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).
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
