First Tests of AMD's Athlon XP 3000+
Advanced Micro Devices has released its newest Athlon XP processor, and a handful of vendors have already snapped up the new CPU that enables AMD to win its game of "cache up" with Intel. The Athlon XP 3000+, previously code-named Barton, doubles the Level 2 cache of previous models. PC World's first tests show the results: Barton-based Athlon XP 3000+ systems flew through productivity work, topping the fastest Pentium 4 systems tested. The AMD-based PCs also continue to triumph in the pricing contest, selling for hundreds of dollars less than comparably configured P4 systems.
By comparison, the zippiest 3.06-GHz P4 system we've seen, a $2860 Sys unit with 512MB of 1.066-GHz RDRAM, scored 132 when tested running PC WorldBench 4 only. For this broader round of tests, our comparison systems--three fully loaded 3.06-GHz P4 systems with 1GB of memory--averaged a PC WorldBench score of 121, with a high score of 127 and a low of 117.
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ processor
Athlon XP logo
English: CPU AMD Athlon XP Barton.Also for comparison, PC World tested the AMD-based Poly and Falcon systems using the original, non-Barton Athlon XP 2800+ chip, and PC WorldBench results dropped by two to four points. The 3000+ systems' average AutoCAD time of 226 seconds trounced the P4 PCs' average time of 273 seconds. The AMD-based PCs also outperformed the Intel-based systems in the Photoshop, Premier 6, Nero, and Unreal Tournament 2003 tests; the P4s prevailed in the MusicMatch and Return to Castle Wolfenstein tests.
This is a great accomplishment for AMD because they've created a new CPU, which has beat Intel's Pentium 4 processor. Intel is known to have the fastest CPU's on the market and it's hard to top them, but AMD has done it with the Athlon XP 3000+. What's even better about the Athlon XP...