Testbed and Methods

In this review we decided to figure out how fast can AMD Opteron run if it is used in a uniprocessor workstation. For our tests we assembled a system with ASUS SK8N mainboard and Opteron 144 processor working at the actual 1.8GHz frequency. Note that 1.8GHz is the today’s top core clock for AMD Opteron processors. That is why we decided to compare the performance of our today’s Opteron processor with that of top Pentium 4 and Athlon XP models.

The tests were run in Windows XP operation system, that is why w can’t talk about the effect achieved due to x86-64 technology of Opteron processors. Unfortunately, most professional applications work in this particular operation system, that is why we decided to refrain from installing any Linux closes on our testbeds.

Together with the tests in professional applications, we decided to check Opteron’s performance in classical tasks: gaming and office applications. In this case, the detailed study of Opteron performance will let us draw some preliminary conclusions about the performance of the upcoming Athlon 64 processor family intended for common desktop systems.

We tested Opteron with two and only one memory channels involved. Single-channel configurations, where Opteron doesn’t show everything it is capable of, are very interesting to us, because this way we can at least evaluate the performance of Athlon 64 processors, which will feature single-channel memory subsystem.

Comments:

• The memory was used in the fastest mode with the most aggressive timings set to 2-2-2-5.
• We ran the tests in Windows XP SP1 operation system with the installed DirectX 9.0a.