Memory performance
Before we get to those line graphs I keep talking about, we'll start off with out usual set of synthetic memory benchmarks.

The FX-53 stomps everything in Sandra's memory bandwidth test, thanks to its integrated memory controller and twin channels of DDR400 RAM. Interestingly enough, the 200MHz clock speed increase from the FX-51 to the FX-53 improves Sandra scores a fair bit.

Cachemem isn't as aggressive at wringing the highest possible bandwidth numbers out of each CPU as Sandra is, and here the Pentium 4 Prescott, with its 1MB L2 cache and aggressive data prefetching logic, scores highest.

Linpack shows the FX-53's memory hierarchy in action, from the L1 cache through the L2 cache and into main memory. In every stage, the FX-53 looks very fast, although the P4 Extreme Edition's gargantuan 2MB L3 cache makes the FX-53 look tame by comparison.

The Athlon 64's onboard memory controller pays big benefits for memory access latencies, but the FX series is slower than the regular Athlon 64s, in part because of the latency penalty that comes with registered DIMMs. Nevertheless, the FX-53 is just a tad quicker than the FX-51, probably because its built-in memory controller is running 200MHz faster.

Let's examine this latency stuff with an additional dimension...