Saturday, April 23, 2005

AMD Dual-Core Microprocessors Performance Revealed. Web-Sites Try AMD’s New Dual-Core Opteron Processors

3:32 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday officially announced its lineup of microprocessors that feature two processing cores allowing to simultaneously execute up to two threads. The company unveiled specifications of its dual-core chips and released details about its architecture. What remains unclear is performance of those microprocessors. A number of web-sites have issued articles covering performance of the dual-core AMD Opteron products to fill the gap.

“What's quite impressive is how competitive the Athlon 64 X2 is across the board. With the Pentium D, we had to give up a noticeable amount of single threaded performance (compared to Intel's top of the line Pentium 4 CPUs) in order to get better multithreaded/multitasking performance, but with AMD, you don't have to make that sacrifice. Everything from gaming to compiling performance on the Athlon 64 X2 4400+ was extremely solid. In multithreaded/multitasking environments, the Athlon 64 X2 is even more impressive; video encoding is no longer an issue on AMD platforms. You no longer have to make a performance decision between great overall performance or great media encoding performance - AMD delivers both with the Athlon 64 X2,” AnandTech web-site writes.

“The real problem is that AMD has nothing cheaper than $530 that is available in dual core, and this is where Intel wins out. With dual core Pentium D CPUs starting at $241, Intel will be able to bring extremely solid multitasking performance to much lower price points than AMD will. And from what we've seen, it looks like that price advantage will continue for quite some time. It all boils down to economics, and in the sense of manufacturing capacity, Intel has AMD beat - thus allowing for much more aggressively priced volume dual core solutions,” AnandTech notes.

“So who should get a Dual-Core CPU? Well, if you read the article, you’d know that the answer is everyone - by the end of the year, when things move from the workstation to the home desktop. How about right now? Well, people who’ve always looked to dual processor machines (IT infrastructure, custom software, digital media) should strongly consider these new systems. Professional photographers who regular work with hundreds to thousands of images a day with cameras such as the 1Ds or 1D Mark II from should strongly consider getting a Dual Opteron system as their next upgrade. It truly is the “hardware accelerated RAW processor” that many have dreamed of,” concludes FiringSquad.

“The release today of AMD’s dual-core workstation and server parts is a significant landmark in the world of x86 computing for the enterprise and professional users. The ability to pack twice the processing power into the same space opens up new doors for clustering, research, data processing, data mining, webserving, content creation, digital media production, video editing, games development and much more. While the cost is high for the time being, economies of scale and a pervasive range of processors to choose from will only bring the price down, and significantly so,” claims Hexus.net.

“Going to a dual-core Opteron does, however, involve some tradeoffs. Fundamentally, one is giving up single-threaded performance in order to gain multithreaded performance. Whether or not this tradeoff makes sense will depend on the kind of applications one plans to run on the system. Many of our benchmarks were multithreaded, but only made use of two threads, leaving the dual Opteron 275 system looking a little pointless. The Opteron 252 system outperformed it in many of these dual-threaded apps, like media encoding. Our other tests, however, showed the Opteron 275s to be an absolute rendering powerhouse. Which processor is the better buy will depend greatly on its intended use,” reports The Tech Report.

• AnandTech: AMD’s dual core Opteron & Athlon 64 X2 - Server/Desktop Performance Preview.
• FiringSquad: Hands on with Production Dual-Core AMD Opteron.
• Hexus.net: AMD’s Dual-Core x75 Opterons.
• The Tech Report: AMD’s dual-core Opteron processors.

Apple Enlarges Desktop Workspace to 30". A Look at Apple's 30" Monitor

11:24 am | Yaroslav Lyssenko

TrustedReviews has taken a look at Apple 30” Cinema Display. With a native resolution of 2560x1600 this LCD display there is a very small possibility for you to run out of workspace in the near future.

“The 30in Apple Cinema Display really is a fantastic tool for anyone that needs a lot of desktop real estate. For someone like myself it’s a major timesaver, having multiple windows all open and visible at the same time. While for a professional image editor, it gives the benefit of displaying more of a high resolution photo at 100 per cent. The stand could do with height adjustment, but other than that, the design is up to the usual high standard associated with Apple products,” writes TrustedReviews.

Because of the high native resolution only a small number of graphics cards can power up this enormous display. On of them is Matrox Parhelia DL256 graphics card, whish has also been reviewed.

“The Matrox Parhelia DL256 is a great solution for anyone that wants to run a high resolution screen like the 30in Apple Cinema Display, but doesn’t want to have to buy a G5 Mac to drive it. Not only does its dual link capability let you drive the Apple screen, it also gives you the option of outputting to a video monitor for previewing your video editing projects. Even if you’re not a video editor and you’ve just been wishing for a way to run Apple’s flagship screen without having to buy a Mac, the DL256 can make your dream come true,” concludes the web-site.

• TrustedReviews: Apple 30in Cinema Display & Matrox Parhelia DL256.

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