Well, Socket AM2 isn't going to set the world on fire with its amazing speed boost compared to Socket 939. The move to DDR2 memory is an upgrade, but a very minor one in terms of overall performance. Memory bandwidth is obviously, stupendously improved with Socket AM2, and memory latency is actually a little lower, too. Unfortunately, these changes only translate into tangible gains in a handful of our application benchmarks. Games and video encoding tests seem to make the most use of Socket AM2's additional bandwidth, as well as our speech recognition benchmark and a few others. Many other applications show no improvement at all. Socket AM2 does bring lower power consumption at idle than Socket 939, but that advantage seems to evaporate when the CPU is busy, in spite of the lower TDP ratings for the newer CPUs.
For now, that's good enough. Intel's Pentium D and Extreme Edition processors simply can't keep up with the Athlon 64 X2. The two new speed grades, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and FX-62, only extend AMD's performance lead, and the FX-62 dominates the current crop of desktop PC processors.
We'll soon know for sure whether the FX-62 is fast enough to take on Intel's next-gen CPUs and win. Based on what's we've seen from Intel's Core microarchitecture in the form of Conroe and Woodcrest, I have my doubts whether the FX-62 will be sufficient. The new Energy Efficient Athlon 64 X2s are intriguing, and they may help AMD to stay competitive—once they arrive. As you may have heard, AMD is also hinting that it has yet another trick up its sleeve to counter Conroe. We shall have to see about that.
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Last by My Johnson at 2:45 AM on 06/07/06 - Email the author(s): Scott Wasson
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