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By,
Marco Chiappetta
and Chris Angelini
February 10, 2003
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Our
Test System's Major Components |
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A
Flagship CPU with Top Notch Components |
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We tested the
Athlon XP 3000+ with a group of top-notch supporting
hardware from Asus, Corsair Micro and ATi. We used an
nForce 2 powered Asus A7N8X motherboard to test AMD's newest
CPU. As you all know, for maximum performance the
nForce 2 needs to operate in "Dual-DDR" mode, so we
populated the A7N8X with two matched 256MB PC-3200 DDR
modules from Corsair, for a grand total of 512MB of RAM.
We had an ATi built Radeon 9700 Pro pushing the pixels in
our test rig, officially making our Athlon XP 3000+ test bed
a "kick-ass" system.
Cooling duties
were handled by the heatsink / fan combo provided to us by
AMD with the 3000+. As far as "stock" coolers go, AMD
looks to have a winner on their hands with this improved
model. About the only thing we didn't like about this
new cooler was the clip design. We would have
preferred to have seen a more reliable and sturdy
three-pronged clip mechanism, instead of the single pronged
design seen here. The thin aluminum fins, copper core
and quiet fan were all very appealing though, and its
performance was surprisingly good. Obviously, this
cooler will not hold a candle to something like a
Thermalright SLK-800 coupled with a high-speed fan, but
you'll be happy to note that even when we overclocked this
CPU to almost 2.4GHz.. Our core temperature never even
came close 85°C,
which is the Athlon XP 3000+'s maximum die temperature
rating.
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The
Athlon XP 3000+ Exposed |
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Getting to the Nitty-Gritty |
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We ran WCPUID
v3.1a to take a look at the inner workings of the Athlon XP
3000+. The above screenshots are of the general CPU
information page, the CacheID information page and the
Standard and Extended Feature Flags. The CPU status
screen indicates our CPU was running at its default clock
speed of 2.16GHz (13x166MHz). The CacheID screenshot
shows the Athlon XP 3000+ still sporting 64K of 2-Way set
associative Instruction L1 cache and 64K of 2-Way set
associative data L1 cache, but 16-Way set associative L2
cache has been increased to 512K, for a grand total of 640K
of full-speed on-die cache. The Standard and Extended
Feature flags haven't changed from previous generations of
the Athlon XP. (WCPUID
ID Information taken from an Athlon XP 2700+ is available
here.)
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Overclocking
The
3000+ |
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(Lower Clock Speed + Greater Surface Area) - More
Transistors = Better OC? |
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ATHLON XP 3000+
2.43GHZ (13X187)
CPU
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ATHLON XP 3000+
2.43GHZ (13X187)
Memory
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ATHLON XP 3000+
2.43GHZ (13X187)
Multimedia
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ATHLON XP 3000+
2.43GHZ (13X187)
Cache
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Many of you are
probably wondering how all of the extra transistors that
comprise the new "Barton" core, have affected the
overclocking potential of the Athlon XP. Well, if our
experience is any indication, the overclockers out there are
going to be very pleased with AMD's new desktop CPUs.
We overclocked our Athlon XP 3000+ by raising the FSB, and
were able to take our particular CPU all the way up to
2.43GHz (13x187MHz) at default voltage, using the "stock"
cooler provided to us by AMD. That is an almost 13%
increase without using exotic cooling, or raising the
processor's core voltage. Using a VapoChill or
water-cooling the CPU, and jacking up the core voltage would
undoubtedly produce even better results. We should
also note, that after benchmarking the system while
overclocked, we immediately restarted the system and entered
the BIOS and never saw the core temperature never exceed 75°C.
At default clock speeds our CPU's temperature hovered
between 48°
and 52°C.
The extra
surface area provided by the larger core, seems to make
cooling these new CPUs easier, with the added benefit of
making them more durable. Also, we didn't verify this
ourselves just yet, but unlocking the multiplier on "Barton"
based CPUs should be the same process as unlocking a
"Thoroughbred". Connect the Fifth L3 trace and you
should be in business.
So, How Fast is it?
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