Final thoughts
It came as no surprise to us that both the Athlon 64 FX-55 and Model 4000+ processors are hugely fast processors. AMD hasn't really brought anything new to the table but, and here's the crucial thing, it hasn't had to. The incumbent Athlon 64 FX-53 was more than a match for Intel's Extreme Edition CPUs so Model 4000+, which is essentially a re-badged FX-53, was predictably speedy. The FX-55 is a recipient of another 200MHz clock speed, thus raising the performance bar yet again.AMD has also stuck with its trusted 0.13-micron manufacturing process for both new headline CPUs. Justification for doing so lies with the ease by which I was able to 'clock the FX-55 model to 2.8GHz by using a quiet air cooler and minimal voltage increase. AMD, I feel, could release limited quantities of a 2.8GHz 0.13-micron 'FX-57' right now. Complementing the premium CPUs is the burgeoning 0.09-micron-based Winchester core Athlon 64s that are currently wowing enthusiasts everywhere, and I feel that AMD is in a healthy position to wholly migrate to 90nm production in the near future.
Other positives that come from today's raft of announcements is PCI-Express support for both S939 and S754, which further add to the platform(s) attractiveness. So is the FX-55 and Model 4000+ worth their £600/£540 asking prices?. Many of you will be thinking "What!, I can build a decent PC for that", so in terms of value for money, the answer is a resounding and unequivocal no, but AMD reckons that performance, and not value, is the key criteria here. I tend to agree, and I've not even touched on probable 64-bit performance yet and in-built features such as Enhanced Virus Protection.
Every hardware sector becomes stagnant without vigourous competition. Intel isn't giving up the premium sector without a fight. A 4GHz Prescott might not be on the cards anytime soon but the current i925X chipset is getting a 1066MHz makeover, complete with a 3.46GHz Extreme Edition Prescott Pentium 4. The next month or so is going to be frantic with premium-sector activity. I'd recommend enthusiasts with large wallets to hold fire a while and see how PCI-Express chipsets pan out for AMD and how 1066MHz boards do for Intel. With upcoming support for NVIDIA's SLI GeForce 6-series cards all ready to roll and Athlon 64 power greater than ever before, I can see a envisage a plain scary system on the cards (no pun intended) real soon.
Bottom line is that AMD has raised the performance bar yet again with its new FX-55 and Model 4000+ CPUs. It's now up to Intel to respond with its next iteration of performance hardware.
Blazingly fast, blazingly expensive, blazingly nice. I just hope it's not a pure paper launch and new CPUs are available imminently.
