900MHz on a budget
AMD's latest Duron release to dwarf Intel's Celeron once and for all
AMD have finally released their latest budget processor, the long-awaited 900MHz Duron, and it packs quite a punch. Despite AMD's apparent inability to meet demand with its high-end Athlons, it looks like the supplies of its Duron line are acceptable, with the processor already showing on American "PriceWatch" websites. Here in the UK, Dabs.com is pricing it at £96 all in, compared to the £110 of its closest Intel rival, the 800MHz Celeron. The official press release quotes a figure of $129 each per 1000 units for bulk purchasers. Well, either for bulk purchasers or the creators of the most astonishing Beowulf cluster ever entertained. Shame nobody attempted that one yesterday. Quick off the bat with coverage as ever are boffins at AnandTech, whose gaming benchmarks indicate that the 900MHz Duron is nearly 15 frames per second ahead of its closest rival from Intel. In actual fact, the 600MHz Duron (no longer available) outpaces the 800MHz Celeron in Quake III Arena. The story is pretty much the same for the Unreal Tournament tests, too. Of course, overclockers have been enjoying the Duron's amazing headroom for quite some time now, and early reports indicate the Duron core used in these 900MHz processors is capable of numbers stretching toward 1GHz and beyond. With the release of the mobile Duron in the near future, things look bright for AMD. Related Feature - April's Marching Motherboards