A T H L O N 6 4 F X - 5 5
T H I S M O N T H : Hot Rod CPUs, Part Deux!
Head 2 Head A showdown among CPUs
M
uch has changed in the six months since we last put AMD’s and Intel’s fastest CPUs
in the ring. With the Athlon 64 FX-55, AMD has finally shed its dependency on
power-sapping registered RAM, and has added 200MHz to make the CPU a heavy-
weight contender. Intel has also put its Pentium 4 Extreme Edition through a workout by
moving from Socket 478 to LGA775, and by giving it DDR2 and PCI Express capabilities. The
biggest improvement, however, is the move to a new 1066MHz frontside bus.
In a huge stunner, our judges deadlocked in May 2004’s match between the Athlon 64
FX-53 and the P4 Extreme, as both CPUs landed an equal number of head and body blows.
With competition between the two companies intensifying, both chipmakers are anxious
for a win in this month’s rematch.
It’s time to lace up the gloves and find out which CPU will take home Maximum PC’s
championship CPU belt!—GORDON MAH UNG22 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2004
Infrastructure: Finding
motherboards for the original
Socket 940 Athlon 64 FX CPUs
used to be like looking for a
clean gas station bathroom in
Detroit. The release of Socket
939 fixes this problem. Although
the selection is still ramping up,
it’s nothing to complain about.
Winner: TieDurability: We’ve sworn like
sailors after bending pins on
Athlon 64 CPUs (those Socket
939, Socket 940, and Socket 754s
all look the same), but it’s not so
hard to bend them back. You can’t
say the same for Intel’s LGA775,
which scares the bejesus out of
us every time we install one.
Winner: Athlon 64 FX-Forward compatibility: Is 64-bit
computing the future? We’re not
sure, but we do know this: Right
now, the only choice in town is the
Athlon 64 series. When you factor
in the built-in support for Microsoft’s
allegedly more secure NX (“no
execute”) features, which protect
your PC from executing viral code,
the Athlon 64 makes a damned
compelling pitch. With PCI Express
boards on the horizon, we’re putting
this win in AMD’s column.
Winner: Athlon 64 FX-Flexibility: If your space capsule
just returned from a trip to the
future where the planet is run
by apes, here’s a news flash,
Charleton: The Athlon 64 FX-55’s
integrated memory controller
makes it incapable of running
DDR2 memory. So toss out those
notions about upgrading the way
you did with your Athlon XP or
Pentium 4. To move to DDR2 next
year, you’ll have to chuck your CPU
and motherboard.
Winner: Pentium 4 Extreme
EditionPerformance: When we last met, I was but the learner. Now I am
the master! Actually, that’s a slight exaggeration. When our Lab
compared the FX-53 with the P4EE, we called it a draw because each
CPU won benchmark tests that catered to its particular strengths. We
can’t say that now. The Athlon 64 FX-55 cut through our benchmark
suite like a light saber through an Ewok. The contest was such a one-
sided ass-kicking that we triple-checked our results. They were spot
on; the Athlon 64 FX-55 dominates. (See page 24 for a full report on
performance). Winner: Athlon 64 FX-Price: At $827 a pop when
purchased in bulk, the Athlon
64 FX-55 isn’t exactly a bargain,
but it is the fastest game in
town and costs about $
less than the P4EE. Still, we
fondly recall the days when the
fastest CPU set us back only
$500. Winner: No oneTHE SPECS 2.6GHz Athlon 64 FX-
Front side bus N/A (integrated into core and
runs at core speed)
Interface Socket 939
L1 cache 64KB instructions / 64KB data
L2 cache 1MB
Process technology 130nm
Price $827 (@1,000 units)