AMD's quad core chips in '06?!

[Cartoon Corpse]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20060126111118.html

dang. makes 939 chipset seem like a bad move now. can't leap from there. be the same story as when i bought my p4 1.4Gz and mboard with nowhere to go from there. (wasn't into gaming at the time)

 

[Rolf N]

It has been known for a while already that AMD intends to switch to a different CPU socket soonish. It's not so much a question of chipsets, because nothing really changes at all on the chipset side -- with the memory controller integrated in the CPU and all hardware funneled through a roughly constant HyperTransport link -- but rather mechanical and electrical compatibility with a different type of memory modules.

The upcoming CPU models will only work with DDR2-SDRAM, and that's the exact reason why you need a new mobo. Not because of the chipset. Changing the socket spec now is just taking the right opportunity. It's The Right Thing to do it now alongside with the memory support change, because it minimizes the pain. You need a new mobo anyway. It wouldn't help if the physical socket layout were unchanged, on the contrary IMO, it would only create confusion and support/return issues with parts that physically match but don't function together.

And to finally address what you actually said
You're right. Socket 939 is every bit as obsolete as socket 754. There may be a couple of new speed grades still coming, but the real development effort will go elsewhere.

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

thanks

im whining cause i need a new PC NOW! and looks like the prudent thing (that ALWAYS seems to happen) is to put it off a few more months. AUGH!

 

[Tahir2]

Socket 939 will become the budget socket just like Socket 754 is in 2007 whilst the new M2 sockets will be getting the fastest processors at the highest prices.

Cartoon Corpse if you wait for a few months every time you will never upgrade.

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

yeah i know. it's very sad.

if i could just have a rig with a good upgrade path...

quad core's won't go on non M2's...and if that's the way things are heading, i don't think I want to get left in the dirt so soon (few months im toast again). after waiting a few months im looking good i think...other than dx10 which is just new GPU(s)...as opposed to buy now, and mboard, cpu, GPU are all over the hill.

and it looks like the only "looking forward to" gaming title im interested in, coming out before midyear will be oblivion. everything else delayed..again (eg gothic, stalker, just cause, pirates of the xxi century, scarface, 2 days to vegas, Crysis).

oh well. i spose i can wait, but the infant inside of me is having a tantrum. sorry.

 

[karlotta]

thanks

im whining cause i need a new PC NOW! and looks like the prudent thing (that ALWAYS seems to happen) is to put it off a few more months. AUGH!

its never prudent to wait for the next bleeding edge... prudent would to just get a 939. your upgrade path will be fine till ya get to a FX60!or maybe even a FX70...thats alot of cpu to have in the upgrade path, on a proven platform. If your made of money the quad64 should take all u can throw at it$$$$.

 

[booomups]

hmm... i d advise you not to wait for the quadcore..... or the new sockel.....
buy the cheapest mobo with a cheap cpu now.. or the cheapest dualcore...

xept problem is ram.......


dont wait.

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

how will ddr2 on amd impact performance? noticeable?

i had planned on getting an fx60. cause as a bachelor programmer, i am made of money pretty much.

 

[swaaye]

Anandtech just posted about M2 arriving in July perhaps.

DDR2 performance on A64 is uncertain. P4 is more bandwidth hungry than A64. Multiple cores might change this, but really A64 gets mad bandwidth efficiency already with its on-die controller and 6.4GB/s on 939. And you better believe prices are going to be nasty at the start.

 

[the maddman]

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with a 939, especially if you go dual core. Give the new socket a while for decent motherboards to be built.

Revision 1.0 probably isn't when you want to buy into it, unless you absolutely have to have the fastest system possible. I'll bet it'll take a while for the quad's to drop from the Opteron's into the consumer chips.

If you just have to have a new computer, get a dual core 939. Our software is going to have enough problems using 2 cores, 4 is just going to make things worse.

 

[SugarCoat]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20060126111118.html

dang. makes 939 chipset seem like a bad move now. can't leap from there. be the same story as when i bought my p4 1.4Gz and mboard with nowhere to go from there. (wasn't into gaming at the time)

Socket F (1207-pin) will be the equivalent to AMDs current Socket 940 that is out today all-be-it much more specialized to allow a very wide range of server products. Basically these Quad Core Opterons are really only going to be for server platform boards, at least initially. Not what you should be interested in from a gaming/performance standpoint.

 

[Sxotty]

Revision 1.0 probably isn't when you want to buy into it, unless you absolutely have to have the fastest system possible. I'll bet it'll take a while for the quad's to drop from the Opteron's into the consumer chips.

QFT

Never ever get a rev 1 if you can help it

You can get a 939 board for <$50.00 right now, plop a $100.00 CPU in it and overclock. You are good to go. (But you will have to look around a bit to find the right one)