X-bit labs

ASUS SK8N + AMD Opteron 144: Uniprocessor Workstation on AMD Opteron and NVIDIA nForce3 Professional (page 21)

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 07/21/2003 | 05:53 PM ]

Strange as it might seem, but Opteron processor proved the best in gaming applications. Large cache-memory and fast system memory allow Opteron to defeat Athlon XP in all tests and even to outperform Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz in some cases. All this indicates that the future Athlon 64 processors should become perfect gaming solutions, especially since AMD is going to raise the core frequencies of its K8 processors by then.

Conclusion

So, we have just taken a close look at a uniprocessor workstation based on the new AMD Opteron processor and ASUS SK8N mainboard on NVIDIA nForce3 Pro 150 chipset. So far, we would like to refrain from wild enthusiasm. We have to admit that despite all the innovations, this workstation still has a lot of drawbacks, which come not only from the CPU, but also from the mainboard and the chipset. For instance, I was very upset to see no AGP Pro slot or 64bit PCI slot on the mainboard. As for the CPU, even the today’s latest Opteron models are not ideal. The new processor has a few indisputable advantages, such as large L2 cache, high performance memory subsystem and SSE2 instructions support. However, the other scale contains relatively low core clock frequency. As a result, we either see a performance boost or a performance drop, depending on the factor each particular application is critical to. That is why even though Opteron performs very well in server applications, it is still unable to prove up to the mark in workstations.

We should also complain about the fact that Opteron based workstations appeared a little bit too early. Unlike the server market, where 64bit software has already spread pretty widely, the workstation field still doesn’t have any and unfortunately, you will have to use 32bit applications only, because the tasks of the kind do not support AMD64 technology yet. As a result, we can say that uniprocessor Opteron workstations can be demanded only by some enthusiastic users, dedicated fans of AMD platforms.

However, the situation can change any minute. The changes can be provoked either by the release of Windows OS optimized for AMD64 technology, or by the launch of AMD Opteron processors working at higher core clock.

At the same time, we have to admit that these tests give us some hope that the upcoming Athlon 64 processor turns out a success. Look, we have just seen that Opteron 144 working at 1.8GHz proved simply outstanding in gaming applications. That is why Athlon 64 with higher working frequencies may become an ideal gamer’s platform. So, have patience: there is not too much waiting left :)