AMD Athlon64 Socket 939 FX57 (2.8 GHz) Processor Review
- by solo -



Introduction

AMD’s new top of the line single core processor the FX57 if officially here. Clocked at 2.8 GHz, it is the faster desktop chip to come out of the AMD stable thus far. The FX57 is not only clocked higher than the previous top of the line FX55, but it is also based on the new 90nm "San Diego" core which includes SSE3 support, a more flexible memory controller and a few other under the skin tweaks. The FX55 will not be discontinued just yet though. It will remain on the market as an alternative to the FX57.

As for the power consumption and thermal dissipation AMD have been able to keep them the same as the FX55!

Currently AMD basically have two kinds of desktop chips in their lineup. Single Core and Dual Core. The Dual Core chips are being aimed towards applications that can take advantage of multi-threading as well as multi-tasking enviroments. The top of the line Single Core FX57 processor is aimed more at the gaming, enthusiast and even overclocking sector of the market.

Before we go any further a quick note on Direct Connect Architecture.

Direct Connect Architecture

Many people are still referring to AMD’s HyperTransport Link as the “front side bus”. This is simply not correct. The correct term used by AMD is Direct Connection Architecture where the CPU-to-chipset connection is replaced with a full-duplex (send and receive at same time) 2GHz HyperTransport Link. All the memory calls are handled by the processor itself. This results in much lower latencies and a huge increase in overall system performance.

Specifications





Frequency: 2.8GHz
Cache Sizes: L1 64KB
Data +64KB L1 Instruction Cache / 1MB L2 Cache (Exclusive)
CPU to MC: 2.8GHz
Memory Controller: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller
Supported Memory: DDR - PC1600, PC2100, PC2700 and PC3200
HyperTransport Links: 1
HyperTransport Spec: 2GHz (2x 1000MHz DDR)
Effective data bandwidth: 14.4 GB/sec [8GB/sec x1 HyperTransport link + 6.4GB/sec memory bandwidth]
Packaging: 939-pin organic micro-PGA
Fab location: AMD's Fab 30 wafer fabrication facility in Dresden, Germany
Process Technology: 90nm (.09-micron) Silicon on Insulator (SOI)
Approx. Transistor count: 114 million
Approx. Die Size: 115 mm2
Nominal Voltage: 1.35-1.40V
Max Thermal Power: 104 W
Max Icc (processor current): 74.9A
Max Ambient Case Temp: 49-63 degrees Celsius

Test Setup

DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR AMD Socket 939 motherboard (BIOS 510-2)
AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 FX57 (2.8 GHz) processor
AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 FX55 (2.6 GHz) processor
2x 256 MB Mushkin Level II Black DDR433 (Winbond BH5)
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum
1 x 500 GIG 7200 RPM Hitachi SATA II (3 Gb/s))
Liteon DVD Burner
OCZ 520 WATT PowerStream PSU
Zalman CNPS7700-Cu CPU cooler
Artic Silver Ceramique Thermal Paste

Software

WindowsXP Pro SP2
NVIDIA NForce 4 Standalone 6.53 drivers
ATI Radeon Catalyst 5.6 graphics drivers
Realtek 3.73 audio drivers
3DMark2001 (330) / 3DMark03 (360) / 3DMark05 (120) / Aquamark 3
Doom3
Half Life 2 + HOC Benchmark Utility
Far Cry 1.3 + Far Cry benchmark Utility
Quake III
X2 The Threat
Sandra 2005 (2005.3.10.50)
PCMark04 (130)
Sciencemark 2 (32 and 64 Bit Editions)
Cinebench 2003 (32 and 64 Bit Editions)
SuperPI 1.4 Moded
Net-Forums PIFast Test

3DMark2001 (330)

FX55 = 29939 LINK
FX 57 = 31072 LINK

3DMark03 (360)

FX55 = 13852 LINK
FX57 = 14128 LINK

3DMark05 (120)

FX55 = 6627 LINK
FX57 = 6680 LINK

Aquamark 3

FX55 = 80925 LINK
FX57 = 85294 LINK

DOOM 3 Performance



In the 800x600 tests where the graphics card is less of a factor the FX57 is showing a 6% increase over the FX55.

Half Life 2

Settings used:

Resolution: 1280×1024
Detail: Maximum quality
Antialising mode: From System (none)
Filtering mode: From System
Hardware DirectX level: DirectX 9
Heapsize: 256 MB



Half Life 2 also benefits from in increase in CPU speed in some Levels, but not all of them equally.

Far Cry 1.3 (At 1280x1024)



Again Far Cry showing a small increase.

QUAKE III

Quake III Arena
Demo name: demo001

FX 55

800x600 2.6 seconds: 527.2 fps
1024x768 2.6 seconds: 515.9 fps
1280x1024 2.8 seconds: 480.0 fps

FX57

800x600 2.4 seconds: 556.7 fps
1024x768 2.5 seconds: 547.6 fps
1280x1024 2.7 seconds: 499.3 fps

CPU power definitely plays a role here.

X2 The Threat

FX55 = 153.489 FPS
FX57 = 160.024 FPS

Sandra 2005 (2005.3.10.50)

CPU Arithmetic Benchmark

FX55 = 12022 LINK
FX57 = 13040 LINK

CPU Multi-Media Benchmark

FX55 = 24971 LINK
FX57 = 26884 LINK

Memory Bandwidth Benchmark

FX55 = 6065 LINK
FX57 = 6009 LINK

PCMark04 (130)

FX55 = 5341 LINK
FX57 = 5627 LINK

Sciencemark 2

Molecular Dynamics Benchmark

FX55 = 68.227 seconds LINK
FX57 = 63.532 seconds LINK

Primordia

FX55 = 340.865 seconds LINK
FX57 = 318.719 seconds LINK

Cipher Bench

FX55 = 10.419 seconds LINK
FX57 = 9.770 seconds LINK

SGEMM (Single Precision Matrix Multiply) SSE

FX55 = 7550.09 MFLOPS LINK
FX57 = 8023.98 MFLOPS LINK

Cinebench 2003

LINK

FX55 Result

Rendering (Single CPU): 368 CB-CPU

Shading (CINEMA 4D): 439 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting): 2079 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting): 4266 CB-GFX

OpenGL Speedup: 9.71

Single CPU Render Test: 71.4 seconds

LINK

FX57 Result

Rendering (Single CPU): 397 CB-CPU

Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 473 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 2254 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 4586 CB-GFX

OpenGL Speedup: 9.70

Single CPU Render Test: 66.3 seconds

SUPER PI 1.4 MOD

FX55 = 33.156 seconds LINK
FX57 = 31.062 seconds LINK

By tweaking the memory timings with the FX57 I was even able to get 30.734 seconds on one run.

Net-Forums PIFast Test

FX55 = 35.48 LINK
FX57 = 32.83 LINK

WindowsXP 64 Bit Testing

Of course one of the added advantages of the AMD FX57 is that is it fully 64 Bit compatible. WindowsXP 64 is available and the software is starting to come through as well. I will look again at how the FX57 performs using WinXP 64, 64 Bit chipset and graphics drivers and 3DMark which is still 32 Bit though. Plus I will test some benchmarks that are now true 64 Bit.

Test Setup

WindowsXP Pro (64 Bit Edition)
NVIDIA NForce 4 Standalone 6.56 Beta (64 Bit) chipset drivers
ATI Radeon Catalyst 5.6 (64 Bit) graphics drivers
Realtek 3.73 (64 Bit) audio drivers
3DMark2001 (330) / 3DMark03 (360) / 3DMark05 (120)
Sciencemark 2 (64 Bit Edition)
Cinebench 2003 (64 Bit Edition)

The Results



Surprisingly 3DMark2001 shows a big increase with the Catalyst 5.6 drivers here.

64 Bit - Cinebench 2003

LINK

32 Bit = 66.3 seconds
64 Bit = 50.3 seconds

64 Bit - Sciencemark 2

Molecular Dynamics Benchmark

LINK

32 Bit = 63.532 seconds
64 Bit = 34.318 seconds

Primordia

LINK

32 Bit = 318.719 seconds
64 Bit = 288.858 seconds

Temperatures

Using the Zalman CU7700 the idle temp is in the mid 30’s (‘C). It is Winter here though. After an hour of folding (which uses a low priority though) the temperature was only 42’C which is very good.

LINK

With cool and quiet enabled the lowest temperature I got was 27’C.

LINK

Overclocking on Air

90nm, San Diego Core.

Just mention that to an overclocker and they will start to drool right there. Some sites even made a headline of the fact that the FX57 will overclock to 3 GHz on air. Well I don’t think there is a single newer AMD processor that doesn’t overclock by at least 200 MHz. But, still 3 GHz actual clock speed does have a magical sound to it. Can it do it. Hell yes it can.

Using the Zalman CU7700 HSF which is miles ahead of any stock cooler I passed 3.0 GHz no problem and went on to achieve a stable 3.1 GHz with only 1.55 volts! With a bit more volts I’m sure you might even get some more out of it. However, unlike most other reviews of this CPU (of which there should be plenty soon) I will offer some serious overclocking results further on.

But, let’s first look at the 3.1 GHz results.



To achieve the result above I merely increased the Hyper Transport speed to 222 MHz and gave the memory enough voltage to keep it stable at 222 MHz 1:1 while maintaining the tight timings of 2-2-2-6.

The Results:

3DMark2001 = 33183 LINK
3DMark03 = 14536 LINK
3DMark05 = 6761 LINK
Aquamark 3 = 91275 LINK

Cinebench 2003 = 60 seconds LINK

Super PI (1 million) = 27.073 seconds LINK

PI Fast = 30.03 seconds LINK

Sciencemark (Molecular) = 57.40 seconds LINK
Sciencemark (Primordia) = 288.08 seconds LINK

3.1 GHz is certainly a promising start, but let’s take it further.

Extreme Overclocking (Prometeia Mach II)



I finally dusted off my Prometeia Mach II which I’d been threatening to do for some time now. I was just waiting for the right chip. And this certainly is the one

With up to 4 volts available for the memory the DFI Lanparty NF4 motherboard is able to keep the memory running at very high speeds while maintaining the tightest of timings. Therefore the memory was run at the maximum speeds during the overclocking of the processor as well.

During my testing I was able to reach two maximum speeds. One at which all the benchmarks ran without any issues. And one at which most of them ran excluding 3DMark.

3.45 GHz Tests



Settings used were:

(265 x 13) Memory 1:1 at 2-2-2-6 with 3.6 Volts
VCore = 1.65 Volts

The results:

3DMark2001 = 35378 LINK
3DMark03 = 14973 LINK
3DMark05 = 6843 LINK
Aquamark 3 = 97668 LINK

Super PI (1 million) = 24.678 seconds LINK

PI Fast = 26.63 seconds LINK

Sciencemark (Molecular) = 54.985 seconds LINK
Sciencemark (Primordia) = 257.874 seconds LINK
Sciencemark (Cipher) = 7.932 LINK

Sandra 2005 CPU = 15983 LINK
Sandra 2005 Mutli-Media = 32953 LINK
Sandra 2005 Memory Bandwidth = 7908 LINK

3.5 GHz Tests



Settings used were:

(270 x 13) Memory 1:1 at 2-2-2-6 with 3.7 Volts
VCore = 1.7 Volts

This is pushing the limit for now in the Prometeia Mach II. Although the FX57 made it through almost all of the tests at 3.5 GHz it was not able to complete the 3DMark tests. I suspect though that it could also be software related and I will update this should the situation change.

The results:

Aquamark 3 = 98505 LINK

Cinebench 2003 = 53 seconds LINK

Super PI (1 million) = 24.234 seconds



PI Fast = 26.11 seconds LINK

Sciencemark (Molecular) = 53.792 seconds LINK
Sciencemark (Primordia) = 251.362 seconds LINK
Sciencemark (Cipher) = 7.735 seconds LINK

Sandra 2005 = CPU = 16284 LINK
Sandra 2005 Mutli-Media = 33579 LINK
Sandra 2005 Memory Bandwidth = 8105 LINK

Overclocking Summary



As you can see all of the benchmarks get a nice boost from the added horsepower. Even the ones that depend heavily on the GPU power.

Conclusion

The good

Fastest gaming processor on planet earth at the moment
Able to reach the magical 3 GHz level and then some
It does not consume any more power than the FX55
Temperatures are good


The not so good

Top processor means it will not come very cheap.

Final Words

Well what more can you say about the fastest desktop gaming processor available today. The benchmarks speak for themselves. At stock speeds with the top of the range ATI X850XT Platinum you are looking at a whopping 31 000 points in 3DMark2001. In actual gaming benchmarks it is superb.

In 64 Bit Scientific benchmarks it is only surpassed by some Dual Core processors.

As far a overclocking goes it is a champion. Looking back on it a 300 MHz overclock on air might not be as impressive as some lower clocked Venice chips which are even getting 500 MHz and more most of the time. But, let’s not forget this chip is already running at a monster speed of 2.8 GHz. When applying some serious phase change cooling using the Mach II I achieved a speed of 3.5 GHz. This is almost 350 MHz higher than I could ever achieve with the 130nm FX55. Two of the more note worthy achievements using extreme overclocking were. A SuperPI time of 24.234 seconds and a 3DMark05 CPU score of 6985 .

But, besides all the fun and games the FX57 also comes with some important new additions such as support for 4 Single Sided DIMM’s at a full 400 MHz and 1T. As well as the addition of the SSE3 instructions.

Before I even started with these tests I already knew it was going to be an exciting one. I have also just started with testing this processor with various memory modules ect. So there should still be some more results in the near future.

Till then.



This post has been edited by solo: Jul 12 2005, 09:25 AM

Wow!! Fantastic! Now i just need to find some cash to get my hands on one

Nice review Byron

Holy Crap, 3.1 GHz with only 1.55 volts!
Awesome review I wonder what these would retail for?

Dam that thing is flying ! And those low volts only 1.6v's for 3.5Ghz Another awesome review

if you have to ask.........

This post has been edited by enigma: Jun 26 2005, 11:27 PM

If you won the lotto I still don't think you could afford it....

It seems the board is under-volting a bit. 3.5 GHz was with a VCore of 1.7 (1.55 + 110% in BIOS) actually. This is not something you want to do long term as there chips only need about 1.4 volts at stock speeds.

On air yes it needed 1.55 volts to do 3.1 GHz. The Zalman CU7700 seems to be doing a really good job as I see from the other FX57 reviews out today they all seemed to only get 3 GHz on air.

I think if my Mach II had been the GT version I could probably run 3DMark at that speed. I am determined to get a sub 24 second SuperPI score with this chip in the Mach II.

Excellent review there solo. Pity it's not for us poor ppl

This post has been edited by Fishfly: Jun 27 2005, 01:25 AM

You sneaky bugger I AM OFFICIALLY GREEEEN.They are only being released in europe tomorrow HOW..?????Is this yours or review and where can I get one
.

Wow, I'm lost for words....

All I can say, is that you guys might see another person making the move to the dark side

an incredible review Solo, things we could all only dream of.

Yes, where can we get one?

so shall we go for suicide world record on ln2. just call me

Brilliant review solo, as always
Nice SuperPi and PiFast overclocked results!

Yeh solo has a very sore tongue from bitting it every time someone mentioned FX57. But, I wasn't allowed to say anything due to the embargo on releasing info on it before the official release



Maybe some dry ice in the future



This post has been edited by solo: Jun 27 2005, 02:12 AM

I can imagine! LOL

Solo's !

i's ready when you are.
i got the block and can get ln2 quick. (also i still got the sealed box for benching in)
you know where to get dry ice so i think were in business.

the potential cold bug could kick in anywhere. ln2 has the ability to run at any temp between 0 and -160'.
dry ice is not variable and will max at -70' afaik.
i therefor prefer ln2 in this cold bug situation as there is temp controll.

but yeah lets not delay - lets bench today
just kidding. anytime you ready

maybe we can take the super-pi wr on fx or something or maybe the highest fx screenie?

Wow, very good review! How did you manage to get this CPU? It was released very recent. You must have very good contacts then.

Thats a -very- fast CPU. Must be damn expensive.

Well done!

MeTsU's news post:

Good stuff, Byron...I guessed as much about the test, just did not want to put you under "pressure" for telling me in so many words it was an FX57....but, somehow I knew...hehe...

Strong beast, but somehow I don't think a 7% performance increase justifies a 30% increase in price.....oris it just me.

Would like to see whiat that cpu can do under dry-ice, around 22sec I guess.....

Let's wait and see then....

Thanks Mandarb, that's right. Theses babies aren't going cheap...

BUT, I'm sure someone will win the Lotto and put the money to good use! Should the person be me - FX-57's on me



P.S --> It's a pity I'm in the U.K