The 65nm based Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ is built at AMD's Fab 36 located in Dresden Germany. The 90nm K8 processors were built in AMD's Fab 30. Not only is AMD implementing 65nm manufacturing with this chip, Fab 36 will also build processors on 300mm wafers. Wafers of that size have 2-1/4 times the area compared to AMD's 200mm wafers used at Fab 30. Both the 90nm and 65nm Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64 X2 parts contain 153.8 million transistors (split between two cores) which means as long as yields are good, making the 65nm Athlon64 X2's will cost AMD less in the long run.
The 940-pin Athlon64
X2 4800+ uses AMD's organic micro PGA CPU packaging which has been standard
since the Socket 939 days.
When running in a dual channel configuration, there is
12.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth available to the processor; enough to keep both
processing cores fed and operational.
There is a single hypertransport link of up to
8GB/sec between the CPU and motherboard core logic, the total CPU bandwidth
rounds out to as much as 20.8 GB/s. The Athlon64 X2 series of AM2 processors
support unbuffered DDR-2 667 & 800 memory (PC2-5300 and PC2-6400 respectively), whereas Athlon64
and Sempron AM2 chips operate with more affordable DDR-2 667 RAM.
AMD Virtualization Technology is integrated
on-chip for all DDR-2 socket AM2 processors except the Sempron. Virtualization is still
very much in development, but its adoption by heavyweights Intel and Microsoft,
ensures it will eventually find its way into the desktop computer.
On the topic of cache, each socket AM2 Athlon64 CPU has a
total of 256KB of L1 cache. The L1 cache is split evenly between each core in the
processor. There is 64k L1 Instruction and 64K L1 Data. The L2 cache on socket
AM2 Athlon64 X2 processors gets a bit complicated as it also can vary with CPU
class.
At first
the Socket AM2 line of Athlon64 X2 processors only came in 512KB L2 cache per
core configurations, but it looks like AMD is spicing things up a bit now. There
are a few higher end Athlon64 X2 processors with 1MB L2 per core, but this
is the exception to the rule. Generally the 940-pin Athlon64 X2 processors come with
512KB L2 cache.
What's happening to the L2?
On paper the 90nm and 65nm Athlon64 X2 processors are
identical, however AMD has tweaked the
L2 on the 65nm parts. The L2 cache memory latencies have increased slightly and this was
done in preparation for 65nm processors with larger L2 cache sizes. Whether
end users will be able to detect a difference in their everyday computing
is questionable, but you will need to keep this in mind while viewing the benchmark
results.
Expanding Socket AM2 CPU Family
PCSTATS is focusing on just the mainstream AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor
in this review. It retails for $215 USD, which is quite inexpensive considering
the value it provides. Here is a break down of the other socket AM2 parts
currently available as of this writing, their clock speed, power footprint and cache
sizes are listed.
| Initial AMD Socket AM2 Processor Models and
Energy Efficient CPUs |
| Socket AM2 Processors |
Standard Efficiency |
Energy Efficient |
Clock Speed |
L2 Cache Size |
| Athlon64 FX-62 |
125W |
- |
2.8 GHz |
2x 1MB |
| Athlon64 X2 6000+ |
89W |
- |
3.0 GHz |
2x 1MB |
| Athlon64 X2 5600+ |
89W |
- |
2.8 GHz |
2x 1MB |
| Athlon64 X2 5400+ |
89W |
- |
2.8 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 5200+ |
89W |
- |
2.6 GHz |
2x 1MB |
| Athlon64 X2 5000+ (65nm) |
65W |
- |
2.6 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 5000+ |
89W |
- |
2.6 GHz |
2x 512KB |
 Athlon64 X2 4800+ (65nm) |
65W |
- |
2.5
GHz |
2x
512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 4800+ |
89W |
65W |
2.5 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 4600+ |
89W |
65W |
2.4 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 4400+ (65nm) |
65W |
- |
2.3 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 4400+ |
89W |
65W |
2.3 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 4200+ |
89W |
65W |
2.2 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 4000+ (65nm) |
65W |
- |
2.1 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 4000+ |
89W |
65W |
2.1 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 X2 3800+ |
89W |
65W, 35W |
2.0 GHz |
2x 512KB |
| Athlon64 3800+ |
62W |
- |
2.4 GHz |
512KB |
| Athlon64 3500+ |
62W |
35W |
2.2 GHz |
512KB |
| Sempron 3600+ |
62W |
- |
2.0 GHz |
256KB |
| Sempron 3500+ |
62W |
- |
2.0 GHz |
128KB |
| Sempron 3400+ |
62W |
35W |
1.8 GHz |
256KB |
| Sempron 3200+ |
62W |
35W |
1.8 GHz |
128KB |
| Sempron 3000+ |
62W |
35W |
1.6 GHz |
256KB | |
The four 65nm Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64 X2 processors are more power efficient than their 90nm
counterparts. Each chip has a maximum power spec of 65W, which happens to be the same
as the 90nm Energy Efficient models. Best of all the 65nm Athlon64 X2 processors
do not carry a price premium over standard 90nm parts.
It's interesting to note that the AMD Athlon64 X2 5600+ processor has
the same clock speed and L2 cache size as the AMD Athlon64 FX-62. A couple
of other positives for the X2 5600+ is that it has a lower maximum power spec and
costs less than the high end FX-62 part.
Up next PCSTATS focuses on the power efficiency and
performance per watt metrics of this new class of AMD Athlon64 X2 processor. How well does it stand up
to Intel's Core 2 Duo processor in power efficiency...?
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