SiSoftware publie la version 2014.10.20.47 de Sandra 2014

L’éditeur SiSoftware vient de publier une nouvelle version de son célèbre logiciel SANDRA. Il s’agit précisément de la version 2014.10.20.47 du programme. Celle-ci apporte le support des processeurs Intel Core i7-5000 (Haswell-EX), le support de la mémoire DDR4 et le support de architectures / technologies NVIDIA SM 5.2 et CUDA 6.5 v2. Le changelog complet est disponible ci-dessous.

-> Télécharger Sandra 2014 SP3c (version 2014.10.20.47)

Changelog officiel de Sandra 2014 SP3c (en anglais) :

* Support for « Haswell-EX » aka Core i7-5000 series
– Similar optimisations as for normal Haswell
– DDR4 support

* Support for « Big Maxwell » aka SM5.2 devices; CUDA SDK 6.5 v2
Minor optimisations for both SM10X and SM20X Maxwell devices:
– GPGPU Crypto AES
– GPGPU Scientific N-Body simulation

* Package Power State Limitation detection for Core CPUs
– We have personally observed laptops/ultrabooks that artificially limit the lowest package power state (e.g. C0/C1). While desktop Haswell not enabling C6/C7 states by default – unless a compatible power supply is used – is well known, mobile/ULV versions do also run into this issue. This causes abnormal power draw in idle mode that is important for mobile/ULV ultrabooks.

Note we’re talking « package lowest power C-state » not individual cores’ C-states.

Unfortunately, in most cases, the register is locked by the BIOS thus changes are not possible: an unlocked/modded BIOS is required. This « issue » is well-known to « hackintosh » modders as OSX power management expects this register to be unlocked. Some BIOSes preserve « factory default » value of the CPU: that would mean some CPUs have been released with « incorrect » default lowest state.