Testbed and Methods

First of all, I should point out that all our tests were run in 32bit Windows XP operation system and in 32bit applications. Unfortunately, 64bit operation systems and applications supporting x86-64 are not available yet. By the time Athlon 64 is out we have every reason to expect 64bit Windows XP version, as well as a few 64bit applications to be released. Among the first 64bit applications to come is the Unreal Tournament game, which upcoming announcement has already been disclosed by Epic. The use of 64bit applications may result into a significant boost of Athlon 64 performance due to involvement of additional registers and their expansion. However, there will hardly be too much software supporting x86-64 this year. Even AMD evaluates its prospects in terms of 64bit applications promotion as follows:

By the beginning of 2004 there will be
around 20% of 64bit software.

In other words, the results our Athlon 64 2800+ will demonstrate today, will not illustrate the performance these processors will show in 64bit operation systems and applications.

In our test session we will compare Athlon 64 2800+ with the following processors:

• Athlon XP 2800+ based on Barton core (512KB L2 cache, 333MHz bus). This processor features the same rating as our Athlon 64, but it works at a much higher actual frequency of 2083MHz. Testing this processor today will allow us to estimate how true the rating used for Athlon 64 processors marking is.
• Athlon XP based on Thoroughbred core working at 1.6GHz core clock and 400MHz bus. Testing this processor today will allow us to evaluate how efficient were the architectural improvements introduced in Athlon 64 and how greatly they tell on the processor performance.
• Pentium 4 2.8C GHz processor. This CPU working with 800MHz bus and supporting Hyper-Threading technology will be one of the major competitors to Athlon 64 2800+ by the time the new AMD processor is out.
• Pentium 4 2.53GHz processor working with 533MHz bus and featuring no Hyper-Threading support. This CPU will be one of the slowest Pentium 4 processors in the coming fall, so that we will be able to get a better idea of the Athlon 64 performance.

So, we will test the following systems:

The tests were run in Microsoft Windows XP SP1, the system’s BIOS was setup for maximum performance.

Well, before you go to the next page to get the whole bunch of benchmarks results, we would like to remind you that Athlon 64 is not yet ready, therefore, all the results brought up in this article are preliminary results. AMD may polish off its CPU a bit more, the mainboard guys may update their BIOS’s, and VIA may introduce some changes in the final chipset version. That is why the performance of mass platforms built with Athlon 64 processors after their official launch may grow higher.