AMD CPU Efficiency Compared

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600 (Windsor F2 Core, 2.4 GHz)

The Athlon 64 X2, based on the Windsor core, is the backbone of AMD's socket AM2 offerings. All processors include a dual channel DDR2-800 memory controller and all command set extensions up to SSE3. This was also the first product generation where AMD introduced energy-efficient models, which run at a lower processor voltage and hence have a lower thermal design power (TDP). Compared to the Sempron we described on the previous page, this processor has two processing cores with 512 kB or 1 MB of L2 cache per core and TDP ratings of 89 W (up to 6000 and 3.0 GHz) or 125 W (6000 and 6400 at 3.2 GHz).

When idle, the Athlon 64 X2 4600 will reduce its core clock speed to 1.0 GHz.

Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.