AMD Introduces Desktop Thoroughbred

[KvHagedorn]

XP now comes in .13 micron.

The layout did change somewhat..

http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=45000368

Big pictures:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q2/020610/index.html

Yeah, it's Tom's, and the benchmarks and comments aren't much worth reading, but there are some very good pics there.

Lots more, with further links:

http://www.amdzone.com/

Overclocking results don't look that great yet, but if you will remember when Palomino debuted as AthlonMP, they stank up the room then as well.. this is a new layout on a new process and we will see improvement here.

[Nuno]

I´m pleased to see good old ECS K7S5A working with it

[dZeus]

lol that article on Tom's hardware made him show his true colours again... what a load of crap.

the article on Ace's was quite good though imho

[The PIT]

Now did the snail slime unlock the multipliers???

[Kosh Naranek]

Originally posted by dZeus
lol that article on Tom's hardware made him show his true colours again... what a load of crap.

the article on Ace's was quite good though imho

Actually I think the article at Toms is one of the best reviews of the XP 2200+ ...better than the one at ACE's.

Am I a BIG fan of THG .. no .. but this review is good.

It's not a load of crap ... it's the most detailed review I have seen yet.Waaaaaay better than the review on anandtech.

If you only like reviews with conclusions that support your own opinion then that's your problem.

In all fairness .. this particular review is good !

If you don't like their conclusions so what ... then maybe it's you who have shown your true colours.

[The PIT]

Most reviews show the same story that P4 is now pulling away no doubt due to it's hike in bus speads additonal cache it's gained in it's Norwood guise. The price is differance is the major item that the new Athlon has got going for it.

[Kosh Naranek]

What I don't undertstand is why they haven't used a heatspreader ?

In some of the reviews I have read they complain about high temps. Which could have been avoided with a heatspreader.

Most of them tend to agree is due to the fact that the core is so small and the cooler can't absorb heat, concentrated on such a small area, fast enough.

(High temps. ~ 67 deg. C)

[The PIT]

No doubt something for the cooler guys to sell and why not.

[ALBPM]

It looks to me like this die shrink was a rush job, with the absolute minimum done to get it out the door.
So, when you pump 15% less electricity into a chip that's 40% smaller, the chip gets hotter.

That wattage requirement is a red flag.

Palomino - 64.3 watts/128 sq. mm = .502 watts per square millimeter.

Thoroughbred - 56.4 watts/80 sq. mm = .705 watts per square millimeter 40% more heat to be dissipated per square millimeter.

And since these parts will soon be outsourced to UMC I don't think anyone from AMD will be too concerned about these issues.

Paul

[dZeus]

Why do I think that THG's article was a load of crap?

Just look at the benchmark tables... there's no way not to call that a cleverly twisted way of making the AMD cpu look a lot slower in comparison to Intel's CPUs than the 'real' situation.

somehow I just can't get the idea out of my mind that THG has been 'bought' out by Intel since that overheating thing...

Call me biased, then again, I only have Intel powered CPUs/Motherboards here and would probably buy Intel stuff only, if I would upgrade right now

[borat]

untill 64 bit becomes mainstream i think intel we only look stronger and stronger in the deshtop market, with the pentium 4 clearly being a superior architecture as well as being highly overclockable, stable and cool they also have dual channel ddr on the way which running at 400mhz ddr will give a bandwidth if 6.4 gig/s whcih as rambus has shown brings huge benefits to the platform, plus the prices are getting competitive with a 2.2b being not much more than an xp2100 and the extra is worth it for the stability in my opinion.

[ALBPM]

This is what my 2.26B did out of the box


It's running very stable at 34 - 39 degC at 2.6GHz right now with just an Alpha PAL8942 with a generic low output 80 mm fan.

Paul

[The PIT]

I'm going to correct myself here as I should be compairing a 2.2a P4 to a 2200+ and not the P4 2.4a and when you look at it that way not just using Tommies benchmarks the XP doesn't come too badly.
Pity AMD couldn't have slapped the extra cache on though striaght away.

[KvHagedorn]

I don't think TBred is really meant to be around for very long, except perhaps in the mobile space. Barton and Hammer are scheduled to come out before the end of the year, and this is where we will see innovation. Barton will get some core tweaks and a 512k cache, and one guy on TMF boards speculated that Barton could actually use the Hammer core, but fit into a Socket 462. It would give AMD the same design from top to bottom, and the 512k cache would help keep the ravenous chip fed. Boy, that would be sweet.. Sledgehammer Opterons for servers, Clawhammer rebranded to AthlonII or something for the performance desktop/workstation, and Barton rebranded to DuronII for the value space.

I'm really not surprised to see Northwood pulling ahead just now.. the P4 is just hitting its stride and maturing nicely. Somebody at Intel is sure doing a good job with their process..

Just wait til Hammer is hitting its stride, though.

[Sasq]

Hmmm I checked out the fori at THG, there seems to be some question if they have old stock, as all *new* athlons are comming in a green package not red... I know mine is a green package....

Dan