Shootouts

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and FX-62

By Vijay Anand - 23 May 2006

Conclusion

Conclusion

Speculations were running amok several months prior to AMD's AM2 launch as enthusiasts were concerned if DD2 memory technology's higher latencies would diminish any returns for adopting higher speed memory or even perform worse off. Thankfully, DDR2 memory technology has progressed reasonably and there are high-speed low latency memory modules. Along with AMD's careful tweaking, the net outcome as our results have shown, the new AM2 processors have nothing to lose and all to gain.

With respect to our thorough testing of the new Athlon 64 FX-62 and Athlon 64 X2 5000+ AM2 processors, we're totally convinced of their all-round performance delivery in almost all aspects with top-notch gaming performance to boot. The Athlon 64 FX-62 is now the fastest consumer processor at about the same US$1,000 that the FX-60 was retailing and is anywhere between 5% and 7% speedier. The Athlon 64 X2 5000+ on the other hand turned out to be somewhat of a 'value' buy of the high-end as it can rival the FX-60 in performance and yet cost about a third less.

The question that most enthusiasts have ringing in their head now is if Intel's Core 2 Duo later this year can actually deliver the statistically amazing performance revealed in this year's Intel Developers Forum. While seemingly good, we've no way to verify those claims until the processor arrives at our labs. In any case, we've seen some of the leaked AMD roadmaps and they look equally promising with much faster AM2 processors than we've seen today. Given the kind of performance scaling we've seen from our testing, they might just be a formidable match for Intel's next gen. However, we'll cap these assumptions as of now as these are future products where specs and launch dates have a tendency to change as time goes along. When the time is right, we'll definitely reveal all the juicy details.

For now, the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 reigns in our lab and the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ comes across as a very compelling model that manages FX-60-like performance for a lot less. The only downside is the large cooler needed to tame the high-end processors comfortably and quietly. However, AMD has that all covered with the Energy Efficient AM2 processor models that have a TDP rating of 65W. Of course these go for a slight premium, but they can certainly be considered for powerful media center PC usage. AM2 adopters can expect a whole slew of motherboard varieties from ATI, NVIDIA, VIA and SiS to fulfill their features-to-performance needs. On the high-end, look out for NVIDIA's nForce 590 SLI that we've also just covered. On the mainstream side of things, expect NVIDIA's nForce 550, 570 Ultra, GeForce 6100 series, VIA's K8T890 and ATI's RS485, RS550 and RD580 class chipsets. So stay tuned as we bring you more platform coverage to complement AM2's launch.

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