We were really impressed by Athlon 64 X2 performance, since we thought that only 3D rendering and other very CPU-intensive tasks would benefit from dual-core technology. However, this isn’t true. We could see an impressive performance gain by running daily applications.

It is true, however, that 3D rendering and video-related tasks will be the kind of application that will benefit more from dual-core technology, as our benchmarks has shown us.

The only problem we see for Athlon 64 X2 is its price. While Athlon 64 3800+ can be found listed between USD 284 and USD 385 on Shopping.com, Athlon 64 X2 4600+, which runs at the same clock rate, can be found between USD 547 and USD 665, the double. And you won’t get double the performance…

Athlon 64 FX-60 is a great product for the high-end enthusiast or gamer, however its price is really a pain: between USD 960 and USD 1,223. OUCH!

Unless you are a performance freak and have unlimited resources available, we would suggest you to hold on until the prices drop. While in our opinion dual-core technology will bring a true performance gain for the average user, its price is still too high for such performance increase. Since the tendency is that all mainstream CPUs will be dual-core in the near future, we suggest you to hold on until then.