Socket 754 or 939?

[Pollock]

How much performance margin will there realistically be between socket 754 and 939? I'm trying to decide whether to go with 754 when 939 is released, because prices will fall a lot more, or to go with 939 with the knowledge that it's supposed to perform a bit better and also have the option of upgrading later on.

 

[myocardia]

If you're going to wait until the socket 939's are released, you will know then, assuming you read one of the many reviews of it. Right now, you're asking us to speculate, and alot of speculation goes on here, some of it even correct. But just remember that all you are gonna get for the next few months, to a question like that, is going to be speculation.

 

[Ronnie]

I would say wait, since you have waited this long you can wait another month or two. As for performance there is no telling, but the true reason to wait is for the future upgrading.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Ronnie
I would say wait, since you have waited this long you can wait another month or two. As for performance there is no telling, but the true reason to wait is for the future upgrading.

Tentative reports are saying sometime in June. But, with as many people as I've heard saying that they're going to upgrade when the socket 939's come out, it will likely be longer than that before they become easily attainable.

 

[Soulkeeper]

i would imagine atleast 5 to 20% increase in some things
many programs/games might just run the same speed
not sure if they reworked the chipset to make anything else faster in the nf3 tho

definately wait

 

[Sid59]

sure why not wait. in fact wait until the bugs are out of the mobos and such. perhaps end of the year?!

haha .. if you're itching to upgrade .. upgrade. personally, ill wait.

plus, you didn't mention your current rig and what you do with it.

 

[meson2000]

I always wonder why these types of questions get asked about AMD processors. All you have to do is just look at the performance rating. That is what it is there for. An A64 3400+ Socket 754 will offer very similar performance to an A64 3400+ Socket 939. The extra 512k of cache on the 754 will make up for the lack of a dual channel memory controller and the two processors will both have similar performance at the same performance rating. On the other hand, a 3700+ socket 939 will offer better performance than a 3400+ socket 754. AMD makes it real easy. You don't have to worry about compairing sockets, mhz, memory controller, cache, etc....just look at the rating.

 

[stardust]

I will be waiting, but I won't be waiting to purchase a 939. Rather, I'm waiting for the 939 to come out to give the 754 a price drop... I guess I spent too much money on my new water cooling kit..

 

[Shimmishim]

i say go with the socket 754....

it has the 1 meg of L2 cache and the 939 will only have 512 but...

i just got a 3000+ and have been running tests to compare how much difference the cache makes at stock and at 2.4 ghz.



i guess i should start a new thread

 

[lookouthere]

i think the AMD changed the rating for 939.....there will be 3500, 3800 A64 939 versions.....

 

[stardust]

Read xbit labs' new article about AMD... here

They explain the 939 and 754 difference.

In fact, the nomenclature of Socket 754 models shouldn?t change so we don?t publish it here. Socket 939 variants are also predictable: the frequencies grow by 200MHz, the models add 300+ points to their names. Note that processors for the Socket 939 have higher numbers than their Socket 754 counterparts (the frequency being equal, but Socket 754 CPUs having larger cache). Supposing that the increase of 300 points in the model number equals to 10% performance growth, we have that Socket 939 systems will be faster than their Socket 754 counterparts by 5%. These numbers are an approximation, of course. Note also that the L2 cache is 512KB for Socket 939 CPUs (the Newcastle core).

 

[Tom]

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