AMD strictly moderated (AMD)

[wbmw]

Re: DDR2-800, Rev F, speed boost, plus not using an old buggy bios (-4% performance) and using nVidia instead of ATI will all contribute their fair share. The L3 doesn't need to give +20%.

The BIOS was updated in the second review. No change in performance. You can assume that the other things add up to 20%, but I think it's all wishful thinking.

Re: As for relying on cache being "sad", I guess that's your view of these Conroe benchmarks, run in non-SMP mode where one core gets 4MB of L2?

No, Conroe has the cache, and performs as it does with the cache included. You are on one level *hoping* that the new FX actually does have an L3 cache (which I already told you isn't going to happen), and on another level, you are hoping for vast desktop performance gains with this cache (another thing I'm telling you wouldn't happen).