AMD's Back in Black
Clocking in at 3.2GHz, the 6400+ receives a 200MHz bump up from the 6000+, but not much else. Built on AMD's current 90nm DSl SOI technology with a single HyperTransport link at 2.0GHz, 2MB of L2 cache (1MB per core) and a 125W TDP, not much has changed from the 6000+. The 6400+ is intended to bolster AMD's current high-end line-up and better compete with Intel's Core 2 Duo E6850, at least until Phenom arrives.
![Athlon_64_X2_6400_Specs.png](https://hothardware.com/newsimages/Item4714/Athlon_64_X2_6400_Specs.png)
The 6400+ will take up a position at $239 (1000-unit PIB quantities), a healthy 34% increase over the 6000+ which currently costs $178. AMD will only be offering the 6400+ as a PIB WOF Black Edition product through the channel, however. Which, in plain English, means the processor is offered in a swanky Black Edition box with no heatsink and fan included. While details on the mysterious 'Black Edition' branding are sparse, we do know it will be a "special edition" product, which in this case will likely mean it will only be available in limited quantities.
Unfortunately, AMD isn't sampling the 6400+ to the press, so we aren't able to bring you our usual suite of benchmarks and tests. However, it has been said that the 6400+ will perform roughly 10%-15% below Intel's E6850 and about 7% faster than the Athlon 64 X2 6000+. This is a nice gain, since the 6000+ currently has trouble keeping up with Intel's E6750. At $239, the Athlon 64 X2 6400+ is also cheaper than the Core 2 E6850, which currently has a street price of around $280.