AMD Athlon X2 7850

    AMD released their Kuma core, basically a dual core Phenom, back in December which performed much better than most expected, competitive with Intel's dual cores for the price. Since then, AMD has been busy with Phenom II launches but in time for AMD's 40th anniversary they've updated the Athlon 7750 Kuma core with the Athlon  7850 Black Edition. There's not a lot more to say about the 7850 than we did in our 7750 review. As mentioned it is basically a dual core Phenom and in this case featuring an unlocked multiplier. Here's the official technical specs from AMD.   AMD Athlon? X2 7850 Processor Specifications: Processor Core Frequency: 2.8GHz X2 7850 Black Edition Tray OPN: OPN# AD785ZWCJ2BGH X2 7850 Black Edition PIB OPN: OPN# AD785ZWCGHBOX L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (256KB total L1 per processor) L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (1MB total L2 per processor) L3 Cache Size: 2MB (shared) Total Cache (L2+L3): 3MB Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller * Memory Controller Speed: Up to 1.8GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management Types of Memory Supported: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) HyperTransport 3.0: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 3.6GHz full duplex (1.8GHz x2) Total Processor-to-system Bandwidth: Up to 28.5 GB/s bandwidth [Up to 17.1GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 14.4GB/s (HT3)] Packaging: Socket AM2+ 940-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA) Fab location: GLOBALFOUNDARIES Fab 1 module 1 in Dresden, Germany (formerly AMD Fab 36) Process Technology: 65-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology Approximate Transistor count: ~ 450 million (65nm) Approximate Die Size: 285 mm2 (65nm) Max Ambient Case Temp: 73o Celsius Nominal Voltage: 1.2-1.25 Volts Max TDP: 95 Watts *Notes: Black Edition processors support software-selectable increases to memory controller, HyperTransport, DDR3 and CPU core frequency MC configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes Here's our test system. Mother Board Gigabyte 790GX Memory Corsair XMS 4GB Hard Drive Western Digital SE 16 750GB Case Tsunami Thermaltake Display Samsung SyncMaster 30"     Windows Vista x86 SP1 was our test system with ATI Catalyst 8.12 drivers. The only vanilla X2 we had on hand was the X2 5000+ which runs at 2.6GHz so we down clocked our 7750 to 2.6GHz from 2.7GHz. Usually this is fairly accurate representation of what a processor with that stock clock would perform at though occasionally it is faster.     3DMark shows a good performance increase from the CPU which probably benefits heavily from the L3 cache on the Kuma processor.   We definitely weren't maxing out our Radeon 4850 at medium settings on DX9 with Crysis to lean the balance towards the CPU and it pays off in Crysis gaining 7fps over an X2 5000+.   Cinebench 10 isn't a huge difference but you do shave 13 seconds from rendering.           Cinebench saves 14 seconds with the Kuma processor.     Valve Map compilation benchmark shaves off a good 56 seconds from the rendering time thanks more than likely to again the large L3 cache and faster HyperTransport bus.   Valve's particle benchmark isn't quite as large a giving 4 more points.     With more performance comes more power taking another 20W to run at idle and 25W at load under Valve Map creation benchmark under load. Cool 'n Quiet was disabled with testing.   We were able to get into Windows at 3.3GHz with a large increase of voltage bumping things up to 1.5v but it was not stable at this overclock. 3.1 or 3.2GHz is probably more reasonable overclock as with most dual cores from AMD.   Conclusion:Kuma seems like a good bump up from the previous Athlon 64 X2 dual cores though the L3 cache and higher Hypertransport bus do increase overall power consumption. We don't have retail pricing at this time but we will update the review when we see the processor at e-tailers. We wish we had time to compare this to an Intel dual core processors but unfortunately we're a bit strapped for time. This should definitely help keep AMD more competitive in the dual core arena and is a nice part to tide things over until Phenom II. Pricing:The Athlon X2 5000+ we compared the 7750 Kuma to you can pick up for an easy $59.99. Score: 92%  '); //-->

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Tags: ddr2 ddr3 hd4850 hypertransport overclocking phenom radeon socket-am2 vista 3dmark cinebench athlon