The various AMD 64 bit and 32 bit processors

review posted September 2003

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A layman's guide

We attempt to guide you through the muddle AMD has made of 64 bit processing, and help you decide what's right for you, if it will render your video any faster, or if it's all a Betamax in the waiting.

This is the current processor range from AMD:

For the Desktop (in reverse chronological order):

AMD Athlon 64 FX

AMD Athlon 64

AMD Athlon

AMD Duron

For the Mobile:

AMD Athlon 64

AMD Athlon XP-M

Mobile AMD Athlon 4

Mobile AMD Duron

For Workstations:

AMD Opteron for Workstations

AMD Athlon MP for Workstations

For Servers:

AMD Opteron for Servers

AMD Athlon MP for Servers

A Complete Mess

Congratulations to AMD for making the biggest alphabet soup designed to confuse buyers into paying more money for something they may or may not need. 64 bit processing has been around for a while of course, but restricted to high-end servers. This thrust to push 64 bit computing down to workstation and desktop level is good for where it's eventually going to take us, but it's a dog's breakfast as it is now.

Next: Make sense of 64 bit computing >>

Benchmarks of AMD vs Intel processors >>