Overclocking Results:

stock max. oc processor speed: 2.5 ghz 3.03 ghz if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers: Overclocking the CPU and Memory Overclocking the Videocard

The Socket AM2 90nm AMD Athlon64 processors were pretty good at overclocking and usually when a processor architecture goes through a die shrink, overclocking potential increases. It'll be interesting to see how this first batch of 65nm Athlon64 X2 CPUs handle being pushed to the limit.

Before the overclocking tests got underway, the Corsair Twin2X PC2-8500 memory was first set to run at DDR2-533 MHz mode, this way it will not hold the CPU back. Keeping the 12.5x CPU clock multiplier, the Asus M2N32-SLI motherboard clock speed was increased slowly from 200 MHz on up.

Overclocking in 5 MHz increments, the AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ was slowly pushed to 215 MHz before the system began experiencing any signs of instability. At that point the processor voltage had to be increased to 1.35V to stabilize the system.

At 225 MHz the Athlon64 X2 4800+ flaked out, this time the processor voltage was increased to 1.4V. To reach 235 MHz (or 2.94 GHz) the processor voltage required another tweak to 1.45V in order to keep the system stable.

The AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ maxed at a motherboard clock speed of 242 MHz (or 3.03 GHz), anything higher and the system was just too unstable to run benchmarks. Increasing the voltages didn't help and I have a feeling that heat might be the issue as the CPU temperatures according to the Asus M2N32SLI-DLX motherboard were in the range of 70 degrees Celsius.

Enthusiasts should note at stock speeds the AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor did not generate a lot of heat, only when overclocked with a high voltage did heat loads jumped dramatically. Don't put away that watercooling or phase change system just yet, you'll still need it for AMD's 65nm processors.

Prelude to Benchmarks - Test System Configuration

Over the following page we'll be running the socket AM2 2.5 GHz Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor though PCSTATS standard set of gaming, productivity, and 64-bit processor benchmarks. There are a wide variety of gaming and synthetic benchmarks here to illustrate what kind of performance boost users can expect from these latest, dual core 64-bit capable K8 processors.

Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark results on the next several pages.

PCSTATS Test System Configuations

test system #1 amd reference systems #1 amd reference systems #2 intel reference system processor: amd athlon64 x2 4800+ amd Sempron 3600+ AMD Athlon64 FX-62 AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ AMD Athlon64 FX-60 AMD Athlon64 4000+ Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Intel Pentium D 840 Intel Pentium D 940 Socket: Socket AM2 Socket AM2 Socket 939 Socket 775 Clock Speed: 12.5 x 200 MHz = 2.5 GHz 12.5 x 242 MHz = 3.03 GHz 10 x 200 MHz = 2.0 GHz 14 x 200 MHz = 2.8 GHz 13 x 200 MHz = 2.6 GHz 13 x 200 MHz = 2.6 GHz 12 x 200 MHz = 2.4 GHz 16 x 200 MHz = 3.2 GHz 16 x 200 MHz = 3.2 GHz Chipset: nForce 590 SLI nForce4 SLI Intel 975X Motherboards: Asus M2N32SLI-DLX Asus A8N-SLI Premium (NF4 SLI) Foxconn 975X7AA-8EKRS2H Videocard: 2x MSI NX7800GTX-VT2D256E in SLI Memory: 2x 1024MB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR-2 2x 512MB OCZ Gold GX PC3500 DDR 2x 1024MB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR-2 Memory Latency: 4-4-4-12 2-2-2-5 5-5-5-15 Hard Drive: 74GB Western Digital Raptor WD740 CDROM: AOpen Combo 52x PowerSupply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 510 SLI Heatsink: Athlon64 FX-62 Reference Heatsink Athlon64 4000+ Reference Heatsink Intel Reference Heatsink Software Setup: Microsoft WindowsXP SP2 Microsoft WindowsXP x64 Edition nVIDIA Forceware NF4 9.34 nVIDIA Forceware 91.27 Microsoft WindowsXP SP2 Microsoft WindowsXP x64 Edition nVIDIA Forceware NF4 6.70 nVIDIA Forceware 91.27 Microsoft WindowsXP SP2 Microsoft WindowsXP x64 Edition Intel INF 7.2.2 nVIDIA Forceware 91.27 Benchmarks: 32-Bit Benchmarks: SYSmark 2004 Business Winstone 2004 Content Creation 2004 SiSoft Sandra 2005 Maya Render Test Super Pi 1.1 PCMark05 3DMark05 3DMark06 Doom 3 Quake 4 FarCry FEAR 64-Bit Benchmarks: PCMark04 PCMark05 Cinebench 2003 ScienceMark 2.0 Mini-GZIP DiVX Encoding CPU Load 3D Tests: Prime95 + 3DMark05 Prime95 + Doom 3 Prime95 + FEAR