Upgrade or Not?

To upgrade or not? That is the query. At least, since the release of the new Athlon 64 FX-57, that is the query I have been pondering. Although the FX-55, (which I am currently walking), was everything I had hoped it would be, is the new FX-57 that much better? Well let's take a glance.

The Athlon 64 FX-57 has an increased clock speed of 200 MHz bringing it to 1.8 GHz, up from the 2.6 GHz present in the FX-55. AMD didn't cease there though, they added a few extras to improve performance.

The chip's core is actually based on a revised K8 core code named San Diego MB L2 cache), which brings the size of the chip's die down to 90 nm from 130 nm. this is made feasible by building the chip on AMD's latest SOI (Silicon and Insulator) expertise.

The FX-57 has an improved memory controller, making it more flexible in terms of allowing you to make use of different size DIMM's on the same channel.

So is the FX-57 fast? It is screaming fast, but is it an of an improvement to warrant an upgrade? Well that depends a little on you. In the event you need to have the latest and greatest then this is the processor for you.

With a $1000+ cost tag, I would be willing to say that the Athlon 64 FX-57 is a small expensive for most mainstream users or fanatics (myself included). in the event you dropped $800-$900 on an FX-55 six months ago like I did.

other factor to think about is the future direction of processors. With an industry shift to dual-core processors, such as the Athlon 64 X2, the Athlon 64 FX-57 may be AMD's last installment in the single core processor market.

Now having said that, the FX-57 still out-performs (in terms of betting) even the quickest dual-core processor such as the Athlon 64 X2 4800+. This is largely due to the fact that most games are not built to take advantage of a dual-core processor, not yet anyway.

So for the time being, the FX-57 will stay the quickest betting processor on the market.