Socket AM2?

[BroadbandGamer]

Should I send it back and wait for sAM2?

Does anyone know when the new socket AM2 chips and boards are suppose to show up?

I think I may have jumped the gun.

How can I send the X2 4400+ back to newegg without getting hit with a 15% restock fee?

Thanks!

 

[RichUK]

lol .. dont bother keep the 4400+ and give it a slight OC, having a new socket generation doesn?t mean massive improvements if any, and i doubt you will see any improvements over the next year with regards to speed bumps according to current roadmaps.. not to mention the use of DDR2 which is going to be a performance hit for a little while, even with the increased BUS frequency of 333Mhz over the current 200Mhz.

 

[harobikes333]

lol there will always be new things coming out. Don't worry yourself to death

 

[Zebo]

Is AM2 having PCIe on-board? if not i say it's a waste of time to wait. You wait and watch.. DDR1 will beat DDR2 on AMD at normal timings like 2-2-2 DDR1 @ 200 vs 3-3-3 DDR2 @333. DDR2 only runs half it's rated speed inside which really means it's slower clock for clock than DDR which runs full speed inside outside.

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Is AM2 having PCIe on-board? if not i say it's a waste of time to wait. You wait and watch.. DDR1 will beat DDR2 on AMD at normal timings like 2-2-2 DDR1 @ 200 vs 3-3-3 DDR2 @333. DDR2 only runs half it's rated speed inside which really means it's slower clock for clock than DDR which runs full speed inside outside.

Yes that?s true DDR2 increases bandwidth by reducing the internal frequency of the IC?s and using 2 more I/O paths (or so to speak i can't remember the correct terminology) ?4 total? to each IC, where as DDR just has 2 per IC, so bandwidth is halved. This then allows the increase in the frequency of the I/O buffer which directly correlates with the external frequency ?The HTT?, The I/O buffer is the communication medium between the memory controller and the actual memory IC?s themselves. I presume this technology has come around as DDR kind of tops out at 250Mhz unless you have high yield IC's (TCCD for example), Also this technology has driven down the power requirement. However this bandwidth is still not needed yet.

For example: IC?s operate at 133Mhz x 4 I/O paths = 532Mhz (or DDR2 533)

So with DDR2 with say an operating frequency of 400Mhz (DDR2 400) the IC?s work at 100Mhz

So basically it is equivalent to the stated bandwidth, although works differently to DDR1. I have done a bit of research into this technology before, this is off the top of my head of what i can remember.


Also I believe I have read that the on die PCI-e controller will come around when DDR3 memory controllers appears on AMD?s processors, however true this maybe this would indicate another socket migration. Which could possibly mean this will not appear on the new AM2 platform, although this is just theory and AMD could have foresighted that this new technology will be implemented at a later date on the AM2 platform, who knows we will just have to wait and see.

 

[theMan]

yeah, integrated pci-e wont come until 2007 when ddr3 comes.

 

[the Chase]

I remember reading a rumor awhile back that the server socket- the one with 1207 pins-forget the nickname- will have the pci-e integrated on cpu but AM2 won't. I'm not sure if this is true or not but I'm waiting for that to happen on the desktop cpu/mobos before I switch platforms.(And probably wait for DDR3 also).

Edit- stick with the 4400(CORRECTED) for the time being- the new AM2 mobo's will need bugs worked out anyways and prices to come down,etc.

 

[DeathSlayer]

I am just wating for the AM2 socket so 939s go down in price

 

[Maximilian]

Since when did it become "AM2"? Wasent it just M2 a while ago? Besides, the new Intel chips are due out soon after M2's release, you might want to wait for those instead of sticking defiantly with AMD.

 

[CheesePoofs]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Since when did it become "AM2"? Wasent it just M2 a while ago? Besides, the new Intel chips are due out soon after M2's release, you might want to wait for those instead of sticking defiantly with AMD.

My thoughts exactly. Is AM2 the same as M2? If it is, don't even consider sending back your CPU and waiting. DDR2 will do little to improve performance.

 

[BroadbandGamer]

I think I'll just stick with the X2 4400+.

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[harobikes333]

No problem and have fun with that beast

 

[phaxmohdem]

The socket is in fact M2. Perhaps they are calling it "AM2" for AMD M2?? Who knows. The new sockets to be released are M2 (Consumer CPU's) and Socket F (Opteron Server/Workstation CPUS)

 

[Furen]

Socket F (LGA1207) will supposedly support FB-dimms and up to 32-way (32 sockets) configurations, so the pin count cannot be compared to socket AM2's directly. Hell, it'll probably have an increased amount of HT lines in order to make 32-way possible without huge performance drops.

Having a base HTT of 333 means nothing since I doubt the multiplier will remain at 5x (a 3x multiplier would leave it at exactly 1000MHz). Even if it does remain at 5x I doubt there will be any benefit from having a higher Hypertransport speed, since A64s are not even close to HT contrained (MP Opterons are, however).

Zebo, I truly don't see much of a benefit from having an integrated PCI-E bus unless a video card that need lots of memory accesses (like a craptastic turbo-cache one) is attached to it. If there was a sizable performance increase from dropping latency to the southbridge devices (like audio, drive controllers, network adapters, etc) then all of these things would have been thrown into the northbridge long ago. Even video cards don't seem to benefit much from having lower latency, since ULI's southbridge AGP 8x (on the 1695/1567) performs as well as some of the best northbridge-based AGP chipsets. If there IS a performance increase then great, but I dont see how it could happen. I truly hope that AMD doesn't start adding crap that does not contribute to performance simply to claim that it has more "features", especially considering that anything thrown into the CPU needs pins on the package.

 

[Griswold]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Since when did it become "AM2"? Wasent it just M2 a while ago? Besides, the new Intel chips are due out soon after M2's release, you might want to wait for those instead of sticking defiantly with AMD.

Rumor Mill said so

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Since when did it become "AM2"? Wasent it just M2 a while ago? Besides, the new Intel chips are due out soon after M2's release, you might want to wait for those instead of sticking defiantly with AMD.

I remember reading a few days ago about BMW having a fit with AMD's naming of the M2.. I guess there was conflicts, so AMD agreed to change the name

 

[jpetermann]

Originally posted by: phaxmohdem
The socket is in fact M2. Perhaps they are calling it "AM2" for AMD M2?? Who knows. The new sockets to be released are M2 (Consumer CPU's) and Socket F (Opteron Server/Workstation CPUS)

In fact, they renamed it last week... As seen all over the net.

 

[Griswold]

Originally posted by: jlbenedict

Originally posted by: Soviet
Since when did it become "AM2"? Wasent it just M2 a while ago? Besides, the new Intel chips are due out soon after M2's release, you might want to wait for those instead of sticking defiantly with AMD.

I remember reading a few days ago about BMW having a fit with AMD's naming of the M2.. I guess there was conflicts, so AMD agreed to change the name

Hmm I doubt there would have been a problem with BMW, since they got no M2 models. They have M3 and M5.

 

[Krogoth255]

Socket M2/AM2 will more then likely offer no real world performance advantage over Socket S939. FYI, single-channel DDR2-800@4-4-4-10 is just as fast as dual-channel DDR1-400@2-2-2-5. AMD is shifting to M2 in order to keep platform costs down, since the Memory Cartel is slowly abandoning their DDR1 production lines.

The only noteworth improvement that Socket M2/AM2 will feature is simply increasing the TPD rating. It does this by allowing larger HSF to be mounted. I gather this specuation from the leaked "Socket M2" pictures. It seems Socket M2/AM2 uses 4 mounting holes and requires greater clearance around the socket.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Krogoth255
Socket M2/AM2 will more then likely offer no real world performance advantage over Socket S939. FYI, single-channel DDR2-800@4-4-4-10 is just as fast as dual-channel DDR1-400@2-2-2-5. AMD is shifting to M2 in order to keep platform costs down, since the Memory Cartel is slowly abandoning their DDR1 productionlines.

The only noteworth improvement that Socket M2/AM2 will feature is simply increasing the TPD rating. It does this by allowing larger HSF to be mounted. I gather this specuation from the leaked "Socket M2" pictures. It seems Socket M2/AM2 uses 4 mounting holes and requires greater clearance around the socket.

Single Channel DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-10? Try Dual Channel at DDR2-800 @ 3-2-2, DDR2 has come a long way.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

I must disagree with the first two or three posts in this thread. since when is a next gen socket slower than the current S939? The talking about DDR2 vs DDR1 may be correct, but still its 100% for sure that AM2 will increase performance over S939.
I read at the Inq that they will bring a am2 x2 4200+ modell which will be clocked the same speed as the x2 3800+. So either AMD´s rating sucks or we can expect some improvements besides DDR2 so that the speed increase justifies the 400+ rating points in next gen CPUs.

 

[Krogoth255]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Krogoth255
Socket M2/AM2 will more then likely offer no real world performance advantage over Socket S939. FYI, single-channel DDR2-800@4-4-4-10 is just as fast as dual-channel DDR1-400@2-2-2-5. AMD is shifting to M2 in order to keep platform costs down, since the Memory Cartel is slowly abandoning their DDR1 productionlines.

The only noteworth improvement that Socket M2/AM2 will feature is simply increasing the TPD rating. It does this by allowing larger HSF to be mounted. I gather this specuation from the leaked "Socket M2" pictures. It seems Socket M2/AM2 uses 4 mounting holes and requires greater clearance around the socket.

Single Channel DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-10? Try Dual Channel at DDR2-800 @ 3-2-2, DDR2 has come a long way.

I thought Dual-channel DDR2 wasn't out for Intel side yet. I'm not sure if Socket M2/AM2 will offer dual-channel DDR2. In any case, dual-channel DDR2 would cream any DDR1 solution in terms of memory bandwidth. It is too bad that you still need pricy performance units to get decent latencies for DDR2.

 

[Furen]

Intel has had dual-channel DDR2 for a long time. A single DDR2-800 channel at 4-4-4 will give you the same theorethical bandwidth that two DDR400 at 2-2-2 but it will be much slower because of its latency.

 

[RichUK]

nm

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: BlingBlingArsch
I must disagree with the first two or three posts in this thread. since when is a next gen socket slower than the current S939? The talking about DDR2 vs DDR1 may be correct, but still its 100% for sure that AM2 will increase performance over S939.
I read at the Inq that they will bring a am2 x2 4200+ modell which will be clocked the same speed as the x2 3800+. So either AMD´s rating sucks or we can expect some improvements besides DDR2 so that the speed increase justifies the 400+ rating points in next gen CPUs.

Almost every time a new socket comes out it isn't substantially better, at least at first. Unless of course, faster models are only released only on the newer socket to kill the "old" socket quickly. The main reason for the socket change is that the IMC on the A64 will be redesigned to use DDR2. As such a chip would no longer work with DDR1 motherboards, it would be a bad idea to keep the same socket as it would cause confusion in the marketplace and maybe lead to damaged hardware as people would attempt to use their old chip in a new DDR2 board and vice versa. Just look at all the people griping about AMD changing to AM2 on these boards and you can see that they must not be getting it that you can't use a CPU with a Integrated DDR2 mem controller in a DDR1 motherboard, even if the pinout matched.