AMD launches new high-end processors

Athlon 64 FX-62 and Athlon 64 X2 5000+ dual-core processors to be compatible with new AM2 socket format, target PC gamers.

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AMD today announced the Athlon 64 FX-62 and the Athlon 64 X2 5000+, two new dual-core processors based on AMD's new socket AM2 design. The two chips take over the top spots in the Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64 X2 processor lines and also lead the transition from the socket 939 platform to the new AM2 socket. AMD has also released the Athlon 64 X2 4000+ to fill out its AM2 processor lineup.

The AM2 platform brings new features to AMD's processor platform, including DDR2 memory support and AMD Virtualization, which lets a single system run multiple operating systems simultaneously. PC gaming enthusiasts might not be amazed by the IT-oriented virtualization features, but the DDR2 support will finally let Athlon 64 fans move up to DDR2-800 or DDR2-667 memory for improved performance.

The new AM2 processors will require new AM2-compatible motherboards since the 940-pin AM2 socket is not pin-compatible with socket 939 or the older 940-pin Athlon 64 socket design.

To ease the transition from socket 939 to socket AM2, AMD will offer AM2 versions of its entire Athlon 64 X2 processor line. AMD will also move its mainstream Sempron processor line from the socket 754 platform to AM2.

The processors are available immediately, but expect to pay a premium for the high-performance chips. One online retailer lists the Athlon 64 FX-62 for $1,031, and the Athlon 64 5000+ is only slightly more affordable at $682.

76 Comments

  • argengamer

    Posted Jan 19, 2007 9:10 pm PT

    y si.. no queda otra.. amd pasa por encima a intel, y ellos saben lo que un gamer quiere.. y a dirige a nosotros sus productos a buenos precios... aguante amd.!!!...
    (I'm from Argentina, and I'm learning to speak english.. those who are games fans an want to talk about it.. .. here it is..."me_the_handrailer@hotmail.com") bye.

  • MichaelSullivan

    Posted Jun 6, 2006 10:19 am PT

    I think I'll stick with Intel

  • jakeboudville

    Posted May 25, 2006 6:42 am PT

    i can't wait to get my hands on it

  • TVR_Fan

    Posted May 25, 2006 6:33 am PT

    I can't wait to get an AM2 PC.

  • psmashio

    Posted May 24, 2006 3:37 pm PT

    I don't think you know what you are talking about imprezawrx500..

    The cores don't have individual purposes.. i.e. you can't only use one for general purpose processing.. one for audio.. one for physics..

    Although that is a great idea! and probably what it will be used for. The developers have the ability to use the proc in a miriad of ways.. see:
    http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT021005084318

    for more info.

    Although.. really it doesn't matter becuase one core for audio processing.. one core for physics processing.. one for Artificial Intelligence.. one for general queries.. Already the one chip is doing what most PCs need a dual core proc.. Xfi card.. regea phys card would do.. with other cores still not in use!!

    Remember the demo from E3 2005 with the building blowing up and they said they were using the Cell for all the graphics rendering even!! They can use the cores for whatever they please!

    Memory bottleneck could be a small issue I agree.. but I doubt it will render half the chip useless or anything like that lol

  • marc_man3001

    Posted May 24, 2006 2:24 pm PT

    nice....now to w8 for them to drop in price w00

  • Wandering_Youth

    Posted May 24, 2006 1:12 pm PT

    Meh, I'm happy with my current AMD 64 X2 +3800 CPU. My PC runs Oblivion and any other graphic intense game, currently out, just fine and that's good enough for me.

    I have to agree with TItan_BG, stop comparing PCs with the PS3. PC does a variety of things compared to a PS3, which is just for playing games. You get more bang for your buck with a PC than a PS3.

    I'll certainly buy a PS3 since there are some games coming out for it that I want to play, but I won't be buying it anytime soon that's for sure.

  • Nawras

    Posted May 24, 2006 11:54 am PT

    Damn those are expensive. But still they kick Intel's butt

  • johnathan111

    Posted May 24, 2006 11:05 am PT

    now thats total power

  • Titan_BG

    Posted May 24, 2006 10:33 am PT

    Why are all these people comparing the price of a PS3 to the PC. Ofcourse people are complaining, because the price is compared to the 360 and Wii. It is $100 more than the premium 360 model and it is really incomparable to the PC. A PC has wide functionality anyway, its not just for games and movies, its for music, internet, programming and many other applications useful for work and study. You simply cannot compare a PC to a console and all the idiots who are trying to say that a PS3 is much cheaper are mistaken when they see what a PS3 can do compared to a PC. They are not even in the same ballpark in terms of functionality. Please do not compare the price tags of the two because I can build a very good PC for $600.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted May 24, 2006 8:47 am PT

    stuff is too pricy these days

  • ahsalloum

    Posted May 24, 2006 8:21 am PT

    AM2 is too risky to get ..

    Now although I'm an AMD fan , I'd rather check out the Core 2 Duo a.k.a Conroe before even thinking about lookin at a whole new rig ..

  • Saint_Longinus

    Posted May 24, 2006 8:15 am PT

    Those are welcome features, the only downside is having to get a new motherboard. AMD is on TOP!!

  • jaefrmbk2k

    Posted May 24, 2006 8:08 am PT

    sleep on Intel at yer own risk AMD-has anyone heard about Intel's Pentium D 805? it's a 2.6Ghz, dual core, 64bit ready and it can be overclockd to 4.1 w/liquid cooling. in benchmarks it knocked AMD's FX-60 out of the top spot along with Intel's own Extreme Edition 965 . the kicker is while you can get an FX-60 for like 1000 bills, you can get the Pentium D 805 for like a buck-thirty ($130) at newegg :O look it up on tomshardware if you think i'm frontin'-all i'm sayin' iz, don't get too hung up on the brand names ppl cuz the tides are turning-you herd it here firss.

    yours truly,

    I'm from the year 3000

  • sitgom

    Posted May 24, 2006 8:06 am PT

    People are complaining about the price of the PS3 but look how much this is. That's why i am not a PC gamer because of crap like this.

  • hirmetreus

    Posted May 24, 2006 7:52 am PT

    AMD are really beating up Intel. With more new even more powerful processors like this coming out, we'll soon see an AMD dominated market instead of an intel one.

    Price dropping in the others is good too. need to upgrade my processor again this summer!

  • rvinsc

    Posted May 24, 2006 7:41 am PT

    With all that new stuff you just cant decide what to buy anymore.

  • abelmaestro

    Posted May 24, 2006 5:45 am PT

    I buyed my Pc a year ago and it looks like a piece of junk compared to the ones coming out this year

  • Nintendo_Man

    Posted May 24, 2006 5:44 am PT

    The PS3s specs might look good now but will be hammered by future PCs.
    Plus a PC is way more useful. There is no justification for ripping people off which Sony has always done, you fanboys are now trying to convince yourselves to buy the PS3, lol.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:59 am PT

    yeah, and they cost too much.

  • anamnawshad

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:55 am PT

    Lol don't buy or upgrad a PC anymore........
    That's why I'm not a Hermit anymore.......

  • wugglez

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:24 am PT

    death to intel and their annoying jingle

  • GrimBee

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:03 am PT

    PS3 IS CHEAPER AND BETTER?!??!?!?!!??!?!?!?!
    ??!?!?!?!?!??!?!

    I mean, i can get a pc with a 500gb hd, a wholestack of games, the latest card and this processor and essencially, it will be more productive, more profitable and you can actually MAKE money from a pc that powerful if you like, did music or media etc.
    PC games are wonderful, they are cheaper, you simply load them onto the hd like always. By the time you get the peripherals, subscribe to the internet, get like 20 games which cost £70 each. You can have a serious think whether you should get a kick ass pc, or a ps3...

    Im not getting neither, not at least until i need to.

    Wii all the way

  • GrimBee

    Posted May 24, 2006 3:59 am PT

    i find it funny. People always like a new processor to be released, simply because it makes the ones out now cheaper LOL

  • ewjim

    Posted May 24, 2006 2:07 am PT

    PS3 is cheaper & better!

  • Narwaffle

    Posted May 24, 2006 1:36 am PT

    That's quite a hefty price tag... of course, the price of the FX Series has never put enthusiasts off before

  • Fallout_red

    Posted May 24, 2006 1:30 am PT

    Powerfull. AMD is back and harder than ever.

  • sstravisd

    Posted May 24, 2006 12:13 am PT

    Too bad I just got the FX-60

  • imprezawrx500

    Posted May 24, 2006 12:01 am PT

    The cell doesn't have 7 proper cores. I only has one genral purpose core and all the rest are specilised for things like physics and the one gpc in the cell is only about half the power of a single core athlon xp/64 3000+ or 3ghz p4. The specilised cores in the ps3 are also bottlenecked by the lack of local memory. Megagames .com did a artical on the next gen consoles vs pc when the x360 came out and they said that current pc processor are suprior to the next gen consoles, but the graphiics in the consoles were basicaly the same as highend pc graphics cards at the time.

  • DEATH775

    Posted May 23, 2006 10:44 pm PT

    This is great it'll be a great help for my PC.

  • rwbojorquez

    Posted May 23, 2006 10:30 pm PT

    PC is always on top of the ps3 and 360, but both consoles do well for its price.

  • jeebs213

    Posted May 23, 2006 9:56 pm PT

    id rather buy a ps3

  • psmashio

    Posted May 23, 2006 9:23 pm PT

    Saw someone say moores law is broken:
    Clock speed is not the end all to having a faster processor. Processor Instruction set is just a crutial. Just look at the conflict between PII 800 Mhz and the PIII 1000 Mhz at the time, the 800 Mhz was faster because of the inferior instruction set used on the first rollouts of PIII. Plus this FX-62 running at 2.8Ghz, is dual core, for a total of 2.8 * 2 = 5.6 Ghz total computing power.

    Although it says the same Ghz on the box. Doesn't mean the Proc hasn't advanced at all.

    Someone also said about how they should put this proc in the PS3, and it would be more powerful and more expensive. Not likely as the cell proc has 7 cores running at 3.2 Ghz each. Which is quite a step above 2 cores running at 2.8 Ghz each.

    What will be awesome, is when someone programs an OS that supports super multi core procs like the cell processor natively. And will divy out the processing between cores for the programs. So you wouldn't have to be some super coding ninja just to take advantage of a seven core proc.

  • holenjd

    Posted May 23, 2006 9:03 pm PT

    Time for me to build a new computer, hopefully ASUS will release the new
    nVidia 590 boards real soon.

  • NeoJedi

    Posted May 23, 2006 9:02 pm PT

    Kinda pricy there, gonna wait a little bit before buying one of those.

  • LordGamer0001

    Posted May 23, 2006 8:52 pm PT

    i wish i understood all of this.

  • Konfusion

    Posted May 23, 2006 8:39 pm PT

    Who was it that said that console was future-proof? Nobody? Yeah, that's what I tought. This is the stuff.

  • nacho4511

    Posted May 23, 2006 7:51 pm PT

    I am not really a pc gamer. Why am i reading this?????

  • zeroroach

    Posted May 23, 2006 7:49 pm PT

    When are those processor monkeys going to break 4 ghz normal clocking speed? I have a 3.2 ghz pentium 4 from nearly two years ago, which is still a very, very valid and sufficient processor for even high-end gaming (I just need to bolster my ram, and maybe my graphics card, a bit). They're still at 3.4 and 3.6 ghz, with the occasional 3.8. What the hell happened? Is Moore's Law broken?

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted May 23, 2006 7:31 pm PT

    I will wait for 128-bit thanks. Silicon Graphics dumped 64-bit 10 years ago.

  • damstr

    Posted May 23, 2006 7:23 pm PT

    nice, but conroe is coming out soo soon and will embarrass both of these new chips.

  • adolfogomez

    Posted May 23, 2006 7:20 pm PT

    mrblah00 is right, AMD dosent have the money to pay Apple what Intel did just to have it in the news that Apple is using intel now xclusive.. so we get an Imac with a core duo and a 1600xt for 1300US... thats just crazy. You can get alot more computer for 1300 clams, but Apple dosent care.

  • grnidbandit

    Posted May 23, 2006 7:05 pm PT

    apple has a deal with intel, apple at the moment does not use AMD

  • mrblah00

    Posted May 23, 2006 6:50 pm PT

    Apple is not going to use AMD despite AMD's supperior performance and cheaper price. Apple cares more about money than they care about you people, Intel pays them a good amount of money so you guys can pay Intel a bigger amount of money in return. AMD cant afford to compete with Intel's anti-competetive buy-outs, but atleast AMD reigns supreme when it comes to people who are able to make choices about what the put in their computers. Thats why I will always build my computer rather than buy one from Dell or Apple which forces an inferior product down your throat.

  • hmsmichaelot

    Posted May 23, 2006 6:41 pm PT

    ps3s lookin good when lookin at just this crappy processor

  • adolfogomez

    Posted May 23, 2006 6:22 pm PT

    you really do not need a 1000 cpu on a game rig, an amd 64 3700+ does the job just fine and those are 200us, and now with AM2 they will go down in price... You can make your home PC into a game rig for what a PS3 will cost you (600us).


  • Alphawolf102

    Posted May 23, 2006 5:32 pm PT

    Wait for Core 2 Duo

  • letsgetacid

    Posted May 23, 2006 5:27 pm PT

    I'd hate to see someone pay full price for these processors, only to see Conroes spank them up in down in performance and price.

  • DrogosIronfistcg

    Posted May 23, 2006 5:26 pm PT

    Wow! Anyone ready to drop $10 K for a new Alienware rig?? PS3 prices seem good about now.

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