
The mood in our labs was thick with excitement - there was barely a week to perform detailed tests on a total of four platforms. AMD had sent in a server with Dual Opteron processors for testing with little time to spare before launch. And it quickly became clear who its rival would be: an Intel Dual Xeon, the 3 GHz version. This article describes the results from our duelling test systems.
We had to take an entirely new approach to test the 64 bit architecture of the Opteron both as a server and as a workstation. We used the brand new Suse Linux Enterprise Server 8 (SLES) with its latest kernel 2.4.19. A total of 30 server and workstation benchmarks were used in this review to fathom the performance of AMD's new Opteron processor.

Opteron the Great: the new CPU is fitted into a package that's similar to that of the Intel Pentium 4, with the exception that AMD decided to use ceramic.
- Hammer Time: AMD On The Attack
- Hammer Time: AMD On The Attack, Continued
- Impressions Of The Opteron Server - A THG Video Download
- Details On The Opteron Core: An Enhanced Athlon
- Details On The Opteron Core: An Enhanced Athlon, Continued
- Details On The Opteron Core: An Enhanced Athlon, Continued
- HyperTransport: A High-Speed Bus Without Detours
- Socket 462 Gets Replaced: Socket 754 And 940
- Integrated Memory Interface: No Northbridge Meddling
- All Chipsets For AMD Opteron Compared
- Our Test Rig: The Newisys Opteron Server
- Our Test Rig: The Newisys Opteron Server, Continued
- The Contender: Intel-Xeon System
- The Contender: Intel-Xeon System, Continued
- 64 Bit: For Whom, And When?
- 64 Bit - What We Need To Know
- Test Setup And Details
- Server Benchmarks Under Linux 32/64 Bit
- Memory Transfer: Stream 5.1 - 32/64 Bit
- FPU Performance: Whetstone With Three Compiler Flags
- NASA Benchmark 1: ARC 2D (Euler Algorithm, Depth 100)
- Samba File Transfer 1: D-Bench 2.0
- Samba File Transfer 1: T-Bench 2.0
- Workstation Benchmarks Under Windows XP
- Audio-Encoding MP3: Mp3 Maker Platinium 3.04
- File Compression: Winrar 3.11
- Multimedia Performance: PC Mark 2002
- SiSoft Sandra 2003 Benchmarks: CPU And Multimedia
- Multitasking: 3D Studio Max 5.1 And Main Concept 1.3
- Conclusion, Continued