AMD Opteron 144, Athlon 64 3200, Athlon XP 3200+ 400FSB

[sickcamry]

Anandtech's Opteron 144 + nForce3 review shows that this processor is a gaming powerhouse when overclocked. I'm in the market for a new processor to replace my Athlon XP 1700. How does the Opteron 144 fare against the XP 3200+ 400FSB, and more importantly the Athlon 64 3200? Also, does the Opteron 144 w/ nForce3 motherboard support dual channel DDR? Thanks.

 

[myocardia]

No 100 series Opteron supports dual channel. As a matter of fact, only the newest 200 series procs support it, according to the review I read the other day (the one that anandtech either did themselves, or had a link to). Hah, as a matter of fact, you might try rereading the same article you're quoting, because I think that might have been the one!

 

[sickcamry]

Originally posted by: myocardia
No 100 series Opteron supports dual channel.

I got this from www.tech-report.com

"I will, however, mention that we've tested the Opteron 146 with dual channels of DDR400 memory, upping the ante from the DDR333 speeds we used for our previous article. Registered DDR400 memory ain't easy to come by, but we managed to snag some for use with the 146. The move to 400MHz memory ought to put the Opteron 146 at rough parity, memory-wise, with our Pentium 4 3.2GHz test system, which also has dual-channel DDR400 memory. "

http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q3/opteron-146/index.x?pg=1

 

[sickcamry]

double post...

 

[myocardia]

Okay, my memory is horrible. I guess that the article that I read said that the 144 & the 244 didn't support dual-channel mode. BTW, you didn't really want a 1.4 Ghz processor, did you? The better ones aren't really that much more expensive (you know AMD).

 

[lookouthere]

1xx series opteron is just Athlon64-FX. In fact, the Athlon64-FX is just rebadged.....some say it.....don't know.
Actually, in better term, it does not support dual support. But it use 128bit, instead of 2x64bit....i think......not sure about....i think i read it somewhere

 

[Goatsan]

i would honestly wait till the 939 pin amd chips come out, so you wont have to uprgrade your mobo as much. just get the amd 2500 for the time being and oc it to a 3200

 

[lexxmac]

I know for a fact that the Athlon FX and all of the Opterons use dual channel memory. The entire selling point of the Athlon FX, besides the extra clock speed, is the dual channel support. And actually you're all wrong, both chips use a 144 bit memory interface which is 2-64 bit channels with and extra 8 bits on each channel for ECC. And just so you know, the socket 939 chips, when they come out, are going to be dual channel, but they will use non-ECC (true 128 bit) ram which is much cheaper and easier to find.

 

[NFactor]

Myocardia - all Opterons have duel channel memory controlers. Only the Athlon 64 in the AMD64 chips dont.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: NFactor
Myocardia - all Opterons have duel channel memory controlers. Only the Athlon 64 in the AMD64 chips dont.

Does that mean the memory channels fight eachother?

 

[myocardia]

Okay, it seems that I was sorely misinformed about the Opteron. Not only do they all support dual-channel memory, they seriously kick A$$ for gaming. I've changed my mind, now I want to build an Opteron-based system. 64-bit is a little too far off, anyway. I'm sure I'll build 2 or 3 more systems before it becomes "normal". Too bad they didn't give it a better name, like the "Athlon That All Other Athlons Wish They Could Be"!

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Okay, it seems that I was sorely misinformed about the Opteron. Not only do they all support dual-channel memory, they seriously kick A$$ for gaming. I've changed my mind, now I want to build an Opteron-based system. 64-bit is a little too far off, anyway. I'm sure I'll build 2 or 3 more systems before it becomes "normal". Too bad they didn't give it a better name, like the "Athlon That All Other Athlons Wish They Could Be"!

You'd be better off buying the Athlon FX since it doesn't go through the extensive testing the Opteron goes through, yet it's almost identical to the Opteron. The Athlon FX does have one advantage... it supposed DDR400, Opteron only supports DDR333.

 

[Pistolero]

There's an interview on firingsquad.com with an AMD Public Relations guy that led me to believe that even when the socket 939 chips come out, the FX will still be a very expensive chip. However, there would be savings on the motherboard and the memory. I am actually thinking about getting the opteron 144 now... however, the motherboards for the opteron start at $200, and on top of that...memory is gonna run about $200-250 for 512 MB, and $400 and up for 1 GB (talking high-q 3200 stuff). One reason to hold off on the opteron right now though is the fact that there are also some better performing chipsets coming up very soon from SiS and Nvidia hopefully in a month or so time.

 

[mechBgon]

Just an FYI: you can get Corsair XMS Registered ECC low-latency modules for a little less than that. Here's the TwinX pack of two 512MB modules, currently $295. It's not the greatest investment since it isn't going to be easy to re-use later, but whatever. Can't wait to see the 939-pin stuff start arriving...