The future of AMDs sockets??

[Yossarian]

Hi I'm looking to completely overhaul my PC and so have been reading up on the technology for the last three weeks. I'm looking to continue with AMD but what does the future hold for each CPU socket type?

Info I've found out:
Socket A - AXP and Durons
This will be phased out in the next 6 months or so.

Socket 754 - A64. Sempron
This will become the budget to midrange system.

Socket 939 - A64, FX-53
The newest socket so its future is assured.


My questions
How long will the 754 socket be around? Can I count on processors being around for upgrading in 2-3 years time?

Are AMD looking to change everything to socket 939 in the near future? Possibly for ease of manufacture etc.

What advantages do the 939 pin CPU's have over the 754 pin CPU's apart from the dual channel memory controller and 1GHz Hypertransport? From what I’ve read the dual channel memory does not appear to make a significant increase in performance.

Will the 939 pin CPU's have other features added over time?

When will the 939 pin CPU's, become more affordable?

Thanks

Current PC
AMD Duron 800 MHz
GA-7IXE4 (AMD 750 chipset)
Geforce 2MX AGP 2x
Sound Blaster 16 PCI
256MB SDRAM
20GB hard disk
Net Gear Fast 10/100 Ethernet PCI adapter
Philips DVD+R/+RW
350W power supply

 

[darko21]

<A HREF="http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20040821122657.html" target="_new"> This </A> might help you out.

If I glanced at a spilt box of tooth picks on the floor, could I tell you how many are in the pile. Not a chance, But then again I don't have to buy my underware at Kmart.

 

[TheRod]

How long will the 754 socket be around? Can I count on processors being around for upgrading in 2-3 years time?

AMD haven't planned to launch faster A64 for S754 yet. So, you probably never get any faster than Athlon 64 3700+ on this platform. So, if you buy an Athlon 64 2800+ today, you will only be able to push your platform to 3700+ in the future.

But, it's not very important, becaue in 2-3 years (2007), there will be dual-core CPU in most market segment and the 3700+ will be kind of "slow" compared to someting like "dual 4000+" core CPUs that will be out.

Are AMD looking to change everything to socket 939 in the near future? Possibly for ease of manufacture etc.

As long as AMD will be satisfied with DDR400 memory performance, they will keep this socket. The on-die memory controller is VERY effective, AMD don't need DDR2 to compete with Intel. Maybe we will never see an AMD CPU working with DDR2, AMD may skip DDR2 completly and use next-generation memory for their next "beast".

Socket939 will stay, the only problem is that today's chipsets don't support PCI-EXPRESS and this is the major concern for people who wants to buy a PC for "long-term". In the next year, AGP will be slowly phased out and there is good chance that the next GPU generation will not support AGP at all. So, buying a platform today that don't have PCI-EXPRESS might be costly in a near future when the only GPU upgrade path will be PCI-EXPRESS.

What advantages do the 939 pin CPU's have over the 754 pin CPU's apart from the dual channel memory controller and 1GHz Hypertransport?

Not a big advantage, the biggest advantage of S939 is the long-term support and upgradability.

Will the 939 pin CPU's have other features added over time?

Yes, AMD is still fine-tuning their 90nm process, there is a lot of articles/rumours that 90nm Athlon64/FX will be faster than actual Athlon64 at the same clock speed! And they will get new instructions set support to be "equal" to Intel. Socket 939 will get DUAL-CORE by 2005 too! This is a great feature!

When will the 939 pin CPU's, become more affordable?

Ask Intel! AMD have very pricing for their CPU right now, and Intel can't beat them in high-end segment. If you check pricewatch, you will see that the Pentium 4 3.6GHz (LGA775) is for sale, but is not in stock! The fastest available Pentium is the 3.4GHz and AMD can ship Athlon 64 3500+, 3700+, 3800+ and FX-53. All these processor are "faster" than Intel CPU. AMD will not cut down their price, they know thay have a very good price/performance ratio.

If you want to buy a 200$ CPU, don't ask for 350$ CPU performance, buy what you can afford of wait until the 350$ CPU price will become 200$, and then you wil ask when the new CPUs will be cheaper... It's a neverending story! And the only solution is buy what you can afford now, or buy what you want at the price tag! Computer technology is always changing, you can't sit and wait!

In the last 3 months I changed my mind every week about my next PC upgrade, and I finally found that my current aging rig can serves me well for another couple of months! Doom 3 don't deserve a 500$ upgrade (it'S my personnal opinion) and Half-Life 2 is not out yet! So, why should I throw my money only to get Doom 3 running in 1024x768???

I stop here!


--
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>AMD Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290

 

[P4Man]

Go with S754 if you don't need the performance of current S939 chips. They price premium you currently pay for S939 boards and cpu's will let you buy a "free" motherboard when you want to upgrade in 2 or 3 years. Chances are you'd want a new motherboard anyway to take advantage of PCI-E, maybe DDR-2 or whatever comes out by then. I wouldn't think much about it, its true 3700+ is probably the limit for S754, but it aint much of a problem IMO.

OTOH, rumours are AMD will be releasing cpu's down to the 3000+ range for the S939 in a couple of weeks. IF MB prices drop as well by then (not unlikely), may as well get a S939 then if you can stand the wait.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[Crashman]

AMD changes compatability as often as Intel! Socket A for example has gone through around 4 changes where the newer boards support older processors but the older boards won't support newer processors! GAH! You want garuntees? Socket 939 should be around at least 2 years, but by then you might find only AMD's budget class CPU's work on it.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[bosshoss]

Hey p4man, I am currently looking to buy a s939 steup but the 3500+ is just out of my price range for a cpu, where did you hear about AMD releasing lower rated s939's? I want to know if it's a pretty sure thinkg because I personally will wait the extra month to buy my new stuff if this is true.

<i> If the creator of the human body is "The Ultimate Engineer", why did he put a recreation site right next to a waste treatment area? </i>