After seeing the pricing on these things, I feel the need to add a comment here to go along with my conclusion. Even with all the negativity surrounding the launch, I still think it's a good performer for multi-threaded applications
at its $245 MSRP. At the $280 price point they are selling for, no way would I recommend this CPU to anybody. Get the 2600K for a bit more or save some cash and get a 2500K to perform close to as well. This CPU is worth $25 more than the 2500K if you use multi-threaded applications, but it is definitely NOT worth $60 more.
For existing AMD users, if you already have a Thuban, don't bother upgrading unless you want a new toy. Even then, don't upgrade until the price comes down to where it should be.
I'm very disappointed in the current price point of these things. If it's the latest AND greatest, sure, crank the price up at launch...but if it's only the latest, you're just gouging suckers and early adopters. EarthDog does
bring up a good point though. While I can't recommend this CPU at $280, AMD is not the one gouging right now, the retailers are. I don't blame AMD for what their retailers are doing, nor do I think AMD themselves set the price too high. At the same time, that's what they're selling for and I can't recommend the CPU at that price point.
Once prices drop to MSRP (or, hey, lower would be even better!), all will be well and I'd recommend this CPU as stated in the conclusion to the article.
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I had promised folding results to Shelnutt2, but they couldn't make the review. So, they will be posted in the first post!
Regular SMP work unit - 13698.9ppd
Bigadv work unit - 13859.2ppd
So between 13,500 and 14,000 at stock, which is right where it's positioned - around the PPD of a 2500K. Based on power consumption compared to the fact that this performs right alongside the 2500K, no person that focuses on distributed computing should touch these with a ten foot pole (unless they have free electricity).