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AMD AM2 Athlon 64 FX-62 Dual Core Processor 

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PCQ Bureau
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Speed wars in CPUs have definitely faded away. Now dual core technology at

the desktop is catching on and definitely looks like the way ahead for

processors. For the uninitiated, the technology packs two CPU cores in a single

packaging. This gives much more power and performance to the desktop user. AMD

recently introduced its latest dual core processor, the Athlon FX-62, based on

the new AM2 socket. In this processor, both cores run at 2.8 GHz and each has 1

MB L2 cache. AM2 is a 940-pin socket designed to take advantage of the faster

DDR2 memory modules. The processor has a new memory controller that supports

DDR-2 400 to 800 MHz.

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Price:
Rs 50,000 (approx)


Meant For:


High-end desktop users


Key Specs:


Athlon 64 FX-62 dual core; each processor is clocked at 2.8 GHz and has one MB L2 cache to itself. New AM2 socket with 940-pins; Support for faster DDR2 RAM 


Pros:


Excellent performance even while encoding DivX and MP3 files simultaneously


Cons:


None 


Contact:


AMD Far East, Bangalore. Tel: 4137 2400. E-mail:

rohit.verma@amd.com
 

The power of dual-core is felt if you either run multi-threaded applications

or multiple applications. Otherwise, you won't see any difference with a dual

core processor. 

To test the processor, we used an Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with 1 GB

DDR-2 400 RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX graphics card and a 7200-RPM hard

drive. We compared this processor with a Pentium D 820 2.8 G and even an AMD

Athlon 64x2 4800+ processor (both of which have been reviewed earlier by us).

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To stress the Athlon 64 FX-62, we first ran PCMark05, which has several tests

to check for things such as file compression, image processing, audio

conversion, physical calculation and 3D. To check gaming performance with this

processor, we run 3DMark 2005, and finally we also did DivX encoding and MP3

encoding tests to really stretch the processor to its limits. All tests were

done at 1027x764x32 resolution.

In our tests, Athlon 64 FX-62 dual core (2.8 G) did much better than the

Pentium D 820 and Athlon 64x2 4800+ processors in 3DMark 2005. It scored 7796,

whereas Pentium D 820 and Athlon 64x2 4800+ had only scored 5560 and 4887

respectively. In PCMark 2005, the processor gave a lower score than its younger

cousin Athlon 64x2 4800+, but was better than the Pentium D 820. In DivX and MP3

encoding tests, the Athlon 64 FX-62 did remarkably well compared to the other

two. It took around 9 mins to encode a 700 MB movie (VCD) to DivX and encoding

700 MB of WAV files to MP3 took just 2 min 7 secs.

Athlon 64

FX-62 test results

Model PCMark05 3D

Mark05
Encoding
        3D

Mark 05   
 CPU

Mark   
 DivX     MP3
Pentium

D Dual Core 820   
 4661     5560     5140     17.25     5.21
Athlone

64x2 4800+   
 6963     4887     5909     11.14     2.41
Athlon

64 FX-62   
 6162     7796     7015     9.41     2.07
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Socket 939 pin (above left) and socket AM2 that has 940 pins (above right)

Finally, to check the dual core capabilities of the processor, we ran the

same encoding tests together. This shot the CPU utilization to 100%, but both

jobs were completed in around around 10 mins. That's quite a feat, which shows

the power of using dual core processors.

Bottom Line: From the test results, it is clear that the new platform

is meant for users who need lots of processing power at the desktop, such as

those into graphics, multimedia, and of course gamers.

Sanjay Majumder

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