Date:
Monday , February 10, 2003
Author:
Kyle Bennett
Editor:
Steve Lynch
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AMD's Barton @ 3000+

AMD has a new flagship CPU that is launched today and it seems to be not just on paper. Let's find out what punch the Barton packs compared to the Pentium 4 3GHz and its older brother the Thoroughbred.

Availability

First and foremost we have seen AMD not conduct business the way we would like here in the recent past. With their last launch of the 2800+ AthlonXP, we found AMD two-deep in "paper launches". Meaning that neither of the last two products they launched were readily available for purchase. The 2800+ AthlonXP has never made it to any large available quantity (and AMD never specifically said they would) that we have ever seen in its OEM or Retail Box versions and that seems to be the way it will stay.

When AMD came to us with the Barton 3000+ AthlonXP, the first question out of our mouths was of course, "Is this another paper launch?" Their answer to the question was a confident, "No."

From our research and looking around the retail and OEM channels, it seems as though all three flavors of Barton core CPU will be somewhat available in the month of February or early March at the latest. All in all this does not look to be a paper launch and this is what AMD has officially had to say on the subject of Barton availability:

The AMD Athlon XP processor 2500+ will be available worldwide by the end of the first quarter. As always with a new processor announcement we prefer to focus on our highest performing parts, the 3000+ and 2800+, which are available immediately (Feb. 10, 2003).

Pricing

I know many of you have been waiting to upgrade to a Barton processor core, for a long time. Some a lot longer than others, but we are not here to focus on the delays surrounding Barton, but rather what it is, how it performs, when we can get it, and how much it will cost us. On the issue of pricing, some of you may be a bit shocked to see flagship AthlonXP 3000+ to be selling for over US$600. On a good note and most likely what many [H] readers are going to want to sink their teeth into anyway, is the 2500+ as we will surely be hoping to see some OCable CPUs in the cheaper range. We are already seeing sub-US$200 pricing on the 2500+ in PIB form. (Processor In a Box)

Compatibility

From all feedback we can muster at this time, it seems as though the Barton will truly be one of the most Socket A compatible chips we have even seen. We have not had issues with dropping it in any mainboards with the most recent BIOS updates. We have tried it on several KT333, KT400 and nForce2 boards. I would suggest checking with your board maker for a BIOS update though, and to never assume a new CPU will run on an older board unless it is specified in the BIOS notes.

Bus & Clock

While many of us were expecting to the Barton utilizing a 200MHz/400MHz Front Side Bus, that is not what has been delivered. All current Barton parts will take advantage of the 166MHz/333MHz bus that we saw specified on the last Thoroughbred launch. There is some speculation on why this is, but we will cover that a bit more later. AMD has little to say at this point, beyond this statement:

As a result of customer feedback, AMD is currently evaluating the possibility of increasing the AMD Athlon XP processor to 400FSB.

With that said, most of us know that AthlonXP CPUs carry a model number that will sometimes mask their true clock speeds. While this may be easier to help the general public to understand performance when compared to the competition, us true geeks like to know what exactly we are getting.

Barton 3000+

13*166MHz = 2.167GHz

Barton 2800+

12.5*166MHz = 2.083GHz

Barton 2500+

11*166MHz = 1.833GHz

I am sure that many of you are already asking why the Barton 3000+ AthlonXP is rated at "3000+" when it actually has a slower clock speed than the Thoroughbred 2800+. That question will of course be answered in our benchmarks.