Ht3.0 bus frequence vs. HT1.0 question.

[geepondy]

How much of a performance hit will occur if I put a Phenon II CPU in my AM2 MB (verified compatible) and hence according to the Gigabyte website the bus speed will decrease from HT3.0 (5200 MT/S) to HT1 (2000 MT/S)? Is it worth considering?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Probably not a huge performance loss, unless you are using onboard video. HT is used for the system chipset communication. The actual CPU core performance is independent of the HT link, so it will be unaffected.

 

[MODEL3]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Probably not a huge performance loss, unless you are using onboard video. HT is used for the system chipset communication. The actual CPU core performance is independent of the HT link, so it will be unaffected.

This.

And a chipset like 785G/790G if you pair it with a Phenom II will probably be around 5-10% faster i suppose (667DDR3/533DDR2 vs 400DDR2) in some memory intensive aplications.

 

[chucky2]

I'm just a casual user, no gaming or encoding type of activities, and I noticed a definite improvement in system responsiveness when going from a 3600 X2 to a Phenom II X2 550 on my Gigabyte 690G board.

Absolutely worth it IMHO...

Chuck

 

[geepondy]

I have a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H with a Athlon X2 6000+ and a discreet video card. Gigabyte website says it will support a Phenom II X4 940. So the memory speed would not be affected, making that a viable upgrade with a noticeable performance improvement? Are there any performance comparison charts comparing a Phenom II in both a AM3 and AM2 mainboard?

 

[veri745]

Originally posted by: geepondy
How much of a performance hit will occur if I put a Phenon II CPU in my AM2 MB (verified compatible) and hence according to the Gigabyte website the bus speed will decrease from HT3.0 (5200 MT/S) to HT1 (2000 MT/S)? Is it worth considering?

Also good to note that most HT3 CPUs don't actually RUN at 5200MT/s, Most are 3600MT/s, and the better ones (e.g. Phenom II 955/965) are 4000MT/s.

 

[geepondy]

From the AMD Phenom II web page,

HyperTransport? Technology

* One 16-bit link at up to 4000MT/s
* Up to 8.0GB/s HyperTransport? I/O bandwidth; Up to 16GB/s in HyperTransport Generation 3.0 mode
* Up to 37GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth (HyperTransport bus + memory bus)
o Benefit: Quick access times to system I/O for better performance.

Does this affect the memory bandwidth? Also would my DDR2-800 memory slow down the Phenom II X4 940?

 

[alyarb]

no. memory plugs right into the CPU and the bus is unshared (hence "integrated" memory controller"). Hypertransport connects the system to PCI/PCIe etc. the lower speed HT will not affect memory bandwidth and it will not affect general purpose performance unless you have a 8 SSDs in RAID0 and a 5870 X2 clogging up your PCIe.

 

[IntelUser2000]

If you are using integrated graphics via AMD 785G/790GX, then it will matter, otherwise it won't matter.

For the IGP, the difference between Athlon X2 HT1.0 and Phenom 9600's faster HT has been shown to be average of 20-25% difference in most 3D apps and games. The lower HT link bandwidth with the Athlon X2 severely limits memory bandwidth to the IGP as all memory transactions have to go through the HT link.

http://www.amdzone.com/index.p...4850e-review?showall=1

 

[geepondy]

Well I'm using my trusty GE Force 9600 GT so I guess that won't be a problem.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Then of course its fine.