X-bit labs

Socket AM2 Platform: DDR2 SDRAM Support from AMD (page 6)

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 05/22/2006 | 09:00 PM ]

Closer Look at Newcomers: Athlon 64 FX-62 and Athlon 64 X2 5000+

To test the performance of the new Socket AM2 platform AMD provided us with two new CPUs: Athlon 64 FX-62 and Athlon 64 X2 5000+. The first one is a dual-core processor targeted primarily for hardcore gamers willing to get the maximum performance at any rate (from the financial standpoint). The second CPU is a top dual-core solution in the Athlon 64 X2 processor family.

Athlon 64 FX-62 boasts the highest actual clock frequency out of all the previous and newest models. It works at 2.8GHz. Moreover, it has even caught up with the single-core Athlon 64 FX-57 processor in terms of clock speed! However, it had to pay its price for this high frequency rate: the heat dissipation of the newcomer is 125W, which can be regarded as a kind of a record here. There are no other processors in the AMD product range that are as hot as this baby…

The CPU-Z diagnostic utility reports the following info about Athlon 64 FX-62.

Note that the nominal Vcore of the Athlon 64 FX-62 processor is 1.35V-1.4V, which is higher than that of any other dual-core CPU from the Athlon 64 X2 family.

All this indicates very clearly that the frequency potential of the 90nm cores with K8 micro-architecture has been almost completely exhausted. However, our overclocking experiments suggest that you can reach even higher speeds if you disregard growing power consumption and the corresponding consequences.

So, if we raised the Vcore to 1.5V then our test sample worked just fine at 3,075MHz obtained as 15x205MHz (Athlon 64 FX processors feature unlocked clock frequency multiplier).

During this experiment the processor was cooled with an ordinary AVC air-cooler (Z7U7414002).

I have to admit that successful overclocking of the Athlon 64 FX-62 over 3.0GHz without any extreme cooling solutions is a pretty impressive result. All FX processors usually allowed no more than a 200MHz frequency increase with the regular air cooling used. So, AMD will easily be able to increase the nominal clock rates of its processors beyond 3.0GHz. The only thing that may become an obstacle in this case is extremely high power consumption and heat dissipation of the CPU. Our Athlon 64 FX-62 test sample overclocked to 3,075MHz and working under full load consumed 192W of power! And this is a way beyond the requirements that AMD has set for the new Socket AM2 platform.