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Before we start digging into the nitty-gritty of the performance we get from these new processors, let's take a peek at what is being made available, and at what price points. As we mentioned earlier, AMD is putting out a complete line of Socket AM2 processors - you might say one for every budget.

At the low end, we have the Semprons: They range in clock speed from 1.6 to 2.0 GHz, and come with either 128 KB or 256 KB of L2 cache. It's worth noting that the Semprons have a maximum power specification of 62W with some models being available in an energy-efficent 35W version.

The 62W processors have a Vcore of 1.35V-1.4V, and the Enhanced Efficiency parts have a 1.20V-1.25V Vcore, with a 103mm^2 die area and approximately 81.1M transistors.

In the mid-range, we have the new single-core Athlon 64 Socket AM2 parts. They range from 1.8 GHz to 2.4 GHz in clock speed, and all feature a 512 KB L2 cache. The power specification is now 62W for the Athlon 64s, with a low power 3500+ also being available with a 35W TDP.

The Athlon 64 62W processors have a Vcore of 1.35V-1.4V, and the Enhanced Efficiency parts have a 1.20V-1.25V Vcore, with a 103mm^2 die area and approximately 81.1M transistors. Looking at these specifications, it looks like the same physical die is used for single core Athlon 64s and Semprons, with different amounts of cache being made available to differentiate the products.

At the high end, we have the dual core parts, which now have a 89W TDP (except for the FX-62 and its 125W TDP) instead of 110W. Most X2s are also available with a 65W TDP, and the 3800 is also available with a low 35W TDP. The die size of these chips is approximately 183mm^2 die, containing about 153.8M transistors.

The FX-62 has a 125W TDP, meaning that it can draw a whopping 90.4 amps from a 1.35V-1.4V Vcore! The 227.4mm^2 die holds 227.4M transistors and the maximum case temperature it can operate in is 63 C.

Here's a handy chart of the TDP and Vcore for S939 and AM2 X2 processors:

And here are some comparison shots of the AM2 5000+ (left) and a Socket 939 Opteron (right):

That ought to be enough technical detail to satisfy most of you! Let's take a look at our test system, and then let's get on to the pretty graphs.