The Wikipedia page for the AMD Steamroller Processors says that ALL of the Steamroller CPUs will only be on FM2 and FM2+ mobos. It seams that as many of us had guessed FM series mothebroards will be replacing AM series omtherboards. Personally I see this as a very good thing, the AM series motherboards were using very old architecture and technology and was really ditacting over what AMD could do with their CPUs, but with FM series now being AMDs main motherboard this really could allow for the Steamroller CPUs to get the predicted 30% perfomance increase over Piledriver along with Excavator's 50% increase over Steamroller. One VERY good perk of the upcoming FM2+ motherboards is that they will support PCI-e 3.0 natively.
Using FM2+ for steamroller FX would make some sense, but it would also kind of screw over AMD's customers. As it stands, the enthusiasts are getting the 990fx boards specifically to have the more powerful cpus for use with dedicated graphics cards. If the FX series is released solely for FM2+, then those enthusiasts won't be able to upgrade without getting a new board as well. Seeing as how AMD customers don't like to idea of trading in boards too often (who wants to drop more money than necessary, and AMD cpus are aimed at value buyers), and everyone has been expecting the next FX series to be on AM3+. It would make sense from a tech stand point, but it would probably piss a lot of people off.
Eventually the change needs to be made to help reduce power consumption and increase speed. It's no secret that AMD has power-hungry cpu's. Their best bet would be to change to a newer platform. Eventually people will switch, especially if it means more SATA 6gbps lanes, PCIE3.0, and more efficient power delivery.
FM2+ will have pci-e 3 native. Some whisperings taht I have heard is that AMD plans to combine all of the sockets (simplify). Releasing Steamroller for FM2+ would help with that. It is the newest chipset to come from them. Also, I have heard nothing of 1090fx as of yet, so it would make sense that AMD wants to transfer everything over to the FM socket. This is all completely speculation though.
Why the hell would they offer 8 core desktop CPU's on a 906-pin PGA socket? It doesn't make any sense, if anything they should be putting them on a 1000+ pin PGA socket as they are lacking data pins required to get more performance out of the CPUs themselves.
To clear some facts, THERE IS one 990fx motherboard that supports pci-e 3.0. Fact is Vishera does support it, ASUS's JJ has confirmed that. The Sabertooth 990FX Gen3/R2.0 will function with PCI-E 3.0 natively but the fact is GPU memory bandwidth hasn't even finished 2.0 cycle yet, it still has big room so PCI-E 3.0 is still worthless for the time being. AM3+ is still going to be utilized for steamroller, AMD has confirmed it. Maybe excavator will use AM4 along with the 1090fx, or maybe 1090fx will be an iteration of AM3+ like a rev2. It's really the motherboard makers that are being lazy, they know that revisioning the board is not worth it from a financial standpoint because pci-e 3.0 doesn't justify it.
FM2 isn't a viable upgrade because FM2 doesn't change much, it is just a revision to AM3+ with iGPU utilization and a more tight knit with RAM utilization for the iGPU.
From what i've seen, the 1090fx has been delayed for 2 years now, it was suppose to be launched fall 2012 and then got pushed every year now. From what it sounds like, it will be launched either with Steamroller or Excavator but it will be an AM4 that supports AM3+. The reason why i say that is because lots of speculation shows that 1090fx may be a mid launch between the 2 chips.
More Sata 6 ports seem pointless counting most mb's already have 6 which is realisticly already overkill. Then PCI-e 3.0 is still not needed, even though new gen gpu's start to utilize 3.0, i dont understand what AMD/Nvidia are thinking, why not master 2.0 before jumping 3.0....*smh*. Better power utilization is something AMD NEEDS to get right, and steamroller IS suppose to have around 15-30% more power efficiency, so we might see something go right, as well as 10-15% better single core performance. Another thing is that AMD's phase changing is a bit obselete, moterhboard companies keep driving the idea of high number phase changing, which is stupid on their part, It's just a numbers game for them, what we need is a controller that delivers power adaptively instead of staticly. I really hope 1090fx will at least adop some of these ideas or i feel that AMD may be done soon. Next gen consoles may save them for a bit, but i think every PC guy can feel that next-gen will probably be the end of high end consoles. PC is just evolving so quickly that i feel consoles can't have longevity anymore.
I feel your pain dude.I need to get a new pc and I have beenworking on an amd build.I was thinking of going fx 6 core and asus revision 2 motherboard....Thank god I still need to wait a month for the money for it :)
Steamroller is the AMD codename for the a microarchitecture based on an improved version of Piledriver. AMD Steamroller cores will be found in the upcoming Socket FM2+Kaveribased series of APUs and CPUs.
source:wiki
AM3 and AM3+ have been around for a long time.32nm manufacturing process has been here for a long time.Intel has gotten to 22nm with Haswell.AMD needs to move on....What do you think is more logical to do...a)Make a steamroller cpu on the old AM3+ b)Make a steamroller cpu on a new AM4,witch is a new upgrade from scratch for all users who want a steamroller cpu c)Go with the 28nm process,make the steamroller complatable with FM2 and release FM2+ for apu users and cpu users AMD has to move forward,going with the 28nm FM2 is by far the most logical move
And how do you think they are going to achieve a 30 % perfromance jump on the same 32 nm,on the same boards.How do you think they will solve the issues they have with their chips if they stick to the same process 4 years commercially old.32nm has lived out it's days for Intel a long time ago,and Vishera was the last one for AMD.When Vishera came out,no new motherboards came out,why do u think that is the case,if the Steamrolelr will be on 32nm ? Do you really think they will make another chip compatable with boards 2 years old ?There is no way the new cpu will be compatable with the boards out right now,and making a new chip on 32 nm,and making new boards on 32 nm makes no sense.They have 28nm boards ready and waiting,they have Athlon cpu's for them already.Switching the new FX steamroller chips on FM2 boards is simply the most logical move.The groundwork is all set up.....But hey maybe I'm wrong,however I'm pretty sure 32nm is dead,and going on the FM2 28nm is the most logical,easiest upgrade path..We will see who was right :)