Athlon X2 7000 Series Reviewed

[btarunr]

AMD is releasing a trio of dual-core desktop processors based on the K10 architecture, under the Athlon X2 7000 series. The trio consists of the overclocker-friendly 7750 Black Edition clocked at 2.70 GHz, the 7550 at 2.50 GHz and the 7450 at 2.40 GHz. The core, codenamed "Kuma" sports a basic cache design similar to the Phenom X3 and Phenom X4 processors, with 512 KB of L2 caches per core, and a shared L3 cache of 2 MB. The updated memory controller provides native support to the PC2-8500 (DDR2 1066 MHz) memory standard. The processor now sports a HyperTransport 3.0 3600 MT/s system interface. These, apart from the other tweaks AMD introduced with the K10 architecture give it an edge over current K8 based dual core AMD chips. The core is manufactured in the 65nm node.

AMD lifted the NDA over the Athlon X2 7000 series, following which several website posted reviews on the processors. Most of these reviews covered the Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition. The chip clocked at 2.7 GHz was found to be around 15% faster than a previous-generation Brisbane chip running at the same frequency, according to X-bit Labs, whose evaluation included several synthetic and real-world benchmarks. The same review team was able to overclock the chip to 3.30 GHz (+22 %) aided by a Zalman 9700 air cooler. The Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition will be priced at US $79. Links to some of the reviews are provided below.

Bit-Tech | Hexus | HT4U | Overclockers Club | Planet 3DNow! | Tweaktown | X-bit Labs

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[Odin Eidolon]

80$! great for budget users!

 

[OzzmanFloyd120]

So 15% faster would make these chips on par clock vs clock with the C2D... now only if they would overclock as well

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

nice price to perf ratio ...

 

[1Kurgan1]

3.3 ghz isn't too bad of an OC, we'll see what people can really squeeze out of them though.

 

[btarunr]

So 15% faster would make these chips on par clock vs clock with the C2D... now only if they would overclock as well

If by C2D you mean those based on the Allendale core, you're right.

 

[Gam'ster]

Thanks bta, ive been waiting for the reviews on these.

 

[Odin Eidolon]

3.3 ghz with not-so-good aircooling. i bet someone will get higher 24/7 stable clocks with water.

 

[mdm-adph]

Well, at least they priced the thing good.

 

[Weer]

If by C2D you mean those based on the Allendale core, you're right.

Well, the Allendale is almost on par with Conroe. But these chips would also have the Allendale's cursed ability to overclock, so I can see your point.

 

[kenkickr]

They look good except that 89-95W usage thing kind of turns me away. I already have one suckin 135-140W, don't need another juice hog.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Very nice and I really love the price. Plus standard ddr2 1066 without the need of a phenom. Looks like Ill have a dual core and quad core pc

 

[kysg]

Very nice and I really love the price. Plus standard ddr2 1066 without the need of a phenom. Looks like Ill have a dual core and quad core pc

I don't get this, it's redubbed phenom...just slapped a few different names on it, well at least it competes with something and doesn't absolutely fail miserably. Worst case scenario if I can't get heka this will probably be the next proc I get.

 

[swaaye]

I'm not sure what's exciting about it. A 3.1 GHz Brisbane is the same price. The power use is ugly. It's just another low price option.

 

[1Kurgan1]

This out performs a 3.1Ghz Brisbane, the Brisbane is meh, the Windsor at 3.0Ghz would probably be a better buy over that, but anyways. This will most likely OC better, and it has more L2.

 

[mdm-adph]

Come on -- these have just got to be faulty quad-cores with two cores disabled (only bringing this up because I've heard others say that's not true).

 

[Tatty_Two]

Come on -- these have just got to be faulty quad-cores with two cores disabled (only bringing this up because I've heard others say that's not true).

Sh*t....153W at idle, thats worse than a QX9650!

 

[Wile E]

Come on -- these have just got to be faulty quad-cores with two cores disabled (only bringing this up because I've heard others say that's not true).

They are faulty quads. The power use is so high because those other 2 cores are still there sucking power.

Although a 15% per clock improvement is nice. I bet the bigger and shared cache has a bit to do with that.

 

[newtekie1]

Disapointing, for the price, I can get an E5200 that will perform the same overall, use far less power, and overclock way beyond anything the 7750 will do.

I really hope Phenom II has something for Intel, I'd like to see competition on the higher end products, so prices will drop.

 

[Wile E]

Disapointing, for the price, I can get an E5200 that will perform the same overall, use far less power, and overclock way beyond anything the 7750 will do.

Yeah. This would be good for those that already have a Phenom capable board tho.

 

[btarunr]

Sh*t....153W at idle, thats worse than a QX9650!

...for the whole platform, not just the chip. Indeed Toliman and Kuma are physically an Agena that has been irreversibly down-cored by some hardware method.

 

[cdawall]

they are sitll topping out around 3.3ghz but that is on air...


oh and for you looking at the watts my e1200 pulls ~200w with it @3.4ghz

 

[mdm-adph]

That's actually the Brisbane core in the 6000 featured here:

It's a damn shame these Kumas couldn't be true dual-cores -- the power draw would actually be quite respectable. I'm just assuming, but the chip probably would've been a 45W just at default, considering you can get 2.3 or 2.4GHz quad-core Phenoms with a TDP of only 95W.

 

[Polarman]

I would have liked to see a comparison between my current cpu (FX-62) and this one (7750).

 

[mdm-adph]

Just noticed that Tom's Hardware's numbers were completely different: