AMD now producing 2.0 Ghz SOI processors.

[Jeff7181]

Opteron 246
IBM server using the 2.0 Ghz Opteron
Looks like clock speeds are ramping nicely. I'm expecting at least 2.0 Ghz Athlon-64's at launch... maybe higher... like 2.2 or 2.4

 

[Duvie]

I would hardly consider that ramp up as anything really indictative of the baility of the opteron to ramp up....Good news...What is the price for that chip??? I think the athlon64 better be at least 2.2ghz....

Any news on any reviews of this 2.0ghz opteron??? I would like to see the increases versus the 1.8ghz chips...

 

[Jeff7181]

If you're asking me, I don't know... I haven't seen it for sale anywhere... I just noticed today that AMD is advertising it on their site. AMD has their own tests on their site... but... I never trust a manufacturer's benchmarks of it's own products.

*EDIT* I do think this is indicative of how the Athlon-64 will run... they're using the same manufacturing process... and server oriented CPU's are always clocked lower than their desktop counterparts... look at the Athlon MP... look at the Xeon... look at the Itanium.

 

[Swanny]

The people over at the Inquirer (I know, I know...) seem to be pretty sure the Athlon 64 will start at 2.0Ghz. Anyway, AMD's first Athlon 64 product announcement will be August 12th, so we shouldn't have to wait very long for at least some news.

 

[stevejst]

Given so much hype the last 3 years about Hammer, it better be able to compete with 3.2 GHz HT Pentium. Barton 3200 is barely able to keep up with Northwood B 2.8 GHz. Or AMD goes back to square 1 like in the good old times with K-5 and K-6, beating Celeron.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: stevejst
Given so much hype the last 3 years about Hammer, it better be able to compete with 3.2 GHz HT Pentium. Barton 3200 is barely able to keep up with Northwood B 2.8 GHz. Or AMD goes back to square 1 like in the good old times with K-5 and K-6, beating Celeron.

It really depends on the benchmark you use to come to that conclusion... but either way, I don't see a 2.8 Ghz B core besting an XP3200. If you look at the "General Usage Performance benchmark" even an XP2500 NOT OVERCLOCKED benchmarks higher than the 3.2 Ghz P4. Then you look at some 3D rendering benchmarks and a P4 1.6A benchmarks higher than an XP3200.

So again, it all comes down to what you're using the computer for... the P4 is undoubtedly faster at clock speed dependant tests like media encoding, 3D rendering, and games with graphics so outdated it doesn't challange video cards at all and max fps becomes dependant only on how fast info can be sent to the video card to process.

Not to turn this into an AMD vs. Intel war... but for the money, I feel I get a better value in an overclocked XP2500 with even an A7N8X Deluxe for $90 and $130 respectively, and lets say another $20 for a heatsink for a total of $240. True a 2.4C with an 865P motherboard may overclock to 3.4 Ghz fairly easily... but a $170 2.4C with $130 motherboard is $300... and I don't see the Intel rig being worth the 25% premium... and I haven't taken into consideration the cost of RAM... If you want to keep a 1:1 ratio with that P4, you're gonna need some very expensive RAM where as pretty much any PC3200 RAM will do for an XP2500 @ 2.2 Ghz.

Oh... and by the way... it's not code named "Hammer" anymore... it's been named the Athlon-64 =) So call it what it is =)

 

[NesuD]

AMDZone has a review up of the Opteron 246(2.0gig) as well at the opty 144(1.8gig) along with an Athlon XP 3200+ and a P4 3.2 gig for comparison. Looks like 2 gig is the magic number. The 2 gig Opty won 11 out of 17 benchies to the P4s 5. You can read the review here

 

[Corporate Thug]

quick question: what does the 246, 244, etc... stand for

 

[JSSheridan]

The first digit in the Opteron's naming scheme is the number of CPU's it's meant to work with; 2 indicates itself and one other CPU. The remainder is a speed or performance indicator for the processor. Peace.

 

[stevejst]

AMDZone has a review up of the Opteron 246(2.0gig) as well at the opty 144(1.8gig) along with an Athlon XP 3200+ and a P4 3.2 gig for comparison. Looks like 2 gig is the magic number. The 2 gig Opty won 11 out of 17 benchies to the P4s 5.

1. "AMDzone" (choice of tests, 2 gig of registered memory?).
2. You cannot buy this Opteron 246 anywhere, and if you could (Monarch Computer puts the price) it is $800 and used with registered DDR PC3200, think of investment that fizzles. It is another paper release of processor that is going to get killed every which way when Intel releases Prescott. Remember Pentium 3.2 is available in retail PCs already for months. Intel already has Prescott, they are only waiting AMD to catch up on release while they are making money on HT. Then you'll see the real king of Q4 this year - Prescott.
3. Another thing, this is still 0.13 process meaning 2 GHz is a magic mark but you should not expect anything above 2.3 GHz anyway. Prescott will come up to 4 GHz speed. And this is all that AMD has and will have in the next 2 years, according to roadmaps. Intel has already annonced development of Teya, successor of Prescott that will go close to 5 GHz.

Amd is toast. I have 8-9 AMD PCs but I have no plan of making another with these prices and performance. And of course I understand that AMD cannot make it with limited money and research. I am only sick of all these years of hype with Hammer (3 already) and paper releases of processors that have no real bite when they really hit the retail market. Many overclockers are switching to Intel with a reason. For a workhorse AMD is OK and nothing more than that.

 

[MDE]

The Opteron is a server\workstation CPU and shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as the Athlon XP, P4, or Prescott, as they are all desktop chips. Naturally server processors are going to be more expensive than desktop chips as there are much higher profit margins in the server arena. Also stevejst, maybe AMD will transition to 90nm and ramp the speed up then (just a stupid thought). I'd like to see how Intel will be able to deal with 100W+ of heat coming off of their beloved Prescott.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: shady06
quick question: what does the 246, 244, etc... stand for

Opteron XYY

X = number of supported processors, 1 = 1 way, 2 = dual, etc.

YY = speed... thus far, 40 = 1.4 Ghz, 42 = 1.6 Ghz, 44 = 1.8 Ghz, and 46 = 2.0 ghz

stevejst
No offense... but your statements seem pretty ignorant. You forget that the Opteron and Athlon-64 are using SOI, which increases the headroom on AMD's current .13 process. So your theory that 2.3 Ghz is the limit is a theory based on incomplete information.
You also fail to mention that Intel's heat problems with the Prescott have yet to be solved... not to mention that it's being manufactured on a brand new .09 micron process... and as we all know, it takes some time for new manufacturing processes to mature to get the best performance out of them.
So your assumption that AMD is out of the game, and that the Prescott is being sent down from heaven is, in the nicest terms possible, ignorant.

 

[stevejst]

So your assumption that AMD is out of the game, and that the Prescott is being sent down from heaven is, in the nicest terms possible, ignorant.

Yeah. I know it is tough to fight against AMD fanatics, it is hard to prove anything to a person that drives Toyota Corolla and has never driven BMW. Well, you guys stick to it, I switched few months ago I know what my Intel system can do and what my AMD systems can and cannot do.
By the way, before you see Prescott, you'll see Pentium IV 3.4 GHz. Talking about problems and hype, the title goes to AMD for their Hammer.
Looks to me before you get anything that performs you'll be overclocking those defective Bartons, aka "Thortons."

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: stevejst

So your assumption that AMD is out of the game, and that the Prescott is being sent down from heaven is, in the nicest terms possible, ignorant.

Yeah. I know it is tough to fight against AMD fanatics, it is hard to prove anything to a person that drives Toyota Corolla and has never driven BMW. Well, you guys stick to it, I switched few months ago I know what my Intel system can do and what my AMD systems can and cannot do.
By the way, before you see Prescott, you'll see Pentium IV 3.4 GHz. Talking about problems and hype, the title goes to AMD for their Hammer.
Looks to me before you get anything that performs you'll be overclocking those defective Bartons, aka "Thortons."

Aside from your insightful information on AMD's 2.0 Ghz SOI processors

... why are you posting here?

 

[stevejst]

The Opteron is a server\workstation CPU and shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as the Athlon XP, P4, or Prescott, as they are all desktop chips.

Tell that to AMDzone. Apparently they have nothing else to put against Pentium IV C. After everybody has seen through foolish AMD plays with 3000+ numbers, this is what they come up with. Nonexistent dual channel mobo (demo). The only real Opteron mobo you can buy on retail cannot compete benchmarkwise with Sis655.

 

[Duvie]

Jeff I have one tting to say...the review is quite lame...I know you will say it is a workstation and not meant to be looked at as a desktop yet they tested some games but left out a host of multimedia tests...

Hmmm...Sounds like crap to me....I think the test rivals Apple's test to skew their product. A well-rounded test from someone else not so biased would have had a better suite of test not so heavy in one area and then followed up by gaming where amd has always done well and then so conveniently miss the rest...Yeah then throw in the worthless synthetic test and this says shite!!!!

I can run an intel test use all encoders, cadd sse2 optimized, and all games running quake engine and watch the tables turn.

I would have liked a much more thorough review, but what can you expect from amdzone????

 

[Jeff7181]

So basically what I hear is the only tests you care about are the ones Intel accels in... which is no different than AMDZone testing in areas that AMD accels in.
I did not intend this to be such a juvenile AMD vs. Intel thread... it was intended as an informative thread about a new AMD processor.

 

[JavaMomma]

Originally posted by: stevejst

AMDZone has a review up of the Opteron 246(2.0gig) as well at the opty 144(1.8gig) along with an Athlon XP 3200+ and a P4 3.2 gig for comparison. Looks like 2 gig is the magic number. The 2 gig Opty won 11 out of 17 benchies to the P4s 5.

1. "AMDzone" (choice of tests, 2 gig of registered memory?).
2. You cannot buy this Opteron 246 anywhere, and if you could (Monarch Computer puts the price) it is $800 and used with registered DDR PC3200, think of investment that fizzles. It is another paper release of processor that is going to get killed every which way when Intel releases Prescott. Remember Pentium 3.2 is available in retail PCs already for months. Intel already has Prescott, they are only waiting AMD to catch up on release while they are making money on HT. Then you'll see the real king of Q4 this year - Prescott.
3. Another thing, this is still 0.13 process meaning 2 GHz is a magic mark but you should not expect anything above 2.3 GHz anyway. Prescott will come up to 4 GHz speed. And this is all that AMD has and will have in the next 2 years, according to roadmaps. Intel has already annonced development of Teya, successor of Prescott that will go close to 5 GHz.

Amd is toast. I have 8-9 AMD PCs but I have no plan of making another with these prices and performance. And of course I understand that AMD cannot make it with limited money and research. I am only sick of all these years of hype with Hammer (3 already) and paper releases of processors that have no real bite when they really hit the retail market. Many overclockers are switching to Intel with a reason. For a workhorse AMD is OK and nothing more than that.

Can you please back up some of your points?
Because according to this, AMD is gonna release the Athlon64 at 2.0Ghz, 2.2Ghz & 2.4Ghz this year, yet you say nothing above 2.3Ghz?
Link

And according to the link below Intel is having problems with the 90nm process. Prescott does not sound ready ATM, it sounds hot & incompatible with current motherboards. Yet you say Prescott is ready, are they in mass production then now? because if they are waiting for the Athlon 64 to be launched...thats next month right?
Link

And no I aint no AMD fan boy, I buy whats best at the moment and thats Intel right now. I do not make up my mind about future hardware, I wait for it be evaluated & benchmarked.

 

[stevejst]

Prescott is to be released in Q4 this year, what links you need for that? Read on many hardware sites about the road maps. The fact about "100W heat dissipation" is from the currently available core that Intel already has and the revision of which is probably going to be released.

About Opteron and Athlon64 - the release is likely to be paper release which are the releases they had recently ... few CPUs for testers while you'll wait to get it. 2.4 GHz? I believe it when I see it, when exactly? In 2004?

Beside this "demo" N-Force 3 motherboard you see in amdzone "test comparisons" (wink, wink) you won't see before we all see 1.5 revision of Canterwood which will probably blow out of the water any motherboard AMD CPU will have. That is also in Q4.

You want links? Find it yourself, you seems to be doing that well.

 

[BDSM]

I think the AMDZONE opteron 246 review is interesting because it shows that the Opteron is scaling really well.

I'm not claiming to know that AMD will regain the performance crown with the Athlon 64 but I think things look really well right now for them for a number of reasons.

1. The 2 ghz Opteron bests the P4 3.2 Ghz in 3dmark 2001, Super pi, UT 2003 (16%!!) and a number of other really common benchmarks. And it's pretty close in the rest. These are standard benchmarks used by most hardware sites and not some biased AMD fantics only tests.

2. These tests are performed on a pre production board which is most likely not 100% tuned. It can't even run at cas 2 timings which in itself will mean increased performance once the issues are resolved.

3. The Opteron uses ECC memory which degrades performance somewhat while the AMD64 will use regular unbuffered DDR, right?
I'm not sure of this or how much ECC degrades performance but if I am right this could add some to the AMD64.

4. The Athlon 64 will (as reported by the inq and others) most likely feature 2.0, 2.2, 2.4 launch speeds which will itself give the 2.4 ghz version a healthy lead in overall performance over the current p4 3.2ghz.

5. There are currently NO software optimizations for the opteron/athlon 64. Remember when Intel omptimized divx encoding for the p4?.. It got a huge boost. This could happen to the Opteron/athlong 64 as well.

6. 64 bit windows could very well deliver a few % performance boost in itself.

7. The opteron seems to scale extremely well in multi cpu configurations. The many super computer contracs are a testament to this. Cray is building a 10000 cpu Opteron system (!). Some say that the Opteron has already outsold the Itanium by a long shot.

8. The Opteron not only scales much better than the Xeon dp, mp but can also adress much more memory. There are systems capable of 32 GB+ now. The Xeon can only adress 4 GB without severely degraded memory performance. (There is a good piece about this somewhere at Ace's if you don't believe me).
This will mean that the Opteron will most likely be a big hit in the server market and that means AMB will make BIG BUCKS which can be spent on R & D etc.

9. Personally I believe the Opteron/AMD64 could scale well over 2.4 ghz beacuse it features a 12 stage pipeline and SOI. From what I've heard the Opteron/A64 runs pretty cool compared to the AXP and this could let it scale better than the Athlon.

Okay.. There are ofcourse lots of unknowns here. And then there is the Prescott. If the precott comes out in 2 months and performs like a king Amd would be in big trouble on the desktop market. Though personally I don't think this is what is going to happen.
I believe Intel really does have issues with excessive heat on the chip.

Anyway.. Time will tell who's right and who is wrong.

 

[BigJ]

So uhhh...yea...my Cavalier can toast your KIA!

(Why do these threads always degenerate into an AMD-Intel free-for-all, when obviously this is not what it was meant to be?)

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: BDSM

1. I was also impressed by these benchmarks... but remember the Opteron has a 1 MB L2 cache... not all Athlon-64's will have that. And nobody's sure about dual channel memory, which I'm not sure if it'll make a huge difference, since it basically doesn't do much of anything right now with current Athlon XP's. Lets just hope AMD has some tricks up it's sleeve with the Athlon-64, and it doesn't show up on shelves as a castrated Opteron.

2. Agreed. Pre-production parts often have certain features disabled... take the Raptor for instance... write caching was disabled on the first pre-production samples... looked kinda sad in bench marks for 10k RPM drive... then the new samples with write caching enabled came out and look how the performance has changed.

3. The Athlon-64 won't use registered RAM... error correction is for server applications where stability is more important than speed.

4. Don't assume a 2.4 Ghz Athlon-64 will be the same as a 2.4 Ghz Opteron... like I said, lets just hope it's not a castrated Opteron.

5. When an x86-64 bit version of Windows XP is released, lets hope Microsoft is able to get it right and produce a quality product that lets AMD's x86-64 CPU's shine.

6. ^

7. Opteron performance does in fact seem to increase very nicely with increases in clock speed... the question now is, where will the first bottleneck show up? And at what speed will it become noticeable? Up until the 800 Mhz FSB P4, they've always been held back by memory bandwidth... if Intel had thought ahead a tad, they could have implimented dual channel memory before AMD had and taken a decisive lead a long time ago.

8. The way I see it, Intel needs to modify the Itanium so it doesn't suck donkey balls when running 32 bit applications. If not, they could loose a large amount of their marketshare in the server world. Making the transition between old and new easy is the key, and AMD has done that by making their 64 bit CPU's backward compatible with 32 bit software.

9. I believe Athlon-64's will run on 1.2 volts... and that's still on a .13 micron process... when they drop down to .09 and eventually .065, I imagine we'll be seeing about 0.75 volts.

 

[68GTX]

Hopefully Anandtech, or other review sites will give us a review of a single processor Opteron 246 with a larger variety of Gaming Benchmarks, as well as Video Encoding, Rendering, Archiving Performance etc.

I'm interested in seeing how "Well Rounded" the performance of Opteron 246 is with a large variety of Real World games and apps.

There certainly seems to be a lack of Opteron Reviews.

 

[Jeff7181]

The lack of Opteron reviews is probably due to the fact that it's an enterprise level processor. How many reviews do you see of Itaniums? How many reviews do you see of Xeons, and how long have they been around?

 

[68GTX]

The lack of Opteron reviews is probably due to the fact that it's an enterprise level processor. How many reviews do you see of Itaniums? How many reviews do you see of Xeons

Agreed, however... The Opteron seems to be of the same stock as the upcoming Desktop Version of this CPU.

Seems like the performance of Opteron might be a nice prelude to the performance of the Socket 940 FX-51 (Or whatever it's called)