The Inquirer has reported that Bartons are supposed to be “introduced” on February 7.
They are supposed to come in 2500+, 2700+ and 3000+ flavors.
A few cautionary points:
“Introduced” Doesn’t Mean “Available”: I’m sure they’ll have a dog-and-pony show saying how wonderful it is, but it’s more likely than not that sometime in March will be the arrival date.
Higher Numbers Doesn’t Mean More Speed AMD will tack on a couple hundred points to the old PR to account for the increased cache Barton will have (and its 166MHz FSB).
This is perfectly legitimate, but will create the anamoly of the 2500+ Barton actually running at a lower speed than the 2400+ TBred, leading no doubt to shock and denunciations from the conceptually challenged.
The Seven Per Cent Solution How much better will Barton be at a given speed than a TBred? Well, when the PIV went from 256K to 512K cache, the overall improvement was about 7%, a good deal more for some things, a good deal less for others.
Barton should show roughly the same level of improvement over TBred at the same speed. Overclockability is anybody’s guess, but I wouldn’t expect them to significantly more overclockable than current high-end TBreds.
The Price
Factoring in the expected Intel price cuts at the end of February (which will probably leave the 2.53GHz PIV costing around $190), the 2500+ Barton will likely debut at a price of $180-200, with the others cost a good deal more than that.
This will leave Bartons costing about $80-$100 more than TBreds.
Keep Waiting Or Not?
Depends on how antsy you are, doesn’t it?
It’s probably safe to say that if you won’t pay more than $100 for a CPU; you aren’t going to get a Barton 2500+ any time soon.
It’s conceivable we’ll see the equivalent of “J” Bartons at some point at lower price points, but then you’ll get what you paid for.
If the thought of waiting until spring or summer or longer for a cheap high-end Barton bothers you, start looking at the cheap high-end TBreds.
Otherwise, go back to sleep. 🙂
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