AMD Strikes Back
Performance and controversy mark AMD's new Athlon XP.Edited by the News Department
The XP chips (XP stands for "extreme performance" and has no relation to Microsoft's Windows XP) debut at speeds that range from 1.33 to 1.53 GHz, but they're labeled according to a rating system that, AMD says, more accurately reflects the chips' performance. The new scheme is part of AMD's fierce battle to end the megahertz myth--namely, "The more the megahertz, the better the PC." It's the biggest marketing gamble AMD has taken in some time.
But regardless of whether this chip naming system pays off, the first Athlon XP machines seem top-notch.
In our tests of two preproduction systems based on the Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53-GHz) chip--the $2750 Polywell Poly 880XP-1800 and the $3049 Xi 1800+ MTower SP--both PCs outperformed a comparably configured 2-GHz Pentium 4 Dell machine (priced at $2919) on our PC WorldBench 2000 business-application tests and on several other measures.
Savvy PC shoppers already know that megahertz ratings don't reveal which processor makes a PC run fastest: Not until Intel pumped the P4's clock speed to 2 GHz did business systems using the P4 match the performance of PCs using the 1.4-GHz AMD Athlon, on most jobs. And if you're shopping for a high-end desktop PC today, you definitely have more than megahertz to consider. Looking ahead, Intel will also soon roll out some highly anticipated new P4 chips. However, analysts say that now--and even in the coming months--most value- and performance-minded buyers will find AMD Athlon XP PCs tough to beat.
Inside XP Ratings
The Athlon XP processor uses the same chip core, code-named Palomino, found in Athlon 4 notebook chips. An XP CPU uses about 20 percent less power than the original Athlons and boasts design changes that speed information to waiting applications. It also has 3DNow Professional, which adds 52 new 3D and multimedia instructions and makes it compatible with Intel's SSE instructions.
Some Athlon XP systems may get a boost from NVidia's new NForce system chip set (see "May the NForce Be With You"). But the most debated aspect of the Athlon XP will no doubt be AMD's chip-performance ratings.
The ratings rank XP chips based on their performance relative to that of the most recent Athlons. For example, the fastest new chip is the XP 1800+, which according to AMD performs like a 1.8-GHz Athlon--though its true clock speed is 1.53 GHz. AMD also asserts that PCs with an XP 1800+ should run faster than comparable 1.8-GHz P4 units, a claim borne out in our business-applications testing.
Likewise, AMD claims that the Athlon XP 1700+, which runs at 1.47 GHz, delivers more speed than 1.7-GHz P4 systems; the Athlon XP 1600+, which runs at 1.4 GHz, outdoes 1.6-GHz units; and the XP 1500+, which runs at 1.33 GHz, bests 1.5-GHz systems.
Athlon XP system configurations will cite the chip clock speed, but not prominently (see "AMD's Ratings Gambit"). You'll see the AMD term "QuantiSpeed architecture" on XP system configurations, too. The term covers various XP design changes that improve performance, such as an enhanced floating-point unit and the CPU's new abilities to prefetch some data and to successfully anticipate some upcoming requests.
Clearly, AMD can't convey such improvements through megahertz. They affect a less familiar measure of performance: the number of small jobs a CPU can do in a clock cycle. While that number varies widely depending on the app, there's no question that the Athlon XP finishes more work per CPU clock cycle than the P4 does, says Kevin Krewell, senior analyst for MicroDesign Resources.
Still, AMD's rating scheme may prove a tough sell. "When consumers see MHz in fine print, they may be confused," says Krewell. Moreover, this is a temporary metric: AMD plans to unveil a new rating system with industry partners, perhaps in 2002.
Other performance-rating efforts, from vendors such as Cyrix, have failed--in part due to lack of credibility, as companies played fast and loose with the equivalencies. AMD, however, plans to use an independent firm to support its claims. And it can back up its rating system with a solid product, Krewell says.
Faster Than 2-GHz P4
In PC Worldbench 2000 testing, the Polywell unit received a superb score of 259, followed closely by the Xi PC, with a mark of 250. In comparison, a recently tested Dell Dimension 2-GHz P4 system earned a noticeably slower 236. (All three systems ran Windows 2000 Professional; the XP systems had 256MB of DDR SDRAM, and the P4 had 256MB of RDRAM.) Also, both the XP PCs handily bested the 230 average score of two P4-1800-based units.
As for multimedia tasks, the three systems completed an MP3 conversion test in nearly identical times. But the Polywell and Xi units clearly outperformed the Dell P4 on our AutoCAD and Photoshop tests (for details see the chart).
Pretty Price Tags
The Athlon XP PCs score high on value too. The speedy Poly 880XP-1800 packs a lot for $2750, including a 15,000-rpm 20GB SCSI hard drive, a 17-inch monitor, a DVD-ROM drive, and a CD-RW drive.
The $3049 Xi unit dishes up a generous plate of goodies for enthusiasts, with a DVD-RAM drive, a 19-inch ViewSonic G90F Perfect Flat monitor, and a RAID hard drive setup that interleaves, or "stripes," two 40GB hard drives to improve read/write times. Both XP PCs have solid graphics cards based on the NVidia GeForce3 with 64MB of DDR SDRAM, and excellent Creative Labs sound systems.
Due to the ongoing chip pricing wars, you'll likely save at least $200 by choosing an Athlon XP 1800+ system over a comparable 2-GHz P4 unit, although Intel's recent price drops and its introduction of a less-costly SDRAM P4 motherboard have made P4-based PCs more competitive.
One important issue, however, is how easy it will be for buyers to find Athlon PCs. AMD faces financial worries due to renewed pricing pressure from Intel, compounded by the recent loss of a high-profile customer, Gateway. IBM too has dropped AMD chips from its North America offerings, and the proposed merger of HP and Compaq--AMD's last top-tier desktop customers--means users may have fewer choices. MicronPC still offers Athlon-based units, and lesser-known vendors such as Polywell, Xi, and Alienware will also continue to sell AMD-powered PCs.
Northwood Ahead
An Athlon XP 1900+ chip may sneak out by the time you read this. MicronPC plans to offer a well-equipped Millennia XP+ Dream Machine system, based on the XP 1900+, for $2699 in November.
For its part, Intel will likely release the next P4 CPU, code-named Northwood, around year's end, at speeds of 2.2 GHz or better. This will be the first P4 made with the.13-micron manufacturing process, which will yield smaller, faster, and relatively power-efficient chips. Northwood's on-chip secondary cache will jump from 256KB to 512KB, which is likely to boost performance on nearly all apps.
Northwood will pull ahead of the Athlon XP on some of the most demanding benchmark tests, says Krewell. But a Northwood PC's price premium won't make sense for many PC buyers, he predicts.
"Overall, the Athlon is not going to keep up frequency parity with the Pentium 4, but it will be pretty close on performance," Krewell says.
AMD plans to move to a.13-micron process next year, and in the second half of 2002 it plans to debut SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology, which helps chips run fast on low power. Neither move will be simple, but AMD has successfully faced many challenges.
Today, the bottom line for users is good. Athlon XP systems offer plenty of power for business apps and for more-demanding tasks, such as photo editing, music ripping, and games. And most power-desktop shoppers can buy an Athlon XP PC without worrying that a better value will be coming along soon.
| Buying Information |
AMD Athlon XP 4.5 stars (12/01/2001) Useful improvements help this chip fuel systems that outrun 2-GHz P4 PCs on office apps. |
| Buying Information |
Polywell Poly 880XP-1800 (Preproduction unit, not rated) Blazingly fast, well-configured system for work and play. $ 2750 Street price |
| Buying Information |
Xi 1800+ MTower SP (Preproduction unit, not rated) Loaded for enthusiasts with extras like a DVD-RAM drive. $ 3049 Street price |
AMD's Ratings Gambit
AMD's controversial new naming scheme replaces the familiar gigahertz with a rating that AMD claims more accurately reflects the new chip's performance. For example, on a store shelf, buyers will see the new CPU named as "Athlon XP 1800+" or "Athlon XP 1700+", meaning that the chips perform comparably to 1.8-GHz and 1.7-GHz CPUs, respectively, AMD says. Store stickers will also note the chips' actual gigahertz, but likely at the bottom of the configuration. AMD is using Andersen Consulting to audit its ratings, which are based on performance in 14 tests.
Motherboards: May the NForce Be With You
Befitting a name that sounds like something out of Star Wars, NVidia's NForce motherboard chip set--the graphics chip powerhouse's first--promises to supercharge Athlon XP systems. AMD collaborated with NVidia to develop the chip set, which further exploits AMD CPU designs. NForce works with Athlon XPs as well as with older Athlons and Durons. It deserves your attention for a number of reasons.
NForce integrates the graphics processor, ethernet controller, media and communications processor, and audio processor to eliminate the additional costs of expansion cards. But it's much smarter than previous integrated chip sets.
Under the Hood
NForce's graphics processor performs several tricks that speed up various applications, not just graphics-intensive ones. Its TwinBank memory architecture uses two 64-bit DDR controllers that let apps ask for more data simultaneously. To pump information to apps quickly, the new onboard DASP (Dynamic Adaptive Speculative Pre-Processor) tracks historical CPU accesses, predicts future requests, and stores the data in an on-die buffer.
We tested an NForce reference system from NVidia with an older Athlon-1200 processor. It scored 227 on PC WorldBench 2000--almost matching the 228 average score for six Athlon-1333 PCs we've tested, and six points higher than the average of four Athlon-1200 machines. It also did fairly well compared with higher-megahertz Pentium 4 PCs (for more details see the chart).
The design innovations combine with NVidia's still-formidable GeForce2 technology to deliver that performance. "It's really the first time somebody has put a nearly top-of-the-line graphics core into a chip set," says Peter Glaskowsky, senior analyst for MicroDesign Resources. And unlike most integrated graphics designs, this one lets you upgrade later, using any AGP 4X graphics card.
In tests with popular games, we found virtually no visible difference at many resolutions between a system running NVidia's integrated graphics and the same system with a GeForce3 card. The GeForce3 pulled ahead, however, when we went to 1280 by 1024 and above, at 32-bit color.
NForce's audio chip--the same one Microsoft's Xbox console uses--offloads additional work from the CPU. In a game, for example, that means the CPU has more power to focus on other calculations.
You shouldn't expect an NForce for Pentium 4 PCs anytime soon, Glaskowsky says. Though Intel could benefit from some of NVidia's breakthroughs, it wants to protect its own chip set sales, he says.
PCs With Athlon XP 1800+ Sprint Past 2-GHz P4 Systems (chart)
| System | Processor | Memory | PC WorldBench 2000 score | AutoCAD1 (Lower score is better) | MusicMatch1 (Lower score is better) | Photoshop 5.51 (Lower score is better) |
| Polywell Poly 880XP-1800 | Athlon XP 1800+ | 256MB DDR SDRAM | 259 | 319 | 53 | 71 |
| Xi 1800+ MTower SP | Athlon XP 1800+ | 256MB DDR SDRAM | 250 | 327 | 53 | 70 |
| Dell Dimension 8200 | P4-2000 | 256MB RDRAM | 236 | 484 | 54 | 89 |
| NVidia NForce reference system | Athlon-1200 | 224MB DDR SDRAM2 | 227 | 411 | 67 | 90 |
| Average of two systems | P4-1800 | 256MB RDRAM | 230 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Average of eleven systems | P4-1700 | 256MB RDRAM | 217 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Average of five systems | Athlon-1400 | 256MB SDRAM | 239 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Average of six systems | Athlon-1333 | 256MB SDRAM | 228 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Average of four systems | Athlon-1200 | 256MB SDRAM | 221 | n/a | n/a | n/a |