Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Review

May 30 2005 @ 11:52PM by jimmy

Neoseeker has posted a review of the Athlon 64 X2 4200+. You can check out our review of the 4800+ here.

"AMD is very clear about the positioning of the X2 line up - it is definitely a high end part and it is reflected with the PR rating that starts above the high end single core. With a 2.2 GHz/512 KB L2 Socket 939 Clawhammer costing about $265 USD right now, justifying the cost of an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ could be a tad difficult for the average consumer but AMD has stressed that the Athlon X2 line up will initially be a prosumer oriented part."

Full Review

 

AMD SHOWCASES WIDE-RANGING MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT FOR DUAL-CORE AMD64

May 30 2005 @ 11:49PM by jimmy

Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) and AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual-Core Processors are Well-suited for Existing Channel Hardware and Only Require BIOS Update

TAIPEI, TAIWAN-May 31, 2005-Following the introduction of the world's first dual-core AMD64 processors, including the first x86-based dual-core server and workstation processor, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announces close alignment and support from the world's premier motherboard manufacturers. AMD and partners have shown a sustained commitment to AMD64 technology with dual-core support for the world's highest performing x86-based 32- and 64-bit processors.

A significant advantage to AMD's approach is that the Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) and AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 dual-core processors are designed to work cooperatively with existing AMD64 939- and 940-pin processor-based motherboards with a BIOS update, resulting in easy system implementation and deployment.

Read More

 

AMD and Lucasfilm: Making Episode III

May 25 2005 @ 10:46PM by jimmy

Alright, so i just arrived to Austin TX from the Silicon Valley and couldn't sleep so I decided post this late at night before a big day tomorrow. I came up with an interesting article from Bit-Tech talking about having Episode III achieving popular and critical acclaim with the help from AMD working with Lucasfilm. With the computer technology that AMD provided, this has enabled the animatics for Revenge of the Sith to be taken to the next level. Why? this is not because of MHz in a cpu, but HyperTransport which is integrated in the processors delivering a performance increase in real-world applications.

Read the entire article here

 

AMD, Intel to launch new CPUs

May 24 2005 @ 12:31AM by jimmy

While AMD allowed websites to post dual-core Athlon 64 X2 benchmarks earlier this month, the CPU still hasn't "officially" launched.

Infoworld is reporting that the X2 will launch at Computex: "The AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor will be launched on the first day of Computex, the mammoth show that brings most of Taiwan's computer hardware, software, and technology industry face-to-face with technology buyers from around the world, the company said Friday. AMD has used Computex in prior years to launch new processors. If previous years are a guide, the processor will likely be accompanied by the introduction of compatible motherboards produced by Taiwanese companies."

On a related note, Intel plans to counter AMD's X2 Computex unveiling with a dual-core launch of their own. Eweek is reporting that on Thursday, Intel will release their 945X Express chipset as well as additional dual-core Pentium D CPUs. The new chipset will support DDR2-667, 1,066MHz FSB, 300 MB/s Serial ATA, more RAID support, faster integrated graphics, and up to six PCI-E slots. Like Intel's 915 chipset, 945X is Intel's mainstream offering, while 955X will go into high-end desktops.

Source: Gamers.com

 

Bursting the Athlon 64 Memory bandwidth bubble

May 24 2005 @ 12:25AM by jimmy

MadShrimps has an article on bursting the Athlon 64 memory bubble.

"It?s safe to say that PC2700 and older memory will not live up to the A64 challenge, starting from PC3200 your system will have all the memory bandwidth it needs to be blistering fast. Back in the glory days of the Athlon XP and Pentium 4 people pushed their FSB upwards to increase the memory bandwidth and this paid off quite well with an increase in performance of ~15% without the CPU being clocked higher!. Companies saw the need for memory rated higher than PC3200 and so the unofficial PC3500/3700/4000/4400/xxxx standards were born."

Madshrimps explains how it can be done

 

Can AMD Keep Its Hot Streak Going?

May 24 2005 @ 12:14AM by jimmy

With AMD's increasing popularity thanks to the Dual-Core technology boost, there's only a bigger and brighter future in the chip market for the company.

"AMD is the most competitive it has ever been," says Dean McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research. "Today AMD and Intel are competing in every major segment--desktops, notebooks, and servers--and with a broad spectrum of products and performance values within those segments. There hasn't been a time in history when that existed between those two companies."

Read all about it

 

Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Overclocked to 3.1GHz

May 23 2005 @ 12:24AM by jimmy

The Inquirer reports that the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ was overclocked to 3.1GHz from 2.4Ghz with some high end cooling. Well we can certainly see now that not only the X2 4800+ varient is the fastest Dual-Core processor around, it has one of the best overclocking potential we've seen.

"XTREME RESOURCES forum member SAMPSA from Finland overclocked an Athlon X2 4800+ to an incredible 3096.9MHz, that's a 29% overclocked, using Vapochill LS cooler, equating to two pseudo not yet realeased FX59 cores."

Full story

 

AMD And HP Team With Lance Armstrong Foundation To Help People With Cancer Live Strong

May 21 2005 @ 01:53AM by jimmy

-Lance Armstrong Foundation(tm) to Benefit from Sales of HP Special Edition L2000 Notebook PC Powered by AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology- SUNNYVALE, CALIF.-May 20, 2005-AMD (NYSE: AMD) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) (Nasdaq: HPQ) today announced a joint initiative to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation(tm) (LAF), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with cancer live strong. AMD and HP, working closely with the LAF, have developed the HP Special Edition L2000 Notebook PC, a one-of-a-kind consumer PC that bears the LIVESTRONG(tm) message and a reproduction of Lance Armstrong's autograph. Fifty dollars from each HP Special Edition L2000 Notebook PC will go to the LAF to help it fund its public health, advocacy, research and education initiatives for people with cancer. To show its full support of the program, AMD has made a two-year commitment to help generate a minimum of $4 million for the LAF from this initiative.

More from the official site

 

Q&A: AMD's Ruiz Says 'Our Opportunity For Growth Is Phenomenal'

May 20 2005 @ 01:01AM by jimmy

With AMD becoming a bigger chip market, here we find out the thoughts of CEO of AMD Hector Ruiz on how the company's success with 64-bit and dual-core processors will help it win a third of the business.

Infoweek interviews CEO Hector Ruiz:

InformationWeek: Despite the growth and profitability in the processor business, AMD recorded a net loss the past two quarters. Is the spin-off or sale of the struggling flash-memory business an answer that will allow AMD to achieve consistent profitability?

Ruiz: Unfortunately, the market changed so much in flash that it appears to indicate to people that we are spinning it off because we are trying to get rid of a problem child. We began this process two years ago, when the flash market was actually pretty strong. We have two very different businesses, and there is an opportunity for both to be successful.

InformationWeek: If you took the flash business out of the equation, you could have had some profits in the last couple of quarters.

Ruiz: Very healthy profit, yes. Our plans are to IPO the flash business as soon as we get through all the regulatory processes. Once that's done, then you've got two businesses with very different models on how they fund and finance growth, and each of them will be able to do that very focused and independently. My belief is that for quite some time we'll maintain a fairly significant minority position in the flash business.

The rest of Q&A

 

Upgrading To Athlon 64 Venice

May 20 2005 @ 12:46AM by jimmy

Madshrimps has an article on upgrading to the Athlon 64 Venice core. If you own a Intel Northwood CPU and you're asking me if it is worth upgrading to an Athlon 64 Venice, there is no question I would.

Snip:

"With AMD getting so much favorable attention in recent months, the only way to find out rather than reading all the reviews is to have one for yourself. Not that I no longer like the Northwood; with 64-bit OS on the horizon it may be time to acquire a 64-bit system which has and continues to receive fantastic comments from enthusiasts all over the world."

Check it out

 

The Duel for Dual Core Part II

May 20 2005 @ 12:31AM by jimmy

We've seen benchmarks for the AMD's Dual-Core Opterons and X2 Dual-Core desktop processors against thier main competitor, Intel using thier fastest EE/Dual-Core CPUs in gaming applications. PCmag will focus on how the battle of the Dual Core's will handle multimedia threading applications.

"These days it seems like all we're talking about is dual core processors. In the past several weeks, we've tested Intel's Pentium Extreme Edition 840 processor and AMD's Opteron 275/875 processor for workstations. Earlier this week we reported AMD's announcement of its Athlon 64 X2, the direct dual-core desktop competitor to the Pentium EE 840, and now we've finally finished testing. What continues to be proven, with both with the AMD and Intel boxes, is that dual core gives the user a leg up when processing concurrent tasks, or when using content creation applications that have been written to take advantage of multiple-threaded processes. We came up with some interesting results in our testing of the Athlon X2, and one real-world situation, for example, has AMD speeding past Intel."

PCmags speaks out

 

AMD India unveils dual core Opterons, Athlon X2

May 19 2005 @ 12:51AM by jimmy

AMD India has unveiled dual core Opteron and Athlon X2 CPUs for 64-bit server and workstation solutions for enterprise users, and desktop and desktop-replacement notebooks for consumers and business users in India.

It claimed that the new dual core Opterons deliver up to a 90 percent performance improvement for application servers over its single-core CPUs.

HP, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Wipro and HCL Infosystems AMD's OEM partners will be shipping solutions based on these dual core CPUs.

"India is in the midst of an exciting growth phase, led by a technology revolution. It is appropriate that we introduce products such as the dual core AMD Opteron processor to address the real requirements of enterprise consumers," said Ajay Marathe, president, AMD India. He added, "AMD is fast becoming an integral part of the enterprise landscape in India. We believe that customer-centric innovation and technology leadership are the keys to AMD's ability to deliver on the promise to our customers."

Kevin Knox, vice-president, commercial business, AMD, said, "Just as AMD led the industry to pervasive 64-bit computing, AMD is now leading the industry to the performance and power benefits of multi-core processors.".

Dual core CPUs directly connect two cores on a single die, along with memory, I/O and dedicated caches, thus improving overall system performance and efficiency by eliminating inherent bottlenecks in a front-side-bus architecture.

The dual-core Opteron 800 series is available immediately with 200 Series in May.

Source: Link

 

AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ : Introduction

May 19 2005 @ 12:28AM by jimmy

T-Break have just posted a review of the speedy 4800+ Dual-Core. The Dual core will become the industry standard in the following years and while Intel announced theirs first, AMD had one ready for the consumers before them. We take a look at their current highest-end dual core CPU today.

Snip:

"The current crop of applications that do make good use of dual core or multiple CPU environments include 3D Workstation and Audio/Video Encoding. As you saw from the previous pages, we see improvements of nearly 50% and this will only get better with time. We think that AMD has a fantastic implementation of dual core technology and it certainly seems to be the way to move forward."

Read the full review

 

Athlon 64 Overclocking

May 19 2005 @ 12:05AM by jimmy

Madshrimps has an article on Athlon 64 overclocking.

"Everything you ever wanted to know about Athlon 64 overclocking, and then some. If you are confused about HTT, LDT, memory dividers and relationship between these settings, then read on. This in-depth overclocking guide will show you how to get the maximum from your brand new Athlon 64 system."

Check it out

 

Former Dell exec to lead AMD in Japan

May 18 2005 @ 01:12AM by jimmy

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. appointed David Uze, a former Dell Inc. executive, as representative and President of AMD Japan Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of AMD.

Uze will also serve as an AMD corporate vice president.

Prior to joining AMD, Uze served as general manager of global corporate programs and director of the corporate business group at Dell Inc.

Uze succeeds Kazuo Sakai, who was promoted to chairman.

AMD says the changes came about to enhance the company's server, workstation and embedded processor businesses in Japan and throughout the region.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD (NYSE: AMD), which employs more than 3,200 people in Austin, designs and produces microprocessors and Flash memory devices.

Link: Source

 

AMD Arima Turion 64 arises

May 18 2005 @ 01:03AM by jimmy

The Inquirer reports that the AMD Turion 64 based laptops will soon be accelerating with popularity.

"This machine is far from snappily called the W622-UK8X which is a tongue twister in any language, but comes with some very respectable specs."

 

AMD's Athlon 64 3800+

May 18 2005 @ 12:56AM by jimmy

Every single little detail you will want to know about the new 90nm "Venice Core" is here. The Tech Report goes on talking about the improvements made over the last similar predecessors "winchester" and "New Castle" and how the "Venice" Core would fair in benchmarks against its direct predecessor, and Intel's top CPUs.

 

Microsoft Praises AMD Dual Core

May 18 2005 @ 12:35AM by jimmy

It has always been known that Microsoft worked closely with Intel. The Inquirer is reporting that Microsoft is praising for AMD's dual core solution. So why the shift of loyalty?

"The firm produced a Powerpoint slide in which Valentine is quoted as saying: "The simultaneous availability of AMD64 dual core processors and Windows x64 editions represents a huge performance leap and much greater value for Microsoft customers. Microsoft congratulates AMD on its leadership in delivering innovative technologies to the market."

Full coverage

 

External diode readings from AMD Socket 939 CPUs

May 17 2005 @ 12:56AM by jimmy

Procooling.com talks about getting external diode readings from Socket 939 CPUs.

Snip:

"I've spent a lot of time and effort testing Socket A waterblocks for Procooling. One of the biggest reasons these test results have been useful was the modification done to my Socket A CPU to generate calibrated and higher resolution temperatures for testing. It's clear that the era of Socket A is now past, and the Procooling testbed is due for a much-needed makeover. I decided to replace the well-used 8K3A/1700+ TBredB test system with a new AMD Socket 939-based system and a Winchester 3000+ CPU. A quick scan of the AMD spec sheets suggested that the same technique used for pulling diode readings to a MAX6655 EVSYS should work with the new 939 pin CPUs. In fact, in some ways this modification is simpler on the 939 chips because the pins are at the edge of the processor. However, in other, more accurate ways this modification was a huge pain in the ass. Perhaps other people who are thinking about doing something like this can learn from some of my mistakes as they are detailed below. And I suspect everyone (almost) will be happy to see Procooling return to water cooling reviews with a more modern setup."

More details here

 

Is AMD the Next Intel?

May 17 2005 @ 12:45AM by jimmy

Intel once had immense prices which were often criticized when they had thier flagship Prescott cores. Now that AMD is coming out on top, the main concern to consumers is how far will AMD go with thier pricings over thier top CPU's. As the article states, the real reason why users picked AMD over Intel was because of its competitive performance and lower prices. Even though being a loyal AMD fan since its k-6 series, I sure hope they won't lose ground and keep thier traditional ways of staying competitive while being cost effective.

 

Dual-core processors won't boost motherboard sales

May 17 2005 @ 12:08AM by jimmy

DigiTimes wrote that motherboard manufacturers believe Intel's and AMD's new dual-core processors won't help to boost motherboard sales in short-term. They further added that AMD and Intel will start marketing their dual-core processors at the end of the second quarter and that new chips are expected later this month.

"However, AMD?s new dual-core Athlon64 X2 CPUs will be Socket 939 solutions, and can be supported by current K8 motherboards, which will only need to have their BIOS upgraded, the makers said. In addition, although Intel?s Pentium D processor will require the support of a new platform based on 945-series chipsets, the high-cost of migrating to the platform may deter users from buying new motherboards, the mobo makers said."

More info at DigiTimes

 

AMD's Day In The Sun

May 16 2005 @ 01:42AM by jimmy

Several big computer companies, including Sun Microsystems (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people ), Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ), IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) and Cray (nasdaq: CRAY - news - people ), already sell systems with AMD's Opteron chips and plan to use these latest chips. It's quite a turnaround for AMD, which for years was relegated to selling cheaper knockoffs of Intel's (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) chips for low-end PCs.

"We realized that we had to live off the crumbs that Intel left on the table and that was pretty hard to do," says AMD Chief Executive Hector Ruiz "We made the decision to really aim at the belly of the beast, the enterprise-and-server [business].

Source

 

AMD Athlon64 3800+ Venice

May 16 2005 @ 01:34AM by jimmy

Techpowerup has reviewed the Athlon 64 3800+ Venice core.

Here's a snip: "The AMD Athlon64 3800+ with Venice core is geared towards performance hungry people, mostly gamers, which have the money. Overclockers will love the Venice. SSE3 makes a small difference, but the difference is so small, that upgrading from Wincehster to Venice is not worth it at the moment. People who are looking into getting a new Socket939 CPU should definitely consider the Venice.

Ok, so they call heat transfer and price and the memory controller as being a problem. Clearly they don't review a lot of CPUs."

Full review here

 

Intel accused of halving CPU prices to cut out AMD

May 15 2005 @ 02:41AM by jimmy

The Inquirer reports that Intel is being accused of cutting OEM CPU prices in half. Is this thier strategy of keeping thier OEM customers from switching to AMD?

"Intel cut its prices to match those of AMD's microprocessors, the article continues, with discounts which sometimes reached "several tens of thousands of yen". Details of the deals were regarded as highly confidential."

Full story"

 

Intel playing catch-up to AMD efforts

May 14 2005 @ 01:09AM by jimmy

As every processor enthusiasts should know by now, AMD takes a comfortable lead in dual-core technology over Intel.

"AMD's dual-core Opterons will have a demonstrable performance advantage over single-core Xeons, simply because two processing engines can accomplish more than one. But the dual-core Xeon still will be at a disadvantage to a dual-core Opteron on certain applications because of Intel's bus design, he says. Intel's Truland platform uses an improved bus design, which will help close the gap for servers with four processors or more, but even Truland will fall a little short of the levels achieved by the dual-core Opteron in similar servers"

Fullstory@Techworld