AMD's "Black Box" Athlon 64 X2 6400+

MojoKid writes "Rumors of a new high-end AMD Athlon 64 X2 chip circulated in July, but availability and specifics of the chip were unconfirmed at the time. Now AMD has officially taken the wraps off their new Athlon 64 X2 6400+, a 3.2GHz dual-core chipset to compete with Intel's Core 2 E6750 and E6850 series. HotHardware notes that the new 6400+ is still built on AMD's 90nm fab process and has a single 2-GHz HyperTransport link and 2 MB of on-chip L2 cache (1 MB per core), just like its predecessor the 6000+. The new processor is said to be a 'channel only' offering and will retail at $239 or so, in a black retail box (picture here) without a heatsink."

Aint Much of a Deal

[ExE122]

Here's how some of the specs and prices (Intels from Pricewatch [pricewatch.com]) compare:

E6750:
2.66Ghz
1.30V 4MB L2
1.33Ghz FSB
~$225


E6850:
3.00Ghz
1.35V 4MB L2
1.33Ghz FSB
~$300


6400+:
3.20Ghz
1.35V 2MB L2
2.00Ghz HT
~$240


From what I've read, the E6750 actually outperforms [custompc.co.uk] the E6850 since it ran cooler and with less power. So it doesn't look like AMD has a whole lot to offer given the price. Not to mention it doesn't come with a heatsink and fan, something you'd probably have to dish out another $20-50 for.

Taken the wraps off?

[Barny]

Wtf? These [auspcmarket.com.au] have been available for about a week.... in Australia.

Maybe America is getting behind the times?

Re:Other price points

[Anonymous Coward]

AMD has also just launched the Athlon 64 X2 5200+, which wasn't available at the time we tested these CPUs

That article's old as dirt! In the hardware sense anyway... Check your references.

Also, Intel offers their Extreme processors which blow HT out of the water in benchmarks. Those, however, actually are significantly more expensive.

Re:Aint Much of a Deal

[overkordbaever]

But who does actually use the boxed coolers? Well, maybe those who run semperons or similar but I do hardly believe that those who are buying that kind of processor will use the boxed cooler.

Re:Other price points

[Anonymous Coward]

Um...Intel chips have been beating AMD for over a year now in the performance arena. Where have you been?

About stocking things

[Shohat]

I haven't dealt with processors, but I used to own an office supplies/electronics business, and ANYTHING I didn't sell, I simply notified the supplier, and got a full refund, either in merchandise or money (wire/cheque).
Same goes for most products for a restaurant I used to run. We would buy a lot of milk, and if we had any milk go bad due to low latte sales, we would get a full refund for any milk we didn't use, they would just take the bad milk back. I know this is not the case when dealing imported goods, but not all chips are imported, so maybe some merchants do get compensated for overstocking.

Re:Geez ... only 125W TDP?

[Slaimus]

AMD does not make 2x1MB cache 65nm chips, so the Opterons and higher end X2s are all 90nm.