X-bit labs

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

AMD Lands Two Processing Cores onto Desktop Processors. AMD Athlon 64 X2 Family Microprocessors Reviews Hit the Web

In late April, 2005, Advanced Micro Devices officially announced its lineup of microprocessors that feature two processing cores allowing to simultaneously execute up to two threads. The company has the world’s only lineup of dual-core x86 chips for servers and desktops, but systems based on them are only expected to be available in May and June. But before that happens, it is very interesting to learn more about performance of such products.

“What we did find interesting was that while AMD generally maintains a large performance advantage in single threaded applications, our multitasking scenarios were a mixed bag of results between AMD and Intel. The multitasking gaming tests were obviously very strongly in favor of AMD, but the general usage tests were more mixed between AMD and Intel. In many cases, Intel’s Pentium D actually pulled ahead in terms of performance. Also, in our multitasking tests, there were a couple of cases where we saw no major performance difference between the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and 4200+, it was mostly in the single application (both single and multi-threaded) that we saw the most noticeable performance difference between the two CPUs,” AnandTech web-site writes.

AMD’s desktop-oriented Athlon 64 X2 central processing units (CPUs) operate at 2.20 – 2.40GHz and are equipped with 1MB – 2MB cache memory. The chips have special arbitration logic to balance the workflow called System Request Interface (SRI). Like all other 939-pin processors, the microprocessors sport dual-channel PC3200 memory controller.

“It’s also worth noting that the dual core Athlon 64 X2’s will have support for all of the Athlon 64’s current features, including advanced virus protection and Cool ‘n’ Quiet technology. Cool ‘n’ Quiet will work on a whole chip basis, rather than each individual core, so if you load one core, both cores will increase their clock speed to reflect the additional load placed on the CPU,” claims bit-tech.net.

“The other important distinction between Opteron and the Athlon 64 X2 lies in platform deployment. With Opteron, the message was any motherboard capable of supporting a 90nm processor would support dual-core. This time around, AMD says every single Socket 939 platform will accommodate an Athlon 64 X2, given a requisite BIOS update. The interface was developed as Socket 940 teethed, and is better able to support a 110W processor. Athlon 64 X2 fits into the same power budget as its predecessor and is fully capable of employing the same cooling solutions sold to those with single-core Athlon 64 chips,” notes FiringSquad.

“Where AMD differs a tremendous amount from Intel in the dual core department is that AMD did not just “glue” two of their high performance processors together. In fact, if you talk to Fred Weber, AMD CTO, he will tell you that AMD has been planning for dual core CPUs for a long time and the fact of the matter is that AMD’s superior dual core design backs up that statement. AMD uses what they call Direct Connect architecture. Instead of two processor cores being saddled to one bus and run to a single memory controller as we see with Intel dual core technology, we have to remember that AMD Athlon 64 processors have the memory controller on the CPU die itself and therefore no “front side bus” is needed. So each CPU on our dual core X2 has a much quicker route to the memory controller as with current Athlon 64 processors. Also, each CPU core does have its own 1MB of full speed L2 cache and the L1 caches are of course independent as well. So still the biggest benefit to the entire K8 core system is shining through in AMD’s Athlon X2 line in the ways of HyperTransport and its extremely wide bus width when compared to Intel’s dual core 800MHz bus,” summarizes [H]ardOCP.

“As of today, AMD’s X2 series is a high-performance engine on paper, with some real-world challenges that must be overcome.  Six months from now, it may be hailed as the perfect bridge CPU between dual and single-core computing; a product that offers compelling performance in either at an excellent price point.  Or, we may still be watching CPU’s trickle out of Dresden, while Intel blitzkrieg’s the midrange with lower-cost Pentium D’s,” thinks Sudhian Media.

“Athlon 64 X2 4800+ appears much faster than its counterpart from the Athlon 64 family. And if it were not for the crazily high price of the new Athlon 64 X2 4800+ exceeding $1,000, I would definitely call this processor a great choice. Especially, since it doesn’t fall behind its single-core fellows in any applications. Keeping in mind the price of the new Athlon 64 X2, we have to admit that these CPUs can so far be regarded as one more excellent choice for wealthy hardware enthusiasts, just like Athlon 64 FX. Those who care most about the performance in applications other than games will definitely pay due attention to the new AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor family. Extreme gamers, however, are most likely to stay dedicated to Athlon 64 FX,” says X-bit labs’ platform analyst Ilya Gavrichenkov.

• AMDZone: Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Review: Dual Core Hits The Desktop.
• AnandTech: AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 4800+ & 4200+ Dual Core Performance Preview.
• Bit-tech.net: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Preview.
• FiringSquad: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Processor Preview.
• [H]ardOCP: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Preview.
• HotHardware: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual-Core.
• SimHQ.com: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Review.
• Sudhian Media: AMD Athlon 64 X2:  Sunnyvale’s Dual Core Desktop.
• Techware Labs: AMD X2.
• The Tech Report: AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 processors.
• TrustedReviews: AMD Athlon 64 4800+ X2 - Dual Core CPU.
• X-bit labs: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual-Core Processor Review.

Windows XP Pro x64 Edition Gaming Performance Test Published. Games Hardly Use 64-bit Capability for Now, Web-Site Reveals

[H]ardOCP has posted an article containing an examination of gaming performance in the Windows XP Pro x64 Edition operating system (OS). The testing was carried out on AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 CPU powered system, with a total of eight games that were first run in Windows XP Pro and then in Windows XP Pro x64 Edition OS. The author also included performance comparison between NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra and ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition graphics cards in both 32- and 64-bit environments.

“The focus of this article is to determine if upgrading to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition with an AMD Athlon64 would give us a better gaming experience in current games. We used eight games for our evaluation including one that supported Win64 AMD64 specifically. What we found isn’t too shocking really, but rather reassuring. In all the 32-bit games tested, we saw overall static performance using Windows XP Pro x64 Edition. The only game in our lineup that had a specific Win64 AMD64 instruction path, The Chronicles of Riddick, actually performed worse in 64-bit than it did in 32-bit Windows,” concludes [H]ardOCP.

• [H]ardOCP: Windows XP Pro x64 Edition Gaming Comparison.

ATI Multi Video Processing Unit to Launch at Computex - Web-Site. Rumours and Facts About ATI’s MVP Summarized

Hexus.net has summarized the available information on ATI’s multi-VPU technology for games. ATI Multi Video Processing (MVP) technology is expected to offer the right balance “of speed and quality” and be competitive when compared to NVIDIA’s multi-GPU implementation dubbed SLI. The formal launch of the MVP technology is claimed to be scheduled for Computex 2005 exhibition late this month in Taipei, Taiwan.

“Having developed military solutions based on up to 32 cards in the past, it appears that ATI has decided on a ‘tile’ based rendering approach as the default technology and perhaps the judgment was that this method offers the most ideal balance of speed and image quality (minimum size 32 pixels square). However it’s more than likely that the ATI MVP solution will be flexible to offer other rendering modes like AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering) as well,” writes Hexus.net.

“Despair not though, as our information is that ATI itself will be the first to market with these exciting new products, and it’s on the cards that its third party Add In Board (AIB) partners such as GeCUBE, Sapphire and TUL will follow suit – and our money’s on this being very soon after the start of the Computex exhibition in Taiwan later this month,” the web-site claims.

• HEXUS.net: ATI Multi Video Processing Unit Details Emerge.