| AMD Athlon FX62 Processor |
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AMD's Flagship processor, the Athlon FX62 is certainly creating a stir among enthusiasts ... INTRODUCTION Our appetite for speed and faster processors never ends, and it's the hardcore gamers and enthusiasts that is the driving force for chip makers like Intel and AMD. Without them, we will not be seeing a lot of the new technology we have today. Since the introduction of desktop processors in the late 80's, AMD have always lived under the shadow of Intel. They were regarded as the cheaper alternative to Intel, and many enthusiasts accepted AMD with open arms. This was due to the fact that AMD processors were cheaper and performed just as good as an expensive Intel equivalent.
The AMD vs Intel debate have been raging for years, with no clear winner. As history would would tell you ... in the past Intel would introduce a record-breaking processor, only to be followed by AMD ... and vice versa. Both companies would play the speed game ... the one to produce the faster processor. And right now ... it is no different and towards the end of last year, Intel was the first to introduce processors using 65nm technology in the form of "Presler" cores. It also offered dual core technology and a large 4Mb of L2 cache, however they were not popular among gamers and enthusiasts. Reasons include ... the processors produced a lot of heat, and in the enthusiasts' world ... excess heat is bad. The performance wasn't alll that great either when compared with other similarly spec'd AMD systems. There were a lot of memory latency issues with DDR2 ram. There's also the price too. These Intel processors were expensive, and in order to have a fully spec'd Intel system running ... you'll also need more expensive DDR2 ram and a decent motherboard. All-in-all, if money wasn't a concern then it would be all good, but in terms of an enthusiast ... if there's room to save, then why not save. Around the same time, AMD had already introduced the Athlon FX60 processor. It was a beast of a processor. Although it was still based on the 90nm technology and only offered 2Mb of L2 cache, it was faster than any of Intel's offerings. This is all thanks to the integrated memory controller within their processors as well as the hyper transport technology and the lower latency of DDR1 ram still being used.
All of this is about to change when Intel will be introducing their latest processor in July. It'll be called "Core 2 Duo" (Conroe), again using the same 65mn techology and its supposed to be faster than any current AMD processor, including the one we're looking at ... the Athlon FX62. Preliminary tests on the Conroes have all been very intreresting and proved to be a FX62 killer.
DDR2 and Socket AM2 DDR2 technology have always looked good on paper, but in the real world and real life applications ... it had issues with high latency. There isn't any "seeable" differences or problems however, in a gamers' or enthusiasts' point of view ... it meant a lot. It's only a matter of time before AMD will join the DDR2 bandwagon, and what better time to do it now. When AMD announced that their next range of processors will support DDR2 memory, everyone was excited. BUT no one expected a new socket type with 940-pins ... socket AM2. It's now become a bit of a dilemma for the gamers and enthusiasts. Do you opt to go all out on socket AM2 with DDR2 ram or stay with socket-939 and DDR1. Initial tests between an Athlon FX60 (socket-939) using DDR1 ram and Athlon FX62 (socket AM2) with DDR2 ram, have proved very little between them. Oh dear ... so what does this all mean then? Well, a new AM2 processor will mean a new motherboard and new ram ... it's all getting a little more expensive than one would think. OK, enough talking ... let's see what AMD's flagship processor the Athlon FX62 can do for us.
Thanks to AMD for supplying the review kit ... which includes:
- Athlon FX62 Processor (socket AM2 940-pins)
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