AMD QuadFX Platform & FX-70 Series Processors
Introduction, Specs, and Related Info
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By now you're all familiar with Intel's Core micro-architecture, as well as the dual and quad-core Core 2 Duo, Extreme, and Quad processors based on it. With the launch of their Core 2 processors, Intel no longer played second fiddle to AMD in terms of overall performance or power efficiency. And for the last few months since their release, Intel has been steadily re-gaining fans in the enthusiast community that were put off by years of relatively hot-running, and under-performing Netburst micro-architecture based processors.
Today, AMD aims to re-capture the hearts of those hardcore enthusiasts with the official launch of their QuadFX platform. News about QuadFX has been trickling out for months under the "4x4" banner. But today we can show you exactly what QuadFX is all about. At its most basic level, QuadFX is AMD's vision of a high-end quad-core desktop computing platform. There's a lot more going on under the virtual hood, however. We'll start with some quick specifications and move on to some of the more juicy details on the pages ahead.
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As you can see in the specifications above, AMD's new FX-70 series of processors, which are the heart of the QuadFX platform, are very similar to current socket AM2-based FX processors. They differ only in their packaging, the number of HyperTransport links incorporated into the CPU, and of course by their clock speeds.
We have posted a wealth of information regarding AMD's Athlon 64 processors and related core-logic chipsets over the last few months here at HotHardware.com. For some more background on the technologies employed by AMD's Athlon 64 processors and the AMD platform as a whole, we suggest taking a look at few of the related articles listed below. They contain detailed explanations of some of the features common to AMD's legacy products, compatible chipsets, and the enhancements make to various dual-core processors:
- AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 and 5000+ Evaluation
- NVIDIA nForce 600 Series Evaluation (nForce 680i SLI)
- AMD Quad-Father 4x4 Technology Update
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Energy Efficient Processor Evaluation
We cover some specifics regarding AMD's dual-core processors in our FX-62 and 5000+ evaluation, and cover many of the details regarding the nForce 600 family of chipsets in our evaluation of the nForce 680i SLI. And our Quad-Father update has some early details regarding QuadFX. We suggest perusing these articles if you're unfamiliar with AMD's technology. They'll lay the groundwork for the tech covered on the next few pages.
