Intel accused of inflating CPU benchmark results::SPEC says Intel’s Xeon processors were using a compiler that artificially inflated the results of its industrial benchmark by as much as 9%.

  • mindlight@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    I’m not going to say you’re wrong but I’m surprised. It’s like we lived in alternate universes.

    Not that I think Intel wouldn’t cheat, because they’ve showed what they’re “capable of” time after time, but what I remember about Athlon vs P4 was that there was something about heat and wattage specified by AMD that was criticized heavily. Athlon was also not something you’d choose for overclock because of this.

    I just googled a little and there didn’t seem to be a trace of any controversy around P4 and tailormade compiler.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Oh boy the Tom’s Hardware “scandal”. That story was 100% planted by Intel. I think it was the K6, If the cooler dropped off, entirely the AMD thermal safety didn’t react quickly enough. In my 40 years in IT I have NEVER heard about a cooler falling off the socket even once, except for that paid for cesspool of shit article.
      That story together with the 180° they did on RAMBUS to favor P4 have made me NEVER use TOM’s Hardware since. It was 100% dishonest paid for shilling. Either that or so idiotic it’s not worth reading either way. Even you mentioning that now about 30 years later, it still pisses me off. 🤬 🤬 🤬
      Never heard about heat problems with Athlon, and P3 and P4 weren’t great overclockers either. Celeron was great, because you could up FSB 50%, Which made it actually faster than the top P3.

      EDIT PS:
      No there were no journalists that covered/revealed ANY of Intels shenanigans at the time. The entire industry seemed to be in an Intel Vacuum.
      But entusiasts all knew that Athlon was way better than P4.

      EDIT2:
      There was also the issue that the Intel compiler had zero optimizations for any AMD CPU, but optimized heavily for P4. That was a general thing that Intel didn’t even hide.

      • mindlight@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        So the journalists are still covering for Intel to this day 15 years later, but the enthusiasts know the truth?

        I’m still not saying you’re wrong but you have to admit it’s kinda strange a quick Google doesn’t reveal anything?

        • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          So considering Intel used illegal means to keep AMD out, and was fined a billion dollars for it. You think they didn’t touch gray areas in their marketing too? You seem to have no knowledge of what went on in IT in the 90’s, and be very naive, or maybe just a shill or a troll.

          • mindlight@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            What in “Not that I think Intel wouldn’t cheat, because they’ve showed what they’re “capable of” time after time…” was unclear for you? Your conclusion from the above statement is that I’m probably a shill or just doesn’t know IT as good as you because I don’t agree with you on the spot? Really? Is that what you using your full mental capacity was able to conclude from my statement?

            Let me just clear up it a little for you: The issue isn’t that Intel was (is) an asshole, it’s that you blurb out unsubstantiated claims and when called out on it you claim that there’s a conspiracy lead by Intel, all the journalists are on it but we all should take your word for it.

            We both have all the information in the world literally in our hands and still you are unable to link to facts that support your statement and that is my fault somehow?

            Nice talking to you. Have an awesome weekend. I will.

            • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              unsubstantiated claims

              Hmm, do you remember the RAMBUS debacle, and the 180° turnaround Toms Hardware did on that in favor of Intel and P4?
              I think that very clearly substantiates that Toms Hardware had an agenda to favor Intel.
              It’s not my fault if you are unaware of facts that were common knowledge among IT specialists at the time.

              You are making the fallacy of “argument from ignorance”. Just because you don’t know, doesn’t make it false.

      • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        So they put out an article claiming that the thermal safety was defective, and the thermal safety was defective, and you see that as some grandiose conspiracy perpetrated by Intel? And you’re still upset about it?

        Even if Intel did discover and publish the defect, what exactly did they do wrong? I would reasonably expect AMD and Intel to be testing each other’s hardware constantly. Would you have preferred that Intel didn’t publish their findings?

        • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The thermal safety was not defective, only a few years prior thermal safety wasn’t even available. The article created an artificial situation that never occurs in reality, and claimed the CPU should be able to handle that.

          The CPU handled a fan suddenly cutting off just fine, it handled being turned on without a cooler just fine. Only if the CPU was running full throttle, and the cooling block “fell off” suddenly and completely, the throttle wasn’t fast enough.

          When did you ever hear about that actually happening?

          • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            So you’re saying that the CPU burning out when the cooler is removed, is the thermal safety working as intended? Sorry, I am not familiar with the situation, but the way you initially described the issue doesn’t sound like foul play.

            Edit: y’all are simping for a $300 billion dollar company rn lol

            • AMDIsOurLord@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              The cooler falling off is an impossible situation. It’s a completely bullshit metric. Intel CPUs of the time ran hotter, used more power, and had lower IPC, hence the higher clock speeds but lower actual performance. They had to invent some bullshit to make themselves look good.

              Besides, just a while before that generation thermal safety wasn’t even a thing, if you remove the cooler from older Intel processors it just catches fire lol

              • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                The cooler falling off is an impossible situation. It’s a completely bullshit metric.

                I don’t disagree - I can’t imagine that ever happening in real life. But taking the cooler off while it’s running? I can definitely envision my idiot 13-year-old self doing that back when I was building my first PC.

                Intel CPUs of the time ran hotter, used more power, and had lower IPC, hence the higher clock speeds but lower actual performance. They had to invent some bullshit to make themselves look good.

                Given this information, I probably still would have gone with the Athlon. Are you saying that a report about a very-difficult-to-trigger defect in the thermal safety single-handedly convinced thousands/millions of potential customers to choose the Pentium instead?

                Besides, just a while before that generation thermal safety wasn’t even a thing, if you remove the cooler from older Intel processors it just catches fire lol

                I’m guessing that’s why thermal safety was a selling point, no?

                • AMDIsOurLord@lemmy.ml
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                  8 months ago

                  It was part a larger unethical media campaign and bribery chain by Intel. They did their damn best to hurt AMD, and they managed to pull it off, but some time later AMD brought their asses to court and sued over it, with literally billions in damages and agreements that Intel had to pay.

                  • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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                    8 months ago

                    some time later AMD brought their asses to court and sued over it, with literally billions in damages and agreements that Intel had to pay.

                    A ha! This part of the story hasn’t been brought up yet, and it sounds like it would completely change my opinion.

    • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Oh AMD was definitely a cooking stove, but get a decent heat sink and paste and you are good to go.