Spring Speed Leap: AMD Athlon64 FX-53

More Speed, More Performance

AMD is planning an onslaught of product launches this year. While it will not break the 3 GHz envelope until the fourth quarter, there will be plenty of new processors to go around, not least of which will be the Socket 939. New versions of the AthlonXP will be launched this year, as well.

Meanwhile, AMD has high hopes for its Athlon64 FX architecture, with which it intends to take the performance lead again as it has done in years past.

With the Athlon64 FX-53, AMD has given its latest processor a 200 MHz boost. The result is a genuine 2.4 GHz clock speed, based on a 130 nm process and a 1.55 volts.

While our air-cooled FX-51 could barely cope with overclocking from 2.2 GHz to 2.4 GHz, and our previous record of 2.8 GHz was only attainable with extravagant compressor cooling, the FX-53 reached 2.6 GHz without too much effort.

In addition to superior benchmarks, the FX-53 also has significant potential, which the latest Pentium 4, despite its 40% higher clock speed, lacks. The Athlon64 FX's exceptional scalability is based, in part, on the dual-channel memory controller for Dual DDR400 built into the processor, the performance of which grows with each increase of the processor's speed.