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Review: AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core X2 4400+ |
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Overview:The AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ is the cheapest Toledo core dual core 64 bit CPU. With an on-chip memory controller, two CPU cores, and over 2 megabyes of total cache on the chip, it's a high-end processor with excellent price/performance. It uses AMD's Socket 939 and should work in most existing 939 systems with just a BIOS update as it's pin compatible with other Socket 939 Athlon 64's.
The Athlon 64 X2 CPU series is the closest thing to affordable symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) at home. Two cores per chip is turning into the new big advancement in processor performance and the X2 chips signify the arrival of dual cores to the desktop market.
The AMD dual core CPU's perform about 50% faster than the single-core versions of the Athlon 64 at the same frequencies. With the right software, this X2 can attain an 80% performance advantage over the 2.2 GHz single core Athlon 64.
The X2 4400+ has 1024K of level 2 cache per core as well as 64K of level 1 data cache and 64K of level 1 instruction cache per core. The total of 2 megabytes of L2 cache is the difference between the Toledo core and the Manchester core chips -- which include only 512 KB of L2 cache per core. Like the entry-level Manchester core chip, this cheapest of the Toledo core chips is quite overclockable and represents a sweet spot on the price/performance curve.
While some will claim that you can't benefit from dual core chips unless you are running multithreaded software, that's just not true. In addition to processor intensive multithreaded software such as Adobe Photoshop, you can also gain from dual cores if you: - run multiple (software) servers
- run multiple copies of a server
- run servers in the background on your desktop box
- run background and foreground processes concurrently
The usefulness of dual cores on the desktop will continue to improve as more CPU intensive software is rewritten for multithreaded architectures. And, of course, when game engines are rewritten to use dual cores, we'll see yet another leap in gaming performance. Of course, even gamers can benefit now by running a game while simultaneously running CPU intensive background tasks.
Meanwhile, both 32- and 64-bit applications can run simultaneously on the 4400+ X2. It'll seamlessly run your current 32-bit software at full speed, while providing a smooth path to 64 bits as 64-bit software becomes more widespread.
With the performance of true dual core chips dramatically higher than that of Intel's Hyperthreading approach, the X2 4400+ is excellent for multithreaded as well as server applications -- and at quite reasonable prices, compared to dual-CPU solutions.
Power requirements, at 110 watts, are within the upper range of single core AMD 64 chips; AMD has reduced power consumption in several ways, although some of the power savings come from the slightly lowered clock speeds. While holding the power consumption down and raising performance with the second core, the performance per watt is outstanding in the X2 chips.
Overclockability of the 4400+ X2 is excellent, with some samples reaching 2.7 GHz and with 2.4 GHz common using the original fan and heatsink and with the standard voltage. If you're looking for high-end performance at a not unreasonable price, then this chip will satisfy both requirements -- while holding in reserve some capacity for overclocking.
So, should you buy a dual core processor? If you run Photoshop, do video editing, run CPU-intensive servers, are a gamer who likes to run background processes, or you just want the most responsive desktop you can get, then you probably should consider it.
More specifically, should you buy an X2 4400+? This is the cheapest Toledo core chip in the X2 family. Therefore, it is the lowest priced of the 1 meg cache-per-core X2's and it runs at the lowest clock speed -- while being in essence the same chip as the higher priced 1024K cache chip. This means that the 4400+ X2 has the most frequency headroom for overclocking (in the Toledo family). Therefore, if you want to save money on a dual core chip, and especially if you are willing to do a little overclocking, then, by all means, take a look at the 4400x2. The X2 4400+ scores very high in both performance and overclockability. It also comes with a good heatsink and fan.
If you don't yet have a computer that supports the X2 chips -- and aren't interested in building your own machine, then have a look at the Shuttle SN25P bare bones system. It's small, nice looking, and easy -- even for a beginner -- to assemble into a complete system. In addition, no BIOS update is necessary to use an X2 CPU in the SN25P.
Alternatively, if you have everything except a motherboard, you can spend very little money and get an Abit KN8 Ultra Socket 939 motherboard.
In conclusion, the CPU upgrade strategy of putting two 64-bit processor cores on a single chip has proved to be a huge success for AMD. Performance is outstanding and the power consumption and heat generation characteristics are also quite good. The X2 family is dual cores done right. This is a big opportunity for those of us looking for faster desktops and fast servers at low prices.
Technical Specifications
Manufacturer page: AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core, 4400+
Frequency: 2200Mhz
Voltage: 1.35-1.40 V
Max Temp: 65°C
Thermal Power: 110W
L1 Cache: 128KB + 128KB
L2 Cache: 1024KB x2
CMOS Technology: 90nm SOI
Number of Transistors: 233 million
HyperTransport™ technology up to 2000MHz, full duplex
Memory bandwidth: up to 6.4 GB/s, Total: up to 14.4 GB/s
Inter-core communication at CPU speed
40-bit physical addresses, 48-bit virtual addresses
Sixteen 64-bit integer registers
Sixteen 128-bit SSE/SSE2/SSE3 registers
Socket: Socket 939
AMD 64 Instruction support
3D & Multimedia instructions: 3DNow!™ technology, SSE2, SSE3
Support for mismatched DIMMs on the same memory channel |
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| | mail this link | -Ray, October 25, 2005 (Updated: January 29, 2007) |
Articles are owned by their authors.
The rest is © 2005-2009, Ray Yeargin.
-r00t [ at ] [thisdomain]
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