FiringSquad: Home of the Hardcore Gamer - Games, Hardware, Reviews and NewsSubmit your own or view users' CPU overclocking results!

  
 Home   News   THE MATRIX   Deals   Hardware   Games   Features   Media   Products   Forums   FS China 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Home : Hardware : CPUs : AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 Review
» Join the Greatest Gaming Community NOW! (It's free)

Already a member? Login
 


Random Gallery >> 
Click to view high-res Image!
The Burning Crusade: Preview 2 Screenshots [43] (4)


Programming At It's Finest (0) by phatphrog
Crysis Chef: Jake Dunn (0) by L10nhardt
BioShock Review(Preliminary #2) (3) by Hyper
Round 2 Rules! (20) by FS-Lyle
The Ultimate SLI Gaming Rig is Home!! (1) by StryderSilverton
Cheats!! (0) by Joanna140796
Ode to Starcraft (2) by p4l1ndr0m3
Portal Review {Prelim 2} (8) by Battousai_Ryu
Civilization IV Review for contest (9) by Joluha
Guitar Hero 3 - The thing that should not be (UPDATED) (5) by Beefysworld

More Blogs >>




AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 Review
June 26, 2005   Chris Crazipper Angelini > [View My Other Articles]
Product Info | User Reviews | Article Images(3) | Image Gallery | Comments | Forum Thread
The Same Ol’ FX


A Familiar Architecture


Now that the excitement of introducing dual-core has died down, revisiting older designs isn’t nearly as enthralling. Not all is the same with AMD’s FX-57, though. This is the first FX family member with roots in the San Diego core, manufactured on a 90nm process and equipped with the E-stepping features (SSE3, improved memory controller, lower operating voltage). As a result of the node transition, die size shrinks from 193 square millimeters to a diminutive 115. And that’s after a small bump in transistor count, too, from 105.9 million to 114 million.

San Diego is characterized by a 1MB L2 cache, like the 130nm ClawHammer that preceded it. The core’s technological equivalent is Venice, which has already been available for some time with 512KB of L2. Although the FX-57 operates 200 MHz faster than the FX-55, jumping over to this new core helps keep thermal output manageable. Maximum thermal power is still rated at 104W, meaning that any cooling solution designed for the FX-55 works here as well.

AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 Review [  @ 1024 x 768 ] > View Full-Size in another window.



The rest of the core’s vital specifications are the same. You get 128KB of L1 cache, divided between 64KB of data and 64KB of instruction memory. It still interfaces with a Socket 939 interface, and continues to support DDR memory at speeds of up to 400 MHz, yielding up to 6.4 GBps of memory bandwidth. The HyperTransport bus continues to operate at 1 GHz (2 GHz bi-directionally).

Then there are the value-added extras. Of course, 64-bit extensions are inherent to the architecture and now exploitable through Microsoft’s Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Enhanced Virus Protection is another, accessible through Windows XP Service Pack 2 and used to cut back on certain types of malicious code. Finally, Cool’n’Quiet technology is now a standard feature on the Athlon 64 FX. Used to cut back on power consumption and heat output by reducing clock frequency, the feature can be turned off through your BIOS in order to maintain full performance.



Back! Page 1     Pricing, Platforms, and Overclocking Next!
Blog + Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit SU furl • More: AddThis Social Bookmark Button
Send This Article to a Friend!  
Table of Contents
  Print Entire Article  

MATRIX CONTENT » RANDOM MEDIA BLOG More Blogs >>
No ratings yet
» Please rate this
Read this Media-Blog entry!» Entering Hell (0)
by Fisherman (90) Talk with this user on their Shout Box (My other blogs) Posted 5 months ago

Sponsored Links
:
[GO]


 Latest Headlines
Crossfire Contest Update: More Prizes from Sapphire! (10)
Gears of Wars 2 not coming to PC (5)
Gamer's Bill of Rights (3)
It's official: Comcast to cap users bandwidth (21)
Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon 4850 Dual Slot Review (5)
Today's News >>
Today's Siteseeing >>


 Table of Contents


Credit Cards  Debt Consolidation  Cologne Hotels  Loan  Credit Cards
FiringSquad is powered by... Back to Top Site MapContact UsAdvertise With Us Privacy StatementAbout Us  
News RSSSiteseeing RSSArticle RSS   © 1998-2008 FS Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved