So are the Newcastle or the Clawhammers better?

[RLiu818]

Since the Newcastle and the Clawhammer are now both available for the 3200+ at newegg I was wondering which one is better.

Both are the same price.

 

[OC Detective]

Better at what specifically? Overall (variety of benchmarks) at stock they are similar hence the same rating.

 

[CandymanCan]

Clawhammer, is a little bit better because it has 1mb L2 cache.

 

[kulki]

Also claw Hammers are supposed to scale much better as you Over Clock

 

[hooah]

Clawhammer is 2.0Ghz 1MB CACHE, newcastle is 2.2Ghz 512KB CACHE. So i'm going with clawhammer when I get my 3200+ wed or thursday paired with a MSI K8N i'm looking for 2.5Ghz

 

[gamer004]

It really depends on what specific task you would do with that processor.

 

[seamadan000]

do they overclock simialarly or does one core consistently get higher Ghz, and if the newcastle gets higher, does the extra Mhz overcome the L2 deficiency?

 

[RLiu818]

I use my computer for just basic stuff like word processing and web browsing and some videos and music.

 

[dumbfish]

i use mine for adult videos making and watching

 

[CandymanCan]

lol

 

[Silent Buddha]

i use mine for adult videos making and watching

yeah ok whatever man...if you have nothing good to say, then don't

Similarly rated ClawHammers and Newcastles should perform the same. For example, a 3200+ ClawHammer and 3200+ Newcastle will perform similar because although the ClawHammer has 512KB more L2 cache, the Newcastle has 200Mhz more clockspeed.

See how they scale...there are some comparisons in these XR threads:
http://www.xtremeresources.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31884
http://www.xtremeresources.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32300&page=1&pp=20

 

[Captain Newbie]

I use my computer for just basic stuff like word processing and web browsing and some videos and music.

Then you really have no use for an Athlon64 right now; a cheaper XP (or XPM if you feel ambitious) will do you just fine and not dent the wallet so much.

 

[RLiu818]

Then you really have no use for an Athlon64 right now; a cheaper XP (or XPM if you feel ambitious) will do you just fine and not dent the wallet so much.

well i still want an A64. The extra cost is of no concern to me.

My older system was a 1600+ xp and my sister took that one to college which is why i am building a new system now.

 

[NiTrO bOiE]

It's really up to you. The comparision that have been done, show that there's isn't a great leap (100 3dmarks in 01), and I bet you probably couldnt even tell the difference. Price isn't a matter either, the chips are the same price at newegg.

 

[Gautam]

The leap is about 900 marks with a high end system. The difference can be quantified to about 125-150MHz. I'd prefer a Clawhammer if you have the choice.

 

[OC Detective]

If we are talking about overclocking then it is down to whether the Newcastle can overclock 2-3% more than the Clawhammer to make up for the loss in performance (in a suite of gaming stats) on the cache. As time goes on and AMD improves down the experience curve in making Newcastles and the Clawhammers gradually being phased out in desktops (hence a greater percentage of Newcastle being made), the likelihood is the Newcastles will overclock better. Most indications seems to suggest that the Newcastle already overclocks better than the Clawhammer.

 

[hitechjb1]

At this time, we don't have enough data points to tell how much in Mz difference between a CG ClawHammer and a CG NewCastle of about the same time frame when clocked to maximally stably, using similar cooling setup.

These links outlined and discussed how to compare the two:

How to compare ClawHammer and NewCastle

Performance analysis of various A64 systems

I still like the 754 1 MB L2 ClawHammer better if having a choice between the a CG ClawHammer and a CG NewCastle, until it is proven that a CG NewCastle can be clocked higher by 150 MHz better using the same cooling at 2.5 GHz level.

 

[Gautam]

Most indications suggest that it overclocks 50-100MHz higher, not 150MHz higher. Of course the NC's will end up scaling higher. But AMD is only adopting them for higher yields and to distinguish the normal A64's from the FX'es. Cache has it's own advantages that can't be gained by MHz.

 

[OC Detective]

conversely MHz has its own advantages that cant be gained by cache.... lol

 

[Gautam]

MHz is becoming completely useless. Can anyone honestly notice a difference between 2GHz and 2.5GHz, because I sure can't. I only overclock my proc for recreation; there's no logical point in doing so. Then again, I can't say that I'd actually notice a difference if I lost half my cache, either, although people seem to claim that they can. Currently, though, the Newcastles don't seem to overclock a signifcant amount above the Clawhammers, so there isn't much point in getting one.