AM2 Athlon 64 Stepping

[OBCT]

Has anyone used an Athlon 64 on AM2? I'll be getting one within a month, and I'm wondering how good the current generation overclocks. They probably aren't quite the awesomeness of E4's, but are they good enough to do the job, or should I wait for another stepping?

While I'm on the topic, does anyone know of a good site that lists the processor stepping with its products?

 

[keeleysam]

If you're buying in a month, you should be buying Conroe.

 

[akshayt]

Conroe. 2 no ways about it

 

[DidlySquat]

why would anyone buy AM2 ? it's SLOWER than S939 and more EXPENSIVE. Only reason I could think of is if you already have DDR2 that you can use, so you save because of not having to buy memory for the AM2. But that means your DDR2 is the old kind, which can't do DDR2-800 so it will be MUCH SLOWER than a good S939/DDR400 machine like mine. The Nvidia chipsets are THE SAME : nForce4, NF4 Ultra, NF4 SLI, NF4 SLI X16 are EXACTLY the same as the 5xx series chips. They only added a few useless LAN features (these are useless because they are buggy and end up increasing the CPU load, just like the built in firewall in nForce4). Bottom line is nForce4 + S939 + DDR400 is better/cheaper than AM2. And Conroe is better/more powerful than AM2. So AM2 is a lose/lose proposition.

 

[OBCT]

Originally posted by: DidlySquat
why would anyone buy AM2 ? it's SLOWER than S939 and more EXPENSIVE. Only reason I could think of is if you already have DDR2 that you can use, so you save because of not having to buy memory for the AM2. But that means your DDR2 is the old kind, which can't do DDR2-800 so it will be MUCH SLOWER than a good S939/DDR400 machine like mine. The Nvidia chipsets are THE SAME : nForce4, NF4 Ultra, NF4 SLI, NF4 SLI X16 are EXACTLY the same as the 5xx series chips. They only added a few useless LAN features (these are useless because they are buggy and end up increasing the CPU load, just like the built in firewall in nForce4). Bottom line is nForce4 + S939 + DDR400 is better/cheaper than AM2. And Conroe is better/more powerful than AM2. So AM2 is a lose/lose proposition.

THANK you for using RANDOM bits of CAPS LOCK in you post.

AM2 is actually slightly faster than 939, proven by Anandtech themselves.

And when did I ever mention getting an nVidia chipset? I'm not a moron - I know what the nForce 500 series offers, and I'm staying away from it. ATI's new NB/SB combo looks promising though.

As for Conroe being faster, I'm not going to argue the truth, but I've decided to stick with AMD.

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

And it will be significantly cheaper on the 24th

 

[OBCT]

Yeah, I'm thinking about waiting until then to cash in on the price drops.

 

[996GT2]

I have an AM2 3500+, very good overclocker. My stepping is LBBVF 0617 TPAW I believe.

I can do 2.9 GHz on stock voltage (boots windows but not quite stable) and 3.2+ GHz given 1.5 V. I am currently at 2.75 GHz on stock voltage.

My SuperPi time is 34 seconds at 2.65 GHz and about 32 seconds at 2.75 GHz. Yes, the time is a little bit slow, but my RAM is currently underclocked at 600 MHz due to lack of memory dividers on my very new mobo. With DDR2-800, AM2 has a bit of a performance lead over S939.

 

[OBCT]

Do you have a link to it? Newegg doesn't list stepping (unless you can decipher the Model#).

 

[996GT2]

I got mine from newegg so I did not know what I was getting (Newegg messed up and sent me a Sempron 3500+ at first ), but most of the AM2 Athlon 64s seem to be good overclockers. I guess I just got an extremely good chip. Btw most of the A64 chips are going to be LBBVF, and for AM2 they will have manufacture dates after 2006. So their steppings should be LBBVF 06XX XXXX. The last 4 characters do not matter as much.

If you really want to know steppings you can buy from Tankguys; they charge a bit more, but I've heard they have great service.