Testbed and Methods

During this test session we compared the performance of the dual-core Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processor with the CPUs based on single-core architecture. In other words, Athlon 64 X2 will compete with Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, Pentium 4 and Pentium 4 Extreme Edition.

Unfortunately, we cannot yet offer you a detailed performance comparison with the dual-core Intel solution aka Smithfield, however, in the nearest future our benchmark results will be updated and we will offer you the comparison of our today’s hero against Pentium 4 D and Pentium Extreme Edition, so stay tuned.

Right now our tested platforms include the following:

• CPUs:
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (Socket 939, 2.4GHz, 2 x 1024KB L2, E6 core revision aka Toledo);
• AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 (Socket 939, 2.6GHz, 1024KB L2, CG core revision aka Clawhammer);
• AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (Socket 939, 2.4GHz, 1024KB L2, CG core revision aka Clawhammer);
• AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (Socket 939, 2.4GHz, 512KB L2, E3 core revision aka Venice);
• Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz (LGA775, 3.73GHz, 2MB L2);
• Intel Pentium 4 660 (LGA775, 3.6GHz, 2MB L2);
• Intel Pentium 4 570 (LGA775, 3.8GHz, 1MB L2);
• Mainboards:
• ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe (Socket 939, NVIDIA nForce4 SLI);
• NVIDIA C19 CRB Demo Board (LGA775, nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition)).
• Memory:
• 1024MB DDR400 SDRAM (Corsair CMX512-3200XLPRO, 2 x 512MB, 2-2-2-10);
• 1024MB DDR2-667 SDRAM (Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL, 2 x 512MB, 4-4-4-12).
• Graphics card: PowerColor RADEON X800 XT (PCI-E x16).
• Storage subsystem: Maxtor MaXLine III 250GB HDD (SATA150).
• OS: Microsoft Windows XP SP2.