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Too Much, Too Much is Never Enough
AMD Barton 2800+ Review
Michael (Oreo) Falcon
February 10, 2003
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of AthlonXP processors. Sporting a faster core speed of 166Mhz (333Mhz
DDR) this was to be the next best thing to push AMD to the front once
again. Intel's constant push of the envelop in raw processor speeds has
left AMD behind. AMD supporters have been looking for answers as the newly
introduced XP 2600+, 2700+ and the coveted 2800+ processors are still
holding their own as Intel pushes through the 3Ghz barrier and beyond.
Buying an AthlonXP 2800+ has been much like renewing the Quest for the
search of the Holy Grail. Having been targeted for only the manufacturer
market these hot rod processors are sold in very few places with the stipulation
of buying the processor as part of a motherboard combination. It was kind
of like telling a person sure you can buy this Ford F250 Crew Cab but
to do so you will have to also purchase this 27-foot travel trailer. Well
many of us could barely afford the F250 let alone having to anti-up for
the travel trailer. Because of this many would be buyers were left with
settling for an AthlonXP 2600+ or 2700+ processors or in many cases just
didn't bother to upgrade at all. For those of you who didn't bother to
upgrade to the 26/2700+ processors I am here to tell you that your ship
may have just come in. Today AMD has released their newest line of processors.
These new processors are a third generation of AthlonXP processors sporting
the new Barton Core design. AMD is offering these new processors in three
new flavors. These offerings include a 2500+, 2800+ and hang on to your
hat the first AthlonXP 3000+ processor. For those of you who are wondering
these are direct replacements for the Thoroughbred cored processors. According
to the AMD roadmap (shown below) AMD still plans to offer the Duron processor
as the economical solution for budget minded end users until at least
mid year. Something that I have found interesting, as I am personally
a Dual Platform type of guy, is the Barton Cored MP processor listed for
the first quarter of 2003. Oh man is my mouth watering but I guess we
should take a look at what we have today so you can understand why. So
lets hop to the next page and take a look at the processor we have to
work with, our testing platform and its setup.
Specifications and System Setup
When I received our Barton 2800+ processor I was left with wondering
how I would test this processor and on what platform. Well as usual Tyan
has come to the rescue with their newly released single processor platform
the Trinity
KT400 (S2495). It has been quite a while since Tyan produced any single
processor AMD platforms as their main focus has been on supporting the
Dual AMD Platform solutions. With end users buying more single processor
platforms Tyan decided to throw their hat in the door and see what happens.
So now I have quite the decision as I have a NEW Barton and a NEW Tyan
platform that hasn't been unboxed for evaluation as of yet. So what do
we do? Well given Tyan's reputation for stable platforms with solid performance
we decided to go for it and see what this combination would yield us.
Now for the question of what do we compare this 2800+ Barton to during
our benchmarks. We have decided to do something a little different with
our evaluation of the Barton. Having questioned the AMD Dogma of their
naming convention for quite some time now we have decided to do a head
to head with an AthlonXP 2400+ processor. Ok before you think we have
gone completely off the deep end, the new Barton 2800+ Processor runs
at 2073 Mhz compared to the XP2400+ that runs at 1996Mhz. This makes for
a close comparison. By doing so we cannot only test the differences in
the onboard Cache sizes, but the difference of the 133 vs. 166-bus speed
as well. We will also be taking a look at the overclock ability of the
Barton, which I think you will want to stick around to see. So lets take
a look at the specs for both of these processors.
| AthlonXP 2400+
Specifications |
|
•
|
1996 Mhz |
|
•
|
266 MHz high-speed AMD Athlon XP front-side bus |
|
•
|
High-performance, full-speed on-chip
cache (128K L1 & 256K L2 Cache full-speed cache size)
|
|
•
|
Socket A infrastructure (SOCKET 462) |
|
•
|
High-performance, full-speed on-chip
cache (384K total full-speed cache size) |
|
•
|
Socket A infrastructure |
|
•
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AMD 3DNow!™ Professional technology
(70 instructions, full SSE compatibility) |
|
•
|
AMD QuantiSpeed™ architecture |
|
•
|
0.13-micron process |
| • |
1.65 vCore |
|
| AthlonXP
2800+ Barton Core - Click any picture to enlarge |
|
|
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| |
|
|
|
|
|
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| AthlonXP 2800+
Specifications |
|
•
|
2073 Mhz |
|
•
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333 Mhz high-speed AMD Athlon XP front-side bus |
|
•
|
High-performance, full-speed on-chip
cache (128K L1 & 512K L2 Cache full-speed cache size)
|
|
•
|
Socket A infrastructure (SOCKET 462) |
|
•
|
AMD 3DNow!™ Professional technology
(70 instructions, full SSE compatibility) |
|
•
|
AMD QuantiSpeed™ architecture |
|
•
|
0.13-micron process |
|
•
|
1.65 vCore |
|
| WCPUID Stats - Click
for Screenshots |
|
|
As you can see the Barton is running the same 0.13 micron technology
(nothing new) same as the Thoroughbred, however the Barton has a 512KByte
L2 cache and the same 128KByte L1 (total of 640KByte cache). And of course
the FSB is 333MHz with a Vcore of 1.65 V. Something to make note of with
the new Barton processors is that you run a quality high performance heatsink
to keep these babies cool. AMD is currently testing heatsinks for approval
with the Barton line of processors and as of now only the following have
made the cut for the 2800+:
Ajigo MF034-032
AVC 112C86FBH01
Dynatron DC1206BM-L/610-P-CU
Fannertech Spire SPA072B2
More heatsinks will be added to this list as the testing progresses.
Something else to consider is the fact that you will need a platform that
will handle the higher Icore currents that these processors require. Make
sure you check out AMD's site for a list of compatible motherboards as
you prepare to upgrade your system. Now lets take a look at our system
setup and then head on into the benchmarks to see what the Barton 2800+
has to offer in the way of performance.
| Test System Specifications |
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•
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Tyan Trinity KT400 (S2495) |
|
•
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AMD AthlonXP 2400+ |
|
•
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AMD AthlonXP 2800+ (Barton Core) |
|
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Dynatron DY1206BH-625 Copper Cooler Heatsink / Fan |
|
•
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512 MB DDR (400) 3200 CAS-2 CMX Corsair w/Heatsink |
|
•
|
Albarton GeForce4 Ti4200p Turbo |
|
•
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2 - Maxtor 40GB Hard Drives in Raid 0 Configuration |
|
•
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Windows XP Professional SP1 |
|
The system is running at factory defaults. None of the components are
overclocked or tweaked out of specification. Memory timings are run via
SPD and the only other adjustments made were to disable V-Sync in the
Video Card Driver.
© 2003 Michael (Oreo) Falcon
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