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AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 |
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Written by Nebojsa Todorovic
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Friday, 24 August 2007 |
After presenting the new 690G chipset, it was logical to assume that AMD was to present some new CPUs as well that would fit in well with the new motherboards. As 690G-based motherboards are basically tiny multimedia devices on which everything is integrated, from LAN controllers and sound subsystem to graphics outputs (VGA, DVI and HDMI), it's certain that computers based on these are rather small power-consumers. To fulfil the expectations, AMD released a new processor series, which is even more rational and efficient as far as power consumption is concerned.
X2 processors consumed 89 W up to now, but this was decreased by 30% with the new series, down to a value of 65 W. The new model name, Athlon X2 BE-2350, is a bit odd, because AMD has never marked its processors with "performance rating" numbers not rounded up to 100. The new processors can be recognized by their serial numbers, where the last two letters must be "DD", e.g. "ADH2350IAA5DD", as with our test sample.
Once we finished mounting the processor, upon entering the BIOS, we certainly had something to see - as the processor is based on Brisbane core, the voltage that it needed in order to work was only 1.15 V. This is truly great, because, if AMD already cannot compete with the opposing team in terms of performance in the lowest segment, it's nice to see them trying to at least beat them in terms of power consumption. The processor is clocked at 2.1 GHz, which is great, bearing the voltage in mind. An Athlon X2 3800+ with the Windsor core needed 0.1 V more to work at a 100 MHz lower clock.
As far as L2 cache memory is concerned, there is 2x512 KB of it, which is more than enough for the tasks intended for this Athlon. The L1 cache is an already standard 256 KB. As this CPU is probably going to be working in computers of less-demanding users, we didn't opt for "hardcore" overclocking this time. Instead, we decided to reach the maximum possible stable clock while sticking to the default voltage. The results are quite nice - 2.5 GHz with 1.15 V. That is a most satisfactory clock, and we are sure that the more advanced users are going to provide higher voltages in order to get an additional 200-300 MHz. The multiplier of this processor is 10.5, which is equal to the multiplier of Athlon X2 4000+.
| 1280x1024 | AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 | | Sandra 2007 | | | CPU | 15.291 / 12.935 | | Multimedia | 39.660 / 43.242 | | Memory | 4.831 / 4.821 | | Latency | 89 ns | | 3DMark03 CPU Score | 799 | | 3DMark05 CPU Score | 4.950 | | CineBench | 576 | | DivX | 85.9 fps | | Nuclearus | 4.852 | | WinRAR | 944 KB/s |
Testbed: Biostar 7050, 2x1GB TwinMOS DDR800, Win XP |
This makes us believe that models BE-2300 and BE-2350 are something of a "low-power" replacement for models X2 3600+ and X2 4000+. Performance is quite OK, almost equal to the old models they should replace. There is some difference, though, as the 100 MHz difference in clock compared to its predecessor still brings the new CPU a tiny advantage. This, of course, isn't enough to beat the competition, but AMD seems to be well-aware of that, so this processor's target market isn't overclockers, but office and home users, to whom CPU performance is hardly on the list of priorities.
It must never be neglected that consumption is the main characteristic of this CPU. Also, since the CPU works @ 2.5 GHz with only 1.15 V, it can be assumed that, with better cooling and a voltage of around 1.4 V, this piece can work @ ~3 GHz, which many owners on the Internet confirm. Even if this information isn't correct, we rest sure that this processor will find its way to buyers that want a tiny, silent and power-saving computer. |
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