AMD Turion64 Processor Review

we’ve taken a closer look at the new Turion64 processor, AMD’s long-awaited competition to Intel’s Pentium-M for the mobile markets. The Turion64 is based on AMD’s 90nm "Lancaster" core, and boasts very impressive power consumption and heat production numbers, in addition to SSE-3 and 64-bit processing support. We test a few Turion64 chips against Intel’s Pentium-M and AMD’s own Athlon64 processor family to see if the Turion64 brand is worth all the hype.

..The Turion64 certainly delivers for the mobile arena, and will give finally AMD a viable candidate for the thin-and-light notebook market. Honestly though, I’m a bit under whelmed by the performance of our first generation Turion64 processors, especially in comparison to Intel’s latest generation Pentium-M chips. If AMD is able to push out another clock speed boost or two without pushing up power levels, they should be able to give Intel’s top Pentium-M chips a run for their money. Still, the prospect of an ultra-efficient 64-bit mobile platform is tempting, and I would have a hard choice on my hand if I had to choose between a similarly configured Turion64 or Pentium-M notebook platform. One thing is clear, the Turion64 is the most immediate threat Intel has ever seen to date to its dominance of the mobile market.