A New Duron Core Revision
If you think back to our Duron 1 and 1.1 GHz reviews, you'll remember our difficulty in overclocking either of these chips to 1.2 GHz or higher. In fact, we openly wondered how AMD would ever get that core to a higher speed or if a Duron 1.15 GHz might be the next speed we would see released.
Since we're reviewing the Duron 1.2 GHz, it would seem that we were dead wrong, or that AMD pulled a rabbit out of the hat; but the story actually goes a bit deeper than that. Our review Duron 1 and 1.1 GHz processors both displayed the Model 7 and Revision 0 specifications, while the newer Duron 1.2 GHz featured a Model 7 Revision 1 combination. This would indicate that the Duron 1.2 GHz features a new core revision to help reach the 1.2 GHz speed, and potentially offers a bit more overclocking headroom than previous models. The new revision may only be part of the equation, as we found a few important differences in BIOS support while testing the individual CPUs.
On our second go-around on the Duron 1.1 GHz processor, we found that it may have a bit more overclocking potential than we initially thought. When we first reviewed this CPU, moving any higher than 1.15 GHz was simply not possible on any of our AMD reference platforms. During our latest benchmark run, we had set the BIOS clock speed to 12X for some reference testing, and then we installed the Duron 1.1 GHz (forgetting the 12X clock setting). We were amazed that it booted up at 1.2 GHz no problem (though it would go no higher). The only difference between our initial tests and the current run were the numerous BIOS revisions since then.
Although we have not received confirmation on our findings, we're leaning towards BIOS enhancements for the higher Athlon XP clock speeds as being the main driver behind the ease of the Duron 1.1 to 1.2 GHZ overclock. This may yield dividends to current owners of a Duron 1 or 1.1 GHz processor and have trouble hitting the higher core speeds. Depending on the motherboard manufacturer, you may get better overclocking results with an updated Athlon XP BIOS revision. Our particular BIOS update was from the end of November and came right after a significant revision required for the higher-speed Athlon XP processors.
Upgrade Compatibility
As we found out in our Athlon XP review, the new Palomino core can be a difficult upgrade for many current motherboards. A great deal depends on motherboard revision number, BIOS version and other factors, and for the most part it is the same for the new Duron models. An important distinction is that because the Duron runs at a lower speed and uses the 200 MHz FSB, there are potentially more systems that can handle the upgrade.
For example, there are many AMD motherboards that are not certified for Athlon XP use that can actually use the Duron 1 GHz and above. These include the logical KT133 platform, along with many KT133A boards as well. If you're disappointed in not being able to take your system the Athlon XP route, why not check on Duron 1 GHz+ compatibility? At 1.2 GHz and with SSE compatibility the Duron represents a nice mid-range upgrade and may give your current system a bit more life.
