AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Processor Review

Post by **Apoptosis** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:56 am

Early this morning AMD announced two new processors, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ processor and the AMD Sempron 3400+ processor for the desktop market. We have the pleasure of test driving the AMD A64 X2 3800+ and find it to be a great all around dual core processor. It is also an excellent overclocker reaching 2.7GHz with ease. Read on to see how it performs!

Today, AMD offers another option to those who are willing to pay $354 to have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor. Featuring a pair of cores clocked at 2.0 GHz and 1MB of L2 cache (2 x 512KBs), the 3800+ should make anyone's short list for a mainstream processor. Legit Reviews will take a look at the X2 3800+ and throw a wide variety of benchmarks at it and its big bad brother the X2 4800+, as well as Intel's Pentium D 820 and 840EE.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=226

gvblake22 · Post by **gvblake22** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:10 am

NICE OVERCLOCK!!! That's very impressive

And nice article with a nice wide range of benchmarks!

I do have one subjective question for ya though. As far as useasge and the "feeling" of the X2 (and the Pentium D for that matter), does it "feel" faster than it's single core counterparts or is the difference really only seen in the benchmarks?

Post by **Apoptosis** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:43 am

I'll see if capper can add that to his article. Good comments!

One4yu2c · Post by **One4yu2c** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:57 am

Apoptosis wrote:I'll see if capper can add that to his article. Good comments!

If he does add to it, I'd be interested in seeing benchmarks with the 2.7GHz OC.

Great read all around, that was the first tech news I had my eyes on when I woke up this morning.

Nobahar · Post by **Nobahar** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:39 am

lmao, I love the fact that the benches were done with and without Norton- We should send this review to them and maybe convince them to do a Norton Lite that doesn't suck as much.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:46 am

First, benchmarking with the 3800+ is done. I ran a couple at 2.7GHz without any problem, but it is sound asleep in a packaging crate getting ready to go home to Nate.
As far as feel, the processor ran super sweet, I really didn't notice much difference when running single thread apps, but when doing things like installing a program and such, I had no problem at all surfing the net, downloading emai, etc like I used to with my old 3500+.
The processor does feel p[retty snappy, and compared to older Winnies, it just purrs where the Winnie would cough and hack when you tried to do too much with it.

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:46 am

LOL.......haven't used Norton in years, lots of free stuff out there that works much better.

Good review by the way, you've seemed to get the best OC of the different reviews I've read this morning.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:49 am

I tried to keep the benchmarking simple for two issues.
1. A lot of people complain about Norton just being a system hog, and as much as I hear some people saying they encode video and audio while playing games, etc, I just have never done it. I think a simple anti-virus more than demonstrates the capabilities of the processor.
2. Most of the programs Intel and AMD wanted us to use were not free programs, and in fact were pretty expensive.....and I have already spent my allowance this month on a very sick kitty.

One4yu2c · Post by **One4yu2c** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:58 am

capper5016 wrote: As far as feel, the processor ran super sweet, I really didn't notice much difference when running single thread apps, but when doing things like installing a program and such, I had no problem at all surfing the net, downloading emai, etc like I used to with my old 3500+.
The processor does feel p[retty snappy, and compared to older Winnies, it just purrs where the Winnie would cough and hack when you tried to do too much with it.

Yep, I imagine it's akin to that 'smoothness' you feel from a dual-proc system.

capper5016 wrote:and I have already spent my allowance this month on a very sick kitty.

Money very well spent. Long time cat lover/owner here.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:05 am

I've never liked cats, but I was adopted by one. He was dumped in front of my house at a couple weeks old and I hate seeing animals treated poorly. I took him in, and he's been a little A-Hole ever since....but he is the coolest cat in the world.
He got a serious bladder infection and was really sick last week. Cost me a whole night in Kitty ER and almost $600, but at least he's back to being an A-Hole again.
The 3800 was really smooth, I enjoyed using it and think its a great processor. As far as the 2.7GHz O/C. I ran some benchmarks, played around for about 45 minutes with it to be sure it was fine, and had no problems.....I was on water, and the other reviews I saw were all on air, so that might have had something to do with the end result and the stability.

Zelig · Post by **Zelig** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:34 am

Looks nice... I won't be upgrading yet though, I'm going to stretch out the life of my 3000+ Winnie as long as possible.

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:47 am

Dear god someone take my wallet from me!!! i so want one and i so cant afford one right now

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:52 am

One thing I really need to get across to everyone. While the processor i got O/Ced very well......don't expect every retail version to O/C that well.......most everyone knows that retail models seldom clock as well as review samples (for obvious reason) but the capability is there.

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:18 pm

infinitevalence wrote:Dear god someone take my wallet from me!!! i so want one and i so cant afford one right now

Man, I'm right there with ya, considering the minor price differences between the 3700+ Sandi and the 3800+ X2, I might have to consider a dual core, as I hope to throw the kitchen sink at it when I get it. And what's even better is that with the latest BIOS update, the DFI NF4 Ultra-D will run this processor beautifully....God I can't wait!!!

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:52 pm

well if it swings your vote im testing out the X2 4400+ right now and all i can say is damn. there are some down sides to going dual core, but i want to wait till i write up my article to put them out there so look for my write up soon.

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:25 pm

1 MB L2 on each core right? if so, I can see why, and I would most definitely be willing to spend the extra green for der uber cache, rofl

gvblake22 · Post by **gvblake22** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:26 am

killswitch83 wrote:1 MB L2 on each core right? if so, I can see why, and I would most definitely be willing to spend the extra green for der uber cache, rofl

The Manchester core (like the 3800 X2) has 512kb on each core for a total of 1Mb L2 cache. The Toledo Core (like the 4400 X2) has 1mb cache on each core for a total of 2mb L2 cache.

gvblake22 · Post by **gvblake22** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:45 am

Hey, is AMD supposed to release any more/new Athlon X2's for s939?

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:17 am

Unofficially....NO.
There is no need to as there really isn't a market for it. I asked specifically about a 4000+ and thats what I was told.

gvblake22 · Post by **gvblake22** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:22 am

capper5016 wrote:Unofficially....NO.
There is no need to as there really isn't a market for it. I asked specifically about a 4000+ and thats what I was told.

Cool, that's exactly where I was wondering what would happen.
Guess socket M2 should be the platform to look out for! I can't wait to see what AMD can do with a 667mhz DDR2 on chip controller and Dual Core!!!