HWRoundup 1.2GHz Athlons and 800MHz Durons get the treatment

The hardware sites are giving AMD's 1.2GHz Athlons and 800MHz Durons a good seeing to today.

AnandTech has waxed lyrical on the market dynamics caused by the appearance of these chips. Here a few snatches but you'll have to go all the way there for a review.

"Performance-wise, the Pentium III has been fairly competitive with the Athlon, the only degrading factor here has been that clock for clock, the Pentium III has been more expensive than the Athlon. Intel has, until recently, been able to compete with AMD based on clock speed, however the failed introduction of the 1.13GHz Pentium III is a clear indication of the limits of the Pentium III architecture on the 0.18-micron process. It will be a while before we see the Pentium III able to compete with the Athlon on a clock speed basis.

"No longer holding onto a clock speed advantage, AMD's release of an Athlon clocked at 1.2GHz will most likely be the last Thunderbird introduction we see this year. But with a 200MHz clock speed advantage over the fastest Pentium III available, and still boasting a lower price than the lower clocked Pentium III, it has definitely been a good four months for the Thunderbird and an even better year for the Athlon platform as a whole."

Gamers Depot has had a good shufty at both chips. On the

Plus points are price/performance, it uses the same mobo as the Athlon, and it is actually shipping. And there are no minus points. In summary: "If you can pick this up for $120 street price, you will have the best, least expensive heart for a gaming PC ever. Get it - you won't be sorry."

On the Athlon its much the same story. Excellent price performance, it's the fastest x86 chip around, and it's shipping. On the negative side "performance increase is only incremental" and "the 1.1GHz Athlon is a better value".

Firing Squad is very impressed with the 1.2GHz Athlon. They like it cos its faster and the price is reasonable. "Sure, $500 is still more than many of you are willing to spend on a processor, but when you consider what you're getting, we actually think of it as a bargain." Read the rest of it

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Never has the world seen so much processing power for such a small price according to Dr Tom. He is on a quest for more superlatives. See what he's come up with

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admitted it got a bit shafted with the relase date change but has now got its Duron review up. Chris Tom says "I was able to overclock it to 1GHz stably. 1.1GHz will probably be attainable with a bit more cooling."

He also says: "As soon as the VIA KM133 is released then the Duron will become even more attractive as a low end solution. For the overclocker it already is the best value on the market. Superior performance, low cost, and high overclockability is a powerful combination." ®

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