[marco]

Saw that Cnet had a roadmap on AMD cpu's:

" The desktop version of Hammer, which is code-named Clawhammer and will be marketed under the Athlon brand name, will ship to PC manufacturers in the first quarter of 2003 and will hit store shelves toward the end of that quarter or at the beginning of the next, said John Crank, senior branding associate at AMD. "

More...
" Similarly, the company will postpone the commercial release of "Barton," a new version of the Athlon chip with a performance-enhancing 512KB secondary cache, from the second half of this year to the first quarter of next year.

The delays are occurring to accommodate the release of a new version of Athlon with a 333MHz bus, said Crank. Current Athlons come with a 266MHz bus and 256KB of secondary cache. Typically, a faster bus, which is the main data conduit between the processor and memory, means better performance. An Athlon with the faster bus will come out this quarter, he added. "

[Joe DeFuria]

The delays are occurring to accommodate the release of a new version of Athlon with a 333MHz bus, said Crank.

Actually, I'm willing to bet that the release of the new version with the 333 Mhz bus is to accomodate the late releases of the Barton and Hammer cores.

[marco]

I just was thinking were does this bring us?
Does the new FSB deliver that much extra performance? And for what? I mean seriously, in the past everything was about cpu power.
Did anyone notice how this has shifted to 3d graphics?
Of course you still need a good cpu. But in the past the real high end was so far ahead of average (mainstream) cpu's. Nowadays: what is a high end CPU? With 180 euro for an AMDXP 2200? We are coming to the point that CPU power is less and less important. If I buy a 2600XP or a 2200XP, do I see any difference? When I think back... I paid 500 - 600 USD for my Pentium I (or beforce that 486, 386?) CPU in the past, how things change......

[Joe DeFuria]

When I think back... I paid 500 - 600 USD for my Pentium I (or beforce that 486, 386?) CPU in the past, how things change......

Totally agreed. I specifically remember shelling out $800 for a Pentium 166. That was not the "top of the line" chip at the time.

Not too long ago, the "top of the line chip" debuted for $800 to $1000 U.S.

I kinda laugh when people "complain" about top or near top of the line processors going in the $300 range.

Seeing a difference? As ever, it depends on what you do. I like to do video editing on the side as a hobby, and every Mhz counts when encoding video streams.

[Saem]

Joe, you mean every MHz you can get from both the CPU and as much bandwidth as you can get from the memory bus.

The FSB makes a big difference when you're limited by your FSB. The Athlon is limited in this way. The system bandwidth just isn't there to keep it properly fed. AMD should have been scaling the FSB and missed the boat. This should have happened once PC2700 became more and more mainstream.

[Joe DeFuria]

Joe, you mean every MHz you can get from both the CPU and as much bandwidth as you can get from the memory bus.

Oh, certainly. That's why if I were to buy a machine right now, I'd likely pick up an Intel / Rambus system.

I am going to be building a new system in the coming months. It's unfortunate that the Hammer is delayed...it's probably far enough out now that I won't be able to consider it, or at least have it compete with the high-end intel offering to drive prices down.