Author Topic: AMD socket 754 / 939 (Read 503 times)

CYLONN · « **on:** February 02, 2005, 01:22:56 AM »

What's the difference between these two socket types and which is better for AH, or does it matter?

Thanks

Kaz · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2005, 03:11:54 AM »

Socket 939 is replacing the older socket 754. Socket 754 is being phased out this year. Overall, socket 939 cpu's are faster.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2303

Kev367th · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2005, 05:32:28 AM »

Socket 754 - 512kb or 1mb cache, single channel memory.
Socket 939 - 512kb cache, dual channel memory.

humble · « **Reply #3 on:** February 02, 2005, 10:38:43 AM »

Basically the 939 is the successor technology....if your buying a PCI express board you should go 939 for sure. You can get a 754 board for less so if your on a budget and using a AGP card then the 754 may make more sense. Realistically there are no performance differences as of now. The AGP doesnt bottleneck the current generation VC's and the difference of single vs dual channel wont come into play till you have 64 bit programs to run....

Kev367th · « **Reply #4 on:** February 02, 2005, 12:22:38 PM »

Remeber also socket 939 and 940 will be the only ones that support the new 'dual core' cpus due out this year.
754 will not get them.

ALF · « **Reply #5 on:** February 02, 2005, 05:19:23 PM »

Do you actually think that for the 1st time in like...forever, a new major chip is going to be release that doesnt need a new Motherboard.

Ive seen it promissed since the 100mHz days...and its NEVER come to pass.....they always screw with the socket..and AMD is already feeling out Mobo manufacturers to see just ow po'ed theyd be if they change to a 999 socket or whatever.....

humble · « **Reply #6 on:** February 02, 2005, 06:03:51 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Kev367th
Remeber also socket 939 and 940 will be the only ones that support the new 'dual core' cpus due out this year.
754 will not get them.

The real question is what you want a dual core cpu for. Other than pushing your GPU it's useless. So you'll need a next generation card anyway. Personally I think you can go with a 754 and a 6800 or X800 VC and be fine for the next couple years....

Kev367th · « **Reply #7 on:** February 04, 2005, 01:41:29 PM »

Wont need a next generation card.
Even 6800GTs can't be pushed to their limit by the fastest current AMD or Intel offering.
Dual core also allows AMD to take advantage of Intels Hyperthreading apps, or run natively (faster).
Using Win 2k server you should be able to force AH2 onto the 2nd core and get 'dual cpu' benefits.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #8 on:** February 04, 2005, 02:11:41 PM »

Kev, the performance benefit dual core brings to games might be in the 1% area, if that good.

The cost/performance ratio is just not there as far as I am concerned (for games anyways). Not to mention the power/heat issues as well.

There are a few applications which will benefit from it, to be sure, but they are a small and expensive group of applications.

Having dual cores, just like Intel's HT technology does not make anything faster at all. All application software has to be specifically written to take advantage of dual CPU's.

Kev367th · « **Reply #9 on:** February 04, 2005, 03:17:58 PM »

Agrred Skuzzy, but using Win 2k Servers processor affinity function you could 'offload' all AH2 thread/processors to the 'other' core.
Surely this would be some benefit?

Power/heat isn't going to be big issue, will still be a lot less than Intels current baking products.

paulieb · « **Reply #10 on:** February 04, 2005, 10:07:49 PM »

I wasn't sure which way to go in the socket 754 versus 939 thing, so I got a motherboard with both. Yup, I said both. I bought the Asrock K8 Combo-Z. It has a 754 socket, a 939 socket, and dedicated DDR RAM slots for each. The 939 side is dual channel, the 754 side is not. For the time being, I'm running a S754 3200+. AFAIK, 754 is NOT being abandoned. The Sempron CPU's are going to socket 754. They're basically an Athlon 64 chip with the 64 bit capability removed.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #11 on:** February 05, 2005, 08:29:32 AM »

Kev, the gain will be minimal. The nature of real-time 3D graphics. They are not threaded and cannot be threaded. The only threads running would be related to the network funtionality, IF the game is using the native network API (winsock) and not DirectPlay.

You still have memory bus contention to deal with which adds overhead and takes some of the performance gains away as well. Only one CPU can access memory or the I/O bus at a time.

Very few applications are threaded as Windows still has memory leaks when running threaded. The leak is small, about 32 bytes per instance of a thread, but it is there. The problem with the leak is you have to reboot the computer to free the memory back, so over time you end up loosing your memory.