AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 And X2 5000+ Socket AM2, nForce 590 SLI & ATI RD580

A quick-take look at the new Athlon 64's timings and memory subsystems is shown here with a reading or two from CPU-Z.

CPU Vital Signs CPU-Z Tests

CPU-Z Athlon 64 FX-62 CPU Details

CPU-Z Athlon 64 FX-62 Memory Details

CPU-Z Athlon 64 FX-62 Cache Details

CPU-Z Athlon 64 FX-62 Motherboard Details

Here we see the potent dual CPU cores resident in the Athlon 64 FX-62, backed up by a full 1MB of cache per core and 200MHz Hypertransport link base clock, which is then multiplied up 14X to 2.8GHz and 5X for the HyperTransport link at 1GHz.  Corsairs fabulous CM2X512-8500 memory is clocked in at 400MHz DDR2-800 with 4,4,4,12,1T latency timings.  These modules are also stock rated at 1066MHz 5,5,5,15,2T as well but the AMD officially supported DDR2-800 speed is shown in this test. 

CPU-Z Athlon 64 X2 5000+ CPU Details

CPU-Z Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Memory Details

CPU-Z Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Cache Details

Similarly, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ shows two physical cores, clocked at 2.6GHz but the memory timing, as we discussed earlier, isn't as snappy at the FX-62.  Since the base memory clock on the core is derived by the nearest whole number derivative off the processor speed not exceeding 400MHz or DDR2-800, the clock-in DDR2 timings are set to 371MHz.  The result is a DDR2 742MHz (2600MHz/7) timing, plus a few extra MHz due to Asus' aggressive PLL and fanout timings on the motherboard.

Overclocking The AM2 Athlon 64 Headroom and then some...

A bit indulgent to be sure, one of the first things we'll show you is how well these two new processors for socket AM2 can overclock.  We were impressed without question. 

Athlon 64 FX-62 @ 3.1GHz

Athlon 64 5000+ @ 3GHz

These speeds and thermal readings were taken with a stock AMD cooler installed at ambient room temp on an open air test bench.  It was interesting to see how cool the new cores stayed under load, although heavily overclocked.  We realized a 10% (300MHz) clock speed boost with the FX-62 and 13% (400MHz) increase for the 5000+.  Both CPUs ran relatively stable as well but we'd suggest a more robust cooler for this kind of overclocking effort, versus the stock and only adequate HSF we were working with from AMD.

SANDRA CPU Athlon 64 FX-62 3.1GHz Overclocked

SANDRA Multimedia Athlon 64 FX-62 3.1GHz Overclocked

SANDRA Memory Athlon 64 FX-62 3.1GHz Overclocked DDR2-1040

Breaking 10,000MB/Sec in SANDRA's Memory Test:
While the cores performed as expected with these higher clock speeds, perhaps what's more impressive is the fact that we recorded easily the fastest memory throughput benchmark number we've ever taken in the lab. With this kind of memory speed and CAS4 timings, the available system memory bandwidth is amazing.  We achieved these speeds using a 12X multiplier on the CPU and a 260MHz HT link clock, along with a .10V voltage boost on the CPU core and memory modules.

SANDRA CPU Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 3GHz Overclocked

SANDRA Multimedia Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 3GHz Overclocked

SANDRA Memory Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 3GHz Overclocked DDR2-1000

More of the same is recorded here for the Athlon 64 X2 5000+, only this new Athlon 64 gave us 400MHz more in total over its stock 2.6GHz clock speed.  We dropped the CPU mutiplier down to 12X which in turn gives us a 6X divisor for memory.  We then jacked the HT link speed to 250MHz which took the core to an even 3GHz.  At 3000MHz/6 (500MHz) we get a neat and clean 1GHZ DDR2 memory clock (500MHz clock-doubled).  Here the SANDRA memory scores were still a blistering 7900+MB/sec.  Again we needed about 1.5V CPU core voltage and 2.2-2.3V on the memory to achieve stability at these clock speeds.