We were really impressed by the Athlon FX-57 performance. It is a very good high-end CPU. On CPU-intensive games, Athlon 64 FX-57 is the best single-core CPU available on the market today. But we have to keep in mind that we haven’t got a 3.6 GHz Pentium 4 to include on our benchmarking.

For overclockers, this CPU is a dream, since it has its clock multiplier unlocked.

The only problem with Athlon 64 FX-57, however, is its price. Costing USD 1,138 in the US, on average, it is not a lot more expensive than Athlon 64 FX-55 (around USD 915), but comparing it to Athlon 64 4000+, which costs almost half the price (USD 586, on average), makes us think who is going to buy a CPU like this.

For the hardcore gamer, Athlon 64 4000+ will deliver the best cost/benefit ratio, but if you want to build the ultimate gaming machine and money isn’t an issue, you should go for an Athlon 64 FX-57 with a GeForce 7800 GTX.

We also have to mention that AMD has done a terrific job launching socket 939; that was the ace up AMD’s sleeve needed to compete with Intel on the high-end computer market.