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AMD ATHLON XP 3000 REVIEW

"AMD Athlon XP 3000 tested against the Athlon XP 2500 as requested by a reader. Software used for benchmarking the processors was:- 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003, Sis Sandra 2004, Aida32, Serious Sam the Second Encounter, Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004."

AMD ATHLON XP 3000

PROCESSOR TYPE TYPE CLOCK SPEED L2 CACHE BUS SPEED PRICE
ATHLON XP 3000 BARTON 2.1Ghz 512K 400Mhz $158 (£106)
ATHLON XP 2500 BARTON 1.83Ghz 512K 333Mhz $75 (£56)
PROCESSOR TYPE TYPE CLOCK SPEED L2 CACHE BUS SPEED PRICE

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR AMD ATHLON XP 3000
AMD ATHLON XP 2500
VIDEO CARD MSI GEFORCE FX 5900 XT VTD128
NVIDIA DRIVER FORCEWARE v56.64
MOTHERBOARD ASROCK K7S8XE+
MEMORY 512MB CRUCIAL PC3200 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 1
DIRECTX VERSION v9.0B

"The Athlon XP 3000 has a 13% increase in clock speed and a 17% increase in bus speed over the Athlon XP 2500. We are seeking atleast a 10% increase in performance which we think is a fair target!"


SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2004

PROCESSOR - ALU DHRYSTONE

ATHLON XP 30008008
ATHLON XP 25007006

PROCESSOR - FPU WHETSTONE

ATHLON XP 30003312
ATHLON XP 25002890

ATHLON XP 3000 ATHLON XP 2500

COMMENT - "Using SiSoftware Sandra 2004 Processor Speed test the Athlon XP 3000 is 13% faster than the Athlon XP 2500."

SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2004

MEMORY BANDWIDTH - INTEGER

ATHLON XP 30002860
ATHLON XP 25002412

MEMORY BANDWIDTH - FLOATING POINT

ATHLON XP 30002630
ATHLON XP 25002263

ATHLON XP 3000 ATHLON XP 2500

COMMENT - "Using SiSoftware Sandra 2004 Memory Bandwidth test the Athlon XP 3000 when used with PC3200 memory is 16% faster than the Athlon XP 2500 using PC2700 memory."

AIDA32

MEMORY BANDWIDTH - READ

ATHLON XP 30002782
ATHLON XP 25002118

MEMORY BANDWIDTH - WRITE

ATHLON XP 3000804
ATHLON XP 2500739

ATHLON XP 3000 ATHLON XP 2500

COMMENT - "The Athlon XP 3000 puts in a great performance with Aida32 and is able to outperform the Athlon XP 2500 by 24%."

3DMARK BENCHMARKS

3DMARK 2001 SE

ATHLON XP 300013533
ATHLON XP 250012608

3DMARK 2003

ATHLON XP 30004979
ATHLON XP 25004835

ATHLON XP 3000 ATHLON XP 2500

COMMENT - "Using 3DMARK 2001 the XP 3000 delivered only a 7% increase in performance over the XP 2500 which is 3% less than our 10%. 3DMARK 2003 is a video card benchmark so the 3% increase in performance was expected because cpu power isn't as important as video card power."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

3DMARK 2001 SE

1024x768 Resolution
32Bit color
D3D Hardware T&L
Antialiasing Disabled
Double Frame Buffer
Compressed Texture Format
24Bit Z-Buffer Depth

3DMARK 2003

1024x768 Resolution
No Pixel Processing
Optimal Texture Filtering
4x Max Anisotropy
Optimal Vertex Shaders
No Repeat Tests
No Fixed Framerate

SERIOUS SAM SE

GRAND CATHEDRAL

ATHLON XP 300098
ATHLON XP 250091

CITADEL

ATHLON XP 3000124
ATHLON XP 2500116

ELEPHANT ATRIUM

ATHLON XP 3000126
ATHLON XP 2500121

ATHLON XP 3000 ATHLON XP 2500

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

1024x768 Resolution
Fullscreen Enabled
Extreme Quality Settings
Large Texture Size
Optimal Texture Quality
Detail Textures Enabled

COMMENT - "The XP3000 managed a 4% to 8% increase in performance depending on which demo was used, it appears that some of the Serious Sam demos are more video card than cpu limited."


UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003

ANUBIS

ATHLON XP 3000124
ATHLON XP 2500113

CITADEL

ATHLON XP 300057
ATHLON XP 250051

ORBITAL

ATHLON XP 3000113
ATHLON XP 2500102

ATHLON XP 3000 ATHLON XP 2500

COMMENT - "The XP 3000 delivered a 9% to 11% increase in performance which is much more like the performance increase we should like to see."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

Antalus Benchmark
Character Shadows Enabled
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled

UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004

RANKIN

ATHLON XP 300077
ATHLON XP 250068

TORLAN

ATHLON XP 300070
ATHLON XP 250064

BRIDGE OF FATE

ATHLON XP 3000104
ATHLON XP 250093

ATHLON XP 3000 ATHLON XP 2500

COMMENT - "The XP 3000's performance with UT2004 game benchmarks was almost the same as with UT2003, it manages a performance increase of 8% to 12% increase in performance which is near our target of 10%."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

Direct3D Render Device
1024x768 Resolution
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Detail Normal
Character Detail Normal
World Detail High
Physics Detail High
Decal Stay High
Full Character Shadows
Full Fog Distance
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Coronas Enabled
Trilinear Filtering Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled
Weather Effects Enabled

CONCLUSION - "The biggest performance increase upgrading from a Athlon XP 2500 to a Athlon XP 3000 was 12%, let's compare that to the difference in cost. When upgrading to a XP 3000 in the US you will pay 53% more and in the UK you will pay 48% more. The XP 3000 doesn't sound like such a good buy does it for such a small performance increase you will be paying approx five times more.

DISCLAIMER - We only tested both cpu's in one motherboard, results might be different if used with a different motherboard or video card."

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