More 333MHz details

Pricing and Availability

Officially AMD is charging the same price for its 266MHz Athlon XPs as it is for the 333MHz chips: $297. Keep in mind this figure represents the bulk price AMD is charging its customers, street prices for the Athlon XP 2600+ are actually a little bit lower than that -- $289 at the time this article was written.

This places it right in line with Intel’s official pricing. In comparison the Pentium 4 2.53GHz officially lists for $243 while the 2.66GHz chip officially sells for $305. Street prices for both chips however, are currently below that of AMD’s Athlon XP 2600+. We have a feeling this will probably change though as 2600+ chips hit the retail channel. Right now there are barely two pages worth of Athlon XP 2600+ CPUs (both 266MHz and 333MHz) so supplies of these chips are still limited. Once more retailers receive their 2600+ chips, price competition will really begin to set in and we’ll see the prices drop rapidly. At least that has been the case with AMD processors historically.


AMD has commenced shipments of both its 266MHz and 333MHz Athlon XP 2600+ CPUs, so availability on these processors will be better than the initial 2600+ launch. We can already find both chips online at Price Watch and with larger online retailers, so if you feel the need to upgrade after reading this article, finding a chip online shouldn’t be too difficult.

Spotting a 333MHz chip

Since they’re both utilizing the same model number, how do you differentiate between a 266MHz 2600+ and a 333MHz variant? One method would be to read the fine print for the clock speed. The 266MHz Athlon XP 2600+ runs at a clock speed of 2.13GHz (16x133) while the 333MHz XP 2600+ operates at 2.083GHz (12.5x166). Hopefully retailers will also clearly state the bus speed of the Athlon XP 2600+ chip you’re purchasing when you buy your processor.

If all else fails, you can physically look at its ordering part number – the label on the bottom of the chip. Specifically, you’ll want to look at the last letter on the first line of the part number. If the final letter is a “D” the chip sits on a 333MHz bus, 266MHz chips are denoted with the letter “C”. So our 266MHz chip reads: “AXDA2600DKV3C” while our 333MHz reads “AXDA2600DKV3D”.

D denotes 333MHz bus

Now that you’ve got the tools to identify one of these processors, lets see how they perform!