The new AMD CPUs with the E3 core are looking pretty sweet. With this news comes the reality that the Athlon 64 program is coming to a close here very soon. It was fun, but it is time for AMD to keep pushing forward.

Today AMD starts shipping its Athlon 64 processors on new E3 core revision also known under the codename Venice. This core brings into Athlon 64 processors such new features as SSE3 instructions support and higher core frequency potential. Read our new review of one of these new processors for more details!

The transition of the enthusiasts’ favorite Athlon 64 processors to the new cores manufactured with 90nm production technology started over half a year ago. The 90nm K8 Winchester core is now widely used in Socket 939 Athlon 64 processors with the 3000+, 3200+ and 3500+ performance ratings, and in Socket 745 Sempron processor family. However, Winchester didn’t manage to completely oust the 130nm cores from the previous generation Athlon 64 processors. [Read the rest]