AMDs new dual core CPU

[waheed]

Just like to share some information concerning the new dual core CPU (Athlon X2) from AMD that I came across. Read the review here

This info, I found interesting:

The new processors can be used in the same mainboards as the regular Athlon 64 solutions. That is why Athlon 64 X2 are designed in Socket 939 package, feature dual-channel memory controller supporting DDR400 SDRAM and work with Hyper-Transport bus at 1GHz frequency. So, the only thing you will need to ensure that your Socket 939 mainboard supports the new AMD CPUs will be the BIOS update.

[pfh]

Yeah, that's what I've read too.
Guess that means the single 64's should start dropping in price!! Same with older 939 mobos!!

I'm always a step behind but I save some money!!

[rallynavvie]

Marks make it look like just another A64 in a lot of apps. Kinda surprised the Pentiums are still holding the multimedia market. The FX is still hammering the gaming market. They are pretty great for office and design apps though.

I'd like to see how the Opterons implement this. The dual-cores are still not SMP since they'll run on XP Home so there must be some cool implementation on SMP platforms that can get some better performance from them.

[Soopafresh]

Hey Rally - Saw this app and thought it might interest you.

http://www.mlin.net/SMPSeesaw.shtml

[rallynavvie]

I saw something similar to that before. It's an interesting idea but if you think about it you rarely need to dedicate one CPU entirely to only a few processes. Most of my speed-critical apps are SMP-aware anyway so then it doesn't even matter. That's pretty much the main reason I build these SMP rigs, that and I multi-task like mad with DCC apps. There are also apps out there that will arrange all of your processes so that everytime a new one is detected it asks which CPU to run its threads on and remembers these all so you can completely optimize your workstation. In the end it just ends up being more trouble than its worth, I mean there are two Prestonia 3.06 GHz processors there to work with, if I want to get crazy I can always enable HT on both of them