Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[Windsock]

More facts -- embarrassing facts.

Anandtech, 09/23/2003

<http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1884>

· "At the launch of the Athlon 64, the predominant operating environment will be running 32-bit applications under a 32-bit OS...none of the performance improvements you'll see in this case will have anything to do with the 64-bit capabilities of the processor."

· "Look at the facts, AMD labels the Athlon 64 FX as an "enthusiast" processor, only sends Athlon 64 FX parts "out to reviewers - the fact of the matter is that AMD doesn't want to face criticism about their naming system any longer so they've removed it where possible, and kept it where they thought it was necessary. AMD will get no complaints from us about the series numbers attached to the Athlon 64 FX, it remains to be seen if the Athlon 64's model numbers will suffer the same fate as the Athlon XP's."

· "Socket-939: Athlon 64 FX DOA?...If you want our advice, stay away from the FX for now."

· "We are seeing incredible support for nForce3, despite the fact that it doesn't really offer anything above and beyond VIA's solution."

· "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."

· "Our entire benchmark suite to this point has been on 32-bit applications under a 32-bit OS, mostly because there are no good desktop 64-bit applications at this point in a popular 64-bit OS (not to mention the issues with 64-bit Windows XP we described earlier)."

· "AMD has lost a considerable amount of credibility, and the Athlon 64 (and FX) of today will not bring AMD back to the heydays of the Athlon."

· "We cannot recommend the FX until AMD does release a version with unbuffered memory support and we would strongly suggest waiting until the Socket-939 version is released if you are considering the FX."

· "if AMD can actually get 64-bit applications and a compatible OS from Microsoft out in the market then the recommendations become much more positive for AMD. Until then, it's wait and see, AMD has done well but execution isn't a singular task - it is continued execution that will guarantee AMD a spot at the top of the market again."