Westlake Village (CA) - The first review of AMD's dual-core desktop processor Athlon64 X2 is in. Test results show a solid performance lead of the AMD chip over Intel's dual-core Pentium D.
A few weeks ahead of the official launch of the AMD's and Intel's desktop-dual-core chips, users are getting a better idea how the chip strategies of the two companies unfold and which benefits and performance the first dual-cores will offer. While both processors will bring substantial improvements, especially for multimedia applications and multitasking, a first in-depth of Tom's Hardware Guide concludes that the Athlon64 X2 will hold the performance crown.
The review also examined the power consumption of the chips which revealed a more efficient AMD architecture. While the complete Intel system consumed more than 350 watts, the AMD platform topped out at a more acceptable 235 watts.
Of course these two chips are debut processors and Intel may catch up with AMD's advantage in the coming months. Presler, which will carry the 900-series product name, will transition the dual-core to 65 nm early in 2006 and will bring visible improvements in power consumption. A completely new architecture is scheduled to be introduced for the end of 2006: Conroe will move away from the NetBurst architecture introduced back in 2000 and is expected to use take ideas from the Centrino platform to reduce power consumption.
Related stories:
AMD launches dual-core Opteron, announces X2 brand for desktop dual-core
Intel preps second generation dual-core: Pentium D 900 series
