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AMD's "Black Box" Athlon 64 X2 6400+
MojoKid writes "Rumors of a new high-end AMD Athlon 64 X2 chip circulated in July, but availability and specifics of the chip were unconfirmed at the time. Now AMD has officially taken the wraps off their new Athlon 64 X2 6400+, a 3.2GHz dual-core chipset to compete with Intel's Core 2 E6750 and E6850 series. HotHardware notes that the new 6400+ is still built on AMD's 90nm fab process and has a single 2-GHz HyperTransport link and 2 MB of on-chip L2 cache (1 MB per core), just like its predecessor the 6000+. The new processor is said to be a 'channel only' offering and will retail at $239 or so, in a black retail box (picture here) without a heatsink."
I for one don't welcome our new global warming overlords.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Here's how some of the specs and prices (Intels from Pricewatch) compare:
E6750:
2.66Ghz
1.30V 4MB L2
1.33Ghz FSB
~$225
E6850:
3.00Ghz
1.35V 4MB L2
1.33Ghz FSB
~$300
6400+:
3.20Ghz
1.35V 2MB L2
2.00Ghz HT
~$240
From what I've read, the E6750 actually outperforms the E6850 since it ran cooler and with less power. So it doesn't look like AMD has a whole lot to offer given the price. Not to mention it doesn't come with a heatsink and fan, something you'd probably have to dish out another $20-50 for.
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
What a bargain! Why didn't they just wait till 65nm? The same chip would probably fit in the 90W or less envelope at that size.
Personally, I'm happy with my E6600, which bangs along just fine at 2.4GHz and can easily outperform any Athlon at a similar speed [or at least match it].
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Everyone knows that all the 3l337 users are holding out for AMD/Intel offerings that feature flashing LEDs!
BlackBox edition....phuuullease
Life is not for the lazy.
So I'll still be limited by my Internet connection, HD, or video card, but my CPU core runs some smidgen faster than before? Yawn. Wake me when I get a 16-way on 1 die, or a 10 watt version of the slightly slower model.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Wtf? These have been available for about a week.... in Australia.
Maybe America is getting behind the times?
...
Also, Intel offers their Extreme processors which blow HT out of the water in benchmarks. Those, however, actually are significantly more expensive.
it clearly says "Black Edition" on the box... maybe they mean it's optimized for videos like the Hunchblack of Blotre Blame.
stuff |
$239 is at 1000 or more quantity. so it's wholesale pricing.
Newegg will probably retail it at $350 to $390 IF they buy a thousand of them. Most companies dont want to stock that much of a processor as the price drops so fat you are stuck with overpriced stock on hand.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Only if you use winuae or uae.
Um...Intel chips have been beating AMD for over a year now in the performance arena. Where have you been?
Am I the only one that thinks they hired the same people that did the packaging for the iPod? And beyond that, should a computer chip ever have to carry some strange slogan such as at "Black Edition"? Hopefully people wouldn't be looking at two different chips and then go, "Well, this is called 'Black Edition' so, its probably better." Maybe the average computer user would fall for that, but when it comes down to it, the average computer user rarely buys their own chip.
When's the U2 edition come out?
I was holding out for a version that comes with interchangeable heatsink attachments.
A Hibachi Heatsink attachment for frying up some pork fried rice in the evenings.
A Space heater attachment as a fireplace replacement on those cold winter nights.
A blow dryer/curler attachment for the modern day multi tasking lady who needs to look sexy and code at the same time.
A heating pad attachment for the elderly developer whose bad back needs comfort after years of poor seating posture in WoW.....coding sessions.
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
I haven't dealt with processors, but I used to own an office supplies/electronics business, and ANYTHING I didn't sell, I simply notified the supplier, and got a full refund, either in merchandise or money (wire/cheque).
Same goes for most products for a restaurant I used to run. We would buy a lot of milk, and if we had any milk go bad due to low latte sales, we would get a full refund for any milk we didn't use, they would just take the bad milk back. I know this is not the case when dealing imported goods, but not all chips are imported, so maybe some merchants do get compensated for overstocking.
My Starcraft 2 Blog
Approximately as fast as an A500 with the 1MB ram expansion.
I was busy watching the Conroe (which became Core 2 Duo) destroy everything AMD had to offer.
Remember that's only in synthetic benchmarks! Real world, AMD's memory bus still shreds anything intel has come up with except maybe their "Quad core" xeons, but even those are crippled by being two dual cores that choke their own buses! Despite the speed they run at, AMD is still king for real world.
Typo? AMD's HyperTransport implementation is easily superior to the FSB on any available retail processor. The current Extreme parts are far better than, say, the Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading, if that's the HT that you meant.
I think the only point in buying a retail box is that you get a fairly decent heatsink (oh, and a case sticker). I find Intel's heatsinks definitely worth the $15 difference between the OEM version and the retail, they're as good as Thermaltake and actually produce less noise and are easier to install. Unfortunately I've never seen a boxed AMD CPU :-(
At least this CPU will have something to wear to AMD's funeral. (I like AMD, but they need to step up their game!)
No, it's $230 (Canadian, so maybe a bit more expensive for Yanks with your weak dollar.)
People would adjust their benchmarks to reflect reality. Since they have not, you are wrong.
So it must have been some marketer who put that "B" on the front of the box: bLACK Edition!
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
I've seen them in shops, I just haven't assembled any AMD systems. And the boxes rarely show what the heatsink looks like, usually a huge logo and a transparent window to see the CPU.
This seems to be happening more and more. People love to call chips, chipsets. It may have dual cores, but its two cores on a single chip. The north and south bridge are collectively called a chipset, and you could call multiple SATA/PATA controllers a chipset, but you can not call a processor a chipset.
Oh boy. 1337 = leet 31337 = eleet , do you not 5p34k4 d4 14n6u4g3. Left partly legible for the parent.
I'm still angry at AMD because of the discontinuation of processors for the socket 939.
>.<
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
for upcoming Phenom line ?
[My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]
Actually most people say 'le' these days eliminating the e. I think my usage is more current but there is certainly room for debate here.
I've seen them in shops, I just haven't assembled any AMD systems. And the boxes rarely show what the heatsink looks like, usually a huge logo and a transparent window to see the CPU.
That's probably because they like to change the OEM coolers randomly. I remember building some Athlon XP systems with the same processor, but assembled at different times. I bought the retail chip each time, and all three times it came with a different heatsink! None of them were particularly quiet, and one of them was downright loud.
Hopefully for us all (even those who'll never buy from them) they'll pull out of it. Not today, though.