3200+ A64 vs. FX-53 Socket 939

[chazdraves]

Okay, so there's $600 difference, and I don't know enough about 'em to tell if it's worth it...

I know they got a higher L2 cache, which is great, but my old P4 Mobile 1.3GHz had a higher L2 cache than my A64 3200+ does... eh...

Anywho... is there anything that really makes that $600 reasonable? Is it purely for the switch to the new Socket 939 that makes it so appealing, because I don't remember those boards supporting PCI Express yet or any other enticements...

Thanks for the advice and inevitable flames on my lack of knowledge!

- Chaz

 

[alexXx]

the performance gain is not worth 600$, no. the 939 chips are overpriced also

 

[Mik3y]

btw, you cant compare numbers with amd and pentium spec wise. the size of cache have different effects on each cpu. but ya, its not really worth the performance increase since socket 939 is uber expensive.

 

[chazdraves]

I was hoping that was the case... it just didn't seem like that big a deal to me... Maybe if the new 939 motherboards came with PCI Express and supported DDR2/3, then maybe I'd get excited, but I'm glad to know that it really is more of a marketing thing than anything else...

BTW: Anyone know if they're still working on Windows XP 64? I'd really like a copy of that myself... Thanks for the info!

- Chaz

 

[Shimmishim]

windows released a beta 64 bit windows a while back which does work... however the driver support ain't too great for it...

as for the A64 3200+ 754... don't forget there are two... one with 512 kb L2 and 1024 kb L2

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Don't belive the DDR2 hype. The AMD new 90nm Athlon 64's will have SSE3 instructions and some more core enhancements not just a die shrink. The DDR2 wil have to get to 667 or 800 to begin to pull away from the DDR1 400 and AMD CPUS are not even starved for single channel PC3200. PCI-Express will be here soon for AMD and along with the new 90mn core revisions it should make a very interesting winter between Intel and AMD

The 90nm A64 is not a simple die shrink but features several enhancements, such as: (Courtesy of )

Site with information and Pictures and Benchmarks

* Full SSE3 implementation
* Improved hardware data prefetch mechanism
* Increased number of writing combine buffers (D0 stepping A64's
can now combine up to four non-cacheable streams compared to 2 o­n
the C0 and CG stepping A64's)
* Improved o­n-die memory controller with more advanced open page policy
* O­n-die thermal throttling
* Black Diamond Low-K technology (slower less power hungry transistors
in less used sections and faster and more power hungry transistors in
frequently used sections of the cpu)

Furthermore the new D0 A64s can convert LEA intructions into ADD instructions in certain situations wich can then be executed in a single clock cycle wich should also give a performence boost in some apps.

***Increased number of writing combine buffers (D0 stepping A64's
can now combine up to four non-cacheable streams compared to 2 o­n
the C0 and CG stepping A64's)

***Does anyone know if this is some kind of multiasking/encoding like tweak to close the gap with hyperthreading performance without actually having hyperthreading by increasing the amount of streaming memory applications that can access the cpu at once?

 

[chazdraves]

Wowzers! And I screwed up saying 3200+, I have the 3000+, musta been tired yesterday... Those 90nm look like a party... I'm just finally catching up again with all this stuff so I gotta ask, will the 90nm be all for Socket 939?

Crazy stuff!

- Chaz