First Clawhammer benchmarks

You know when a German tech site has got hold of a big story or review - it publishes an English-language version.

Germany's TecChannel has got a biggie: the first benchmarks of AMD's upcoming 64-bit ClawHammer desktop CPU gained after running a prototype machine on the AMD Computex booth in Taiwan through its paces for an hour.

There are more caveats than a lawyer's letter. The software used for testing was 32-bit; it's a prototype; the chip may have been locked at 800MHz, so a direct comparison should only be made with an 800MHz Athlon etcetera. etcetera. But the rig is stable, the ClawHammer performs up to 40 per cent faster than an Athlon running at the same clock rate. And the chip is cool - not even hand-hot in operation.

Also, TecChannel reckons that AMD is being too cautious at locking ClawHammer at 800MHz.

At Computex rumours were afloat that the clock rate will even be 1.6 GHz at the launching. Should this really come true and should Intel really cope with the aimed at 3 GHz, then AMD has to do much awareness training in regard of its model number -3400+ rumours say. The launching of AMD's first complete design in three years time seems to become a marketing problem much more than a technical problem - our first beats on the Hammer drum have been successful by all means.

TecChannel hammer scoop