AMD Socket-AM2: Same Performance, Faster Memory, Lower Power
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 23, 2006 12:14 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
AM2 in Detail
Of course the most prominent feature of AMD's Socket-AM2 platform is the new socket and its support for DDR2 memory. As we've already mentioned, Socket-AM2 is a 940-pin socket that is keyed differently from the original 940-pin Athlon 64/Opteron sockets; only AM2 processors will physically fit into an AM2 motherboard.
Socket-939 (left) vs. Socket-AM2 (right)
Socket-939 |
Socket-AM2 |
 |
 |
One of the Athlon 64's strongest selling points continues to be its on-die memory controller, which has of course been significantly changed for the new Socket-AM2 platform. All AM2 CPUs feature a 128-bit wide DDR2 memory controller, compared to the 128-bit DDR memory controller that we've come to know from the Socket-939 platform. A DDR2 memory interface actually requires more pins than a DDR1 interface, but AMD was able to keep the AM2 pin count down by removing a large number of unnecessary pins on the Athlon 64's package. When the Socket-940/939 Athlon 64s were first designed, approximately 10% of their pins were redundant and could be removed in later designs. Not desiring to introduce a new socket as frequently as its competition had, AMD waited until Socket-AM2 to remove those unnecessary pins thus enabling a dual-channel DDR2 interface in virtually the same pin count as the earlier DDR1 equipped CPUs.
All of the Socket-AM2 CPUs support up to DDR2-667, but the AM2 Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon 64 FX models support up to DDR2-800. Since Socket-AM2 unifies AMD's desktop socket strategy, all Semprons, Athlon 64s, X2s and FX processors will feature this dual channel DDR2 memory controller.
Corsair partnered with AMD and NVIDIA for the Socket-AM2 and nForce 500 review kits
The lineup of Socket-AM2 processors being introduced today are in the table below:
| CPU | Clock Speed | L2 Cache Size | TDP | Price |
| AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 | 2.8GHz | 1MBx2 | 125W | $1031 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ | 2.6GHz | 512KBx2 | 89W | $696 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ | 2.4GHz | 1MBx2 | 89W | $645 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ | 2.4GHz | 512KBx2 | 89W | $558 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ | 2.2GHz | 1MBx2 | 89W | $470 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ | 2.2GHz | 512KBx2 | 89W | $365 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ | 2.0GHz | 1MBx2 | 89W | $328 |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ | 2.0GHz | 512KBx2 | 89W | $303 |
| AMD Athlon 64 3800+ | 2.4GHz | 512KB | 62W | $290 |
| AMD Athlon 64 3500+ | 2.2GHz | 512KB | 62W | $189 |
| AMD Sempron 3600+ | 2.0GHz | 256KB | 62W | $123 |
| AMD Sempron 3500+ | 2.0GHz | 128KB | 62W | $109 |
| AMD Sempron 3400+ | 1.8GHz | 256KB | 62W | $97 |
| AMD Sempron 3200+ | 1.8GHz | 128KB | 62W | $87 |
| AMD Sempron 3000+ | 1.6GHz | 256KB | 62W | $77 |
There's basically no price premium for the new Socket-AM2 chips, encouraging a quick transition to AMD's new DDR2 platform.
You will also notice that none of the model numbers have changed, so an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ on Socket-AM2 has the same clock speed and L2 cache size as the Socket-939 version. Since AMD's model numbers haven't changed, you already know not to expect any major changes in performance with Socket-AM2. In fact, the only difference on the CPU side is the introduction of the new Athlon 64 FX-62, Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and Athlon 64 X2 4000+.
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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