The year 2006 is going to be an important one for dual-core processors. It's quite apparent that the AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 is one heck of a processor. In a lot of scenarios the FX-57 will still beat it though. So if you are asking yourself what to buy ... well I would recommend the Dual-Core FX-60 for sure for this very simple reason. This CPU is only showing like 70% of it's real potential at the moment. Most software applications are not optimized at all for Dual-core technology and that's the limiting factor in these decisive results.

Therefore think of dual-core technology as an investment in the future. In the months to come pretty much all new software will make darn sure it's dual-core ready and that's the moment where single core processors will get hurt a lot. Multi-threaded applications will grow quickly and constantly. In respect to gaming, both ATI and NVIDIA are working really hard on dual-core improvements for their driver software so some nice performance increases will become visible in that area also.

I really do respect this processor, it's so fast with everything. I mean, even working on the Windows desktop when you click something you'll hear a little resistance from the HD shouting hold up hold up, I can't go any faster man! You click and it's there. That simply goes for anything. Encoding MP3 music, playing games, multimedia playback, MS Office, there is not one thing even remotely bad regarding this CPU. For the tweakers among you, hey the multiplier is unlocked.

A valid question is "should you buy it" at this time-frame. The FX-60 is socket 939, and this will be supported by AMD we believe until mid 2007, and that's not bad. However, by May 15th, 2006 we should see the new Socket M2 motherboards (which are not 939 compatible and will use DDR2 memory).  So laying down a grand in the PC a shop for the FX-60 seems something you really need to think about when it will soon be replaced by a new socket design.

Other then this, there's nothing really negative to say about this product other then the price tag which is 1000 EURO/USD easily. You might have to sell a kidney to afford it. AMD made a good decision to move the FX series towards dual-core. Most of our benchmark that are not at all dual-core optimized this processor shows of it's magic and show how close performance is to that mighty FX-57 processor. Once a the software actually can use that second core it'll leave the FX-57 way behind.

The AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 is top of the crop as I must say that this is one of the most screaming fast processors out there.

BTW look at the prices above, PageComputer is selling the CPU for 967 USD already :)