CPU:AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Review (Barton Core) :: Test Setup

I used two motherboards for this review the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe for the AMD tests and the ASUS PCD800 Canterwood motherboards for all the series of tests. AMD kindly provided the memory from overclocker friendly Corsair who makes excellent performance geared memory. The two PC3200 chips provided were of the new Platinum line from Corsair and the headroom for overclocking was exceptional. Both platforms were able to take advantage of the memory overclocking ability and perform in a stable manner.

The way people go to achieve their results varies in many subtle ways and that leaves a bit of discrepancy between the result scores. I have always preferred to format and use a fresh OS installation prior to testing as well as using a test bench in lieu of an enclosed case which for us keeps up the status quo in our test methods. Opinions on this vary from reviewer to reviewer but generally the scores are around the same on most of the top sites reviewing the same products as putting the system in a case or on a bench cannot alter the scores to any grand degree.

Some sites used the new DOOM 3 test as a comparison score and after discussing this with many of my peers and various technicians I decided to abstain form using this until more solid information comes to light and the test is actually proven to be accurate. Most people will be confused by new tests anyways so I just stuck to my guns and used the good old standbys we have been using in our general testing. SYSmark 2002 is known to show lower scores with the AMD Athlon than with the P4 due to a memory management issue that is supposedly being worked out at www.babco.com so please take that into consideration when evaluating the test scores. The other tests have been time proven to be accurate and fair across the board so that is where I would focus my attention in this instance.

Test System 1

• ASUS PCD800
• P4 3.0GHz 800MHz (Northwood)
• P4 3.06GHz 533MHz (Northwood)
• 512 2x256MB Crucial PC3200 CAS 2.5
• ATI RADEON 9800 Pro

Test System 2

• ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
• AMD Athlon 3200+ 2.2GHz (Barton)
• AMD Athlon 3000+ 2.17GHz (Barton)
• 512 2x256MB Crucial PC3200 CAS 2.5
• ATI RADEON 9800 Pro

Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1

DirectX 9.0

Desktop 1024x768, 32-bit color, 75Hz refresh

ATI Catalyst 3.2 Drivers

Benchmarks

• Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo
• 3D Mark 2003
• Quake III: Arena Demo001
• Business Winstone 2002
• SYSmark 2002
• 3Dmark 2001 SE