Test Setup:

AMD Athlon 64 (Socket AM2) System Setup:

ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard (NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset); BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GT OC video card (operating at 425/1050MHz); 2x512MB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2 memory (running at 800MHz¹ 4.0-4-4-12-1T); Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA hard drive; LG 16x DVD-ROM drive, OCZ PowerStream 600W PSU; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; NVIDIA nForce 590 platform drivers version 9.34; NVIDIA Forceware 78.03.

Processors:

• AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 - 2.8GHz, 1GHz HTT, 2x1MB L2 cache;
  
• AMD Athlon 64 FX-60² - 2.6GHz, 1GHz HTT, 2x1MB L2 cache;
  
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ - 2.6GHz, 1GHz HTT, 2x512K L2 cache.

Note ¹: The memory speed is derrived from the CPU clock speed, meaning that it doesn't run at the full 800MHz on a CPU that uses an odd-numbered multiplier - please read our explanation on the previous page.

Note ²: At present, there is no indication whether Athlon 64 FX-60 will be a [i]real product on Socket AM2. However, we felt that it would be good to compare the two different sockets in a clock-for-clock situation, and also to compare 2x1MB L2 cache and 2x512KB L2 cache in order to find out whether cache makes a difference or not after the move to higher-latency DDR2.[/i]

AMD Athlon 64 (Socket 939) System Setup:

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard (NVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset); BFGTech GeForce 7800 GT OC video card (operating at 425/1050MHz); 2x512MB Corsair XMS-3200XL Pro memory (running at 400MHz DDR 2.0-2-2-10); Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA hard drive; LG 16x DVD-ROM drive, OCZ PowerStream 520W PSU; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; NVIDIA nForce 4 standalone platform drivers version 6.70 WHQL; NVIDIA Forceware 78.03.

Processors:

• AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 - 2.6GHz, 1GHz HTT, 2x1MB L2 cache;
  
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ - 2.4GHz, 1GHz HTT, 2x1MB L2 cache;
  
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ - 2.2GHz, 1GHz HTT, 2x1MB L2 cache;
  
• AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 - 2.8GHz, 1GHz HTT, 1MB L2 cache;
  
• AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 - 2.6GHz, 1GHz HTT, 1MB L2 cache.

Intel Core Duo System Setup:

AOpen i975Xa-YDG (Intel 975X/ICH7 chipset); BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GT OC video card (operating at 425/1050MHz); 2x512MB Corsair XMS2-5400UL DDR2 memory (running with the 3:5 (667MHz) memory divider at 4.0-2-2-8); Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA Hard Disk Drive; LG 16x DVD-ROM drive, OCZ PowerStream 520W PSU; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; Intel Inf 7.22 platform drivers; NVIDIA Forceware 78.03.

Processors:

• Core Duo T2600 - 2.16GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache;
  
• Core Duo T2600 - overclocked to 2.6GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache.

Note 1: With the Core Duo T2600 running at its default clock speed using the 3:5 (667MHz) memory divider, the memory isn't actually running at 667MHz - it runs at only 553MHz. This problem is removed when the front side bus is overclocked to 200MHz.

Note 2: We ran two sets of benchmarks on the Core Duo T2600 in order to compare the Yonah architecture in a clock-for-clock shootout with AMD's K8 architecture.

Intel Pentium Extreme Edition System Setup:

Intel Desktop Board D975XBX (Intel i975X/ICH7R chipset); BFGTech GeForce 7800 GT OC video card (operating at 425/1050MHz); 2x512MB Corsair XMS2-5400UL DDR2 memory (running at 667MHz DDR 4.0-2-2-8); Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA Hard Disk Drive; LG 16x DVD-ROM drive; OCZ PowerStream 520W PSU; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; Intel Inf 7.22 platform drivers; NVIDIA Forceware 78.03.

Processors:

• Pentium Extreme Edition 965 - 3.73GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 2x2MB L2 cache, Hyper-Threading Technology Enabled;
  
• Pentium Extreme Edition 955 - 3.46GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 2x2MB L2 cache, Hyper-Threading Technology Enabled;
  
• Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz - 3.73GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache, Hyper-Threading Technology Enabled.

Intel Pentium D System Setup:

Intel Desktop Board D975XBX (Intel i975X/ICH7R chipset); BFGTech GeForce 7800 GT OC video card (operating at 425/1050MHz); 2x512MB Corsair XMS2-5400UL DDR2 memory (running at 533MHz DDR 3.0-2-2-8); Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA Hard Disk Drive; LG 16x DVD-ROM drive; OCZ PowerStream 520W PSU; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; Intel Inf 7.22 platform drivers; NVIDIA Forceware 78.03.

Processors

• Pentium D 950 - 3.4GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2x2MB L2 cache;
  
• Pentium D 940 - 3.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2x2MB L2 cache;
  
• Pentium D 930 - 3.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2x2MB L2 cache.

We have used our Pentium Extreme Edition 955 processor with its unlocked multiplier to represent these three Pentium D 900-series CPUs. The Pentium D 900-series features the same Intel Presler core using an 800MHz FSB and Hyper-Threading Technology is disabled.