Where is the software?

AMD sent out evaluation systems with a beta copy of Windows XP 64-bit Edition, and if you remember back several months the alleged point of delaying the Athlon 64's launch was to coincide with the release of Windows XP 64-bit Edition. From what we're hearing, although a beta of the OS will be available very soon, the final release will not be until Q1 2004.

We managed to do some 32-bit performance testing on the 64-bit Edition of Windows XP, however out of our entire benchmark suite - only one test would complete and that test was actually slower under Win64. The latest build of the beta is supposed to have better performance, but for now don't expect 64-bit Windows to be a reality. Without application support, the 64-bit "experience" is quite anticlimactic. We browsed the web in 64-bit Internet Explorer for a while before rebooting the system and getting some work done in 32-bit Windows.

The story is much different under Linux, where we managed to run tests under Red Hat Enterprise 2.9.5WS (Taroon), also a beta release. We will talk more about our results under Linux later in the article.

Motherboard Support Powered by NVIDIA & VIA Intel's Preemptive Strike - Pentium 4 Extreme Edition
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  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    #43 is a bit 486 DX style with 20 stages of pipeline up his crápperhole.
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    ROFL@#36
    Dude the Athlon64 is a 32bit processor?....lol
    Hey everyone...the p4 is a 16bit cpu with 32bit extensions.

    Your an idiot #36. And this is coming from an Intel fanboy, so you really know your in the wrong.
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    Price is more important for AMD because they've had their successes mainly on the price/performance front. If they are truly trying to match Intel on price, that advantage is essentially gone and it'll be an even harder battle to gain marketshare.

    Oh and some of you fanboys mustve missed the PM forum. What the industry sees is completely different from what fanboys see.
    http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.html?i=1873&am...
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    Maybe if the intel & AMD both ran at the EXACT same clock it'd be fairer eh?

    I'd like to see more on the Opteron as I'm going to order 6 of them in November, thank the gods it's not my money.
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    er... nm the above, I got it mixed up.
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    FYI, in the LAME 3.93 MP3 encoding 32-bit vs 64-bit benchmark, you claim that 64-bit is 34% quicker when actually the graph shows it as 2/3.07*100 = 65% quicker.
  • dvinnen - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    Haha, this thread makes me laugh.

    1) The only thing Intel has that can toach FX-51 is the XeonMP, errrr, P4:EE. This processor doesn't start shipping for 2 to 3 months. I can understand including it in the review, but there should be some sort of disclaimer stating that this is a sample and may or not be reflective of the final product. The EE's also will only be released to the OEMs, so expect to have to pay VooDoo or AlienWare there outragous prices if you want one.

    2) The Intel fanboys ADMITT defeat. They are already rationlizing it by saying wait for Prescott to come out. All prescott is is a p4 clocked to 3.4 ghz with "improved hyperthreading." "The 11 new intruction sets" won't make any difference for a year or so (kind of like 64 bit goodness that you are bashing). But I guess the added bonus that you can heat a small house with it is something that AMD can't provide.

    And I wish people would stop complaing about the price. All new processors cost this much when they are first released. They'll come down, but not to the price of XPs for a while to come. The mobo costs will also drop drastcaly (past nForce2 prices?) over the comeing months beause of no north bridge and only a 6 layer PCB.
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    64bit with 32bit compatibility would be what Itanium does. AMD64 is still native x86 with the ability to use 64-bit registers, thats why it can still run 32-bit programs as fast/faster than current CPUs.

    http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1815&a...
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    #40 is a 64-bit moron.
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - link

    #36

    The Prescott is the next generation in the pentium family. It's not like it's a P4 with an increased multiplyer. AMD is in trouble when the Prescott comes rolling around.

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