Will FX-60 be the 'fastest' S939 chip?

[Kurt]

I've not seen a recent AMD roadmap and the I didn't find anything while searching so I'm putting this question before the fine people in this forum. Will there more models or is the latest FX also to be the last? I heard rumors that that's the case, but I want to be sure.

Kind of interesting if it's viable for someone like myself who's sitll on the fence whether to skip socket 939 and wait for M2 and then switch to PCI-E in the process or to go for an 939 with AGP (I have a 6800GT I don't want to part from quite yet) as an intermediate solution.

I'm currently on a 2500 XP and it is getting a little long in the tooth. I think I might go for the cheapest Venice now and then get whatever is fastest chip for socket 939 (preferably X2) in a year or so -- should still be fast enough, no?

Lastly, are there any inherent disadvantages to nForce3 and KT800 boards relative to their PCI-E counterparts, other than slightly lower performance?

TIA

edit: fixed typo

 

[ChronoReverse]

It will be. AMD will likely release further s939 chips (like they did with s754) but they will be revisions of lower speed chips (for example, maybe 65nm versions).


Performance wise, the AGP boards actually aren't at an disadvantage. HOWEVER, if you plan to overclock, I don't know of any K8T800 or NF3 board that has an AGP lock that won't run into problems at high FSB.

My own K8T800 board tops off at about 266MHz before the lock simply breaks down. It's quite bizarre since oscilloscope tests show that it's still at 66MHz but the board will crap out if you try to run a 3D program. It'll chug away fine with Prime95 for hours but start up a 3D game (say F.E.A.R.) and it'll crash within a minute.

 

[Fox5]

Nforce3 250 has a working AGP lock.

There's also a couple ULI based boards that have both a working AGP lock, AGP 8x, and PCI-Express 16x. Seems like a no brainer for someone who wants an upgrade but wants to keep their current AGP video card.

 

[Kurt]

Thanks for your observations on AGP locking. I have the same problem with my A7N8X-E deluxe.

As for the ULi based boards, I've tried the ASRock and it doesn't work with my specific card, or rather, I suspect the AGP driver doesn't. Do you know any other boards that have both AGP and PCI-E?


To moderator: Just noticed I posted in the wrong forum. Could you move this to Hardware Talk?
Thanks

 

[Fox5]

Thanks for your observations on AGP locking. I have the same problem with my A7N8X-E deluxe.

As for the ULi based boards, I've tried the ASRock and it doesn't work with my specific card, or rather, I suspect the AGP driver doesn't. Do you know any other boards that have both AGP and PCI-E?


To moderator: Just noticed I posted in the wrong forum. Could you move this to Hardware Talk?
Thanks

I believe the driver installation for the ASRock board is complicated.
You have to uninstall the default windows AGP drivers, install the Asrock AGP driver, then install your video card drivers. Easiest to do off of a fresh install.

Not sure of any other boards with AGP and PCI-E....more do exist, but not all have true AGP slots, some just have a PCI masked as an AGP 1x slot. There's also a PCI-Express to AGP adapter made by Asus, but it only works with some of their vdieo cards and motherboards.

 

[Kurt]

There is an old thread about this board and installation problems somewhere.
Believe me I tried everything in the book, it just wouldn't work... not with the GT anyway. Everything else I threw at it did though... go figure. As far as I'm concerned that chapter is closed.
Oh and I'll probably go for a 'true' AGP board then. Thanks for pointing that out

 

[Tahir2]

M2 will be a few months away yet, but if you have held out for this long then I would consider a fresh start on a new system if your money allows.

I would recommend going for a VIA or NVIDIA based AGP Skt 939 motherboard due to better stability with regards to drivers. The ASRock boards we had are cheap but the AGP driver supplied on the CD was totally broken (this is not just a case of ULi being the culprits, MSI shipped drivers for their VIA onboard VGA that had broken drivers too).

 

[Kurt]

M2 will be a few months away yet, but if you have held out for this long then I would consider a fresh start on a new system if your money allows.

Wouldn't I need to get new memory as well? Money isn't really an issue. I just don't like spending it on overpriced or effectively useless stuff

 

[Fox5]

Wouldn't I need to get new memory as well? Money isn't really an issue. I just don't like spending it on overpriced or effectively useless stuff

Yeah, but M2 will eventually have faster chips, DDR2 won't have the quirky limitations of DDR (like dropping to 2T command rate when more than 2 sticks are used), and will have larger capacities and cheaper prices than DDR.

 

[suryad]

You will be fine if you got an FX 60 and called it quits from upgrading for at least the next 2 years.