AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 And X2 5000+ Socket AM2, nForce 590 SLI & ATI RD580
Benchmark And Performance Summary:
The new AM2 platform showed a small advantage in some applications but nothing earth-shattering. However, undoubtedly the Athlon 64 FX-62 on the AM2 platform is easily the fastest Desktop processor on the market today. The Athlon 64 X2 5000+ showed some situations where it was on par with a similarly clocked FX-60 but obviously not in cases that are memory latency or memory footprint sensitive (Windows Media Encoder/Mozilla multi-tasking), since it has only 512KB of cache per core. Between the nForce 590 SLI and the CrossFire Xpress 3200, it was a virtual toss-up, save for the small, hopefully temporary glitches we saw in NF590's SATA throughput. The CF Xpress 3200 runs cooler and consumes less power the nForce 590 SLI, but in gaming scenarios SLI has its obvious advantages, as does CrossFire.
What AMD has accomplished today is indicative of the evolution and migration of an architecture, that will pave the way for future performance and enhancements. The move to DDR2 memory was inevitable and as future Athlon core architectures evolve, the company will have much needed bandwidth to service ever-hungry dual core processor pipelines. Frankly, in some spots we were hoping for better performance from AM2 but in the back of our minds we suspected this may not be the case. Regardless, you simply cannot take away the fact the new Athlon 64 FX-62 and Athlon 64 X2 5000+ are two of the fastest processors money can buy for the PC right now; and the former is easily the fastest desktop chip on the market at the moment. Speaking of which, here's a run-down on new pricing that will launch with these processors today.
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AM2 PRICING: FX-62: $1,031 X2 5000+: $696 X2 4800+: $645 X2 4600+: $558 X2 4400+: $470 X2 4200+: $365 X2 4000+ $328 X2 3800+: $303 Athlon 64 3800+: $290 Athlon 64 3500+: $189 Sempron 3600+: $123 Sempron 3500+: $109 Sempron 3400+: $97 Sempron 3200+: $87 Sempron 3000+: $77 |
AM2 PRICING: (ENERGY EFFICIENT MODELS): 65 WATTS: X2 4800+ $671 X2 4600+ $601 X2 4400+ $514 X2 4200+ $417 X2 4000+ $353 X2 3800+ $323 35 WATTS: X2 3800+ $364 Athlon 64 3500+ $231 Sempron 3400+ $145 Sempron 3200+ $119 Sempron 3000+ $101 |
In addition, new chipsets that support these processors from NVIDIA and ATI, are every bit as feature-rich as anything Intel has to offer currently. The consumer value proposition is strong currently for AMD, there is no question. The real question is what does the future hold for the company that took on Intel and won, at least from an Engineering perspective. Conroe is coming, we've seen it. Will AM2 be enough? That question will be answered on these pages we can assure you, in the months ahead.
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