Doom 3 is
the most advanced OpenGL game to date, it takes advantage of the latest
videocard technology and pushes the processing power of the CPU to its absolute
limits. At its highest setting Ultra quality, texture sizes pass the 500MB mark
which means even tomorrows videocards will have a hard time running everything.
The framerates in the game itself are locked at 60 fps so anything above that point is
wasted. Each test is run three times and with the third run being
recorded.
| Doom3 |
| LQ 640x480: |
FPS |
Ranking |
| Pentium 4 540 (3.2 GHz) |
88.5 |
   |
| Athlon64 3800+ |
102 |
   |
| Athlon64 4000+ (NF3) |
110 |
   |
| Athlon64 4000+ (VIA) |
108.7 |
|
| Athlon64 4000+ @ 2.72 GHz (VIA) |
117.1 |
|
The Doom 3
benchmark results remain in-line with the other tests we've run thus far.
Specifically, Doom 3's low quality scores reflect the fact that the Athlon64
4000+ is more powerful than the older Athlon64 3800+ chip. Additionally, the
wayward nVidia nForce Ultra 3 chipset appears to be redeeming itself here,
posting faster scores than its VIA counterpart.
Conclusions
Well, the obvious conclusion is that the AMD Athlon 64 4000+
is the fastest Athlon 64 processor yet. It's
sibling, the FX-55 should run faster still at 2.60GHz, but will cost at least a
hundred dollars more than the already expensive A64 4000+. The best value for
your money still rests with the Athlon 64 chips of course, but that will always
be the case. If you want the best and the fastest you have to be prepared to pay
through the nose. On another note, at the moment it appears that the extra 512KB
of L2 Cache memory does not necessarily make a huge difference in performance
across the board, though there are a few instances where it did benefit the
Athlon64 4000+.
Looking at
the AMDAthlon
64 4000+ (and even FX-55), it is easy to recognize the continuation of a couple
of positive trends in AMD's processor strategy. For one thing, each of these two
processors mark the third generation of 939-pin processors. The socket 939 form
factor is the only option that supports both the AthlonFX and Athlon 64
processor lines, and it is reassuring that AMD continues to support this with
more processor releases than the fated socket 754 Athlon64 saw.
Another
positive aspect for gamers and enthusiasts, is the almost complete merging of
the AthlonFX and Athlon 64 technologies. With the Athlon 64 processors now
sporting a full 1M of Level 2 cache memory, and the all-important dual channel
memory controller, it is worthwhile remembering that this used to be the
exclusive provenance of the Athlon FX. AMD is definitely offering consumers a
lot more bang for their buck. The enthusiast market can still rely on the
slightly higher clock speed and unlocked multipliers of the Athlon FX
though.
Both the
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ ($729USD) and Athlon 64 FX-55 ($827USD) processors are currently the
fastest chips on the market from AMD. From the benchmarks PCstats has run in
this review on the Athlon64 4000+, it is clear that this processor offers us
excellent gaming and application performance compared to existing mainstream
Intel processors like the Pentium 4 540. Whether the Athlon 64 4000+ represents
offers enough of an increase in performance to offset the Athlon64 3800+'s lower
price is another matter...
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today!
Related Articles
Here are a
few other articles that you might enjoy as well...
1. AMD Athlon64
3200+ 32/64-bit Processor Review
2. AMD Athlon64 and AMD's 64-bit
technology
3. Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz Extreme
Edition Processor Review
4. Intel Pentium 4 3.2E GHz Prescott
Processor Review
5. AMD AthlonXP 3200+ 400MHz FSB
Processor Review
Doom 3
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