AMD Launches Athlon 64 FX-57

Kez writes "Today AMD release what could be the fastest x86 processor to date. The FX-57 is the first 90nm Athlon 64 FX from AMD, clocked to 2.8GHz, with 1MiB of L2 cache and support for SSE3. The memory controller has also been tweaked to support mismatched memory module sizes - something some enthusiasts have been crying out for. Hexus.net reviews the new processor, which, in gaming benchmarks, walks all over any of Intel's offerings." There's going to be plenty of reviews I'm sure - if you've found other links, please post them below.

Comments

Why would one get this

[Quick Sick Nick]

Why would I buy this instead of a dual core 4800+? Two is more than one! Even if the two cores are lower clock speeds.

Re:Why would one get this

[Sique]

Because this processor is mainly aimed at the gaming community, and games often aren't multithreaded, so the second core would just be idle and convert electricity into heat.

Interestingly though once there was only one Athlon 64FX, and if a new one came out, its predecessor would then, if remaining on sale, be renamed. This time the old Athlon 64FX (55) remains on sale with the 64FX name.

Re:Why would one get this

[AlgebraicRing]

In a windows environment, even though your game might be a single thread, are there not also other programs running in the background? Wouldn't those other threads suck up some of the processor cycles?

I would think that having a dual core set up, the game can hog one processor while the rest of the OS and other threads can hog the other processor. When I play games, I leave my chat clients open and there's all the crap running in the system tray. All of that can be running on one processor, while the game could run on its own processor.

Are are you suggesting that its the added functionality of the processor and not how much processing time is available that makes the real difference?

Re:Why would one get this

[VolciMaster]

The games might not be multithreaded, but the other core can run primary OS tasks. Plus, games will be, more and more, written to take advantage of those extra cores.

Apple's "Intel-Macs" will shortly go AMD

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearly Apple is using Intel up front for as much financial assistance as possible in making the switch to Macs based on x86 processors. It seems clear that once the first few iterations of machines are launched, over the next two years, Apple will go with the more powerful AMD. The work will have been done. Going with AMD up front would have meant missing out on much assistance from Intel and its deep pockets.

Mac on Intel.com -> http://www.maconintel.com/

DLightman

Unlimeted Powerrrrr! ;)

[cp.tar]

I like new CPUs.

I'm poor, yet I want to buy a new PC.
Therefore, if new CPUs come out, I can get an old one at a greatly reduced price.

I do hope I'll be able to afford a 64-bit CPU... otherwise my new computer will be even more outdated as soon as I buy it.

Re:Confused

[Quick Sick Nick]

Those are all the core code names. San Diego and Venice are the two newest and best.

They are the best overclockers and produce the least heat. They use 90nm technology.

Venice is generally used in the lower lineup (3000+, 3200+, 3500+, etc) And San Diego is used with more expensive processors (4000+, FX-55)

Those other cores are older and should be avoided unless you want to save some money.

Re:Whats Up With Hexus.Net?

[ryszards]

It doesn't always go down. It only slows down until we tweak the max number of connections for the traffic that's coming in.

I'm not sure whether hexus.net aliases to somewhere else in your DNS or something, but our reviews are never 'pretty bad', even though I do say so myself. Maybe you're reading another site instead of ours?

Feel free to point out what you think we suck at though, incase we're missing something and you can help us fix it. Feedback is always welcome, even from Slashdotters.

Re:To think...

[Flooded77]

It is all about quantity. People seem to think that the more of something you get in a product, the better. This marketing rationale is used for other kinds of products. Just look at fastfood ('Gorge yourself on our 10lb. McGutBomb Burger!'), automobile ('Scale Mt Everest in your new 3000 horsepower Chevy Truck!') or computer ('You'll need a 3.4Ghz machine to run Word and send email!') advertising. We've become a society of 'More is always better'. I don't think efficiency and quality are not important to the general public anymore.

Re:Men in Black?

[GigsVT]

As hard disks get bigger, it gets more important, not less important.

1,048,576 vs 1,000,000 is 4.8% off

GiB vs GB = 7.3% off

TiB vs TB = 9.9% off

PiB vs PB = 12.5% off

EiB vs EB = 15.2% off

Anyway, it is important. How long until someone dies because some programmer mixed the two up?