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65nm Athlons Debut With Lower Power Consumption

Posted by kdawson on from the less-of-the-same dept.

TheRaindog writes "AMD has finally rolled out Athlon 64 X2 processors based on 65nm process technology, and The Tech Report has an interesting look at their energy usage and overclocking potential compared to current 90nm models. The new 65nm chips consume less power at idle and under load than their 90nm counterparts, and appear to have plenty of headroom for overclocking. An Athlon 64 X2 5000+ that normally runs at 2.4 GHz was taken all the way up to 2.9 GHz with standard air cooling and only a marginal voltage boost, suggesting that we may see faster chips from AMD soon."

3 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. HTPC by tedgyz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The little gem in this story is the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ EE SFF 2.0GHz. At 35W, that sounds like a perfect CPU choice for a super-silent HTPC.

    --
    "No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
    1. Re:HTPC by Neon+Spiral+Injector · · Score: 4, Interesting

      OK, I'll give you that. But the HD H.264 requires a huge ammount of CPU to decode. My current dual 1.6 GHz Opteron system can't do it in real time. Doesn't even come close.

      So I was thinking the same thing about this new chip. It sounds pretty close to what I was wanting.

  2. A major disappointment for whom? by John+Jamieson · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Whenever AMD or Intel moves to a new process, they do not expect much from the first cores(they are happy if they get as many cores from a wafer as they did before-which if my sources are correct, Intel didn't do, and AMD has).
    A lot of people forget that when Intel moved to 65nm, the new chips were slower in many ways, and the clock speeds were lower than the top end 90nm P4's.
    By industry standards these AMD 65nm chips are a SUCCESS.

    My only beef with the 65nm Athlons is that I cannot buy one at newegg, or order one from DELL. In my world, if I cannot order a PC with one, or buy it at newegg, IT IS A PAPER LAUNCH!