AMD to can Athlon 64s below 2GHz

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A REPORT ON A German web site claimed that AMD is now producing such good yields on Athlon 64, Hammer technology, that it's considering canning any clock speeds lower than 2GHz when it launches next month. If the reports are correct, there might well be another reason. And that is, that despite having PR ratings for future Athlon 64 microprocessors, and despite reported problems with Intel's future Prescott chips, it's not realistic to start its desktop 64-bit family off at any speed below 2GHz, given that Intel will start that family off at high frequency speeds.

The article says AMD will introduce an Athlon 64 FX-55 at 2.4GHz (940) pins, an FX-53 2.2GHz (940) pins, a 3700+ (2.4GHz 754 pins) and a 3400+ (2.2GHz, 754) at launch time.

News source: The Inq

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#1 EnIgMa-PenGuIn on 06 Aug 2003 - 08:08

at least that sounds more realistic

#2 Bant on 06 Aug 2003 - 08:15

*breaks out the pompoms*

(3 replies) #3 macrosslover on 06 Aug 2003 - 08:16

exactly and you have to wonder to, how good windows xp built just for the athlon64 will be.

just imagine if MS knows that whoever runs it has at least a 2.0ghz processor and at least 256 or 512 megs of ram, i wonder what they would do with it. if i was them i'd build it in such a way that it would fully take advantage of the clock speed but now but so high in requirements that the 2ghz chip runs it real slow. i'm sure they'll find a way but i don't think it makes much sense to build an operating system that can run on a chip under 1ghz when the chips are coming in at least 2ghz, hey just my opinion.

after hearing the mess about prescott i just might give athlon64 a chance, if it blows then i'll just get a p4 c chip

and if they are getting good yields i suppose this september will be a real launch and not a paper one. who knows with all the rumors surronding the 2ghz g5, AMD might be the first to market with a 2ghz 64bit chip for consumers

#3.1 JaggedFlame on 06 Aug 2003 - 17:56

Windows XP's already done, though. I imagine they're pulling out all the stops on Longhorn, with the multi-tiered interface and all.

#3.2 macrosslover on 06 Aug 2003 - 18:05

i'm talking about the windows xp they are making for the athlon64. yeah i know it's unlikely they will build it to full take advantage of the chip, but i can dream lol. i mean if you know the chip won't clock in under 1ghz why build the os with minimum requirements such as those. i figue if all MS had to do was add 64bit instructions to windows xp and that's it, people wouldn't be wondering when they will come out with their os for the athlon64. if somehow they are building windowsxp from the ground up just for the athlon64 then all i'm saying is they should take better advantage of the hardware, make it the best windows xp that's out there.

#3.3 JaggedFlame on 06 Aug 2003 - 19:37

Yeah, I get what you're saying, but I just don't see them having a lot of freedom with this thing. The more and more they take advantage of higher speeds and 64-bit processors, the more and more you have an OS that isn't Windows XP anymore.

(5 replies) #4 CheeseCow on 06 Aug 2003 - 08:26

OMG. Why should there be high requirements for running an OS?!

If you want eyecandy then it looks like there is something in store for you when Longhorn finally arrives, but I would rather use my CPU cycles for work rather than my OS playing around.

Does anyone know the benefit of using HyperThreading with the 64-bit architecture? Is it more or less?

#4.1 Quick Reply on 06 Aug 2003 - 08:32

it isn't such high requirements to run the os, it's that you have to have the resources for games/work applications and an os at the same time.

#4.2 macrosslover on 06 Aug 2003 - 08:51

just my preference, i'm saying they should add feature to the os that gives people a reason to purchase windows xp 64bit and thus an athlon64. but like i said don't make it too high where it runs slow.

#4.3 Jason on 06 Aug 2003 - 09:59

In Longhorn the graphics card will be processing all you see on the screen NOT the CPU anymore.

#4.4 lexor on 06 Aug 2003 - 13:30

QUOTE (#4.2)

just my preference, i'm saying they should add feature to the os that gives people a reason to purchase windows xp 64bit and thus an athlon64.

I don't know, somehow I always thought that software is bought to use hardware, why would I buy and OS (any OS) if I then have to buy hardware for it? I'll buy an OS I already have hardware for.

#4.5 tntomek on 06 Aug 2003 - 14:57

So you can play 3D solitare why else

#5 mAcOdIn on 06 Aug 2003 - 08:47

AMD doesn't have hyperthreading so there is no benefit of using hyperthreading with a AMD64, because you CAN'T. And Prescoot aint 64bit either so no 64bit hyperthreading action there either.

Personally while the Dual Channel Athlon64 sounds really nice it requires ECC DDR, and there is no ECC DDR 400 yet so not too sure about that. And I've yet to see a good single channel athlon 64 chip benchmarked so there's no way yet to see how it performs.

(3 replies) #6 leebobs on 06 Aug 2003 - 12:52

I hope Microsoft Splits Windows to two channels Intel and AMD.
Fundamentally the same but optimised for the Different CPU's, they we could truly see which Hardware is better

#6.1 Zoiks on 06 Aug 2003 - 14:31

no then we would just see which one microsoft favors

#6.2 Knight' on 06 Aug 2003 - 19:36

It would be confusing for the average PC owner

#6.3 roadwarrior on 07 Aug 2003 - 13:55

Not necessarily. Microsoft could simply have both sets of optimized code on one CD, and have the installation program install the apropriate code for the processor in the computer. It pretty much does this already anyway, so it's not that unlikely.

(2 replies) #7 aznx on 06 Aug 2003 - 14:31

why would the requirements for xp 64bit to be higher? they just recompile the code to be optimized for 64-bit processors. and intel doesnt have a damn x86-64 yet, so by the time yamhill comes out, it'll be longhorn style.

just because ecc ddr 400 hasn't come out yet doesnt mean the ecc ddr 333 is slow. the athlon64's memory controller is a lot better than the athlon xp's. even running at a higher memory bus, the athlon xp's memory output is still lower than the opteron/athlon64. so no need to worry really.

optimizing for two different cpus would just mean, whichever processor type gets more funding/development, is the one that'll be faster. not really fair. and the itanium/itanium2's suck at 32-bit emulation. and they're a lot more expensive than the opteron.

#7.1 Knight' on 06 Aug 2003 - 19:35

Yamhill is a rumour... Nobody is certain that "it will come out".

#7.2 threedaysdwn on 07 Aug 2003 - 04:18

Actually many believe that Yamhill was scrapped in favor of Intel's FX!32-style emulator for Itanium.

(1 reply) #8 ~~NeYo~~ on 06 Aug 2003 - 18:05

What was the title of this news thread article supposed to be? *clueless*

"AMD to can Athlon 64s below 2GHz" ... LOL ..umm...?

#8.1 Knight' on 06 Aug 2003 - 19:33

took me a while to work out as well

#9 aznx on 06 Aug 2003 - 18:11

as in not sell athlon64s below 2ghz

(1 reply) #10 divertom15 on 06 Aug 2003 - 20:10

so correct me if im wrong no under 2ghz @ launch ? but in the future could they come out with 1 less then 2 ghz? i know they would come out with p3s back at launch that were a certian speed then after launch they ended up selling p3s with a lesser spped could it be possible that amd might do this too? i would hope so...

#10.1 macrosslover on 06 Aug 2003 - 20:45

obviously they could come out under 2ghz if they wanted to but why bother? Intel keeps jacking up speed like nobody's business so i don't see why AMD should come out with a slower chip.

when they eventually make a budget/Duron version of this chip, if the yields are good like they say (it's the INQ people take it for what you will

) i don't see any reason for them to come out with a clock speed slower than the current athlon64 when it comes out. so if the lowest speed a64 is like 2.5ghz when they decide to do a budget model then i'd expect the budget model to clock in somewhere around that. just my opnion.

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