AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350: Mainstream X2s with 45W TDP
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 5, 2007 4:09 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Media Encoding Performance
We've moved to DivX 6.6 but our test settings remain the same. We use the codec in its unconstrained profile, using a quality present of 5 in 1-pass mode. Enhanced multithreading is enabled and we report encoding frame rate for our 1080p source file.
Our WME9 test remains the same as we've run it in the past; performance is reported in frames encoded per second:
We also looked at encode time using Windows Movie Maker, an application that comes with Windows Vista. We measured the time it took to encode content recorded off of Media Center into a format for posting on YouTube. Encode time was measured in seconds:
We conclude our look at Media Encoding performance with a simple conversion from a 304MB wav file to a 192kbps MP3 using iTunes. The conversion rate is reported in MB/s:
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Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Intel won't send us any of the lower end E series chips, but from my search it doesn't look like the E2160 is actually much of a value, it's barely cheaper than the cheapest E4300 and far more difficult to find at this point. All of this should hopefully change as availability increases, but for now the E4300 is the better buy.Take care,
Anand
Omega215D - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Newegg has them in stock along with the lower 2140. IMO I don't see any reason to buy them since they are only $20 - 30 less but have only 1MB cache while the E4300 has 2MB. I'm also pretty sure that when you overclock both of them the E4300 will definitely come out ahead.While I'm here, I currently have a Socket 939 PCIe mobo with a A64 3000 in there. I was thinking of upgrading to an Athlon 64 X2 3800 ($83) along with another 1GB of HyperX RAM ($91). With the upcoming processors from both teams coming out and DDR3 should do the upgrade listed above, upgrade to a Core 2 Duo for now or just wait for the next gen stuff?
Calin - Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - link
DDR3 won't come down fast in price - but for now, DDR2 is cheaper and faster than DDR.Depends on how much money you want to pay - for $200, a new processor and extra RAM would be the solution. If you want to pay more, and can get some money from the old configuration, maybe a cheap Core2Duo, overclocked, would be the better solution.
I don't know what price drops are in the future, but maybe a slow, 4MB cache Core2Duo (E6320) would be the best solution - depends on available supply
SilthDraeth - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
You show the new BE processor using more power than the x2 5000+ at idle.Should it be the other way around?
defter - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Yes, but because of lower voltage and not because of lower nominal clockspeed.Many people forget that when Cool&quiet is enabled, K8 CPUs will decrease their clockspeed to 1GHz. Thus, it doesn't matter much wherever the original speed was 3GHz or 2GHz, in both cases CPUs will be running at 1GHz while idling.
SilthDraeth - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
I understand that, but it was my understanding that the BE is running at a lower voltage than the 5000+. The older EE 35W is the lowest for AMD out of the three reviewed.