Home | Forums | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop | Contact Us | Log Out AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Email This Print This View My Personal Library Heavy Gear July 2005 • Vol.5 Issue 7 Page(s) 16 in print issue Add To My Personal Library AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Preview $1,001 AMD (951) 674-4661 www.amd.com CPU First Look Preview Specs: 2.4GHz, 90nm, Toledo core, 2X 1,024KB L2 cache Last month I got to play “early” dual core with Intel, and now AMD has put together its version of a dual-core preview system for me to look at. It might be a few months out, but even at this early stage it’s clear that the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual core will pack an awesome punch. AMD has already let loose its server Opteron version of the same processor, but I’m soon going to be gaming/working with X2s on my desktops, too. Aimed directly at Intel’s Pentium Extreme Edition 840, the X2 4800+ (code-named Toledo) will be clocked at 2.4GHz and each core will have 1,024KB worth of L2 cache, but it will not be cheap (above $1,000). With just over 230 million transistors and a die-size of 199mm˛, the Toledo core compares favorably to Intel’s Smithfield (233 million transistors and 206mm˛). Both Intel and AMD utilize a single-memory controller approach. The Pentium 840 shares the FSB with the 955/945 chipsets’ MCH; whereas the X2 makes use of the on-die memory controller associated with Athlon 64 cores. Obviously there is a marked difference between AMD’s and Intel’s dual-core techniques. The X2 cores work with the rest of your system by a memory crossbar switch, which also has independent access to HyperTransport links, again all of this is done “on-die.” However, Intel’s dual-core CPUs have to do this work “off chip” when communicating with the MCH on a motherboard because the Smithfield core has no internal data links between its dual cores and all memory accesses and system I/O occurs across its shared FSB. The X2 is theoretically allocated 6.4GBps of peak memory bandwidth. The X2 is based upon the newer 90nm SOI process. The addition of SSE3 support is a welcome one. The pin count also remains at 939, so motherboards will only need a BIOS update in order to accommodate the X2. Hence, stepping up for non-X2 owners will not mean throwing out your “old” motherboards. Another factor making the upgrade less problematic is slight improvements made to the memory controller. You’ll now be able to use mismatched memory DIMMs on the same channel without having to drop down to DDR333. Then again, for my test system, I went full tilt and used unbuffered high-performance Corsair Pro Series DDR400 memory set to CAS 2-3-2-5. As far as the platform goes, I was able to simply update the BIOS on my trusty ASUS A8N SLI motherboard to enable the X2. The X2 4800+ clearly plasters itself on the top of the benchmark leader board table in almost every category. Not only does it beat the FX-55, but Intel’s Extreme Edition 840 gets some good left, right, and uppercut combinations thrown at it. If AMD can actually release a full line of X2 processors in a timely fashion, it will have something special on its hands. For the hardcore gamer, AMD’s roadmap still indicates that the Athlon 64 FX line will continue with another speed bump or two, but its days are clearly numbered. Then again, with almost 90% of the performance of AMD’s best gaming CPU (the FX-55) and with so much promise for the future, it almost makes sense to go for the dual core over the single core. Just wait until prices start to come down. Single-processor cores won’t be the way of the future, we all know that. So there you have it, the fastest-and-most-expensive-desktop-processor-that’s-not-quite-yet-available award goes to AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 4800+. by Alex “Sharky” Ross View the graphics that accompany this article. NOTE: These pages are PDF (Portable Document Format) files. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view these pages. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader)  User Reviews Be the first to write a review of this product Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? Type a word or phrase that identifies the topic and click "Search" to find relevant articles from within our editorial database. Enter A Subject (key words or a phrase): ALL Words (‘digital’ AND ‘photography’) ANY Words (‘digital’ OR ‘photography’) Exact Match ('digital photography'- all words MUST appear together) Home      Copyright & Legal Information      Privacy Policy      Site Map      Contact Us Copyright © 2009 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.