AMD Dual-Core Optimizer

AMD Dual-Core Optimizer

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor Utilities & Updates
AMD Dual-Core Optimizer - The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer can help improve some PC gaming video performance by compensating for those applications that bypass the Windows API for timing by directly using the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. Applications that rely on RDTSC do not benefit from the logic in the operating system to properly account for the affect of power management mechanisms on the rate at which a processor core\'s Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is incremented. The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer helps to correct the resulting video performance effects or other incorrect timing effects that these applications may experience on dual-core processor systems, by periodically adjusting the core time-stamp-counters, so that they are synchronized.

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Athlon 64

Earlier this year, I looked at MD’s dual-core Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (August CPU, page 25). Despite it coming out top dog in almost every benchmark I threw at it, the $900-plus price tag didn’t exactly make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I also wished for a lowercost,entry-level dual-core option.

Consequently, in an attempt to bring dual-core X2s to the masses, AMD has decided to release its new Athlon 64 X2 3800+. The chip runs at 2GHz and has half the L2 cache at 512KB.In order to introduce this dual-core technology at such an affordable price,AMD had to cut some corners. First off,the core is based upon the Manchestercore.
With a smaller cache and die size,and fewer transistors,the Manchester core at 154 million transistors and 147mm² die size is smaller, cooler, and cheaper to make.
AMD even states that the max thermal power of the X2 has been reduced to 89W for the 3800+, which bodes well for some overclocking. With just a mild heatsink/fan combo, I hit 2.5GHz with relative stability. However,others have managed to go another 200MHz higher. As with previous CPUs, this X2 is also based on a socket 939 package, so your existing Athlon platform should work with a mild BIOS update.
From the benchmarks you can see that the X2 3800+ really put on a great fight.It easily outmatched the Intel 2.8GHz Pentium D 820 and did A-OK in the gaming tests to boot. Yes, its 2GHz clock speed is a bit on the slow side but even single-threaded applications seem to perform just fine. At the $354 price level it almost seems right for people to sway from getting single-core processors now.It’s more than acceptable in terms of gaming performance, so I feel comfortable recommending the X2 3800+.