AMD Quad FX debuts in Japanese four-GPU PC

AMD will today announce its Quad FX platform, formerly codenamed '4x4', it has been claimed. The technology is built out of Nvidia's nForce 680a SLI chipset and AMD's new Athlon 64 FX-70 series of dual-core processors.

According to a report on Japanese-language site PCWatch, there are the FX-70s: the FX-70, FX-72 and FX-74, clocked at 2.6GHz, 2.8GHz and 3.0GHz, respectively. All three are fabbed at 90nm and contain 2MB of L2 cache. Their on-board memory controllers support up to 800MHz DDR 2 unbuffered SDRAM, AMD presentation slides reveal.

As expected, they use AMD's workstation- and server-oriented 1,207-pin Socket F infrastructure. They are each rated to consume no more than 125W of power. AMD will brand the two-socket systems as Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) technology.

The report, which appears to have been based on a demo of Quad FX in Japan this morning, claims the three new Quad FX CPUs will be priced at $599, $799 and $999, respectively.

Adding weight to the claims, Japanese PC maker Faith today unveiled a PC it described as a Quad FX-ready system. The Inspire X FX744X4N/DVR Premium is based on the nForce 680i chipset, a pair of Athlon 64 FX-74s, Corsair heatsink-fitted memory modules and four Nvidia GeForce 7950GT graphics cards in Quad SLI mode.

The whole thing comes in at ¥ 798,000 ($6,869/£3,528/€5,222). ®

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