AMD Launches New Processor Socket Despite Poor Economy

arcticstoat writes to tell us that despite a poor economic climate, AMD is moving forward with a new processor socket launch, although they are trying to make it as upgrade-friendly as possible. "As you probably already know from the AM3 motherboards that have already been announced, AM3 is AMD's first foray into DDR3 memory support. As Phenom CPUs have integrated memory controllers, it's more accurate to say that it's the new range of Phenom II CPUs (see below) that are DDR3-compatible. However, the new DDR3-compatible Phenom II range is also compatible with DDR2 memory. As the new CPUs and the new AM3 socket are pin-compatible with the current AM2+ socket, you can put a new AM3-compatible CPU into an existing AM2+ motherboard. This means that you can upgrade your CPU now without needing to change your motherboard or buy pricey new DDR3 memory."

Re:Good

[XanC]

The latency is generally lower than DDR2, measured in wall-clock time. The advertised latency appears worse only because of the faster clock.

am3 CPU in am2+ motherboard: OK Otherway.. no

[amcdiarmid]

You may be able to put a am3 processor in a am2+ motherboard, but the Register says that am2+ processor in a am3 motherboard will not work. (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/02/09/review_cpu_amd_phenom_ii_am3/page2.html)

To quote:
"makes life horribly confusing as the Phenom X4 920 and 925 and the X4 940 and 945 will be identical apart from the processor socket. This means that there is the possibility that some poor so-and-so will buy an AM2+ CPU and an AM3 motherboard when ne'er the twain shall meet." ..
careful what you buy out there

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[von_rick]

Search engine to the rescue [letmegoogl...foryou.com]

There's lot to consider when you decide which CPU to go for, and then there is their market performance.

Re:Good

[aliquis]

That's bullshit, CL in periods * period length = latency, and since they are clocked higher the latency will probably be around the same, I won't calculate it for you.

And that latency is how long it takes before you actually start to read any bits, but as soon as you have started each bit will come faster from the higher clocked memory.

If you don't get a speed increase it's because either of:
1) Processor not fast enough to take benefit of additional bandwidth.
2) Cache system smart enough to not take benefit of additional bandwidth.
3) Application not using memory in a fashion where it will take benefit of additional bandwidth.

Most likely the later one ..

All higher end graphic cards come with faster memory, it may not be a huge deal always but it probably add some benefit, rather stupid if it didn't.

AMD said they would skip DDR2 and go directly to DDR3 earlier because there was no benefit when actually in use but I guess they "had to" when Intel was using DDR2 just because people see the numbers and wonder why one is bigger than the other.
Though first AM DDR2 chips vs 939 DDR chips showed no increase in speed in benchmarks.

Anyway, DDR3 is faster than DDR2, will you notice it? I have no idea.

Re:Despite a poor economy?

[Chris Burke]

And also due to poor economy, otherwise they wouldn't support cheaper DDR2.

I guarantee you they would.

Even when the economy was good, there was a lot of downward pressure on the prices of computers. Mandating a switch to a more expensive memory tech before the market is ready is a sure way to have it backfire in your face *cough* RAMBUS *cough* Ugh that was some nasty phlegm.

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[aliquis]

AMD is competitive at the low and middle end as long as you don't overclock the middle end CPUs.
(If you include the price of the motherboard and don't care about overclocking a low- or midrange AMD system will be cheaper.)

AMD don't have as high end CPUs as Intel and the ones which are closest don't overclock as good or use as little power.

Though then I'd say you shouldn't overclock anyway and AMD chipsets have used less power making the two when used in a complete system rather comparable.

Also AMD used to have an advantage in memory bandwidth and when using multiple CPUs.

Information may be slightly outdated but all of it is probably true, Intel may have catched up in memory bandwidth performance with their latest CPUs since they have put the memory controller within the CPU themself to.

Re:am3 CPU in am2+ motherboard: OK Otherway.. no

[Anonymous Coward]

IIRC the AM3 has fewer pins and is able to plug into
an AM2+ socket, but AM2+ chips can't plut into an AM3 socket. So, if you buy the wrong one you'll know as soon as you try to plug your AM2+ cpu into your AM3 motherboard...

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[WEqR0lDRR6I]

This is probably something not many people care about, but...It's a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to find an Athlon64 motherboard that supports(and actually does ECC) ECC memory. Think $50-$100 for an Athlon64 motherboard that does this, versus $200-$300+(original Asus Maximus Formula, Asus P5E WS Pro) for a Core 2 motherboard(has to have an X38 northbridge, unless you want to give up PCIe x16 with a server chipset). I don't think the currently released Core i7 processors with built-in memory controllers support ECC *at all*.

(PS to trolls: Unbuffered ECC memory is only marginally more expensive than unbuffered non-ECC, though it usually has a small latency penalty. Registered/FB-DIMMs ECC on the other hand are Quite Expensive)

Re:It's a myth

[Anonymous Coward]

And presumably all those auto industry and manufacturing workers getting fired were cheating when they took classes in high school right? The 500,000+ lost jobs outside the computing industry and major across-the-board corporate spending restriction measures, they're a myth too.

It's not all about you.

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[subsolar2]

AMD has the Geode LX and NX lines.
Geode LX [amd.com] is very low powered and the highest clock speed (I've seen) is 566Mhz.
Geode NX [amd.com] is targeted directly at the Atom. Although I have yet to see any of these out in the wild.
I've only ever found a Geode in the wild clocked as high as 500Mhz (see the ALIX boards [mini-box.com])

Actually the Geode is a dead end processor, AMD already has stated they are disconinuing it.

AMD recently announced a new processor "Conesus" that is intended for netbooks and UMPC.
http://gizmodo.com/5086703/amds-upcoming-conesus-netbook-chip-wont-stoop-to-mid-levels

Economy Schmoconomy.

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome our new DDR3 overlords. Every time they dump something new on the market, prices on their older product lines go down. I just bought a 9850 for $135. About $40 cheaper than late last year before the Phenom 2 line hit the streets. It's the fastest processor my motherboard officially supports and it cost less than the dual core it replaced.

I always intentionally build my gaming rigs a notch or two below bleeding edge because it's so much cheaper. But, if "they" were to stop pushing the edge forward, where would I be?

Re:strange

[silanea]

Exactly how does virtualisation magically add performance out of hot air? And exactly how does buying additional iron provide that same kind of performance increase per $ spent that the parent mentioned?

Gosh, can we please have an automated -2 buzzword sucker whenever someone comes up with fancy terms where they just don't fit?

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not actually true, AMD give realistic power draw estimates but real world testing has shown that the AMD parts now use less power. One must also take into account that AMD has been integrating a significant part of northbridge into the CPU die for some years now.

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[UnknownSoldier]

> Who writes this "poor economy" crap?

When you're reading to pull your head out of the sand and stop ignoring facts... The Dept of Labor [speaker.gov] for one.

--
Stop Racism. Support the HUMAN Race.

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[UnknownSoldier]

Yeah, was looking at the Core i7 earlier today and noticed they are pricey.

Think this is a better bang for the buck...

Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2H $64.90
AMD Athlon64 X2 5200+ Retail (Socket AM2) $59.99
Rosewill R363-M-BK Micro ATX Black Ultra High Gloss Finished Computer Case with
400W ATX $59.99
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2
  6400) $44.99
BFG Tech BFGE98512GTE GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0
x16 $134.99

Total: $364.86

Missing: Hard Drive, DVD, WinXP

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[Anonymous Coward]

In addition to having competitive low-end and mid-range CPUs, AMD is the clear performance leader in virtualization applications.

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[complete loony]

Ah, it's nice to see an appropriate level of pessimism. Judging from the last few times something like this happened to the economy it could take up to 15 years before growth and employment returns to "normal". Though our level of debt is much worse than at any time in history, so even that estimate might be too optimistic.

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[Clanked]

You have to account for how each company lists its TDP.
Intel lists its TDP as average load usage, while AMD lists the max draw.

So if each chip was listed at 90W, the AMD would actually use less power.

Re:What's the point in wating for markets to turn

[this great guy]

Literally all socket AM2/AM2+ motherboards support unbuffered ECC memory, because the memory bus connects the memory slots directly to the CPU socket, therefore the CPU is the only thing dictating what type of memory is supported. And because all AM2/AM2+ Athlon processors support ECC memory, all AM2/AM2+ motherboards support ECC memory.