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 |
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Slappi - Thursday, May 25, 2006 - link
That is the real question.Very biased these last few months.
I sure hope Conroe can cook dinner and clean my house because if it can't someone has some explaining to do.
lewisc - Thursday, May 25, 2006 - link
How was that review at all biased? AM2 showed very very small improvements over socket 939, Anand said so. Is it biased because the result was not what you wanted? How you could possibly suggest buying a a new platform that has hardly any improvement over a predecessor is beyond me.Slappi - Thursday, May 25, 2006 - link
Just all his talk about Intel the last few months has been really biased. Not necessarily this article.Just my opinion and I really like this site it just seems like someone is being taken care of.
I could be wrong.
clnee55 - Friday, May 26, 2006 - link
I agree in the last few months, AMD has shown that it doesn't have anything ready to compete with Conroe. I certainly can trust Anand's analysis. Your conspiracy theory is full of it.By the way, just how much AMD stock do you own?
EdisonStarfire - Thursday, May 25, 2006 - link
I've owned AMD systems since 1998 starting with an Athlon 600 OEM. I've built several other AMD systems since then. Sure, there is a slight chance Intel had some influence on their test systems anand tested but from seeing other pre-release samples around the web I think its just a case of Intel finally waking up and building a good cpu. I hope AMD has a good answer but if they don't and fooled themselves into thinking Intel didn't have the resources or need to build something (like alot of fanboys do) then they were kidding themselves badly. If the Core 2 Duo chips are the best out when its time to dump my X2 4400 then thats what I will be buying. I know AMD is limited in resources but the Dothan should have been a sign of what was coming and made some revisions with the AM2 release. Let's hope the deerhound cores improvements add about 20% IPC so can keep some good competition going between the two companies.in short... I don't think Anand is being biased about anything. Just my 2 cents.
Thatguy97 - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
well it sure did and amds dyingThatguy97 - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link
Ayyyyy things looking upThatguy97 - Sunday, June 28, 2020 - link
Ayyy AMD is in the lead nowpeternelson - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
I am interested in the changes from 939 to AM2/940 and opteron/940 and SocketF/1207
I would like detailed PINOUTS for these.
eg how many pins are GND, how many power / core power, how many ddr, how many ddr2, how many hypertransport links.
Ideally full pinout not just summary by group function.
Is this information available anywhere or would I have to/my company have to sign an NDA with AMD to obtain it?
ultraCODE - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Have anyone managed to benchmark new AM2 platform with RightMark RMMA? It shows the real peak speed (I don't trust crappy Sandra) for mem. read/write. Any results highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!Best wishes,
uC