Quote Originally Posted by BrowncoatGR View Post
While i dont think a 10% IPC for Phenom over Barcelona is reasonable these are not the same processors for different sockets. Barcelona is a HT2 cpu using up to DDR2 5300 registered memory whereas Phenom is a HT3 cpu using up to DDR2 8500, which gives Phenoma huge advantage in Memory bandwidth. Whether Phenom can use the increased memory bandwidth to get improved performance remains anyone's guess right now but id say it will at least give it a slight advantage clock for clock.
It's all a moot point for the desktop.

What can fully take up that memory bandwith NOW on a desktop app?

Nothing.

It isn't until you get to 4P systems in a server environment with HEAVY database transaction loads that you see any difference.

This is exactly why we see no performance gain going from Socket 939 (DDR1) to Socket AM2. The CPU core didn't change except for the memory controller. Bench identically clocked systems and you will see that all that extra memory bandwidth is going to waste.

It will be the same thing in Phenom w/ HT2 vs. HT3. This is pointless for desktop apps.