A little about FM1
It turned out rather strange because no one ever expected from AMD that their processor socket would last only about a year. Judge for yourself – AM2 lived for more than 3 years, AM2+ continued to survive, existed for about the same time. AM3 keeps afloat even now! What can we say about AM3 +, which supports not only new AMD FX but all processors in the AM3 socket! From this, it turns out that AM3 is in fact still alive.
What about FM1? After one year, this processor socket gave way to the more progressive FM2, which has a new processor architecture.
In fact, before us is the K8 architecture on “steroids”. This mini section is dedicated to people who do not know the history of AMD processors so deeply. After all, K8, on the basis of which AMD released its first and concurrently the only 64-bit processor in the world, is also used in the hero of our today’s review.
Over the years, the K8 has been polished, refined, and as a result, before us is the crown of its development. In the future, AMD will not develop and release processors based on this architecture. Although, as it seems to me, it will borrow many technologies for future development.
Processor
Now let’s move on to the processor, take a look at its photo:
Screenshot of the CPU-Z utility:
The Athlon II X4 641 processor is built on the K10.5 architecture. The 32 nm semiconductor core that powers this CPU is codenamed Llano. It is equipped with 1024KB L2 cache per core, there is no L3 cache in the die. This processor operates at a frequency of 2800MHz, has a thermal package of 100 watts, and a base voltage of 1.4V. This processor, like all Athlon II based on the FM1 platform, comes with a disabled graphics core! You won’t be able to unlock it! If you are looking for an APU, you should look at AMD A8 / A6 / A4 or Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7 series processors.
Test setup:
- Motherboard LGA1155 – ASUS P8P61 M-LX2
- Motherboard LGA775 – MSI P35 Neo Combo
- Motherboard AM3 – ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO
- Motherboard FM1 Biostar A55MLV
- Processor – Core 2 Duo E8400, Core 2 Quad Q6600, Core i5 2300, Pentium G630, Athlon II X4 620, Athlon II X4 641
- CPU Cooling LGA1155 – Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
- CPU Cooling LGA775 – Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
- CPU Cooling AM3 – Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
- RAM – 2x4GB DDR3 Corsair PC12800 (9-9-9-34)
- RAM – 2x2GB DDR2 Corsair PC6400 (5-5-5-16)
- Video card – Sapphire Radeon HD6950 (800/5000MHz)
- Power supply – Chieftec 600W GPS-600-A8
- HDD – Samsung SP320GB
Software:
- Windows 7 x64 SP1
- CPU-Z 1.62
- CineBench 9.5 x64
- CineBench 11.5 x64
- Light Work – Renderbench
- 3D Mark 2006 v1.2.0 (CPU test only)
- 3D Mark Vantage v1.1.1 (CPU test only)
- Hot CPU tester PRO
- AMD Catalyst 13.3
- wPrime v1.55
- Fritz Chess Benchmark
- SuperPi 1.4
- FRAPS v3.1.0
Graphics quality settings in games:
GTA IV:
- Resolution – 1280х1024
- Textures – high
- Reflection resolution – high
- Water quality – very high
- Shadow quality – high
- Filtration quality – x16
- Viewing distance – 100
- Detail depth – 100
- Traffic flow – 100
- Depth of field – on/on
- Vertical sync – off/off
Prototype:
- Resolution – 1280х1024
- Textures – high
- Shadows – high
- Anti-aliasing- 0х
The tests had to be carried out without overclocking since the bench board simply did not have this option. It was also decided to choose opponents by value, both new and used. Core i3 2300 was added solely as an incentive, our “fighters” will strive for it. The main rival, of course, in terms of cost is Pentium G630, it is even slightly more expensive than Athlon II X4 641. Although, in my city the prices for these processors are identical.
Like everything I wanted to say, I said. All tests will be without comments, since they are simply not needed here.
Rendering
Overall performance
Calculations
Archiving
Games: Synthetics
Games:
Conclusions
Athlon II X4 641 managed to outperform its direct competitor Pentium G630 in all tests. Moreover, he managed to compete with the more expensive Core i5 2300 in some disciplines! Yes, he did not get around it anywhere, but considering the cost of the latter at ~ $ 180 versus ~ $ 70 for the hero of our article, this is a colossal success!
A little about the rest of the rivals, Core 2 Quad Q6600, once again proved its right to life, and Core 2 Duo E8400 – its failure. Now two cores can show practically nothing.
Athlon II X4 641 left an extremely positive impression. They are not even spoiled by the fact that the FM1 platform is essentially dead.
On the “six hundred and forty-first” you can assemble a cheap and highly productive system unit. In particular, to those people who change the filling thereof once every 3-5 years and do not change the processor without a motherboard.
For that kind of money, this is an excellent processor, and motherboards are much cheaper than those for the same FM2.
