AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ EE (65nm) Review

While I believe that’s good for the microprocessor industry, it doesn’t help AMD out of the hole that it appears to be in at the moment. Currently, the X2 5000+’s main competition comes from Intel’s Core 2 Duo E6600 - retail versions of both are priced just over the £200 mark in the UK, with the Athlon being slightly cheaper. However, AMD’s problem becomes apparent when you start to look more closely at performance - the E6600 often trades blows with AMD’s flagship Athlon 64 FX-62 processor, and is nearly always faster than the Athlon 64 X2 5000+. Add that to the fact that the 65 nanometre Brisbane chip is actually marginally slower than the chip it is replacing, and AMD isn’t going to get any more competitive.

.. Simply put, it’s time for a much-needed update to AMD’s K8 architecture. We know that it’s coming later this year, but it can’t happen soon enough, in our opinion. K8 has been great over the years, but AMD just can’t get to high enough frequencies to compete with Intel at the moment. If you’re looking to build a new system then the choice is quite a clear one; unless you already own a socket AM2 motherboard, Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors are a much better choice.

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