FPSLabs : AMD Spider Launch Coverage

AMD’s got a lot riding on November 19th. Find out why.

Throughout history there have been days that elicit tremendous change. August 6th, 1945 marked the the start of new era in weaponry that would forever change the way the world’s population envisions warfare. November 19th, 1863 and the short speech delivered that day did perhaps more to unify the United States of America than perhaps any single event in the country’s storied past. November 5th, 1605 was the setting of a foiled plot to destroy the parliament building in Great Britain and probably one of the more powerful reformation-sparking events on record. While it might not be fair to include November 19th, 2007 on a list with these examples, the effect the date will have on the hardware industry has the potential to be relatively as important. Tomorrow, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will be officially launching three new product lines simultaneously, all of which constitute what they are calling a “Spider Platform” – the biggest singular hardware launch ever.

This new platform will consist of a newly-designed core architecture in the form of the Phenom X4 processor class. Features of the new chip include HyperTransport 3.0, a low 89W thermal design power envelope, and a 2MB bank of L3 cache that will be shared by each of the four processing cores. The platform will also include the new HD3800 series graphics cards, previously codenamed RV670, which have been met with relatively positive though lackluster reviews (from a price/performance standpoint) across the web. The HD3800 series parts that made their public debut late last week boast full support for DirectX10.1 (an incremental update to Microsoft’s DirectX10 graphics API), chips manufactured on the 55nm process node, support for CrossFireX technology, and exceptionally low price points. Finally, the 790FX motherboard chipset, which touts features such as PCI-Express 2.0, HyperTransport 3.0, and an incredibly low thermal design power, among others, will round out the day’s festivities from AMD; a company that now fancies itself a “Platform Provider”.

While none of the upcoming products individually present an overly impressive offering to the hardware industry, the three combined – and the way AMD has chosen to implement them – represent what may very well by a shift in the way products are marketed and nudge Intel Corp ever so slightly from the domination they have enjoyed for the past year and a half. When all three of the components are used together in a system, a reworked AMD OverDrive feature will be automatically enabled which supposedly allows for seamless tweaking of the system settings for a significant performance increase. Unfortunately we were not provided with the AMD press material for this product launch, so we cannot provide you with details regarding this feature – or anything mentioned so far for that matter – but such information can be found easily on other websites.

The imminent product launch from AMD comes at a point of apparent turmoil within the company. Most recently rumors are running rampant in regards to the replacement of long-standing AMD CEO Hector Ruiz; an event that many analysts speculate is more of a matter of when than anything else. Financially, the company has recorded a net loss of $396 million USD on a revenue of just $1.632 billion USD in Q3 2007 (DailyTech).

Amidst all the negativity directed towards AMD recently as a result of poor product performance and consequently the lack of competitive offerings in both the GPU and CPU arenas, the Spider launch serves as a beacon of hope for the company. If the platform ends up performing at a level where purchasing it over alternatives makes sense, then November 19th, 2007 will surely be a day that we can triumph as a turning point in the hardware industry.

While FPSLabs was not supplied with any of these products for review purposes, we will most certainly be here to provide you with up to the minute coverage from launch day. Keep it locked to FPSLabs for links to reviews of these products from around the web and our own opinions regarding the results of these reviews.

Update: 12/23/2007

When we first reported about the Spider Platform last month, all of us were very optimistic that this new development from AMD would help to change the enthusiast computer landscape considerably. There have been reviews of systems out for a while now, and at this moment the results are kind of a mixed bag. A lot of reviews acclaim the new Radeon HD3870 for its amazing price/performance ratio, while the Phenom X4 seems to be sort of a rough mark on the Spider scorecard.

We were contacted about a month ago by Vigor Gaming, a company for which we’ve reviewed several products, including an outstanding case and cooling system, and asked if we would like to take a quick peek at a Spider system they had just finished building. Since we had yet to see any of the components of a Spider system first hand, of course we obliged.

While we cannot comment on the security with which Vigor ships their systems (as we went to pick the machine up from their office in Southern California), we do know that normal customer orders are shipped in a set of two boxes with high-density foam; a setup that seems extremely secure.

One thing we’ve never been able to wrap our heads around regarding purchasing custom computers from system builders like Vigor Gaming is the premium price that you end up paying versus purchasing the parts online and building the system yourself. However, when we were filled in about the configuration of our Delta Force AE after opening the system and looking at the MSRP Vigor provided, things became a bit more clear. As configured with two Radeon HD3870 video cards, Phenom X4 9600 processor, MSI K9A2 CF 790X motherboard, Corsair HX620 power supply, and 1.5TB of storage, the Hornet AE costs just $2500. Professionally assembled, pre-loaded with no stupid bloatware software on the Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit operating system, and sporting the attractive and highly-acclaimed (by us) Cooler Master CM690 chassis, this machine is certainly worthy of a second glance.

We spent a few weeks with the Delta Force AE, running all of the latest games pretty much non-stop every day in addition to some productivity tasks. We would love to say that the Vigor system performed flawlessly throughout all testing, but alas, it did not. Our only hiccups occurred when we attempted to run what we consider to be crown jewel of AMD’s Spider Platform: the OverDrive system monitor utility. In the past month we have read countless reviews that sing the praises of OverDrive; claiming that is the first such monitoring/tweaking utility to be anything other than a worthless piece of garbage. Our first experience with the application was not exactly enjoyable, as it would not run at all on the Vigor system. Although this is not a crucial application to have running, we decided to give Vigor a call about it to see if their tech support crew was up to scruff and able to provide a solution. We spoke with Tommy at Vigor and he mentioned he had not encountered this problem before so he could not offer us much more than his word that he would look into it and give us a call back tomorrow. Somewhat dissatisfied, we went about the rest of the day gaming at 1680×1050 resolution and high details in Call of Duty 4 with extremely impressive frame rates. Lo and behold the next day we had a call back from Tommy who had some good news for us. Apparently the OverDrive issue was related to the MSI motherboard we were using, and he gave us a link to download a new BIOS file for the system. After taking all of 5 minutes to update the BIOS, OverDrive was working like a charm. This left us extremely impressed with Vigor’s service.

Perhaps the very best part of the Delta Force AE is the internal cable management. We have focused on cable management techniques here in the past, and several of our staff claim to be “experts” and hiding cables minimizing clutter. Vigor’s approach at cable management is slightly different than what we would consider traditional. The wires in the Delta Force AE are neatly bundled together in a way that provides for very high convenience and functionality, while maximizing airflow. Vigor does not so much care about how it looks (even though it looks impressive) rather than how easy it will be for a customer to install a new drive with ease and decrease the amount of impeded airflow from case fans. Aided by the Corsair HX620 power supply and the thin cables characteristic of the unit, cable management in the Delta Force AE is hands down the best we’ve ever seen from a system integrator.

The system performance did not disappoint either. During our testing of the computer, we ran Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for hours on end with no hiccups whatsoever. Worth mentioning, however, is that the Radeon HD3870 graphics card do tend to run a little hot under CrossFire configuration, though not quite to the point where decreased performance becomes an issue. On the CPU end, the Vigor Whisper Cool cooling system does an excellent job at whisking away the heat generated by the Phenom X4; which is no surprise, as our review of the standalone unit suggests.

For those not interested in going through the work and headaches of building their own system, the Delta Force AE from Vigor Gaming, configured with AMD’s Spider Platform is definitely something to take a look at. The professional craftsmanship, superb stability, and minimal price premium would all make for an attractive offering by themselves. Throw in Vigor’s outstanding technical support and attention to detail, and we don’t see any reason why even a seasoned DIY enthusiast wouldn’t consider the Delta Force AE as a viable alternative.

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