Athlon 64 FX-60 Processor Review - Page 12

Value

Value is certainly not a cornerstone of the Athlon 64 FX line, but now that AMD has adopted a dual core design, the Athlon 64 FX-60 is probably the best deal of them all. Street prices are not available yet, but with a 1KU price of $1,031, that will translate into a price of over $1K, and follow with previous Athlon 64 FX releases. This retail price will also be on track with the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 and 840, while the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ ($800), 4600+ ($630), 4400+ ($500), 4200+ ($400), and 3800+ ($325) represent lower-cost alternatives.

Other than the retail price, the only real concern we have is the impending move to a new platform, complete with DDR2 support and a brand new socket design. How soon this happens, and whether AMD continues to produce faster Socket 939 processors, will determine how good a new system investment the Athlon 64 FX-60 turns out to be. The new CPU does look good from an upgrade point of view, especially if you're running a mainstream 939-pin processor and want to not only jack up performance levels to the max, but also make the dual core transition.

* Please note that these prices were taken at the time of review and are not meant to reflect long-term trends.

Conclusion

The Athlon 64 FX-60 is a killer launch for performance users, and we're glad to see AMD fully embracing the dual core philosophy with their enthusiast-level FX brand. This is the right way to go, especially as even hardcore gamers do more with their PCs than just play games, and having that dual core power gives AMD the edge in both desktop multi-tasking and multithreaded performance. The Athlon 64 FX-60 also provides top-end performance in the gaming arena as well, thanks to dual core enhanced video card drivers, which push overall performance ahead of even the 2.8 GHz Athlon 64 FX-57. This makes it a win-win kind of launch, and our only concerns are the high retail price and the prospect of a new AMD platform on the horizon.

Pros:

• Cutting-Edge Gaming Performance
• New Level of Multithreaded Speed
• Benefits from Dual Core Enhanced Drivers

Cons:

• Very Expensive
• Upcoming DDR2 Platform Shift

Ratings: