$180 Battle: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ vs. Intel Core 2 Duo E6750

It's time for round three; at around $180 you can either get AMD's fastest Socket-AM2 processor, the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or Intel's Core 2 Duo E6750, it's second fastest, non-extreme, dual-core processor. After the April price cuts, AMD managed to become quite competitive with Intel below $300, have things changed now that Intel is readying its own set of price cuts for next week?

In the old pricing scheme, AMD's 6000+ had to compete with the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 and 2.13GHz E6400, which it did well. Unfortunately for AMD, the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ now has to compete with the 2.66GHz/1333MHz FSB Core 2 Duo E6750 and the battle is far from balanced this time around.

Unless you already own a Socket-AM2 motherboard, the E6750 is the clear choice at $180.

Affordable Quad Core: AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 vs. Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 $160 Battle: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ vs. Intel Core 2 Duo E6550
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  • Darkmatterx76 - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    Nice article. I would like to point out 1 small inconsistancy. On page 12, 4th graph down you have the order for that particular "Lower is better" reversed compared to the others in the article.

    Also, I do have 1 question. Any idea when Intel will offer non-extreme quad cores at 1333 FSB?
  • zsdersw - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    I don't get it. Both are listed as 2.33GHz with 1333FSB and both with 4MB. What's the use of having two models?
  • zsdersw - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    Nevermind. I found the answer. The 6540 doesn't have Intel Trust Execution technology.. or so I read elsewhere.
  • jay401 - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    So how does the E6850 ($266 3.0GHz 1333fsb) compare to my existing E4400 ($133 running 1333MHz fsb with a 9x multiplier = 3.0GHz)?

    That's the test I'd like to see. Half the price but half the cache: Which is better.
  • bobbyto34 - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    Your o/c CPU might just be a little hotter :)
    Otherwise, it should have the same performance approximatively (less cache in E4xxx). But other tests showed that the E4300@3Ghz and could approach the performance of the X6800 !
  • lplatypus - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    Here's a little error I spotted on page 2, in case you want to fix it: the QX6850 is not 7MHz faster than the QX6800; it is 70Mhz faster.
  • Gary Key - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    Fixed.
  • 96redformula - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    I also think the scale would be better from -100 to 100. It makes it easier to distinguish and more visually pleasing.
  • ManuelX - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    I don't post here much but I had to this time. I simply loved the article. The logic behind the comparison was explained nicely, and the comparisons themselves were super easy to grasp. Good stuff.
  • just4U - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link

    I am going to have to agree here. Nicely laid out article with easy comprehensive graph comparison(s). Well done Guys!

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