AthlonXP Released

ldopa1 writes "True to form, AMD has released the new Athlon XP today. This article on Tom's Hardware has the full technical specs for the chip as well as a look at the new packaging. Tom's also has a full set of benchmarks for the chip." michael : See also reviews on LinuxHardware.org, Newsforge, AnandTech and AMDMB. Update: 10/09 20:29 GMT by T : gregfortune points out that AMD is giving away quite a few of these in a six-city promotion as well, so if you live in one of the six, perhaps you can snag one.

Comments

Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we have to call into AMD to get a number to have the chip activated?

Model Numbers

[Derkec]

Despite the fact that there is a new core which yields 3-7% more performance per clock, Tom's points out the Model Number scheme is the most interesting thing. AMD is now not selling thier processors as 1500MHz, but instead as 'equivilant to a P4 at 1800MHz' -> an AthlonXP 1800+. Is this a fair thing to do? It seems to me that it is trying to trick customers into evaluating the processors more fairly. While most slashdotters know MHz != speed, the average joe does not. I am comforted that the AthlonXP 1800+ is able to run with the P4 2GHz. AMD doesn't seem to have overhyped their processors at all.

The next topic for discussion: AMD is trying to bring together a third party instituation to rate processor speeds in some fair way. I'm sure Apple would be thrilled to jump on this bandwagon and our dear friends at Microsoft already have their hands in it.

Re:Model Numbers

[ldopa1]

Is this a fair thing to do? It seems to me that it is trying to trick customers into evaluating the processors more fairly.

Sure it's fair, I just think it's a bad idea. This ties AMD's entire branding effort to whatever Intel does. In other words, if Intel were to take the same tack, in five years we could end up with the "Intel Plentidum XXP++ 1800+++ Equiv4" and all of a sudden, the Cyrus Logic 2.5 GHz chip will look great despite the fact that the latest P7 (or whatever) is running in the 15 GHz range.

If we were to do this with political candidates, our ballot would look like:

George W. Bush (Equivalent to A. Gore)

Al Gore (Equivalent to G. W. Bush)

John McCain (G.W. Bush+)

Ralph Nader (iMac)

Re:Model Numbers

[DivineOb]

The "proper" way to compare processors would be to use the SPEC benchmarks (http://spec.org) (since they are supposed to "define" processor performance). However, AMD won't use these benchmarks use them. If we look at the highest published scores from AMD we see

Integer: 495 base, 554 peak
FP: 426 base, 458 peak

For P4

Integer: 640 base, 656 peak
FP: 704 base, 714 peak

The athlon was Advanced Micro Devic Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, 1.4GHz 1 cpu
The P4 was Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard (2.0 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 cpu

Obviously, this isn't a totally fair match (this is the most recent numbers I could find from both on this page http://www.spec.org/osg/cpu2000/results/cpu2000.ht ml) (there is no CPU2001 benchmarks... we'll probably stick with CPU2000 until 2005 or so... we stuck with the SPEC95 benchmarks for 5 years). The newer althonxps will have improved numbers, but the 1.4ghz part was beaten pretty badly (and those numbers came from AMD themselves, so their setup was optimal in their eyes).

Anyway, there you go

Re:Model Numbers

[silicon_synapse]

AMD is now not selling thier processors as 1500MHz, but instead as 'equivilant to a P4 at 1800MHz' -> an AthlonXP 1800+

Not quite right. AMD is labeling a 1500MHz processor as equivilant to how a Pentium 1800MHz based on the coming Northwood core should perform. The Northwood core will be more efficient than the P4 architecture so an AMD AthlonXP 1800 will easily outperform a P4 1800MHz but should be roughly equivilent (better still but not by as much) to an 1800MHz Northwood.

Re:Model Numbers

[Tumbleweed]

This is actually a pretty awful way to measure the performance of a CPU since it's _highly_ dependent on aspects of the motherboard. The German magazine c't did a test of the Athlon XP CPU recently and tested on two different motherboards (Gigabyte and Asus, I think) - the spec scores different wildly! Neither board tested used the VIA KT266A chipset, which is known to be the fastest (in some cases, by far) of the Athlon-supporting chipsets.

So, that test proves to NOT be a test of CPU, but of the CPU/chipset/RAM/motherboard combination, which is hardly the same thing.

Good CPU in spite of AMD marketing

[MtViewGuy]

I think in spite of AMD's awkward marketing plan for the Athlon XP CPU's, you have to admit they are impressively fast.

Both Anandtech and Tom's Hardware show the Athlon XP 1800+ to have pure-CPU performance that exceeds that for the Pentium 4 2,000 MHz CPU (with the exception of any program that takes full advantage of SSE2 instructions, which are still quite rare). This is a tribute to the fact that the Athlon CPU core itself is very fast, particularly the FPU unit.

Once people realize the Athlon XP's excellent performance I think the new CPU will be a good seller.

MP?

[[amorphis]]

From reading the various reviews, the Athlon XP doesn't seem to have SMP capability.

Are the Athlon XP and Athlon MP essentially two lines now? It sucks to see AMD succumb to marketing in order to combat Intel.

Re:MP?

[greenfly]

The Athlon XP uses the Palomino chipset just like the Athlon MP, so yes you can use it in an MP configuration.

For that matter you can use an Athlon tbird in an MP configuration, but the Palominos have AMD's blessing. The HardOCP article talks about this somewhat.

XP hype

[nizo]

Since X-( is listed in the smiley guide as: User just died I nominate the new XP smiley to be listed as User just died of confusion (with tongue sticking out) after trying to figure out if Windows XP would run better on a machine with an Athlon XP CPU or a faster(?) Intel cpu (NOTE: Trademarks above are owned by respective companies blahblahblah)

Microsoft Does it....

[theAmazingTom]

"1. Motherboards will not pass AMD validation or be posted on the AMD recommended motherboard Web site, if the frequency is displayed by the BIOS during bootup for AMD Athlon Model 6 decktop and multiproccesng processors."

It's one thing to sell it as an 1800+ but I'd still like to know what the MHz is.

Re:AMD's heatsink problem?

[FFFish]

I worry about my heatsink falling off about as much as I worry about my dink falling off, i.e.: not at all.

Re:AMD's heatsink problem?

[Xibby]

Umm...if you're heat sink falls off, you have one of the following problems:

You're and idiot and installed it wrong in the first place.

You're system vendor is an idiot and installed it worng in the first place.

You're motherboard is made of cheap materals

You forced something didn't you (see 1)

There is no good reason for your heat sink to just fall off.

Re:AMD's heatsink problem?

[kreyg]

Wow, if my heatsink fell off, it would fall directly on, and likely short out, my video card - which costs as much or more than my processor.

Welcome to FUD.