This article originally appeared on Hardware Central.

After initially projecting a June 2005 release date, AMD surprised a few by fast-tracking its Athlon 64 X2 dual-core desktop processor into a few vendors' and reviewers' hands in early May. This was obviously done to mute the effects of Intel's dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition release (itself well ahead of the mainstream Pentium D schedule) in April. This reclaim-the-spotlight move also shows the confidence AMD is exuding of late -- standing pat on its current CPU lineup, and sending out signals that Intel literally offers no competition to its Athlon 64 empire.

At this point in time, AMD deserves to crow a bit -- but actions speak louder than words, especially an X2 announcement a full month early. AMD also seems to have stolen another page from Intel's handbook, as X2 systems for actual consumers won't reach retailers for another month, with mass-market availability even further back.

The X2 Unveiled

As expected, the initial Athlon 64 X2 line includes four CPUs with clock speeds ranging from 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz. The overall design strategy seems to be a mixture of the current Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX architectures, with some models sporting 512K of Level 2 cache while others double this to 1MB. Keep in mind this is not aggregate cache, but a per-core figure, so we are really looking at 2x512K and 2x1MB configurations.

The X2 chips follow the standard AMD model-number format, including the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.4GHz/2x1MB), 4600+ (2.4GHz/2x512K), 4400+ (2.2GHz/2x1MB), and 4200+ (2.2GHz/2x512K). These are also 90-nanometer-process parts, so the transition from current 0.13-micron Athlon 64 models to Athlon 64 X2s should be pretty seamless in terms of power and cooling requirements.

With the Athlon 64 showing higher performance than a comparable Pentium 4, all things being equal, a doubled-up Athlon 64 X2 should continue the trend. Judging from early test results, it does, but -- as anticipated -- the differences are highly dependant on the software used. Single-threaded applications and games benefit little from the extra core, with the X2 performing more or less on par with a comparable single-core Athlon 64. In other cases, where multithreaded applications were present, the Athlon 64 X2 powered to victory.

None of this was a surprise, and for the most part, the extra core went unused on the performance side. Of course, desktop multitasking will be smoother, and in the all-important AMD-versus-Intel dual-core showdown, the Athlon 64 X2 proves to be the superior single-threaded games and application performer. This was pretty well a done deal right from the start, as a 3.2GHz dual-core Pentium D will not be a match for the 4600+ or 4800+ X2 models. In terms of multithreading performance, the Athlon 64 X2 once again comes out slightly ahead, although Intel does make it a closer race than expected on the multithreaded side.

Speaking of model numbers, do the X2's make sense? Although AMD would likely counter that the X2 represents a new line and new numbering scheme, customers looking at the new CPUs will almost certainly compare them to current AMD processors, where the 2.4GHz Athlon 64 4000+ tops the list. Despite their not-really-better performance with the majority of today's (single-threaded) software, the X2 model numbers jump from 4200+ to 4800+. This raises some ethical and technical questions, such as which real-world applications AMD used to determine the X2 numbers.

AMD Moves Upscale

So far we've covered the technical and performance side of the Athlon 64 X2 release, but price is also a very important consideration. AMD has historically presented itself as a more affordable alternative to the monolithic Intel machine, if not the only hope for fair pricing in the industry, but the company has taken the X2 line uptown and priced it into the stratosphere. Even stranger still is the fact that AMD seems to have assumed the price-gouging position while Intel is the one undercutting dual-core prices.

The estimated retail on an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.4GHz/2x1MB) will be a Pentium Extreme Edition-like $1,000 or more, which is more than double the price of the Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz/1MB) and almost triple that of an Athlon 64 3800+ (2.4GHz/512K). Other X2 models offer similar pricing disparities, although by the time we get down to the X2 4200+ it's merely double the cost of its closest half-brother, the Athlon 64 3500+. This is very different from Intel's Pentium D pricing model, which slates the 3.2GHz dual-core CPU at approximately $500 and the 2.8GHz part at under $250.

Still, on paper the Athlon 64 X2 release looks pretty good, offering performance and feature benefits in line with what we expected. Multithreading performance is excellent, and at 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz, single-threaded games and applications won't fall short of current speed records as they will with the Intel Pentium D.