Hmm....
Opty 1xx series are "NOT" special in any form. They are just left over San Diego cores which AMD wanted to get rid off. So they branded it differently and sold it off. But, because of the "chance" higher OC ability of the initial batches, it generated a lot of demand and AMD had to specially continue manufacturing the "San Diego" cores which was against their plan. Hence they are trying to curb it with a price hike.
The A64 cores run cooler at the same speed compared to a Opteron because of less cache (translates less TDP.)
See the logic is:
A FX 60 with a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of 110 W consumes (and later emits as heat) 110W of power @ 100% load @ its stock Vcore. A opteron 170 (dual core), assuming its the best chip in the world, is also rated
110W TDP at its stock Vcore and speed.
i.e.,
FX 60 (@ stock Vcore, 1.35V and stock speed 2.6GHz) = 110W
Opteron (@ stock Vcore, 1.35V and stock speed 2Ghz) = 110W
Opteron 170 (@ stock Vcore, 1.35V and OCed speed 2.6Ghz) >>> 110W
Why? Because, AMD just doesnt speed bin the chips according to the max speed they get at stock volts (1.3, 1.35 and 1.4) but it also gives a huge weightage to the Thermal output of the chips. So if the chips dont cut the TDP design, they get thrown into different bins. Thats the point behind the whole "saga" of overclocking. We OCers land up with chips which would have actually come out as higher binned chips if it were not for the higher thermal output.
Eg: Take the case of the magical stepping of 0517 DPMW/EPAW....(Almost) All these chips would do 2.6 Ghz with default Vcore. It could be a bad batch of FX-57 Sandiegos which actually didnt meet the TDP requirement and thus were branded and sold off as different lower frequency chips. See it didnt cost AMD anything because a FX-57 wafer takes
almost as much to manufacture as a 3000+ (its all dependent on the die size.) The first FX-57s were 0516 for the uninitiated (not sure abt this though.) That being said, there is also a possibility that many times AMD would have to take higher capability chips and brand them as lower parts just to fill the stocks and keep up with demand. Those are the really wonderful chips to get. Examples would be chips which do stock speed and even overclock at Lower Vcores (than default.)
Now coming back to topic:
Operton 144 = 1.8 Ghz 1MB L2 Cache
Opteron 146 = 2.0 Ghz 1MB L2 Cache
AMD 3500+ = 2.2 Ghz 512KB L2 Cache
You can urself check out that the TDP of all three processors is the same. So anish, your argument of 146 being a "better" silicon, cooler is totally unresearched.... so i argue for the sake of all, that please, dont post claims without any backing....
However, the 2xx and the 8xx are a different story. They are actually a different breed of processors (different socket, different memory controller, different number of HT lanes for enabling Dual/Quad CPU configurations.) and are unarguably more reliable and suitable for 24x7xyear operation environment. Hell, 285 are cooled by 1U hsf and they do just fine. (2 cores, 2.6 Ghz each, 2 MB L2 Cache)
Now you may ask why my sig reads Opteron 165 while i am so furiously defending A64, well thats because:
- I didnt know all this back then.
- Due to the amazing pri"z"e point she was being sold in. Switch rocks!
Regards,
Karan
PS: Dont mind this anish, okay.
)
What's wrong ?
erformance here... An Opty at higher prices is not good if you are not sure about overclocking stuff :no: