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AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ 65nm Processor Review
AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ 65nm Processor Review - PCSTATS
Today the money is with 65nm SOI processor manufacturing, and with the AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ the company has finally done the die shrink.
 84% Rating:   
Filed under: CPU / Processors Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: AMD Mar 07 2007   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > CPU / Processors > AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+

65nm manufacturing for AMD at Fab36

The 65nm based Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ is built at AMD's Fab 36 located in Dresden Germany. The 90nm K8 processors were built in AMD's Fab 30. Not only is AMD implementing 65nm manufacturing with this chip, Fab 36 will also build processors on 300mm wafers. Wafers of that size have 2-1/4 times the area compared to AMD's 200mm wafers used at Fab 30. Both the 90nm and 65nm Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64 X2 parts contain 153.8 million transistors (split between two cores) which means as long as yields are good, making the 65nm Athlon64 X2's will cost AMD less in the long run.

The 940-pin Athlon64 X2 4800+ uses AMD's organic micro PGA CPU packaging which has been standard since the Socket 939 days.

When running in a dual channel configuration, there is 12.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth available to the processor; enough to keep both processing cores fed and operational.

There is a single hypertransport link of up to 8GB/sec between the CPU and motherboard core logic, the total CPU bandwidth rounds out to as much as 20.8 GB/s. The Athlon64 X2 series of AM2 processors support unbuffered DDR-2 667 & 800 memory (PC2-5300 and PC2-6400 respectively), whereas Athlon64 and Sempron AM2 chips operate with more affordable DDR-2 667 RAM.

AMD Virtualization Technology is integrated on-chip for all DDR-2 socket AM2 processors except the Sempron. Virtualization is still very much in development, but its adoption by heavyweights Intel and Microsoft, ensures it will eventually find its way into the desktop computer.

On the topic of cache, each socket AM2 Athlon64 CPU has a total of 256KB of L1 cache. The L1 cache is split evenly between each core in the processor. There is 64k L1 Instruction and 64K L1 Data. The L2 cache on socket AM2 Athlon64 X2 processors gets a bit complicated as it also can vary with CPU class.

At first the Socket AM2 line of Athlon64 X2 processors only came in 512KB L2 cache per core configurations, but it looks like AMD is spicing things up a bit now. There are a few higher end Athlon64 X2 processors with 1MB L2 per core, but this is the exception to the rule. Generally the 940-pin Athlon64 X2 processors come with 512KB L2 cache.

What's happening to the L2?

On paper the 90nm and 65nm Athlon64 X2 processors are identical, however AMD has tweaked the L2 on the 65nm parts. The L2 cache memory latencies have increased slightly and this was done in preparation for 65nm processors with larger L2 cache sizes. Whether end users will be able to detect a difference in their everyday computing is questionable, but you will need to keep this in mind while viewing the benchmark results.

Expanding Socket AM2 CPU Family

PCSTATS is focusing on just the mainstream AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor in this review. It retails for $215 USD, which is quite inexpensive considering the value it provides. Here is a break down of the other socket AM2 parts currently available as of this writing, their clock speed, power footprint and cache sizes are listed.

Initial AMD Socket AM2 Processor Models and Energy Efficient CPUs
Socket AM2 Processors Standard Efficiency Energy Efficient Clock Speed L2 Cache Size
Athlon64 FX-62 125W - 2.8 GHz 2x 1MB
Athlon64 X2 6000+ 89W - 3.0 GHz 2x 1MB
Athlon64 X2 5600+ 89W - 2.8 GHz 2x 1MB
Athlon64 X2 5400+ 89W - 2.8 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 5200+ 89W - 2.6 GHz 2x 1MB
Athlon64 X2 5000+ (65nm) 65W - 2.6 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 5000+ 89W - 2.6 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 4800+ (65nm) 65W - 2.5 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 4800+ 89W 65W 2.5 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 4600+ 89W 65W 2.4 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 4400+ (65nm) 65W - 2.3 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 4400+ 89W 65W 2.3 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 4200+ 89W 65W 2.2 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 4000+ (65nm) 65W - 2.1 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 4000+ 89W 65W 2.1 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 X2 3800+ 89W 65W, 35W 2.0 GHz 2x 512KB
Athlon64 3800+ 62W - 2.4 GHz 512KB
Athlon64 3500+ 62W 35W 2.2 GHz 512KB
Sempron 3600+ 62W - 2.0 GHz 256KB
Sempron 3500+ 62W - 2.0 GHz 128KB
Sempron 3400+ 62W 35W 1.8 GHz 256KB
Sempron 3200+ 62W 35W 1.8 GHz 128KB
Sempron 3000+ 62W 35W 1.6 GHz 256KB

The four 65nm Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64 X2 processors are more power efficient than their 90nm counterparts. Each chip has a maximum power spec of 65W, which happens to be the same as the 90nm Energy Efficient models. Best of all the 65nm Athlon64 X2 processors do not carry a price premium over standard 90nm parts.

It's interesting to note that the AMD Athlon64 X2 5600+ processor has the same clock speed and L2 cache size as the AMD Athlon64 FX-62. A couple of other positives for the X2 5600+ is that it has a lower maximum power spec and costs less than the high end FX-62 part.

Up next PCSTATS focuses on the power efficiency and performance per watt metrics of this new class of AMD Athlon64 X2 processor. How well does it stand up to Intel's Core 2 Duo processor in power efficiency...?

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Contents of Article: AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+
 Pg 1.  AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ 65nm Processor Review
 Pg 2.  — 65nm manufacturing for AMD at Fab36
 Pg 3.  Athlon64 X2 Performance-Per-Watt Metrics
 Pg 4.  Athlon64 X2 4800+ AM2 System Power Draw Tests
 Pg 5.  Technologies Behind the Athlon64 X2 4800+
 Pg 6.  Will 65nm improve overclocking potential?
 Pg 7.  Pure 32-Bit Benchmarks: SYSMark 2004
 Pg 8.  Pure 32-Bit Benchmarks: Office Productivity, SiSoft Sandra
 Pg 9.  Pure 32-Bit Benchmarks: Maya Render Test, Super Pi
 Pg 10.  Pure 32-Bit Benchmarks: PCMark05, 3DMark05
 Pg 11.  Pure 32-Bit Benchmarks: 3DMark06, Doom 3
 Pg 12.  Pure 32-Bit Benchmarks: Quake 4, FarCry
 Pg 13.  Pure 32-Bit Benchmarks: FEAR
 Pg 14.  64 Bit Benchmarks: ScienceMark 2
 Pg 15.  64 Bit Benchmarks: Mini-GZip, DiVX Encoding
 Pg 16.  Multi-Threaded Benchmarks: 3DMark05, Doom 3
 Pg 17.  Multi-Threaded Benchmarks: FEAR / Conclusions

 
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