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Code
Creatures:::...
Alas
Code Creatures is no longer officially supported as a benchmark,
which in these days of unfair optimisations is all the more
reason to use it. Of course we're not likely to find CPU's
specifically optimised for benchmarks.........are we? Not
yet at least.
Athlon64
X2 4800+
Athlon64
4000+
It's
close, but for a CPU not sold on its gaming merits it's
great to see that's not because it has none.
Overclocking:::...
I've
already spoken about overclocking when I covered operating
temperatures, and to remind you I was only able to run fully
stable at 215MHz (12x215MHz = 2580MHz). 220MHz (12x220MHz
= 2640MHz) was possible for all things 2D but gaming was
a touch flaky at this point. I've heard of better results
than this so you may have better luck.
I
didn't move from default voltages during overclocking, partly
because when I tried it didn't seem to help any, and partly
because overclocking such early parts is rarely an accurate
reflection of what's to come, certainly not when I'm running
the top-end 2.4Hz part to begin with.
At
215MHz the performance improvement was predictably small.
Having said that, we also need to remember that any speed
increases are per core, therefor when it comes to multithreaded
application a 15MHz overclock is effectively a 30MHz overclock.
First
let's look at Far Cry:
Far
Cry Overclocked Results
I
was quite surprised by the increase from Far Cry. Doom3
however didn't fair quite so well.
Doom
3 Overclocked Results
TMPGEnc:::...
200MHz
Base Frequency
220MHz
Base Frequency
The
increase of 20MHz rewards us with 20 seconds wiped off the
encoding time. Remember though, that's an extra 240MHz per
core, 480MHz effective in dual-threaded applications like
this one.
CliBench
SMP MK III:::...
Clibench
meanwhile running 2 threads shows around 10% increase in
performance in exchange for the 10% increase in base frequency,
though again we should remember that that's 5% per core
effectively.
The
Hidden Facts:::...
One
thing that no number of benchmarks can convey is the "feel"
of a multi-processor system.
I've
grown accustomed to sitting and waiting for resource-intensive
apps to finish before opening anything else. Being able
to fire up and play a game while I have a spyware scan going
on or have a movie being encoded was quite a buzz. It's
just a shame that so many processor cycles are spent defending
our systems against idiots when they could be doing something
productive.
Compatibility:::...
AMD
now have their Athlon 64 X2 processor web page online. From
here you can get details on all compatible motherboards
as well as white papers, product briefs and much more. You
can get there by going to:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation /0,,30_118_9485_
13041,00.html
Conclusion
The
3DVelocity 'Dual Conclusions Concept' Explained: After discussing
this concept with users as well as companies and vendors
we work with, 3DVelocity have decided that where necessary
we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions Concept'
to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the hardware we
review. As the needs of the more experienced users and enthusiasts
have increased, it has become more difficult to factor in
all the aspects that such a user would find important, while
also being fair to products that may lack these high end
"bonus" capabilities but which still represent
a very good buy for the more traditional and more prevalent
mainstream user. The two categories we've used are:
The
Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely to put
price, stock performance, value for money, reliability and/or
warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that operates
beyond its design specifications. The mainstream user may
be a PC novice or may be an experienced user, however their
needs are clearly very different to those of the enthusiast,
in that they want to buy products that operate efficiently
and reliably within their advertised parameters.
The
Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the things
that the mainstream user cares about but is more likely
to accept a weakness in one or more of these things in exchange
for some measure of performance or functionality beyond
its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard
may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels of
overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually large
heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may be considered
acceptable if it offers significantly superior cooling in
return.
The
Mainstream User ~
Dual-core
processors may be being positioned as a specialist part
at the moment, but the frustrating reallity is they're needed
right now by just about all of us. Why?, well if your PC
is protected to anything like the level it needs to be in
order to stay safe, there's probably already plenty of work
to keep one of those two CPUs at least partially occupied.
If you've ever had a scheduled anti-virus scan initialise
in the middle of a demanding game you'll know exactly what
I'm talking about.
Prices
are high at the moment but if you can afford to go dual-core
then that's precisely what I suggest you do.
The
scores below don't necessarily represent this high-end model,
but are more a reflection of the technology on offer throughout
the X2 range. Mainstream users may find the cheaper, slower
versions perfectly adequate.
The
Enthusiast ~
I
think the numbers say it all. Until multithreaded gaming
becomes mainstream there's not much point buying the X2
purely for that reason alone, but considering the general
benefits from running a multitasking OS on dual-core CPUs
it's hard to not want
to eqip your system with one.
Any game will benefit from dual cores when run alongside
other CPU-intensive tasks, whether they're multithreaded
or not.
The
X2 adds both stamina and speed to the PC. The speed is mostly
yet to come, the stamina is available right now, or more
accurately,
some time towards the end of June if AMD's schedules hold.
If
you want raw power at your fingertips, were considering
a dual CPU system, are on the verge of a system upgrade
and have the cash to cover one or use prosumer level digital
media manipulation software, then the X2 has your name on
it.
We're
always looking for ways to make our reviews fairer. A Right
To Reply gives the manufacturer or supplier of the product
being reviewed a chance to make public comments on what
we've said. They can explain perhaps why they've done the
things we were unhappy with or blow their own trumpet over
the things we loved. It's easy for us to pick a product
apart but sometimes things are done a certain way for very
specific reasons.
Should
AMD decide to exercise their "Right To Reply",
we'll publish their comments below:
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