Summary
This CPU is leaps and
bounds ahead of Phenom
X4 in memory and north
bridge clocking. This
translates to better
performance in 2D and
3D benchmarks and a
step closer to Intel in the
memory world. There
are also big benefits for
enthusiasts that wish
to stay on air or watercooling, with big gains to
be had in maximum stable
frequencies. Overall a very
good step forward by AMD.
Fingers crossed that next
time we see a significant
performance jump in
performance so the
competition does not leave
them behind completely.
Would you buy it?
with a frequency of 1946 MHz,
which at the time was quite
amazing on an AMD platform.
Now with Thuban, we are
already looking at frequencies
in excess of 2400 MHz and we
are sure these results will
get better as time goes on
and better CPUs surface. Our
experience with the CPU did not
stop there, as it also seemed
much easier to achieve higher
LinX clocks on air-cooling, even
though there are an additional 2
heat producing cores. We were
able to run 20 loops of LinX with
our Thuban at 4200 MHz using
the reference cooler, which is
approximately 200 MHz over
what a good Deneb based CPU
can achieve. When cooling the
CPU to subzero temperatures
benchmark scores over 6400
MHz seem to be possible and
are a regular occurrence at
HWBOT. It does seem though,
that Deneb CPUS still have the
edge in the 2D benchmarks
such as SuperPI 32M, where
there is about 200MHz over the
top Thuban frequencies. This
might jus