AMD Socket-AM2: Same Performance, Faster Memory, Lower Power
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 23, 2006 12:14 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Through regular advances in process technology, AMD has also been able to reduce the power consumption of the entire X2 line on Socket-AM2. Now all AM2 X2 parts feature an 89W TDP, whereas previously the higher model number X2s were all 110W parts. AMD confirmed that the lower power consumption would also affect newer fabbed Socket-939 X2s, however AMD will not be changing the TDP ratings on those chips.
On top of reducing power consumption for the Athlon 64 X2 line, Socket-AM2 will also be home to AMD's new Energy Efficient processors. Through the same sort of TDP targeting that is used to manufacture energy efficient Opteron processors, you will now be able to pay a premium and purchase cooler running Athlon 64, X2 and Sempron AM2 processors. The clock speeds and model numbers remain the same, but these new processors will either carry an Energy Efficient logo indicating a 65W TDP or an Energy Efficient Small Form Factor logo that indicates a 35W TDP.
The entire list of Energy Efficient and EE SFF CPUs is listed below:
| CPU | TDP | Price | Premium |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Energy Efficient | 65W | $671 | +$26 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Energy Efficient | 65W | $601 | +$43 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Energy Efficient | 65W | $514 | +$44 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Energy Efficient | 65W | $417 | +$52 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Energy Efficient | 65W | $353 | +$25 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Energy Efficient | 65W | $323 | +$20 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Energy Efficient Small Form Factor | 35W | $364 | +$61 |
| AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Energy Efficient Small Form Factor | 35W | $231 | +$42 |
| AMD Sempron 3400+ Energy Efficient Small Form Factor | 35W | $145 | +$48 |
| AMD Sempron 3200+ Energy Efficient Small Form Factor | 35W | $119 | +$32 |
| AMD Sempron 3000+ Energy Efficient Small Form Factor | 35W | $101 | +$24 |
For anywhere from $20 - $60 over their 89W and 62W counterparts, you can now have 65W or 35W Energy Efficient AM2 CPUs. The price premium is tacked onto the processors because these lower wattage parts don't yield at the same rate as the higher wattage CPUs, and thus require a higher price to make up for the decrease in yield. But honestly, the premium on a lot of the CPUs is small enough that we can't help but recommend them (assuming the real world reduction in power is in line with AMD's reduction in TDP rating).
The Energy Efficient Small Form Factor Athlon 64 X2 3800+ at a mere 35W (less than half the TDP of the standard X2 3800+) is particularly interesting to us, but unfortunately we'll have to wait before being able to provide you all with power measurements. While all regular AM2 CPUs are available beginning today, the new Energy Efficient models won't be available in the channel until sometime in June. AMD did not have enough samples on hand to even provide us with one in time for publication, citing extreme OEM demand as the reason for supply being so tight. Hopefully when these CPUs do hit the channel we won't see any sort of price gouging as they are extremely attractive.
There are of course a long list of of new motherboards and chipsets with support for Socket-AM2, but we'll save the deep dive on both of those topics for some of our other articles in the works. Later today you'll be able to read all about NVIDIA's new nForce 500 platform, later in the week you'll see what ATI has to offer for AM2 and then next week we'll have our first roundup of Socket-AM2 motherboards.
The Test
| CPU: | AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 (Socket-AM2) AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 (Socket-939) AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (Socket-AM2) AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (Socket-AM2) AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Socket-AM2) Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 965 Intel Pentium D 960 Intel Pentium D 950 |
| Motherboard: | ASUS A8N32-SLI (Socket-939) ASUS M2N32-SLI (Socket-AM2) Intel D975XBX |
| Chipset: | NVIDIA nForce4 SLI x16 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI |
| Chipset Drivers: | nForce 9.34 Beta |
| Hard Disk: | Seagate 7200.9 300GB SATA |
| Memory: | Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (1GB x 2) OCZ DDR-400 2-2-2 (1GB x 2) |
| Video Card: | NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA ForceWare 91.27 Beta |
| Desktop Resolution: | 1280 x 1024 - 32-bit @ 60Hz |
| OS: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
83 Comments
View All Comments
jmke - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
here ya gohttp://www.digit-life.com/articles2/mainboard/ddr2...">http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/mainboard/ddr2...
Xenoid - Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - link
Ok so AM2 is AMD's offering for 2/4 06.The article title mentions same performance, faster memory, lower power. Wouldn't faster memory (in this case, ddr2) net a higher performance than what we're seeing here? Why is AMD bothering with DDR2 if it's not a significant improvement? If the power usage is so low, does this mean we can overclock a lot easier? I never understood the huge deal behind power usage on a cpu.
coldpower27 - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
DDR production is slowing down, and DDR2 is continuing to mature, AMD does need to change to this memory type now, regardless if they like it or not.DDR2 also allows higher capacities, so you can probably reach 4x2Gb now as 2Gb modles are actually available on DDR2.
Considering DDR2 biggest advanatge bandwidth, is what AMD doesn't really need more fo right now, performance improvements will be negligible.
Furen - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Also, having all that extra bandwidth available allows AMD to throw quad-core on the same socket without much problem (maybe 1H07... whatever everyone says I doubt AMD will let Intel have the quad-core advantage for a year, I'd say we'll see very low volume quad-cores as close to Intel's Kentsfield/Cloverton as humanly possible). I know we've heard that AM3 is coming next year (from, who else?, The Inquirer) but considering that the DDR3 spec is not finalized quite yet and just how slowly AMD jumped into the DDR2 bandwagon I'd say we won't see it until 2008 at the earliest.Axloth - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
I think there is also marketing side. There are lots of people "unaware" of ddr1-ddr2 comparison. And they probably think that ddr2 "must" be better than ddr1 because of that that "2". Like: ddr2 is upgrade or next generation of ddr1 so its gotta be much faster. Also, they might go for intel because intel uses ddr2 and amd only ddr1... And they think intel's better thanks to ddr2, disregarding cpu qualities of both amd and intel.pzkfwg - Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - link
If DDR2-800 barely beats DDR-400, I was wondering if the AM2 socket could actually be slower than 939 DDR-400 when using DDR2-667 !?! Knowing that a very large amount of people would buy cheaper AM2 system with DDR2-667, that would be ridiculous!mino - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
YES and NO.Remember most people buy generic CL3 or CL2.5 DDR400. IMHO generic DDR2-666 should be ona par with that.
soydios - Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - link
So, the X2 4200+ will not run the memory at full speed. How safe would it be to overclock from 200x11=2200MHz DDR2-733 (2200/6=366x2=733) to 219x11=2200MHz DDR2-803 (2409/6=401.5x2=803) using OCZ DDR2-800 RAM and an Asus Xpress3200 motherboard?Furen - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
I'd say that you can very likely get away with that overclock with pretty much every 4200+ as long as the motherboard allows you to do it.mino - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Safe as safe. At least from the point it won't blow up :)As for stability it all depends on the motherboard.