X-bit labs

More Wicked Processors to Come from Intel and AMD?

Category: CPU

by Anton Shilov

[ 10/01/2003 | 04:07 PM ]

Intel Corporation and Advanced Micro Devices rolled-out their new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition and Athlon 64 FX-51 microprocessors last week. The new chips brought us some additional performance, but also ignited a number of very interesting trends in strategies of leading CPU manufacturers. Top-end exclusive desktop CPUs have never cost so much, top-end CPU have never carried special brand-names, moreover, there were no processors designed specially for gamers at all! Let us see what does such situation mean for the CPU market.

The first thing that catches our eye when such processors are mentioned somewhere is the absence of core-clock or performance rating. Surely, “FX-51” or “Extreme Edition” words provide no information about technical specifications of the part, however, technically-educated end-users, who stay up to date with the latest innovations, know that such chips offer highest performance possible. Moreover, the absence of core clock and presence of “catchwords” imply the uniqueness of these CPUs.

Since megahertz have always been used to measure performance of microprocessors by the general public, there would be a misunderstandings about performance offered by upcoming processors in comparison to extreme chips available now. By marketing the highest-performance CPUs under specific brand names AMD and Intel do not encourage the world to compare those wicked chips for gamers to microprocessors designed for ordinary end-users. For instance, it is estimated that the Prescott 3.20GHz may apparently offer lower performance compared to the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition later this year; if Intel marketed the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition using its typical nomenclature, the company would have to explain the reason why a newer processor is slower than the older one working at the same speed. It is also almost clear that the AMD Athlon 64 3400+ coming out later this year will be slower than AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 even though both chips function at 2.20GHz.

As we see, both companies are able to boost performance of their microprocessors using various methods; at this time CPU giants simply sell remarked server chips in packages compatible with desktop infrastructures. Next time AMD and Intel may choose another approach of gaining extra 5 to 15% of performance from their chips to sell them at the never before seen price-point for PC processors at above $700.

In order to clearly distinguish between the glamour CPUs available in limited quantities for true performance freaks and chips for mass market, AMD and Intel will surely try to advertise the “catchwords” rather than the core-speed or performance rating.

In fact, by fully ignoring mentions about frequency or performance ratings for the Athlon 64 FX-51 microprocessors, AMD may also try to continue convincing the end-users in the obsolescence of mentioning the core-clocks for today’s desktop microprocessors. In order to fully follow this paradigm, AMD needs to implement such branding across all its families of CPUs, however, the company’s Athlon 64 FX chips will loose their uniqueness in such case.

Intel essentially has no problems in boosting the frequencies of its chips, but in the course of the year 2003 Intel has been unable to increase the speeds significantly (last year there was the Pentium 4 3.06GHz CPU, this year there will be 3.40GHz CPU, 10% gain is not a really high one). Thus, the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker does not need to disregard the core-clock at all. Nevertheless, it still plans to market its highest-performance Pentium 4 microprocessors without mentioning the clock-speed, but emphasizing its extreme performance.

The general trend shows that there is demand for extremely fast and expensive PC components. We witnessed that the leading graphics companies – ATI Technologies and NVIDIA – started to provide $499 graphics cards this year, while Intel and AMD to supply $700+ microprocessors. Mainboard makers also do not want to stay away from the new emerging lucrative market and nowadays offer mainboards at $250 or above (primarily those are ASUS Deluxe and ABIT MAX series). Even memory module makers and HDD manufacturers offer their lines of products designed specifically for hardcore gamers that do not care about the price at all.

We should expect more processors for gamers to come in future. As we see, Intel and AMD compete for every single percent of additional performance and there are almost no doubts that companies will not hesitate to compete not with mainstream chips, but with CPUs available in limited quantities. They clearly understand that you need to be the King of the Hill to set-up rules in the general market.