The AMD Athlon 64 FX Processor Themeline: The LEADING Microsoft® Windows® -compatible 64-bit PC processor available today Features: The first 64-bit PC processor in a class by itself designed specifically for cinematic computing Improves security against certain types of viruses, with Enhanced Virus Protection for the upcoming Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 Full throttle technology for immersive gaming and amazing digital media Grind it out with skull-shaking performance for current and future applications, with AMD64 technology knocking out simultaneous 32- 64- bit computing Specification Mfr Part Number: ADAFX60CDBOX Process Type: AMD Athlon 64 FX Frequence: 2600MHz FSB: 2000 HT Speed Cache: L1 128K+128K / L2 1MB x2 Process: 90nm SOI Socket: Socket 939 Core Stepping: E6 Package: Retail

With the exception of a few audio and video encoding benchmarks, the Athlon 64 FX-60 represents the new device to beat as far as performance goes, thanks to its two processing cores. This superlative also applies to our multitasking benchmarks. If you intend to use either ATI or NVIDIA's multi GPU platform (Crossfire and SLI respectively), this processor is a great choice for the best-possible 3D gaming experience.

At the same time, the power consumption of our test system remained at acceptable levels. At full CPU load, the nForce4-based system consumed a maximum of 223 W. This compares to the 300 W a comparable Intel Pentium D or Pentium Extreme Edition device requires. Although the difference becomes smaller in idle mode with Windows, AMD clearly offers the product with the better energy efficiency.