AM2 reviews tomorrow

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Soccerman06

Soccerman06

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Jul 29, 2004
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here

Westlake Village (CA) - 2006 is on track to become the most interesting year for the processor industry since the end of the Gigahertz race. With Intel prepping a new architecture and AMD set to defend its lead with its AM2 platform, customers should see a wave of innovation that goes well beyond clock speed. Tom's Hardware got a first impression of the capability of the AM2 platform.

In a seemingly effortless way, AMD has been able to counter virtually every single one of Intel's attempts to regain desktop performance leadership with its current product generation. The Athlon's architecture provided AMD everything it needed to achieve not only more performance and less heat dissipation, but also more credibility in new customer segments which increasingly soak up AMD's products, according to recent analyst reports.

While Intel will be answering later this year with its Merom/Conroe processors, AMD officially says that the introduction of its AM2 platform and DDR2 memory support in the second quarter of this year will be able to maintain its current lead. Unofficially, we know that AMD will launch six dual-core and two single-core AM2 processors on June 6 - later than initially expected but well in time for Intel's Conroe, which will be introduced in September. Tom's Hardware got its hands on a stable engineering sample of an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ for Socket AM2 and will publish benchmark results as first as a first impression of the new Socket and processors tomorrow.

However, it is clear that Socket AM2 is not just about performance, at least not until the arrival of DDR2-800 in the mainstream market. With current DDR2-667 memory, very little improvement should be expected as the integrated memory controller suffers from relaxed memory timings. It is rather performance-per-watt, which will determine the overall performance capability of most future processors.

According to our sources, AMD will be able to match Intel's 65 watt promise for mainstream desktop processors. While regular Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors are expected to stay in an 89 watt power envelope, there will be five low-power X2 models with a thermal design power of 65 watt as well. Even more impressive, AMD will drop the power consumption of the Athlon 64 3500+ and 3800+ single-core CPUs to 35 watts.

Be sure to check Tom's Hardware for first details and benchmark results of the AM2 Athlon 64 X2 4800+ engineering sample on Tuesday.
Click to expand...

Sorry its THG, but a AM2 review is still an AM2 review.
 
DasFox

DasFox

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
4,668
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Oh where's my mommy ahhhh :( I just bought a X2 3800+ 939 SLI rig, I'm not ready to upgrade just yet, LOL

Wait that article says:

Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX and Sempron will all use the AM2 socket.
Click to expand...

You mean the X2 3800+ I just bought I can use on a AM2 motherboard when they come out?

ALOHA
 
Soccerman06

Soccerman06

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2004
5,830
5
81
Originally posted by: DasFox
Oh where's my mommy ahhhh :( I just bought a X2 3800+ 939 SLI rig, I'm not ready to upgrade just yet, LOL

Wait that article says:

Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX and Sempron will all use the AM2 socket.
Click to expand...

You mean the X2 3800+ I just bought I can use on a AM2 motherboard when they come out?

ALOHA
Click to expand...

is that a serious question?
 
Googer

Googer

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
12,576
7
81
Originally posted by: DasFox
Oh where's my mommy ahhhh :( I just bought a X2 3800+ 939 SLI rig, I'm not ready to upgrade just yet, LOL

Wait that article says:

Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX and Sempron will all use the AM2 socket.
Click to expand...

You mean the X2 3800+ I just bought I can use on a AM2 motherboard when they come out?

ALOHA
Click to expand...

Probably not even though reverse compatabilty for DDR2 with DDR1 is part of the JEDEC Specifications.
 
S

Stas

Senior member
Dec 31, 2004
664
0
71
Originally posted by: Googer
Originally posted by: DasFox
Oh where's my mommy ahhhh :( I just bought a X2 3800+ 939 SLI rig, I'm not ready to upgrade just yet, LOL

Wait that article says:

Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX and Sempron will all use the AM2 socket.
Click to expand...

You mean the X2 3800+ I just bought I can use on a AM2 motherboard when they come out?

ALOHA
Click to expand...

Probably not even though reverse compatabilty for DDR2 with DDR1 is part of the JEDEC Specifications.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? :Q
 
DasFox

DasFox

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
4,668
46
91
Yeah it's serious, look I'd like to think I know everything but I don't, LOL, I thought the AM2 architecture was going to be different CPUs, so 939 socket AMD x64 chips are going to work on the AM2 socket motherboards?

THANKS
 
P

Polish3d

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2005
5,500
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Uhhhhh.... is it just me or does the performance per watt thing mean jackshit if the "actual" performance doesn't get higher?

I mean, I could care less if my next processor needs 50w or 100w, I just want it to be a lot faster than my current
 
biostud

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,973
7,070
136
Originally posted by: DasFox
Yeah it's serious, look I'd like to think I know everything but I don't, LOL, I thought the AM2 architecture was going to be different CPUs, so 939 socket AMD x64 chips are going to work on the AM2 socket motherboards?

THANKS
Click to expand...

No, they're not pin compatible and does not support DDR2.
 
biostud

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,973
7,070
136
Originally posted by: Frackal
Uhhhhh.... is it just me or does the performance per watt thing mean jackshit if the "actual" performance doesn't get higher?

I mean, I could care less if my next processor needs 50w or 100w, I just want it to be a lot faster than my current
Click to expand...

With less heat dissipation it will probably be easier to reach higher clockspeeds.

But less power consumption is probably a good thing for office environments and servers, and the power/noise concerned home user.
 
B

Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
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I love some bits of that article.

Other than water cooling and phase cooling who really cares about switching thier CPU heatsink when they uprgrade the CPU? For those who do have watercooling i doubt the extra money for the adapters or new waterblocks are going to be really soul destroying. I do like the implied increased maximum heatsink weight, the mount looks much, much, more stable than the 939 design, with a wider base that means there will be less worry with large heatsinks and the torque.

We can expect a small improvement in AM2 gaming performance over 939. The performance drop with 667 RAM in the sole gaming benchmark is rather small, and upping RAM speed from 333 to 400 results in a significant real world speed increase for 939, either way it will improve performance somewhat. Not to mention the higher clock speeds of the top end models.
 
T

theMan

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2005
4,386
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0
wait, so all this money intel invested into making more power consious chips, and they are still going to be beat by AMD?? I dont believe it!!
 
T

theMan

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2005
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Originally posted by: BlacKJesuS
Wut about those Socket 939 MBs that say they are compat. w/ AM2?
Click to expand...

where are these motherboards? are they dual socket or something?
 
B

BlacKJesuS

Banned
Jul 19, 2005
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StrangerGuy

StrangerGuy

Diamond Member
May 9, 2004
8,443
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Originally posted by: BlacKJesuS
Originally posted by: theman
Originally posted by: BlacKJesuS
Wut about those Socket 939 MBs that say they are compat. w/ AM2?
Click to expand...

where are these motherboards? are they dual socket or something?
Click to expand...



Heres one...there were more before::

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157087
1 x Future CPU Port (Supports CPU upgrade from AMD K8 939-Pin CPU to AM2 940-Pin CPU through AM2 CPU Board)
Click to expand...

We shall see if Asrock actually releases those AM2 expansion adapters in the future.
 
rise

rise

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2004
9,116
46
91
Originally posted by: biostud
But less power consumption is probably a good thing for office environments and servers, and the power/noise concerned home user.
Click to expand...
and us crunchers :p

 
Googer

Googer

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
12,576
7
81
Originally posted by: biostud
Originally posted by: DasFox
Yeah it's serious, look I'd like to think I know everything but I don't, LOL, I thought the AM2 architecture was going to be different CPUs, so 939 socket AMD x64 chips are going to work on the AM2 socket motherboards?

THANKS
Click to expand...

No, they're not pin compatible and does not support DDR2.
Click to expand...

Correct DDR2 is not pin Compatable with DDR1 but the JEDEC Spec does say that DDR2 Memory Controllers should be reverse compatable with DDR1. Intel Has chosen to virtually ignore this with the exception of the 915 Chipset. AMD Can win over a lot of fans should they decide to maintain reverse compatabilty like the many Socket A DDR systems would run PC133.
 
biostud

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,973
7,070
136
Originally posted by: Googer
Originally posted by: biostud
Originally posted by: DasFox
Yeah it's serious, look I'd like to think I know everything but I don't, LOL, I thought the AM2 architecture was going to be different CPUs, so 939 socket AMD x64 chips are going to work on the AM2 socket motherboards?

THANKS
Click to expand...

No, they're not pin compatible and does not support DDR2.
Click to expand...

Correct DDR2 is not pin Compatable with DDR1 but the JEDEC Spec does say that DDR2 Memory Controllers should be reverse compatable with DDR1. Intel Has chosen to virtually ignore this with the exception of the 915 Chipset. AMD Can win over a lot of fans should they decide to maintain reverse compatabilty like the many Socket A DDR systems would run PC133.
Click to expand...

actually I meant that s939 and AM2 are not pin compatible :p
But a mbaord with two DDR and two DDR2 slots might be a good idea, since most run two sticks only to maintain T1 timings.
 
F

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
5,957
7
81
The mobos would need DDR and DDR2 memory slots to be compatible with both, something I doubt you'll see.
Plus, maybe it would have required more work for AM2's memory controller to support DDR and DDR2, so AMD just streamlined things.
 
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