In our gaming test, the X2 5000+ didn't fare as well as on the other benchmarks. It was still faster than Intel's 965 chip, but it fell significantly behind AMD's FX chips. In fairness, its 97.4 frames-per-second score on our Half-Life 2: Lost Coast demo is still very strong, so if you won't be disappointed if you use this chip for gaming. Just know that AMD has faster options in its FX line if your chief concern is 3D games.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Half-Life 2: Lost Coast demo 1,024x768 no AA no AF |
If all of that sounds like a resounding endorsement of AMD's new chip, we have to throw in a caveat. You see, way back in March, enthusiast site Anandtech was able to get some Intel-guided hands-on time with Intel's new Core 2 Duo desktop chips (then code-named Conroe). The testing was admittedly dubious, conducted as it was on systems set up by Intel, but it provided enough of a glimpse at the future to suggest that you at least wait and see what Intel's next-generation chips have to offer before buying an expensive new CPU from either company. They're due out soon, so we suggest you keep an eye out for our full-fledged, unbiased benchmark testing.
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 test bed:
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard; Nvidia Nforce4 SLI chipset; Crucial 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX; 74GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm Serial ATA hard drive; Windows XP Professional SP2; Antec 550w power supply
AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 and X2 5000+ test bed:
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard; Nvidia Nforce 590 SLI chipset; Corsair 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900GTX; Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm Serial ATA hard drive; Windows XP Professional SP2; Antec 550w power supply
Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 965 test bed:
Intel 975X Express chipset motherboard; Intel 975X Express chipset; Crucial 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX; Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm Serial ATA hard drive; Windows XP Professional SP2; Antec 550w power supply
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- AMD Athlon 64,
- AMD Athlon 64 X2,
- AMD Athlon,
- AMD,
- chipset
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