Its a new core for the Athlon XP. Take a look at the picture above, most of you will see very little difference in the appearance of the chip. However there is one very important difference in there. The die size is now smaller. Significant? definitely! The die size is smaller because AMD have moved over to the the 0.13 micron process. fitting all of the 37.5 million transistors on a smaller surface area.

Here we have a look at the the three latest CPU's from AMD. From left to right we have the Thoroughbred, then the Palomino and finally we have the Thunderbird.

The new core also gives out less heat than then palomino core, and a lot less than the older Thunderbirds. In comparison the T-Bred 2200+ (1.8Ghz) gives out just a little less heat than the palomino 1900+ (1.6Ghz). However I still wouldn't take any chances, these CPU's can still burn out easy, always go for a quality fan and attach the heatsink-fan to the CPU tightly, helping heat transfer with the use of thermal paste.

The performances of the palomino core Athlon XP and the Thoroughbred Athlon XP core are very similar. The main difference is the heat dissipation which can be as much as 22% at maximum performance.

* A very important note: AMD will not guarantee the Athlon XP Thoroughbred unless an approved cooler is used. *

You may be wondering why if the heat dissipation is less than the previous model. Well its down to the fact that the transistors are created using the .13 micron process. Because the transistor count is the same as the palomino core, the die size is smaller. This makes the total amount of heat to be dissipated per mm squared is a lot higher than before. AMD does not use any sort of heat spreading technology and hence the need for a specially approved cooler. They need to have a copper plate underneath for better heat transfer. Without the correct cooler the CPU could die a thermal death very quickly.

How do you know you are buying a Thoroughbred?

I can imagine that this is a big question for a lot of you looking to buy the Athlon XP Thoroughbred. Well firstly you can find a retailer that actually specifies that the chip is a Thoroughbred. If it doesn't you should be able to see the manufacturers part code. if you find this it can tell you a lot about the chip.

Voltage

AX1700DMT3C for example if this is the chip manufacturers code then the bold letter here represents the voltage this letter changes between L, U, K and M

L: 1.50V
U: 1.60V
K: 1.65V
M: 1.75V

All Palomino's are 1.75 voltage so you know that a "M" in the bold position means its a Palomino. The T-Bred A's are 1.5-1.65V the T-Bred B's are 1.6-1.65V

AX1700DMT3C the next letter (in bold here) represents the maximum temperature the CPU can go to, there are only 2 letters to choose from here.

T: 90C
V: 85C

Without this you can also look at the front of the code, most T-Breds have the code "AXDA"  at the front. However this does not tell you whether its a T-Bred A or a T-Bred B

(T-Bred B's appear to be of better quality and overclock better)

Overall there are not massive changes but enough for you to purchase this one over the palomino core version. I doubt there will be a price increase just a simple phase out of the palomino core. The lower voltage and better overclocking potential is a welcome change. look for big speeds from this chip

Take a look at the other Athlon reviews Athlon Thunderbird and Athlon XP Palomino

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