AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Processor Reviews

Reviews for AMD’s new dual-core desktop processor, the Athlon 64 X2, have hit the net. The top of the range +4800 model is under scrutiny here - and all reviewers use an ASUS A8N SLI (NVIDIA nForce4 SLI) motherboard for the test-bed system. The Athlon 64 X2 family will include four CPUs by the time it hits retail sometime in June (4200+, 4400+, 4600+ and 4800+), with prices ranging from $537 to $1001.

Trusted Reviews There’s no doubt that the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ is very impressive indeed. Combined with the nForce4 SLI chipset it has performance that is truly staggering, and the only possible source of disappointment is the price. That and the fact that we don’t expect speed increases to come along thick and fast. We’d guess that 2.6GHz at the start of 2006 and 2.8GHz at the end of 2006 with a 3GHz version in 2007 is close to the mark. We’re about to be hit by a wave of new technologies as 64-bit computing and virtualisation come to the desktop, and we can’t wait to see what benefits they bring, but right now Athlon 64 X2 is at the top of our IT shopping list.

FiringSquad - AMD’s dual-core desktop chip offers the most elegant design, the smoothest upgrade path, and without question, the best performance. There’s an excusable compromise in non-threaded performance to go along with the jump in multi-tasked and multi-threaded speed, too. AMD knows it has the upper hand here and is asking a premium price in response. Whether or not you bite will depend on how much you’re willing to spend. If it turns out that the Athlon 64 X2 4400+ overclocks beyond the 4800+, enthusiasts will likely take notice. Then again, AMD has to make the processors available first. When it does, even gamers should get excited about this one.

ExtremeTech - What can we say, except "Wow!" We expected dual-core to bring great things to the desktop, and we definitely weren’t disappointed. Intel’s dual-core efforts showed some marked improvement in several areas, but they were already doing pretty well at the general-purpose multitasking thing with Hyper-Threading. AMD was in dire need of dual-core CPUs to address this deficiency, and they’ve addressed it in spades.