FEAR - Multi-Threaded Test	Source: Sierra

FEAR is Sierra's latest first person shooter which relies heavily on DirectX 9 features. With its "Soft Shadows" feature enabled, even the fastest videocards run at a crawl, FEAR is definitely the new benchmark for future FPS games to follow. Prime95 was running in the background to simulate load on a one core.

Prime95 + FEAR
Minimum 640x480:	FPS	Ranking
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600	312
Intel Pentium D 940	211
Intel Pentium D 840	176
AMD Athlon64 FX-60 (Socket 939)	254
AMD Athlon64 4000+ (Socket 939)	274
AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (Socket AM2)	256
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (Socket AM2)	219
AMD Sempron 3600+ (Socket AM2)	210
AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ (Socket AM2)	206
AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ (Socket AM2 Overclocked to 3.03 GHz)	261
Maximum 1024x768:	FPS	Ranking
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600	103
Intel Pentium D 940	97
Intel Pentium D 840	83
AMD Athlon64 FX-60 (Socket 939)	103
AMD Athlon64 4000+ (Socket 939)	105
AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (Socket AM2)	99
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (Socket AM2)	75
AMD Sempron 3600+ (Socket AM2)	63
AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ (Socket AM2)	70
AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ (Socket AM2 Overclocked to 3.03 GHz)	95

In the final test of the day the Athlon64 X2 4800+ does well in FEAR testing. Overclocking the processor boosts performance to Athlon64 FX-62 levels, pretty impressive for a mainstream CPU.

Final Word on the 65nm AMD Brisbane Core

The computer industry and users are taking notice of how much energy computers are using these days. Now that "green" is the new "cool", being seen as eco friendly has its benefits you can bet manufacturers will try to spin its products as being friendly to the environment.

Processor power consumption has been steadily rising for years but only recently have Intel and AMD started tackling the issue. The first move by both companies was to throttle the processor speed down when at idle or under low CPU loads. After you don't need that powerful CPU running at full speed to surf the internet or do word processing, now do you?

To further combat excessive power consumption, Intel redesigned its processor architecture completely. AMD on the other hand just tweaked its K8 architecture for more efficiency. The Socket AM2 Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor is one of AMD's 65 nanometer parts, moving it onto a smaller manufacturing process has helped AMD cut power consumption rates to 65W. The Athlon64 X2 4800+ idles 13W less than the X2 5000+, and 20W lower than the single core Socket 939 Athlon64 4000+. It's under load where we see the real power savings

At 173W (total system power draw) with both cores running at 100%, the 65nm Athlon64 X2 4800+ system uses 4W less energy than the 90nm Athlon64 X2 5000+ with only one core maxed out! The Athlon64 X2 4800+ system consumes 70W less than the Intel Pentium D 940 test rig.

Aside from the die shrink from 90nm to 65nm, the AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ has no significant advancements over previous Socket AM2 Athlon64 processors. AMD has increased the L2 cache latency a bit, in preparation for larger L2 cache K8 processors coming down the pipeline. When we will see these beasts materialize is not known. This does however mean that clock for clock the 65nm processors are just slightly slower than its 90nm counterparts, but as an end user, you won't be able to tell the difference.

As we saw in the benchmarks the Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor is pretty quick around the track. It slots itself right behind the Athlon64 X2 5000+, exactly where we expect it. The chip offers up good performance for the money. The 65 nm Athlon64 X2 4800+ was a pretty good overclocker, hitting 3.03 GHz in PCSTATS tests.

With a retail price of $253 CDN ($215 US, £112GBP) the AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ is a good balance between performance and value. Its small energy efficient gains will make it less expensive to run in the long term, but with the energy efficiencies posed by the Core 2 Duo, you have to wonder if this is almost a moot point.

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