Difference between Athlon 64

[Jeffrey Schwartz]

I'm looking for a simple or not so simple explanation on the
differences between the two CPU's. What I'm looking to build is
probably closer to a server then a desktop machine. One of the main
things I'm trying to do is to keep from buying a system that I will
not be able to upgrade in the future.

I understand that AMD is planning on changing the pins on the next
generation of the Athlon 64, is that the same with the Opteron?

I'm trying to figure out which way to go so that in 1 year or so I
could upgrade my CSU without having to change everything else, ie
memory & mboard.

I know that the info is probably available somewhere but I haven't
been able to find it.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Wes Newell]

I'm looking for a simple or not so simple explanation on the
differences between the two CPU's. What I'm looking to build is
probably closer to a server then a desktop machine. One of the main
things I'm trying to do is to keep from buying a system that I will
not be able to upgrade in the future.

I understand that AMD is planning on changing the pins on the next
generation of the Athlon 64, is that the same with the Opteron?

IFAIK, the Opteron will remain 940 pin.

I'm trying to figure out which way to go so that in 1 year or so I
could upgrade my CSU without having to change everything else, ie
memory & mboard.

Any 64 MB you will buy today will be upgradable for at least a year,
socket 754, 940, or 939 when they come out. As for memory, that depends on
what you buy now. I'd suggest some faster than PC3200. I'm using the
PC3700 ram I had in my XP system.

I know that the info is probably available somewhere but I haven't been
able to find it.

www.amd.com

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

I'm looking for a simple or not so simple explanation on the
differences between the two CPU's. What I'm looking to build is
probably closer to a server then a desktop machine. One of the main
things I'm trying to do is to keep from buying a system that I will
not be able to upgrade in the future.

I understand that AMD is planning on changing the pins on the next
generation of the Athlon 64, is that the same with the Opteron?

I'm trying to figure out which way to go so that in 1 year or so I
could upgrade my CSU without having to change everything else, ie
memory & mboard.

I know that the info is probably available somewhere but I haven't
been able to find it.

Thanks

Jeff

The Athlon64FX is the same thing as the Opteron 1xx, it comes in the 940
pin package. The Athlon64 is in the 754 pin package and has only one
memory channel. The new 939 pin part will have two channels like the
Opteron but it will be able to use unbuffered memory, don't know if it
will also support registered DIMMs. It will also support Cool and Quiet
like the 754 Athlon 64 (the Opteron's don't, at least not yet). The
first 939 pin parts will have only 512K of cache vs 1M on the current
754 pin parts and the Opterons. Future 939 pin parts will have 1M of
cache, don't know how much the Opterons will have at that time, I'd
guess 2M but that's only a guess. The Opterons are going to remain in the
940 pin package, going forward the desktop products are going to be in the
939 pin package. It's not clear if the 754 pin part will survive, it would
make marketing sense to keep them around as a 64 bit Duron but who knows
what AMD is thinking. AMD has dual core processors in the works that are
going to drop into the 940 sockets, they haven't said if they will offer
them in the 939 pin sockets.

Things will be clearer in 2 or 3 weeks when the 939s are officially
announced.

 

[Lee Benningfield]

It's not clear if the 754 pin part will survive, it would
make marketing sense to keep them around as a 64 bit Duron but who knows
what AMD is thinking.

my question is (not that anyone knows) will the socket 754 chip go past
the 3400+ that it's at currently? i have a 2800+ now, and i plan on
upgrading it in 6 months to a year, and it would be great if there were
a faster chip than the 3400+ by then...

 

[Wayne]

The 754 socket will be around for a while. As you can see, they are working
on faster chips for this socket.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1947

 

[Wayne]

I should have read the page before I sent it. LOL Ok, who knows if they are
going past 3700+ ??? I hope so, as I just purchased a 754mobo with Nforce3
250 chipset. (these just came out)

 

[Ben Pope]

General Schvantzkoph wrote:
<snip>

An excellent summation of the current state of affairs.

Ben

 

[Ben Pope]

AMD has dual core processors in the works that are
going to drop into the 940 sockets, they haven't said if they will offer
them in the 939 pin sockets.

This desrves some attention. Existing 940 motherboards will be able to take
Dual Core CPUs. This means that single socket 940s can effectively run 2
CPUs. Dual socket motherboards, 4.

This is very different to Intel Hyperthreading - they appear as 2 CPUs in
Windows, but it's not really 2 complete CPUs. I think it's only two
"processing units".

Ben

 

[Lee Benningfield]

moving from my 2800+ to a 3700+ will be enough of an upgrade for me, as long
as they are still availabe in 6 months to a year. of course, i'd LOVE to
get a dual opteron or something, but i don't want to spen ALL of my money on
my computer...

 

[Wayne]

I know what you mean. I spent almost all of mine on this upgrade. LOL

 

[rickman]

This desrves some attention. Existing 940 motherboards will be able to take
Dual Core CPUs. This means that single socket 940s can effectively run 2
CPUs. Dual socket motherboards, 4.

This is very different to Intel Hyperthreading - they appear as 2 CPUs in
Windows, but it's not really 2 complete CPUs. I think it's only two
"processing units".

It's not even that. Intel runs a second thread in the unused portions
of the chip on each clock cycle. This requires very little extra
logic. But it limits what can be done simultaneously to things that
don't use the same hardware.


--

Rick "rickman" Collins

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