Sooner or later, AMD had to bite the bullet- the transition from DDR to DDR2 had to be made. What was making it harder for AMD is the high latency that’s associated with DDR2 memory. This hurts AMD more than Intel since they have an integrated memory controller on their CPUs that demands performance out of the memory modules. With their new AM2 Socket based Athlon64 CPUs announced today, AMD finally makes their transition to DDR2 memory.

Based on a 90nm Windsor core, these new AM2 CPUs have an upgraded integrated memory controller to support DDR2 along with an optimized design to get better performance at similar clock speeds- something we see with revisions to the core all the time. The Windsor core is also supposed to support 'Pacifica', AMD's alternative to Intel's Virtualisation Technology. Lastly, these new AM2 CPUs supposedly consume lesser power but we dont have any equipment to test that.

While AMD has waited for a long time to switch to DDR2- possibly hoping for lower latencies and greater frequencies, there really hasn’t been MUCH progress in this area. These new AM2 CPUs officially support DDR2 frequencies of 533MHz, 667MHz and 800MHz. The current crop of standard DDR2-800 modules have timings close to 5-5-5-15 while manufacturers like Corsair and OCZ targeting the enthusiasts have their modules timed at 4-4-4-12. Compared to the current generation of DDR400 modules with timings close to 2-2-2-5, these DDR2 modules show very high latencies. What we need to find out is whether AMD has managed to increase the overall system performance by moving to the higher frequency/higher latency DDR2 architecture.

Besides moving to the AM2 socket, AMD is also launching two new CPUs today- the Athlon64 FX-62 and the Athlon64 X2-5000+. Both these CPUs have dual cores and will be the highest-end offering from AMD for the time being. The FX-62 is supposedly clocked at 2.8GHz while the X2-5000, which is what we have with us today, is clocked at 2.6GHz and features with 1MB L2 cache. While we don’t have the official pricing from the local distributors, we’re probably looking at around $700 for the X2-5000+ Andover a $1000 for the FX-62. The rest of the AM2 CPUs will be priced almost the same as their Socket 939 versions.

Although this new socket requires a new motherboard due to the different pin layout configuration, you should be able to use almost any HSF unit designed for the Socket939 CPU. AMD has modified the CPU bracket slightly but older HSF units fit well. We tested the stock HSF unit bundled with Socket939 CPUs as well as a Thermaltake S939 cooler without any problems. Here is the HSF unit that came with out kit

Without further ado, lets introduce the testbed.