X-bit labs

AMD Raises the Bar: AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 and AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPUs Review (page 17)

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 10/18/2004 | 09:00 PM ]

Conclusion

Despite the fact that the new processors from Intel have been slightly delayed AMD still continues the race and keeps announcing the new CPU models. However, it would be still incorrect to say that AMD has finally become the leader in the CPU market. Even Athlon 64 FX-55 doesn’t provide the maximum performance in most applications. Therefore the users can find quite a bit of tasks where either Intel or AMD CPUs are preferable. Thus in games our preferences stay with Athlon 64, in media encoding tasks – with Pentium 4, in computational packages Athlon 64 is the leader, and in general tests Pentium 4 is ahead more frequently. In fact, we could continue this list more and more.

However, Athlon 64 4000+, just like its predecessor, Athlon 64 3800+, is still slightly ahead of the top model in the competitor product family: Pentium 4 560 working at 3.6GHz. However, the price of Athlon 64 4000+ is $729, and Athlon 64 3800+ costs $643, while Pentium 4 560 is available at a much more attractive price: $417. So, it is actually pretty hard to state which of the two processor families would be considered the best buy.

However, in the enthusiastic market the situation is more than clear. Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4 falls steadily behind not only Athlon 64 FX-55, but also Pentium 4 560. Note that its price is $999, which undoubtedly makes this CPU the “worst choice” you can make today. I have not the slightest doubt that enthusiasts will definitely decide on Athlon 64 FX-55, which is now priced at $827.

If we veer away from the price-to-performance ratio for a while and look at the new AMD CPUs from the technological point of view, we will have every right to say that the “swan song” of the 0.13micron manufacturing technology from AMD appeared quite a success. And from this viewpoint Athlon 64 FX-55 is definitely a very attractive and interesting solution, since Athlon 64 4000+ is actually not that new being just an analogue to the Athlon 64 FX-53. Moreover, its rating seems to us a bit too high, because its advantage over Athlon 64 3800+ is only 1-3%.  As for Athlon 64 FX-55, it represents a true skill of AMD engineers, who managed to squeeze another 200MHz out of the 0.13micron processor core due to point integration of the stretched silicon. As a result, Athlon 64 FX-55 turned out a unique CPU from the technological point of view. To make it AMD uses very “tricky” approach that is why its frequency potential is higher than that of any other Athlon 64 processor. However, there is nothing free in this world, so besides the high working frequency, the new Athlon 64 FX-55 also “boasts” higher heat dissipation and power consumption. So, get ready for those…