Comment Re:Server chip versus desktop processor? Duh. (Score 3, Informative) 650
The Opteron and the G5 (IBM PowerPC 970) are two disparately different chips meant to serve two different purposes. The Opteron is AMD's server chip designed to handle for the most part, 64 bit high performance database applications and applications which require large memory models in which the 64 bit memory addressing is needed-- NOT 64 bit desktop applications or games. That's reserved for the Athlon 64 which is clocked significantly higher and has a much smaller L2 cache than the Opteron. On Gaming and desktop content creation benchmarks the Athlon64 is a much better match for the 970.
Actually, the cache size of the Athlon64 3200+ and the Opterons are exactly the same, 1MB. The frequency difference is a mere 200MHz (A64 3200+ vs Opteron x46, the x48 chip is clocked exactly the same), but that might seem significant as it is 10%. The most significant difference is that the Opteron has a dual channel memory interface, which the A64 hasn't. Enter the Athlon FX, which is exactly the same as the Opterons but without the ability to run MP. The cores are identical, so there's no real optimisation benefiting the Opterons over the A64s.
Actually, the cache size of the Athlon64 3200+ and the Opterons are exactly the same, 1MB. The frequency difference is a mere 200MHz (A64 3200+ vs Opteron x46, the x48 chip is clocked exactly the same), but that might seem significant as it is 10%. The most significant difference is that the Opteron has a dual channel memory interface, which the A64 hasn't. Enter the Athlon FX, which is exactly the same as the Opterons but without the ability to run MP. The cores are identical, so there's no real optimisation benefiting the Opterons over the A64s.
