Hiya...I have been yacking up this rumor of an impending AMD Processor Price Drop...(I Sure Hope it comes to Fruition!)...I had actually *Been Told* quite a while back to expect this from someone whom I respect...http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2800Ever since that day..I kinda thought of jumping on the x2 band-wagon myself...Now that there's an idea of what the prices *May* look like...I am *Thinking* about either the 5000+(2.6ghz 512x2L2 Cache) vs the 4800+(2.4ghz 1mbx2L2 Cache)(Pending pricing of the 4800..If they havn't cancelled this one)...(I was actually hoping the FX-60/62's may be included in this also...ahh NO..)The 5000+ is half the price of the FX-60...I just can't go there...I've been doing too much of that lately..he he...I really need to be realistic this go around... ;) I have parts laying here to build with...I plan to pair it with a X1900XTX which I have...Now that the time draws nearer...I would love to hear from you folks with your expierence...Mean while..I suppose some review reading is in order..he heHurry Up July 24th.. :( Thanks..

Wouldn't the larger L2 cache be more effective in overall performance than the faster spped (5000+ compared to 4800+) ? Thanks- Bruce.

"Wouldn't the larger L2 cache be more effective in overallperformance than the faster spped (5000+ compared to 4800+) ?"Ahhh...See, That has always been my understanding too...However, shortly after I posted this message I began my reserch into the dual core arena...I had been kinda perplexed while looking at the proposed price list which I posted above...I wondered why AMD had not filled the 4800's price in...Then I noticed that was the case with all of the 1mb L2 Cache processors..No Price?? I assumed that they must still be "Thinking About It"...Hummm...I have also noticed while browsing newegg and the like, that processors are MIA from the usual line-up...Then last night I came across this!!http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/10175I was pretty shocked to read that...So I suppose that pretty much puts an end to our L2 Cache Theory?? :-hmmm Actually I'm not so sure that really puts an end to the theory or not...Why would they keep the High End Processors at 1mb?? I think this is pretty interesting...When/if I get some spare time...I'm gonna try to study this subject...Have Fun!!

Interesting- thanks. Too much of a good thing? :) Sounds like AMD are cheaping down their product, but can't eat it with the 1M*2 L2. I have an AMD 4800+ X2 (with the 1M*2 L2 cache) but have yet to install it, waiting on a decent motherboard to be delivered. I'll let you know- I was afraid that the article was pointing out a flaw in the design or something. :)Bruce.

Well yeah, heard the stories too. But you know what, being pro AMD aside. AMD has not let the general users down yet, notice how good AMDs do their job for us FS users (and other users too). So i guess if loosing the extra cache it will gain some performance somewhere else down the line. AMD seems sometimes to make some strange decisions like jumping from socket to socket etc.., but i dont think there stupid either, the cache reduce must have some valid reason other than cost saving. In the end will see how it all turns out. They always seemed to come with some nice surprices :)

>Well yeah, heard the stories too. But you know what, being>pro AMD aside. AMD has not let the general users down yet,>notice how good AMDs do their job for us FS users (and other>users too). So i guess if loosing the extra cache it will gain>some performance somewhere else down the line. AMD seems>sometimes to make some strange decisions like jumping from>socket to socket etc.., but i dont think there stupid either,>the cache reduce must have some valid reason other than cost>saving. In the end will see how it all turns out. They always>seemed to come with some nice surprices :) AMD has always had two pretty clear approachs to the cache... does it compete price point with comparible CPU's with a larger cache? If yes.. keep cache small (it is very expesive memory, comparitively), if no, does larger cache cost lest than cpu revamp and get the needed perf jump? If yes, make the larger cache available on the high end line. If no, up the cycles or revamp the tech...AMS also has to respond to the marketing preasures. When Intel begins to play "lets up the cache cuz we don't know how to get more perf from this CPU with out even more heat" game (like its doing now), then AMD has to respond as customers are, unfortunately, not always educated when they make their purchasing decisions.Remember, large (edit: L2) caches are useful only when you are dealing with massive amounts of memory transactions (EG large user databases and so on). For most of us in the real world the difference is trivial and really only shows up in benchmarks with any significance (esp. as cache hit accuaracy is ever increasing).CheersShad

I still think that the reason that Conroe (Core 2 duo) is fast is due to the cache. The AMD parts are still a more sophisticated and more elegant design.Regardless of what the reviews say, I have my real world doubts about Conroe. I still have not seen a review of an actual E6600 that is doing things relevant to me. OK, all things being equal, there is little value today to the super high end cpu's in gmaing. Apparantly, the GPU's bottleneck the systems. Now FS9 and X may be different, but nobody except simhq (John Reynolds) looks at that.We do know that Video memeory will benefit FSX, and it does benefit fs9- I just upgraded from a 128mb 9800PRO to a 256MB X800XL (yay me! LOL) and the performance change is huge- I thought I was constrained by texture swapping, but now I'm certain. I think that having even more Vramfor FSX will be a win. We just need to spend the cash for it.We still don't know what DX10 cards will bring other thatn being shader monsters (the X1900 is already well on this path) and that they'll run DX9 very well. I've not seen any nibble on configs for the market when they do begin to ship later ths Fall. I'll bet that there are 512MB parts planned, but will they be the super high end, mere mortals cannot afford this type of stuff parts?Show me performance flying into ATL with RL DAL, DALX and TRS at 100% during a push and we'll talk :) To me, that is the benchmark... If your PC handles that torture test well, WOW!Tim