Price Guides - July 2005: More 64-bit CPUs
by Derek Wilson & Manveer Wasson on July 23, 2005 10:03 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Athlon 64
Aside from dual core processors, AMD's current generation Venice and San Diego processors have also moved significantly since their launch three months ago. OEM versions of the processors surfaced about three weeks ago and AMD's stock heatsink-fan (HSF) combo is actually quite good (particularly when compared to Intel's plastic monstrosity). Anand recently wrote about Athlon 64's "unofficial" DDR500 memory support on Venice, San Diego (and other revision "E" processors), so make sure you take a look at that when you have a chance. Don't get your hopes up too much - unfortunately the additional speeds did very little to performance for the Athlon 64.
That being said, you should still buy a revision "E" processor anyway. The different between 90nm AMD processors is less than a dollar in most situations, and why stick yourself with a 130nm or a revision "D" chip instead? For those of you playing at home, check out price fluctuations on the Athon 64 Venice 3500+ processor [RTPE: ADA3500DAA4BP]:
A few merchants had a very nice sale going on last week that put the Venice 3500+ around $250; money well spent in our opinion. Price on the 3800+ and 4000+ processors has been very stagnant since their launch; don't expect any great deals above 3500+ this week.
It's getting to be about time we stop recommending Socket 754; at least for non-budget uses. Virtually all Socket 754 processors cost more than their Socket 939 counterparts at this point, and again, why hamper yourself with the 130nm chips that lack SSE3 and only have a single channel memory controller? Socket 754: you will be casually missed.
However, if you just need a decent budget PC, Socket 754 is actually a very good alternative to Socket 462 (or a Celeron). Check out the next page for our opinion on AMD budget processors.
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Chef Brian - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
The review was a little down on the P-M. The reviews I've seen show that a 2ghz dothan is about the equivalent of an athlon 3700+ -, so yes the price-performance isnt much better than an Athlon. I will seriously consider a Yonah when they're released...Pentium M's rule. Best CPU architecture ever!
Zebo - Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - link
Even at the so-called high price thier charging the forum is full of them.. at least 40. Same at xtreme. same at techreport. Guess how many Pentium dually I've seen at anandtech? Zero. I wonder why? Could it be the cheapest 4200 out performs the $1100 840EE?
WTF?
Furen - Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - link
I think they meant that no one would use the argument "AMD has the weaker dual core".Furen - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
#22 I dont think anyone said anything negative about the pentium M but since I'm just skimming through the post so I might have missed it.They are the best gaming cpus clock-for-clock, but perform slower at pretty much everything else. Also, a 2GHz dothan costs about the same as a 2.4Ghz San Diego, which it will, most certainly, not outperform at ANYTHING.
Yonah sounds great, though.
Chef Brian - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
Pentium M weak my ass...clock for clock it's the fastest gaming processor, period.KristopherKubicki - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
KeithDust2000: I agree with Furen. We don't know when the 3800+ will show up and what the actual price might be. If it shows up in the channel in September, the D820 might be $50 cheaper (as will 945P boards no doubt). It's not really worth speculating about until the chips hit the channel in my opinion.Kristopher
Furen - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
"So compare $605 for AMD versus $375 for Intel; it comes to about 1.6. I would still think the D820 has the advantage although I would be very interested in seeing the new AMD chip in a couple weeks."He's comparing the currently available X2 chips to the currently available PDs ($515 for an X2 4200 and 90 bucks for an NForce4 mobo). The X2 3800 is not available right now and who knows what the price and availability will be at launch...
KeithDust2000 - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
@ Kristopher:P-D 820 + board= 241+130=371
A64 X2 3800+ = 345+90=435
I´d say that´s pretty close, and if you already have
S939... Anyway, you also get a much better product. That´s 2x3200+ instead of 2x2.8Ghz, und the additional power savings, the architectural benefits...
Your $605 number makes no sense, or what am I missing?
KeithDust2000 - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
@ Jarred Walton:From another thread, but what exactly makes you think that Conroe and Merom will hold the performance lead in their respective segments for "quite a while"?
@ Kristofer:
The Athlon 64 X2 3800+ @ $345 (street prices tend to be lower than list) may not be the cheapest chip on the block, but it should imho be the best
price/performance chip on the market.
With it, AMD has basically the Pentium D 830, 840
and EE covered (in terms of price) - and that despite Anand´s earlier
insistence that X2 would may not be available at all this year, or very late this year, at retail. It should also have the Pentium
D 820 covered for those that already own a S939 board. Not bad at all for the little manufacturer.
BTW, die size of the part amounts to 147mm^2, which is the same size as Newcastle. AMD should be able to make quite a few of those should the need arise.
KeithDust2000 - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
Hi!