Would it be worthwhile for AMD to make Opterons with L3 Ca..

External Since: Apr 01, 2004 Posts: 69

.....since Intel has some Xeons with 1MB or 2MB of L3, AMD could also
release a special "EE" version of the AthlonFX just to give ardent
enthusiasts an additional reason to chose the FX over the regular
Athlon64.

External Since: Apr 22, 2004 Posts: 226

lyon_wonder wrote:
> ....since Intel has some Xeons with 1MB or 2MB of L3, AMD could also
> release a special "EE" version of the AthlonFX just to give ardent
> enthusiasts an additional reason to chose the FX over the regular
> Athlon64.

It would be a lot different - and presumably a lot more
difficult - for AMD to do this than it was for Intel.

For Intel, the P4-EE is not really a new product - it is
essentially just a relabelled Xeon with minor modifications
to make it pin-compatible with P4 motherboards.

AMD, however, doesn't have an existing product to repackage
as an "EE" version.

In AMD's case, it would quite possibly be better to increase
the L2 from 1 MB to 1.5 MB or 2 MB instead of adding an L3.

And then there is the very simple fact that AMD doesn't
have any need to create an "EE" type of product. Intel
created the P4-EE in order to try to catch up to AMD -
and AMD should be able to maintain their general performance
lead simply by continuing to gradually ratchet up the clock
with the various AMD64 processors.