AM2 now, AM2+ a bit later, AM3 next year?

[Heinrich]

I am currently at S939 at 2.4 GHZ. I just upgraded to 2GB to hold out a bit longer, perhaps I'll go ahead and go 8800GTX or 2900XT video for now.

 

[Skott]

2.4 is fine for now if you got a hankering to see what comes out later this year. More Intel chips and price cuts in August. Not sure what the roadmap is for AMD this fall. I heard server side get the new AMD chips in fall and desktop gets it in winter. But thats just the latest rumor I heard.

On the video card side of it that'll depend on how happy you are with your current video card. 2.4 is plenty for the 8800GTS (640 version). 2.6 is the minimum to fully run the 8800GTX supposedly. You are at the borderline with 2.4. You could go either way really. If it were me I'd probably wait on the chip side but maybe get the 8800GTS if I wasnt happy with game performance.

 

[wildguy2k]

I spent some time searching around this weekend & wasn't able to find much of anything save for the announcement that Biostar's got a board ready. The board's already on sale @ Newegg as well. Anyone else find anything more on the subject?

I'd like to upgrade my S939 system soon'ish using an AM2+ board & get a cheap AM2 CPU; then upgrade to a Phenom once they arrive. I don't think I could seriously consider the Biostar for the backbone of my upgrade, though...

 

[f4phantom2500]

i already have an am2 board, and depending on how the new chips perform i might snag a cheapie (my 2.85ghz brisbane 3600 is good enough for now lol).

basically man, am2+ chips will be compatible in am2 motherboard, and i also believe that am3 chips will be compatible in am2+ boards and am2 boards as well. if i'm wrong i'm sure someone will correct me, but that's my understanding, if i remember what i read correctly lol. using an am2+ chip in an am2 board will lose you like 5% mainly because of the way the am2+ boards will distribute power, but using an am2 chip in an am2+ board won't get you any benefits over an am2 board since the processors don't support the new features. the faster ht link will be pretty much useless for most desktop applications, as even the current 2ghz bandwidth isn't even nearly being touched.

 

[wildguy2k]

The more (less?) I hear about AM2+ boards, the more I'm feeling I may just have to wait for the holidays to upgrade. I know that I read about the backwards compatibility of the chips, but it just seems counter-productive to me to buy an AM2 board right now... I guess I was hoping that the arrival of that Biostar board would be the beginning of a trend...

A related question, then, if AM2+ a. won't be out for some time, & b. doesn't really provide that much of a performance increase, then what's the point? What gap is it that AM2+ is meant to fill?

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: wildguy2k
The more (less?) I hear about AM2+ boards, the more I'm feeling I may just have to wait for the holidays to upgrade. I know that I read about the backwards compatibility of the chips, but it just seems counter-productive to me to buy an AM2 board right now... I guess I was hoping that the arrival of that Biostar board would be the beginning of a trend...

A related question, then, if AM2+ a. won't be out for some time, & b. doesn't really provide that much of a performance increase, then what's the point? What gap is it that AM2+ is meant to fill?

IIRC, am2+ is just a native phenom/agena board, kind of like p35 is for penryn. My understanding is that current gen am2 boards will work with phenom/agena but will require some serious bios work. am2+ is unique from am3 only in that it is ddr2 vs ddr3 for am3.

 

[tomatom]

Next year = AM3 + DDR3 + AMD 790 Chipset + DX10 .

Promise of ~SOLID~ HDMI @ 1080P with

Blue + HD DVDs + drives .

< should be able to reuse your AMD X2-anything >

 

[wildguy2k]

Again, I understand the backwards compatibility, & what AM2+ should bring to the table, but the questions remain:

A related question, then, if AM2+ a. won't be out for some time, & b. doesn't really provide that much of a performance increase, then what's the point? What gap is it that AM2+ is meant to fill?

Holding back rolling out AM2+ boards really questions the validity of the sku at all, imo...