AMD's 4x4 to cost "around $1,000"
More details are beginning to appear about AMD's upcoming 4x4 dual-socket processor platform.
It's rumored that 4x4 will launch on November 14th, but so far this has not been confirmed. What was confirmed however by AMD's desktop marketing director Leslie Sobon last Friday is the following:
- The 4x4 launch will be a joint AMD/NVIDIA effort
- An entry-level 4x4 system will cost "about $1,000", so it's not going to be cheap
- 4x4 systems will be upgradable to quad-core processors expected to launch mid-2007
- AMD expects that more than 20 multi-threading games will be available in 2007
And now onto the speculation:
- 4x4 motherboards will be manufactured by Asus and feature an updated version of the Nforce 680i chipset
- 4x4 will debut with three processors:
- FX-70 (2.6GHz, 2MB L2 cache)
- FX-72 (2.8GHz, 2MB L2 cache)
- FX-74 (3.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache)
All are based on the 90nm Windsor core - The FX-76 (3.2GHz, 2MB L2 cache) will follow sometime during the second quarter of 2007
- Windows Vista Ultimate Edition will be required to take advantage of the dual-processor system
I have to admit that I'm not sold on 4x4. Software support for this kind of setup is scarce and the price is too high (I'd expected that an entry-level 4x4 would be about $850).
Currently 4x4 just seems like a good way for AMD to sell more hardware without offering much in the way of benefits. I still think that your money is best spent on an Intel's Core 2 Duo system, at least until software that supports the setup becomes available.