AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4800+ & 4200+ Dual Core Performance Preview
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 9, 2005 12:02 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Final Words
Now armed with final silicon, our stance on AMD's Athlon 64 X2 doesn't change at all - AMD clearly has the faster overall dual core desktop solution, but at a price that will be out of reach for most users. Eventually, AMD's pricing will fall to a level that is far more reasonable, but unfortunately, that time won't be until 2006 at the earliest. We've already looked at the slow dual core vs. fast single core debate, but be prepared to be put in that very position later this year as both AMD and Intel bring their dual core CPUs to market at very different price points.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.
The other thing we continue to see is that dual core with Hyper Threading in these multitasking environments is very much the double-edged sword. There are some situations where having both Hyper Threading and dual core gives Intel a huge performance boost, but there are others where the exact opposite is true. As it currently stands, we're not sure how much of a future Hyper Threading will have in future Intel architectures - but it's definitely not a sure win.
With the last of our product-specific dual core previews out the door, now we all play the waiting game. But with both AMD and Intel pushing dual core heavily, we can only hope that the wait won't be too long - especially from the standpoint of improving software support for dual core systems. Today, we're able to show some very tangible performance gains for dual core CPUs in multitasking usage environments, but in the future, single application performance should get a very tangible performance boost as well.
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DrMrLordX - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
#9, I found it a little odd as well, but keep in mind that, not too long ago, Intel was still winning multimedia and 3d rendering benches on a regular basis with Northwood and Prescott. This might explain why Intel won narrow victories in some of the in-house multitasking benchmarks.What is clear is that the X2 is the superior processor when it comes to running lone multithreaded applications.
The X2 is useful for anyone, while the Pentium D will only shine for people with distinctive usage patterns. Too bad the X2 costs so much.
Zebo - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
#9 every REAL WORLD AMD wins. I don't even look at synthetics or contrived benches so someone else maybe tells you if Intel won one.:) They tend to do really well in those.Zebo - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
Total domination too bad I can't get one now!!!Anand what memory timings and CMD rate used in this review?
Frew - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
Is overclocking the same with a dual core cpu?reactor - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
good article, cant wait to see how yonah stacks up so i can make a decision on what to get.btw the graphs all say intel pentium D 840, instead of 640.
Aenslead - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
Is it just me, or did AMD win in EVERY benchmark program? Simply amazing.Still, it surprises me to see intel push ahead on multitasking by a tad.
Swaid - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
I hate the price of admission!anandtechrocks - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
Amazing preformance, but half a G is really pushing it for a processor...Capt Caveman - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
I hate that we have to wait til Q3/Q4.Brian23 - Monday, May 9, 2005 - link
While I'm very impressed by this IC, I hate paper launches.