DDR3-1866 9-9-9-24 for a direct and fair comparison, but I haven't gotten around to create the charts yet.

If the FX-8150 find its way to 170$ then I'd say that it would sell a lot.
As long as it remains pricier than the 2500K I won't recommend it, unless forced to :p

It barely copes with the 2500K except in a few apps, running a 100 apps test suite, it would win around 20 apps, tie the 2500K in 30 apps, and lose the rest lagging behind from just a bit, to a lot.

[Neuromancer]

Hey BZ what version of Cinebench is that? Never saw some of the things listed in that screenshot (single core etc) is that a settings tweak?

[BenchZowner]

It's the normal version, available from Maxon's website.
You just need to go to the "File" menu and tick the "Advanced" option and you'll get all the available settings & options ;)

[Kal-EL]

Somebody snag a copy of that AMD Overdrive *special edition and upload to our server yet?

[BenchZowner]

I'll get the "internal" tools upped as soon as possible.

[Neuromancer]

I Dled the PSCHECK available over at XS, just in case it went missing. I dont have FTP info though so if it is still available over there (linked it up a few posts) could you up that to the FTP as well?

[BenchZowner]

Of course ;)

[BenchZowner]

Kal need pass to upload stuff on the FTP whenever you can send it over plz :)

BTW, here's one of the articles that cover the Bulldozer architecture and performance ( I have 2 or 3 more down the pipe )

Starting with a performance preview on Linux - http://www.benchzone.com/page.php?al=amd_fx8150_preview_1

[Kal-EL]

Kal need pass to upload stuff on the FTP whenever you can send it over plz :)

BTW, here's one of the articles that cover the Bulldozer architecture and performance ( I have 2 or 3 more down the pipe )

Starting with a performance preview on Linux - http://www.benchzone.com/page.php?al=amd_fx8150_preview_1
Help me, did I take care of this yet?

[BenchZowner]

Don't really know.
I have/had a username & pass, but I thought that it had download only permissions

[Kal-EL]

You have both sets.