AMD Duron 800 Review *AMD has option to do 128k L2 cache with new stepping* :) :)

[ElFenix]

ahfung, the athlon already has 384k of cache.

everyone, calm down, look at what amd does. they figured out that the duron shouldn't compete directly against the athlon. that is, they don't want you to be able to buy a "slow" athlon, you could only buy the duron if you wanted that. i garuantee amd will quietly retire the athlon 800s soon, probably the same time the line gets pushed to 1.2GHz.

 

[dawks]

One thing to note, we did notice a real difference in overclocking ability when the CPU drive strengh was set to the highest setting. When feature was altered, we were able to get the Duron to boot and run Windows at 1000 MHz, but would crash quickly inside the OS. This is not what we would consider anything close to stable, but it's certainly interesting. Even when the CPU temperature was under 100 degrees at 1 GHz, it would still crash. No folks, this is not a thermal problem, rather a limit of the CPU core itself.

What is the CPU drive strenght setting?

And what is stepping?

 

[ahfung]

Elfenix, I'm talking about the L2 cache, not unified L1 + L2 size.

 

[OneEng]

Modus,

Your statement about "Smart Buyers" is the flaw in your logic. Yes, if there were a sufficient number of "Smart Buyers", they would get the Duron instead of the high end chip. But since the whole world is living in Meaghertz Land (while we few are more concerned with benchmark performance) it is a mute point how great the price/performance of a Duron/Morgan system is. "Dad" standing at Best Buy will feel that all to common testostorine surge, pry is wallet open and buy the biggest badest fastest PC in the store (as defined by the Mhz rating on the front cover).

Even knowing the facts, I feel a strong urge to always upgrade my system. I just bite my lip and grimace in agony while faster parts come out (I have a Duron 600@800).

I know the fact is that my system is plenty fast for anything that will come along for AT LEAST A YEAR, but man do I feel the urge!

 

[Shockwave]

"Smart Buyers" would buy the Duron? Hmmm, I think you should clarify a little.....The price difference isnt all that great, were not talking hundreds of dollars. And in the benchmarks, you say 10% difference...Using what software? In games, definitely get the Duron. But if your doing graphic design, I would think the "Smart Buyer" would realize that software rendering is a monster and would be more then willing to pay 40 or 50 more for the Thunderbird. Oh, scracth that.....They'd just wait for the dual processor board to come out... Granted, Mghz does sell, and the average person in a store is gonna buy the fastest, damn all others....But if your reading this, your obviously not average right?

 

[Shudder]

I love AMD.

Where else can you get a KILLER processor for 60 bucks. Jesus.. you could skip a trip to the bar for 2 weekends and have enough money to upgrade to the next Duron already. Sell a couple old games and you're at the next Duron every few months.

I have "only" a 650 right now, but damn, I have no problem buying a 750 in another month or two. I'm not happy with the fact I had so much stuff left over I was able to upgrade my gf's PC to an Athlon 600 (my "old" one). I liked it when my Athlon 600 killed her k6-2 450.. now it's not so obvious

New Duron every 3 months is COMPLETELY feasible on any budget, so long as you already have the mobo. You can sell the old one for even half price, you pay about 10 bucks a month to keep upgrading

 

[RagingGuardian]

With all this cache the Tbird to feature 512kb of L2 cache may be nearly impossible to overclock. It would mean the new Durons won't overclock as well.