Venice? Clawhammer? WTF?

[justints]

What's the difference between the A64 Clawhammer and A64 Venice, on newegg.com they appear to the have the same specs?

 

[fishmahn]

Clawhammer and Venice are code-names for revisions of the A64 CPU. The clawhammer is one of the earliest versions and Venice is one of the newest revisions. Clawhammers are produced on the 130nm process, Venice on the 90nm process, and it has an improved memory controller.

If all other things are equal, buy the Venice. If the Clawhammer is the only core that fits what you're looking for, that one's fine too, its just an older version - at a given clock rate they will perform about the same. The venice should overclock better generally, but overclocking is a roll of the dice, so if you get a good Clawhammer and a bad Venice, then it wouldn't work that way.

Mike.

<font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>

 

[justints]

Thanks so much for clearing that up!