Product Listing

Sneak Peek: Core 2 Extreme X6900 and Athlon 64 FX-64 Performance Preview

By Zachary Chan - 2 Aug 2006

More Games and Closing Remarks

Results - Quake 4 and UT2004

In Quake 4, we begin to see a slight leveling off in performance from the Core 2 Extreme X6800 to X6900 whether SMP mode is enabled or not. Our GeForce 7900 GT is probably the limiting factor here as the game becomes GPU restricted. At the lower end of the scale though, the Athlon 64 FX-64 system is able to perform on par with the Core 2 Duo E6600.

The Core 2 Extreme X6900 continues is linear performance increment through higher clock frequencies as UT2004 isn't as graphics bound, adding 7 - 9fps at every speed bump. The game also works well in the favor of the Athlon 64 FX-62 and FX-64 as both processors outperform the Core 2 Duo E6600 and are on the same playing field as the E6700 for the first time.


Closing Remarks

There you have it, our first hand preview of the performance of AMD and Intel's 'upcoming' high-end processors. If you look purely at each CPU, both the Athlon 64 FX-64 and Core 2 Extreme X6900 display the level of performance improvement that is expected out of the increase in core clock speeds; the FX-64 being on average 5 - 7% faster than the FX-62 and the X6900 averaging 6 - 8% over the X6800.

From our benchmarks, the AMD Athlon 64 FX-64 was able to perform very well in gaming benchmarks due to a much better graphics subsystem of the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard, which while not really being indicative of processor performance, does give the Athlon 64 FX-64 a reprieve.

However, even with this improvement, the Athlon 64 FX-64 is merely playing catch up to the lower end Core 2 Duo E6600, while the X6900 increases Intel's lead even further, leaving a huge performance gap for AMD to fill in terms of raw number crunching performance. The Intel Core 2 Extreme X6900 looks like it is going to be an extra nail in the coffin for AMD's 90nm Windsor core.

To date, AMD has almost halved the price of its Athlon 64 processor line-up, but even with the July price cuts, the Processor-In-Box (PIB) version of the Athlon 64 FX-62 will still weigh in at a hefty US$827 and the Athlon 64 FX-64 will probably debut at the usual US$999 mark. This makes AMD's high-end offering not very attractive considering the E6600 is below US$350.

Note that the AMD Athlon 64 FX-64 and Intel Core 2 Extreme X6900 are both not officially announced or released yet. The specifications of both these processors at press time are at best an educated speculation based on the information available to us today. The actual performance of the processors can differ from our benchmarks in this article if AMD or Intel decide to change the specifications or they may even not materialize though we feel that's unlikely.

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