Review: Todd "Toddsmack2k" Roberts
Editor/Design: Allan "Zardon" Campbell

Recently AMD announced their latest CPU’s the 3200 64 bit and FX 64 bit processors. Promising groundbreaking performance and a new way of personal and professional computing. AMD took a huge and somewhat risky step in being the first to market 64 bit CPUs to the masses.

What all this means is that AMD is aiming to bring you a new way of personal computing. Hoping to bring to its users a more life like gaming experience, with speed enhancements for video and music ripping/conversions, and greatly improved cinematics all the way around. We at Driverheaven were given the chance to review the 3200. So let’s see what the new AMD 64 bit CPU’s are about and how they perform.

Front and back pictures of 3200

 

Not the same processor we are used to from AMD. Much larger and now with a cover that aids in cooling. Note the pins, that’s right 754 of them hence that’s where the socket name comes from.

Specs:

Architecture-K8
Manufacturing Technology-0.13 micron, SOI
Die size-193 mm2
Nominal Voltage-1.50v
Transistor count-Approx 105.9 million
System Bus- Hypertransport
32 bit and 64 bit instruction capable
Memory Controller-Onboard single channel 64 bit
CPU System Bandwidth-9.6GB total
Pipeline Length-12
Integrated Memory Cache-
1 Level 1-64Kb for Data
1-Level 1-64Kb for Instructions
1-Level 2-1024Kb
Total Cache-1152Kb
3D and Multimedia Instructions-3DNOW! and SSE/SSE2

 

Some very impressive specifications to say the least. With the memory controller now onboard a huge bottleneck has been removed. In doing this it allows the memory controller to run at the same frequency as the CPU core itself. Since there is no memory though that can operate at those speeds the process is controlled by a divider, and the clock frequency for that is set at 200Mhz. All of this allows for quicker access to the information being sent and no delay in getting it. Also the term FSB is really no longer applicable to the 64 bit chips. AMD has coined it full processor frequency.

Also Hypertransport is a new key feature of the 64 bit processors. Basically it is the connection between from the CPU to your AGP, PCI and other I/O sources. This bandwidth connection now with HT is greatly increased. Allowing for far quicker communication between the I/O devices per clock cycle.

Let’s talk a little about the chip itself and the changes between the older Athlon processors and the new 64 bit ones.

First off the size of the new chips is what most people notice. The new 64 bit chips are in relative terms the same size as server chips. This was done for the onboard memory controller, larger cache, numerous transistors and Hypertransport technology to be all wrapped up in a metal casing. Also as a bonus it allows the new CPU to run cooler. Another thing that has changed is the socket.

While the Athlon used a socket A, the new 64 bits chips like the 3200 use a socket 754. The FX uses a socket 940. With this new socket AMD has brought a new design and made installation of the new CPUs a breeze. All that has to be done is make sure the little yellow triangle on the front of the processor is on the bottom right corner of the socket. Then slip the 2 holed metal catchs of the heatsink on the front and back of the socket and throw the tension clip over to the right.

3200 Slot 754 on Gigabyte MB

There are a few differences between the FX chip and the 3200 64 bit chip also. First off the 3200 runs at 2.0Ghz and the FX runs at 2.2Ghz. Another difference is that the FX is capable of using dual channel where the 3200 is only capable of using single channel memory. There have been a lot of changes with the new line of processors from AMD. We have covered most of the technical specs of them now lets see how they perform.

Next: the test setup