Tests of low-end AMD Athlon 64 X2 for Socket AM2
For a long time, the dual-core wars were going on unnoticed
for the medium-class users - all were aware of them, but few could
afford to take part in them. Gradually, the situation was changing, the
number of people affording that was going up, but the general situation
was changing insignificantly. And only after Intel got the redoubtable
"mass destruction" Core 2 Duo processors the world started changing
again - the less powerful weapon of the former times had to lose in
price or sink into oblivion. Today, vehement dual-core wars are
spreading in the mainstream and soon in the lower price ranges - it's
just here the processors sell in hundreds of thousand pieces. To win
battles on this field and thus sell better, it is important to prove
superiority: to cost less at equal performance, or on the contrary - to
run faster at equal prices, or use cheaper and popular platform, at
least be more cost-efficient in terms of power consumption
The methods of waging wars for both leaders of the dual-core
processor market are similar and at the same time different. They are
similar in the total price reduction - sort of a new auction "Who bids
the least price?" And they are different in the method of producing the
most affordable models. At Intel, they followed the simple way through
transforming Pentium D 920 into Pentium D 915 – disable the
Intel Virtualization Technology, don't touch anything else and sell
cheaper. This is the way models higher than Pentium D 925 and Pentium D
945 were produced, which are in fact Pentium D 930 and Pentium D 950
made cheaper following the same scheme. But what does the competitor
offer?
AMD who was resting on the laurels for quite a long time was
presenting "the most powerful» at not the most friendly
price, but Intel's aggressive pricing policies compelled it to revise
the prices and roadmaps. First, in the hope of victory, AMD had to
substantially reduce the prices for existing and new Socket AM2
processors. But that proved little - it's no good proceeding without a
new and even more cheaper and affordable dual-core processor. Armed
with the idea «Dual-core AMD processors - to wide
public!», the engineers easily made Athlon 64 X2 3800+ into
Athlon 64 X2 3600+ through making the L2 cache half as much on each of
the cores – the former 512 K were cut down to 256 K. It is
highly probable that it was just the way that let revive chips of
partly inoperative L2. Today, we'll find out how that affected the
performance and at the same time finish with the digression into the
capabilities of AMD Socket AM2 that was started with Sempron
AM2 and continued in Athlon
64 AM2. And of course we will compare the potentials of all
the mentioned value dual-core novelties through preparing grounds for a
practical research into the capabilities of Core 2 Duo processors
currently selling at full sway. For now, we move on to a closer
examination of the specimens of today's review.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ AM2
We received a test specimen of Athlon 64 X2 3600+ packed into
an antistatic bag. The low-end model of the dual-core AMD processors is
still rarely shipped in the boxed version – more often, it is
the OEM version. That is a very popular method of distribution for both
assemblers and our retail chain. On the other hand, you don't have to
pay for the cooler which may not meet the buyer's requirements and you
can choose the cooling system matching your needs – from the
very cheap enough to make it run up to a very expensive and efficient
to provide maximum overclocking.
The CPU Athlon 64 X2 3600+ is of a bit unusual marking -
ADO3600IAA4CU which can be decoded as follows: ADO – Athlon
64 of TDP up to 65W aimed at workstations (the CPU
consumes less power and does not heat up much), 3600 being the CPU
rating, I being the package type - 940-pin OµPGA (Socket
AM2), A being the core voltage ?1.25-1.35V, A is the maximum admissible
temperature of the housing ?55-70°C, 4 – stands for
the total L2 cache memory size 512 K (2õ256 K), CU
– the Windsor core (the same is also
used in the remaining Athlon 64 X2 processors having 2õ512 K L2 cache
size). Judging by the marking, this is an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with half
the L2 in each core locked on the hardware level, due to which it has
turned cheaper and more efficient in in terms of power consumption.
Here is a complete info summary of the processor being tested
and the memory GEIL DDR2-800 used in the test, according to the CPU-Z
utility.
Our attempt to overclock Athlon 64 X2 3600+ proved successful
enough in view of the fact that the "boxed" cooler was used out of the
box for Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Even without raising the voltage, the
processor was able running stably at the clock speed 2600 MHz, with the
memory running as DDR2-866, but with the Command Rate 2T. We failed to
overclock the processor more than that – although the
temperature did not go up beyond 60°C, the system operating
stability was lost. It's more likely to be the limit for that
particular processor specimen.
The first question we were interested in was: «Is
the L2 cache size really important?». To answer this
question, is suffices to compare the performance of the "father" and
"son" - Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and Athlon 64 X2 3600+.
The processor has the more customary marking ADA3800IAA5CU,
i.e. it is a regular dual-core Athlon 64 X2 aimed at workstations with
the overall L2 cache size 1 MB (2õ512K), the TDP up to 89W, and the
Windsor core.
Also, in the test there takes part Athlon 64 X2 3800+ for
Socket 939 – using it we will verify what the benefit for
Athlon 64 X2 is from acceleration of the memory subsystem and the
possibility to use DDR2-400/533/667/800, as well as from migration to
Socket AM2.
Prior to introducing you to the competitor processors, here
are the revised tables with the main specifications of new and outdated
models AMD Athlon 64 X2.
Athlon 64 X2 Socket AM2
|
|
CPU clock speed, GHz
|
HT speed, MHz
|
L2, K
|
Process technology
|
Dual-channel memory controller
|
64bit
|
NX-bit
|
Cool'n'Quiet
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 5200+
|
2,6
|
1000
|
2x1024
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 5000+
|
2,6
|
1000
|
2x512
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4800+
|
2,4
|
1000
|
2x1024
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4600+
|
2,4
|
1000
|
2x512
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4400+
|
2,2
|
1000
|
2x1024
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4200+
|
2,2
|
1000
|
2x512
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4000+
|
2,0
|
1000
|
2x1024
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 3800+
|
2,0
|
1000
|
2x512
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 3600+
|
2,0
|
1000
|
2x256
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Athlon 64 X2 Socket 939
|
|
CPU clock speed, GHz
|
HT speed, MHz
|
L2, K
|
Process technology
|
Dual-channel memory controller
|
64bit
|
NX-bit
|
Cool'n'Quiet
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4800+
|
2,4
|
1000
|
2x1024
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4600+
|
2,4
|
1000
|
2x512
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4400+
|
2,2
|
1000
|
2x1024
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4200+
|
2,2
|
1000
|
2x512
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 4000+
|
2,0
|
800
|
2x1024
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Athlon 64 X2 3800+
|
2,0
|
1000
|
2x512
|
90 nm, SOI
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
 |
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