Every once in awhile, a manufacturer stumbles upon exactly the right combination of price, features, performance, and competitive advantage, and in so doing, creates a product greater than the sum of its parts.  Inevitably, these components become the stuff of near-legend; key actors and players in the stories nerds swap around the proverbial campfire?though in this case, the ?campfire? might very well be someone?s overheating Prescott, and the resulting toxins billowing out of the inferno require that all parties stand some distance away in order to swap tales. 

For 3Dfx, it was the Voodoo2; for Intel, the Celeron 300A.  ABIT had the BH6 and IWILL the KK266.  AMD might claim the T-bird core, or the early days of AthlonXP; NVIDIA?s GF4 Ti 4200 could potentially earn a mention.  Overclockers might (in fact, will, if drunk) reminisce about their torrid love affairs with BH5 and TCCD, and many well-deserved toasts will be raised to the grandfather of ATI?s current X800 architecture?the venerable, but still-respected 9700 Pro. 

These are, and were, the standout products of their time, the one?s we saved for, lusted after, and occasionally destroyed in a fit of over-enthusiastic modding.  Whether you wax nostalgic over a Commodore or secretly miss the simple games of the 8-bit Nintendo, you, dear reader, undoubtedly have your own classic products that sit near and dear to your heart. 

Chances are, however, that the FX-57, for all its importance and impressive performance, won?t be one of them. 

More Than Meets the Eye:  Under the Hood of the FX-57

AMD?s newest FX processor runs at 2.8 GHz; a modest 7.8% jump above the previous FX-55.  Marketing departments and enthusiasts will doubtlessly fixate on the higher clockspeed, but the FX-57 is much more than just another speed bump.    

Up until now, all of AMD?s ?FX? series have been based on the original Clawhammer core that debuted when AMD launched the Opteron processor.  Unlike its predecessors, the FX-57 is a 90nm part, most likely based on the Opteron 152 core (aka, Venus). Functionally, Venus includes all the enhancements and advantages of the desktop Venice core, also known as ?Rev E.?  These include:  

• SSE3 Support:  Compared to the hype and buzz that surrounded SSE2?s debut and adoption, SSE3 has been practically moribund, and I?m unaware of any high-profile software that both utilizes SSE3 and demonstratively benefits from doing so.  The FX-57 (and all Venice cores) do support SSE3?if noted advantages surface in the future, this is one chip that can take advantage of them. 
   


• Irregular DIMM Configurations:  If you?re a wacko who buys a $300-$1000 chip, then insists on loading your motherboard with 4 DIMMS of differing size, speed, and latency, you can now stop whining about Athlon 64 incompatibility and go back to organizing your sock drawer.  Rev E supports a wide array of irregular configurations.
   


• Improved Memory Controller Loading and Performance:  Prior to Rev E, loading more than 2 gig of memory into an Athlon 64 motherboard could be a headache, especially if you were planning to run at DDR400.  Not only is the new Rev E. memory controller tweaked to improve performance, its also capable of handling a full 4 gig of RAM while running at full speed.

The inclusion of Rev E?s enhancements and features gives the FX-57 additional polish when compared to the FX-55, but in this case, the feature list doesn?t tell the entire story.  FX-57 is significant for other reasons that impact AMD?s entire product line. 

next >

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• The Significance of FX-57 (1 of 11)
• In the Valley of the Dualies, the One-Core Chip Ain?t King (2 of 11)
• Test Setup, Notes, and Acknowledgements. (3 of 11)
• Test Results: Sciencemark 2.0, MP3 & Video Encoding. (4 of 11)
• Cinebench, Kribibench, 3DS Max. (5 of 11)
• 3DSMax Cont, Lightwave 8.3 (6 of 11)
• Game Performance: Comanche 4, Unreal Tournament 2004. (7 of 11)
• Half Life 2, Far Cry. (8 of 11)
• Doom 3: Standard and CPU-Intensive Mode. (9 of 11)
• Temperatures and Power Consumption. (10 of 11)
• Conclusion (11 of 11)