Amd Dual Core
We all love performance hardware; that's why we're here and that's why you're here. And that's why we all went weak at the knees over the first Core i7 and why we're blown away by the latest spin of the i7-920. But in real terms, it's still a niche market.
Which is why AMD's Phenom II CPUs have managed to bring the processor wing of the company back into competition with Intel, with its affordable range of performance quad-core CPUs, rather than just being a weak also-ran. But with affordable four-core chips out in the wild, surely the release of these two dual-core processors is a retrograde step?
But when there's still such limited support for the extra two cores that these chips' big brothers are packing, there's definitely a case to be made for bringing those CPUs' architecture down to the lower level when the extra cores carry a $20 and $70 price premium on the triple and quad-core CPUs. Sure, if you're into your video editing and encoding then those extra cores present a worthwhile package for the same performance as far more expensive Core 2 Quads from Intel. As a gamer, though, that extra bit of silicon is about little more than bragging rights.
You see, the list of games out there with serious multi-core support is rather limited, with devs reticent to spend the time, money and human resources coding specifically for the extra cores that have latterly made up such a small percentage of gamers' PCs. A quick look at the latest Steam hardware survey indicates a shade less than 15% of its gamers running a quad-core system. Sure, the trend is growing - up 7% in the last year - but the vast majority are still running two cores at most. If you're a dyed-in-the-wool, hardcore gamer who sees video encoding and smooth 1080p playback as an unnecessary luxury on their PC, then there really is no need for a high-end quad-core CPU.
And this is the market that AMD is aiming at with the launch of these two chips. As a company that has both graphics and processing arms, it can quite happily point the gamers at these chips and encourage them to spend the money they've saved on a superior GPU. A faster graphics card is going to have a far greater impact on your machine's gaming performance than the extra cores of a quad-core CPU, and the added bonus is that with better GPUs, you'll pick up better video encoding anyway.
But that's NVIDIA crowing about its GPU performance, isn't it? Why would AMD push customers that way? Well, unfortunately AMD's marketing arm isn't particularly good at crowing, so the message about single-digit CPU load under HD playback and encoding via its streaming functionality sometimes gets lost.
But this is about CPUs and two in particular; one a bit of a gaming beast and the other, well, not. Somewhat inevitably, the Athlon II X2 is more of a lame duck. The 3GHz clockspeed gives it some credibility, but the locked multiplier means that getting any more juice out of it is a royal pain in the behind. At around $l00, it's only $30 cheaper than it's Phenom II compatriot, but in performance-terms it's quite a way behind. The older design and lack of the Phenom II's benefits such as L3 cache makes it a tough sell in light of the X2 550.
That version, though, has all the benefits of more expensive chips and even trumps the X4 810 in the cache department. That said, though, the X2 550 Black Edition does lag behind both the Phenom II X3 720 and X4 810, the other AM3 chips within touching distance. Apart from in the World in Conflict benchmark. World in Conflict relies heavily on the clockspeed of your processor rather than the core count, so the 550's 3.1GHz pushes it way ahead of both the triple and quad-core chips.
Far Cry 2 and the X264 benches, however, are more geared towards multi-core performance and show the lacking silicon in stark contrast. But the secret to how this $l30 chip has impressed me so much is in the title. It's that Black Edition moniker again boasting of unlocked multipliers and the overclocking benefits that promises. And it doesn't fail to deliver either. In barely a couple of hours, I managed to push the chip to the brink of 4GHz on air-cooling alone, with only AMD's Overdrive software for company.
For well under $l40, this dual-core Phenom II is the perfect partner for a budget gaming PC, giving massive overclocking headroom and performance on a par with more expensive multi-core offerings. With the extra cash on a better GPU, you'd see gaming figures even surpass them. The Athlon II, though, is weaker - too close in cost, but not in performance.
Raon Digital Everun Note, AMD Dual Core UMPC breif overview
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AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4400 230GHz 1MB AM2 ADO4400IAA5D0 Dual Core | US $11.26 | 4h 7m |
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AMD Athlon 64X2 4200 Dual Core Socket 939 CPU ADA4200DAA5CD | US $39.95 | 1h 28m |
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ACER Aspire 5534 AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core 120GHz 4GB RAM 340GB Hard Drive | US $172.50 | 2h 52m |
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HP Compaq dc5750 SFF AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800 25ghz 1gb RAM | US $36.00 | 4h 59m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 28 GHz Dual Core ADA5600IAA6CZ Processor | US $31.00 | 6h 10m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 2 GHz Dual Core Processor | US $2.99 | 6h 12m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 Energy Efficient 26 GHz Dual Core AD05000IAA5DS | US $65.00 | 7h 39m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 2 GHz Dual Core ADA3800CUBOX Processor and heatsink | US $29.99 | 7h 23m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000 2 GHz Dual Core ADO4000IAA6CS Processor | US $5.00 | 10h 45m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800 25 GHz Dual Core Processor CPU ADO4800IAA5DD | US $26.99 | 11h 8m |
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AMD Athlon II 260 32GHz X2 DUAL CORE CUSTOM DESKTOP PC | US $419.00 | 30m |
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Sun Ultra 40 Workstation AMD Dual Core 28GHz 254 2GB DVD 256MB VIDEO | US $199.00 | 3h 17m |
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Lot of 4 AMD OPTERON DUAL CORE PROCESSOR 880 240GH OST880FAA6CC | US $7.83 | 1h 29m |
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HP G6 1D60 US Laptop with HDMI BLUETOOTH AMD Dual Core Vision A4 LED 640 GB | US $495.99 | 2h 1m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 2 GHz Dual Core Processor ADO3800IAA5CU | US $19.99 | 14h 4m |
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AMD ATHLON II 260 32GHz X2 DUAL CORE BAREBONES PC NEW | US $269.00 | 2h 36m |
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LOT OF 10 X AMD Opteron 8220 OSA8220GAA6CY 28GHz DUAL CORE CPU CCB6F SOCKET F | US $49.99 | 4h 1m |
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AMD ATHLON II 250 30GHz X2 DUAL CORE BAREBONES PC NEW | US $259.00 | 2h 13m |
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NVIDIA GeForce 8600 gts graphics card AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual core processor 2gb pc | US $19.00 | 11h 1m |
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AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile technology TL 56 18 GHz Dual Core TMDTL56CTWOF | US $25.00 | 9h 58m |
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AMD Athlon II 240 28GHz X2 DUAL CORE DESKTOP PC NEW | US $399.00 | 4h 39m |
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AMD Athlon X2 4600 Skt AM2 Dual Core CPU ADO4600IAA5CU | US $32.99 | 13h 26m |
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AMD Phenom II 550 31GHz X2 DUAL CORE CUSTOM DESKTOP PC | US $439.00 | 2h 57m |
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HP DV5 2077CL AMD Dual Core 28GHz 4GB 500GB 145 Windows 7 | US $465.35 | 7h 55m |
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AMD Athlon II 620 26GHz DUAL CORE CUSTOM DESKTOP NEW | US $449.00 | 1h 27m |
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Lot of 2 AMD Dual Core Opteron 165 180GHz Socket 939 OSA165DAA6CD 2549 | US $12.50 | 8h 42m |
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Lot of 2 AMD Dual Core Opteron 165 180GHz Socket 939 OSA165DAA6CD 2547 | US $20.00 | 8h 45m |
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Lot of 2 AMD Dual Core Opteron 165 180GHz Socket 939 OSA165DAA6CD 2548 | US $11.50 | 8h 46m |
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Lot of 2 AMD Dual Core Opteron 165 180GHz Socket 939 OSA165DAA6CD 2550 | US $9.99 | 8h 47m |
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Lot of 2 AMD Dual Core Opteron 285 260GHz Socket 940 OSA285FAA6CB 2554 | US $10.50 | 8h 49m |
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Toshiba C655D S5337 Satellite Laptop AMD Dual Core E450 165GHz 4GB 320GB WIN 7 | US $342.77 | 7h |
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New AMD Athlon X2 BE 2400 EE 45w 23 GHz Dual Core ADH2400IAA5DO AM2 | US $10.99 | 14h 22m |
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Dell Latitude D531 AMD Dual Core 200GHz 2048MB Laptop Parts Repair Ac Adapter | US $94.99 | 5h |
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Dual Core AMD Opteron 8214 SOCKET F CPU PROCESSOR OSA8214GAA6CY | US $39.00 | 7h 27m |
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Lenovo IdeaPad S205 116 laptop AMD Dual Core E 300 processor 500GB hard drive | US $250.00 | 9h 32m |
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AMD ATHLON II 250 30GHz DUAL CORE BAREBONES PS SYSTEM | US $209.00 | 3h 43m |
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USED AMD ATHLON 64 X2 DUAL CORE TK 53 17GHZ AMDTK53HAX4DC CPU | US $11.55 | 16h 1m |
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AMD Phenom II N660 3 GHz Dual Core HMN660DCR23GM Processor | US $50.00 | 7h 4m |
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AMD PHENOM II 560 33GHz X2 DUAL CORE BAREBONES PC NEW | US $289.00 | 7h 36m |
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AMD Dual Core Opteron 175 220GHz Socket 939 OSA175DAA6CD 2545 | US $30.00 | 8h 38m |
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AMD Dual Core Opteron 175 220GHz Socket 939 OSA175DAA6CD 2546 | US $30.00 | 8h 39m |
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AMD Dual Core Opteron 165 180GHz Socket 939 OSA165DAA6CD 2551 | US $4.99 | 8h 48m |
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AMD Athlon II 260 32GHz X2 DUAL CORE DESKTOP PC NEW | US $459.00 | 10h |
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NEW DELL VOSTRO 3555 NOTEBOOK LAPTOP AMD E2 3000M DUAL CORE ATI HD 6380 SEALED | US $255.00 | 10h 40m |
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AMD Opteron CPU | Dual Core 28GHz | 1000MHz FSB | Socket F LGA 1207 | US $19.99 | 8h 27m |
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AMD Fusion A4 3300 25 GHz Dual Core Processor | US $49.99 | 12h 30m |
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AMD Athlon II X2 250 3 GHz Dual Core ADX250OCGMBOX Processor | US $20.50 | 15h 40m |
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AMD Athlon II X2 Processor 250 Regor 30GHz AM3 DualCore CPU BRAND NEW RETAILBOX | US $69.00 | 8h 2m |
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AMD PHENOM II 555 32GHz X2 DUAL CORE CUSTOM DESKTOP PC | US $439.00 | 10h 12m |
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AMD Athlon 64 FX 74 3 GHz Dual Core Processor | US $80.00 | 15h 35m |
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AMD Dual Core Opteron 2216 24 GHz CPU Matched Pair | US $6.94 | 12h 35m |
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HEWLETT PACKARD COMPAQ PRESARIO CQ5814 AMD E 350 Dual Core 16Ghz AMD HD 6310 | US $51.00 | 12h 23m |
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HP Compaq Presario CQ60 210 Laptop Notebook dual core amd great deal | US $86.00 | 12h 13m |
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Toshiba P505D S8007 18 AMD 23ghz Dual Core Laptop Excellent | US $252.00 | 13h 16m |
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AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 28GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual Core Processor ADX240OCK23 | US $29.00 | 1d 2h 35m |
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AMD Phenom II X2 560 33 GHz Dual Core HDZ560WFGMBOX Processor | US $46.00 | 1d 2h 22m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 22 GHz Dual Core ADA4200DAA5BV Processor | US $30.00 | 1d 8h 30m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600 Energy Efficient 19 GHz Dual Core ADO3600IAA5DD AM2 | US $28.00 | 1d 9h 53m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3 GHz Dual Core ADA6000IAA6CZ Processor | US $50.00 | 1d 8h 8m |
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 22 GHz Dual Core ADA4400DAA5CD Processor | US $10.50 | 1d 8h 59m |
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