Gaming performance
Gaming is an area in which Athlon 64s have always done superbly in. The processors' key attributes lend themselves well to gaming code.
3DMark2001SE, when run with a GeForce 6800 GT 256MB graphics card, becomes more of a subsystem bench than a meaningful video card differentiator. The Winchester 3000+ is already over 2,000 marks ahead of an XP3200+, and the overclocked 2.385GHz CPU makes a mockery of the test. 23,820 marks is serious high-end territory.
The 90nm Winchester is already faster than equivalent competition, so overclocking just widens the gap that much further.
Consider for a second that a Pentium 4 3.46GHz Extreme Edition scores 180.06FPS in this benchmark. That's serious food for thought.
Even DOOM 3 is responsive the CPU changes at a decent resolution and quality setting. This being the case, it's almost criminal to allow users to run a Winchester 3000+ at its default speed of 1.8GHz. There's nothing wrong with its performance, of course, but there's so much untapped potential that's just waiting to be unleashed.
