AMD Athlon 64 FX-62: AMD's top-of-the-line dual-core offering, the Athlon 64 FX-62, is no slouch either. It was king of the performance hill until the Core 2 Extreme came along, and it's still a worthy processor. Like all Athlon 64s, the 2.8-GHz, dual-core chip features an integrated memory controller. Putting the controller alongside the two CPUs, rather than in a separate area of silicon, enables faster memory access since data doesn't have to traverse a traditional front-side bus.
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• Introduction • Performance Dual-Core CPUs • Mainstream Dual-Core CPUs • Bargain Dual-Core CPUs • Single-Core CPUs • Quick Charts: Specs & Prices |
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For home-brew experts who aren't content with the stock chip, it can be overclocked to 3.1 GHz. Best of all, the processor can be snapped up for around $900.
If you covet an FX-62 but can't quite come up with the cash, the 2.6-GHz FX-60 might be the way to go. It's officially an "end-of-life" part, meaning AMD is no longer making it, but many retailers still have stock on hand. It currently retails for around $600.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, E6600, E6400, E6300: Here's where setting the performance line among dual-cores gets tricky. After you factor price into the equation, it gets more difficult still. True, all four of Intel's Core 2 Duo "E" CPUs are slower than the Extreme X6800. However, the E6700, at 2.66 GHz, is only 9 percent slower than the X6800. Yet it sells for a street price of around $570 -- only a little more than half the price of its higher-end cousin. That's clearly a solid price/performance value proposition.
The pokiest of the four, the 1.86-GHz E6300, is 37 percent slower than the top of the line, but at a street price of a scant $196, it's approximately a third the cost of the E6700.
As for additional positives, all four of the Core 2 Duo "E" processors have the same fast front-side bus as the X6800 and all are amenable to overclocking as well.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+: Is the phrase "high-end bargain" an oxymoron? If it's not, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+, introduced in May alongside the FX-62, might just fit the bill. The second-place processor in AMD's lineup is plenty fast: It's clocked at 2.6 GHz and has a dual, 1MB L2 cache. Like the FX-62, it uses the new AM2 socket, which supports fast, DDR2 memory.
As is the case with all of AMD's dual-cores, the 5000+ uses the company's HyperTransport interconnect to communicate between the processor cores and I/O subsystems. The bus is clocked at 2000 MHz, and in peak operation HyperTransport can deliver up to 8.0 GB/sec of total system bandwidth.
The 5000+ is very popular right now, and in incredibly short supply. That's both because it's intrinsically a great chip and because it's seen as a good alternative to the Core 2 Duos. Those two reasons have pushed up the street price of the 5000+ beyond the $301 list price set by AMD to as much as $325 -- still not a lot to pay. That price is even more impressive when one considers that AMD's top X2 model last year -- the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ -- was slower at 2.4 GHz, didn't support DDR2 memory, and sold for a whopping $1,100.
I used the 5000+ in my recent "Build A Dual-Core PC" project. Subjectively speaking, it's extremely fast. (That's not just my opinion -- my multimedia-savvy teenage daughter concurs.)
On the downside, although it has a thermal rating of 89W (compared to 125W for the FX-62), it seems to runs hotter than I had hoped. AMD's Cool'n'Quiet driver is available to downshift power usage when the extra juice isn't needed.
If you're in the market for a high-end dual-core, it's also worth keeping in mind that AMD is planning to freshen its X2 line before the end of the year. An Athlon 64 X2 5200+ is in the works. It'll have the same 2.6-GHz clock speed as the 5000+, but will double its L2 cache complement from 2 x 512KB to 2 x 1MB.
