Who's going to 64bits first?

[igalan]

Yesterday AMD officialy presented the new consumer processors, Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX.

Now who on PCTT is gonna get them first? I don't think I'll upgrade now, anyway Windows XP 64 won't be available until summer next year or later, so there's no point. But it's temting to be able to say "yeah I'm already into 64 bit computing"

If someone is thinking about getting one of those, he or she should next look for a motherboard, and here's another problem. nForce3 boards are plaged with problems (low AGP performance and lack of stable drivers), so for now get Via K8T800 which is a safe bet now.

[Gabe]

Right now its a waste for the little performance gain you get. Considering its a huge expense to convert to the 64 bit, and chances are by the time apps are out there that support the 64 functionality, pci-x will be out as well, which is scheduled for release in jan. Yesterdays launch I think isnt going to help amd, other than piss people now who spend tons of money on a system that isnt going to be a low performer three to six months down the line. Yah you have a 64 bit cpu and board, and only linux with the native 64bit support. If PCI-X does come out, that means another 300 out the window for a new board... so we'll see what happens

[Polariz]

The early Athlon64 bit chips are due to have a socket change so the upgrade path is rubbish, from socket 740ish to 939.

With lacklustre performance in 32bit and a lack of 64 bit software the choice is a tad crap atm. Wait till mid 2004 when Windows 64bit edition arrives and by then the chips will be manufactured at the 90nm process, allowing them to be cooler and run faster, and also by that time they will be in the new socket format.

The new Intel Extreme edition looks nice but is hideously expensive...

All this aside I don't need to upgrade at the moment with me 3GHz, but new kit always looks nice

[Wobbel]

Me thinks NUTNDUN must provide one of us (ME) with a 64 bit machine to play with and to test it, so we (I) can write a decent review

[igalan]

Originally posted by Polariz
With lacklustre performance in 32bit and a lack of 64 bit software the choice is a tad crap atm. Wait till mid 2004 when Windows 64bit edition arrives and by then the chips will be manufactured at the 90nm process, allowing them to be cooler and run faster, and also by that time they will be in the new socket format.

From what I've seen in the reviews at Tom's Hardware 32 bits performance of the FX version is really good, much better than XP3200+ and most of the times better than P4 3,2 EE. Even if you don't have 64 bits software, you get a boost in performance thanks to the new HyperTransport (3 in case of the FX).

What I don't like is the integrated memory controler. That limits the ability to support newer memory. So if a new DDR2 is released for motherboards, you won't be able to use it with your Athlon64.

[iAvalance]

CPU to memory bus becomes more and more the bottleneck in speed problems.

[Polariz]

Originally posted by igalan
From what I've seen in the reviews at Tom's Hardware 32 bits performance of the FX version is really good, much better than XP3200+ and most of the times better than P4 3,2 EE. Even if you don't have 64 bits software, you get a boost in performance thanks to the new HyperTransport (3 in case of the FX).

Sorry mate the title of the Summary/Conclusion on THG says "Summary: The P4 3.2 EE wins 32 times, the Athlon 64 FX-51 15 times - an uncertain 64-bit future for AMD".

32 tests to 15, it's got me convinced considering the AMD64 is a brand new chip out with shed loads of research and development yet still can't beat an old dog like the P4. The 3200+ was really poor in comparison to the P4 3.2GHz so im much prepared to wait and see what happens. I do share your optimism however about the HyperTransport, and in benchmarking utils such as Sandra the memory performance really hold well. So hopefully everything's going to be rosy next year for AMD.

The man at www.overclockers.com has some interesting articles for read

[Dr. Avery]

I gotta tell you - I've been excited about the 64 jump for 4 years now. With the release of the athlon 64 I'm positively ecstatic. Of course by the time I get a 64 bit proc - It'll much less expensive - and considerably more advanced.

[Polariz]

Nice one Doc, that's sound advice.

[igalan]

Originally posted by Polariz
Sorry mate the title of the Summary/Conclusion on THG says "Summary: The P4 3.2 EE wins 32 times, the Athlon 64 FX-51 15 times - an uncertain 64-bit future for AMD".

Ups, that reminds me that I read only a few tests (the ones I think are more relevant for a 64 bit processor, and games aren't.) My fault. I'll have to read them all. But Tom's reviews sometimes tend to be biased (I remember one review where the ATI 9600 Pro was beaten by nVidia 5600 Ultra almost in every test, where in real world the ATI model is faster by a good margin.)

Anyway I think that again AMD was overly optimistic with model numbering. The Pentium 3,2 EE really runs at 3,2 GHz, while the Atholn64 FX runs at 2.200 MHz. There is a lot of margin to improve if this CPU scales better than current Athlon XP. And the ability to run 64 bits code seamlessly really makes the difference, not the better 32bits processing.

[Dr. Avery]

yup get those puppies running in true 64 mode... That'll be great.

[Polariz]

Originally posted by igalan
Ups, that reminds me that I read only a few tests (the ones I think are more relevant for a 64 bit processor, and games aren't.) My fault. I'll have to read them all. But Tom's reviews sometimes tend to be biased.

Hehe you arent wrong there, I reckon THG are rather biased towards P4, but at the end of the day it is hard these days not to take sides. I'm trying so much to root for AMD but im a converted Intel man these days as im amazed by the overclocking potential of my P4 2.8.

I know nothing about Ace's hardware site as it's not usually one of my reading places, but below is a link where the Athlon64 is rather good in comparison to the P4 EE.

http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000268

Nicely chilled down with a Prometeia system too

[iAvalance]

Apart from x86 architectures... the G5 is tempting me...

[Polariz]

Hehehe, read this Avalance m8:

http://www.overclockers.com/tips00408/

[ABOU]

well im not holding out on anything for a while as things are new and unstabel 64 bit programs are not out to suppot it and it may only be worth it if your running a server im just glad to jump past the 1ghtz mark lol