A little over a month ago, we reported findings on the performance shortcomings of AMD's Bulldozer line of CPUs, identifying areas where Microsoft's Windows task scheduler was unable to fully utilise the architecture to achieve maximum performance, either harming or not fully exploiting the processors' capabilities, depending on how you wish to look at it.
The question remaining at the end of the article, had been whether Microsoft intended to release a patch for Windows 7 or wait until the release of Windows 8 to include full support for the unique design. Last week, Microsoft let slip prematurely a hotfix introducing changes to the Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 task scheduler, allowing it to fully exploit the Bulldozer architecture, which has since been pulled.
The hotfix was incomplete, one of two intended fixes, leading to spurious performance figures under some scenarios, however initial suggestions claim a two to seven per cent increase in performance, nothing too major but figures that will no doubt receive a warm welcome from AMD and Bulldozer owners alike, who may wish to keep an eye on Microsoft's website for when the fix eventually becomes live again.
The revelation of a hotfix perhaps bodes well for the overall value of the Bulldozer line as AMD has also launched a Christmas and New Year cash-back promotion, more cores, more money back, https://www.amd-promotions.com/fx/uk/index.asp.
