AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
 

With the latest stepping of the dual core processor series, AMD dishes up the Manchester core to set new standards in energy efficiency and price/performance ratio. Taking advantage of the proverbial excellent gaming and floating point performance and stripping the dual cores of 50% of their hard-earned cache in combination with a frequency sweet spot of 2.0 GHz results in a killer CPU at a reasonable price tag. Arguably, there are cheaper processors on the market, there are faster cores out there (as measured in clock frequency) and there are "the others" but after wrapping up this review, there is nothing out there that combines that many positive features as the Manchester running at 2.0 GHz, using the moniker Athlon X2 3800+.

http://www.amdboard.com/athlon_64_3800_review.html

I've read several reports from users who are experiencing problems with their X2 systems, games which run very slow, with hick-ups or not all :/

and these people tried all patches and utilities out there

Links? I'm considering upgrading and I can't decide whether to go with 2 gfx cards in SLI or a dual core CPU

since you consider buying SLI I'm guessing you're a gamer? :)

actually, if you replace your 6800GT with 7800GT (or GTX if you have the money) your system will be fast enough to run any current game at high resolution with high detail. No need for upgrade if you have A64 3400+ :)

links: one is at a dutch speaking flemish forum, the other is more comprehensible here: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=3038


he also posted this at the AMD Forums: http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=60146

Opteron 165 is your friend :)

that's an AMD Dual Core CPU also, don't see it being any different...

you can always overclock but you can't add cache :)

the 165 costs even less

have you read the thread before replying?

I read on an other forum some guy had the same problems (the ones discribed above) with call of duty 2 and a 4000+ X2.

@Rutar: I think jmke meens that the opteron wil most likely show the same problems with those games.

I haven't had the chance to read all the thread (http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...readid=1707814) but according to it stuttering+performance problems are solved with the x2s+XP patch (+eventually some tuning)...