Athlon 64 Cores

[Kills On Site]

Well I have been looking at some Athlon 64 socket 939 processors, probably won't get one for while, but I like to shop early. I noticed that for the Athlon 64 4000+ there are two cores, the Clawhammer and the Sledgehammer; the Clawhammer being $100 more then the Sledgehammer. Can anyone explain or link me to what the differences are in the cores for Athlon 64s and what performance increases and decreases there are between the cores, not just the Clawhammer and Sledgehammer, but all the Athlon 64 cores.

[4g3nt_Smith]

Class bitch. Do you not have it?

[Grudge]

This is exactly the reason I don't read T&T anymore.

[Magestic]

Wait for the Venice core. :icon31: Faster, better memory controller and still socket 939!

As for the Clawhammer/Sledgehammer story, I'm not reall sure. The Sledgehammer core is (also?) used in (socket940) Opteron server procs.
The Clawhammer core, I'm not sure about, but it looks like a normal Athlon 64 with 1024kb l2 cache, instead of the normal 512kb cache on the Newcastle/Winchester cores.

Diff between the Newcastle and Winchester cores is that the NC has a .13micron production process, where the Winnies have 0.09.

[Kills On Site]

Well I took at a look at the AMD roadmap, couldnt tell any dates or what the Venice proc will have. If it is coming out within the year then I might get one. So far my computer fiscal year 2005 is very up in the air. I am hoping Intel will come out with a 64-bit or dual core soon as it will hopefull drive prices down across the board.

Good call Smith, bitch at me about being in class when you yourself are in class

[4g3nt_Smith]

[Kills On Site]

Well anyone know a date for the new Venice cores, or for the the dual core Intels.

Also which is a better chipset for socket 939 the VIA K8T800 Pro or the nFORCE 4 Ultra?

[Psyche911]

KOS: Some people already have their hands on Venice cores. They aren't for sale anywhere, but it seems many places have them. I think they AMD is not allowing them to be sold until Winchester stock has died down.

But at most, maybe 1 month.

It's worth the wait even if you don't need the memory controller improvements, default vcore is 1.4v and people are hitting like 2.8GHz at that voltage.

And FFS, K8T800 is a completely different class than nForce 4 Ultra. The nForce 4 is PCI-Express, K8T800 is not. K8T890 is, but it's still the cheap chipset, not as good.

Get an nForce 4 Ultra and a Venice in a few weeks and you'll be happy.

[Kills On Site]

Kick ass, I thought they would be out at the end of the year.

I was thinking an nForce 4 Ultra, it does mean I got to sell or use my 6800 GT AGP and buy a 6800GT PCI-E, but I will prolly get all this much later this year.

I hope they overclock well, but I will buy what is good and overclock past what is happy for me. I tried buying a proc on overclocking "potential" and it isn't doing great for me

:EDIT: any clue as to what the prices will be for the Venice core A64s?

[4g3nt_Smith]

A64's are multiplier locked, though I don't know why you derive pleasure from overclocking til it BSOD's if you so much as look at it funny.

[Kills On Site]

Could someone explain what is going on here
IT says 64-bit processing, does it mean it is a 64-bit processor and all like the Athlon 64s or is it something different?

TBH right now I am extrememly confused. So far I have heard from Anandtech that not only is Intel releasing a dual core processor it will be 64-bit also. Not only is AMD releasing a new core for 939s but later it will be dual core also. Both AMD and Intel will keep the sockets they are currently using, the Intels will need a new chipset, so the old LGA775 mobos won't work with the new procs.

Also as Anandtech also said nVIDIA is now making a chipset for the new Intel 64-bit dual core CPUs.


I am so confused.....

[Psyche911]

Could someone explain what is going on here
IT says 64-bit processing, does it mean it is a 64-bit processor and all like the Athlon 64s or is it something different?

TBH right now I am extrememly confused. So far I have heard from Anandtech that not only is Intel releasing a dual core processor it will be 64-bit also. Not only is AMD releasing a new core for 939s but later it will be dual core also. Both AMD and Intel will keep the sockets they are currently using, the Intels will need a new chipset, so the old LGA775 mobos won't work with the new procs.

Also as Anandtech also said nVIDIA is now making a chipset for the new Intel 64-bit dual core CPUs.


I am so confused.....

Okay. Both AMD and Intel mainstream processors are now 64-bit. Not that anybody will make use of it anytime soon, I think the big thing is Intel did it for marketing reasons at this time. There's no benefit.

Intel is now shipping dual core desktop processors at very good prices. If you use heavy multitasking (I'm taking about like ripping DVDs while playing games while listening to music and converting shit to DivX all at the same time), then Intel is the way to go. If you usually don't run a lot of CPU intensive stuff at the same time (as in when you game you don't have much open other than maybe a browser window and an mp3 player), AMD is probably the way to go.

Right now, there is no way I would buy an Intel. Dual cores don't offer any improvement in todays apps except for some video editing and rendering programs.

AMD says most current socket 939 motherboards will be able to use dual core processors later this year/early next year. Just a BIOS flash should be sufficient.
While for Intel, you need to move to their latest chipset the 955, I think it is, over the 915/925 chipset (which is quite new, so they pretty much screwed over hundreds of thousands of people there).


As far as the video card is concerned, you would need a new PCI-Express card unless you wanted to go with the nForce 3. It would save you some money going that route, and it would still be a good machine...but if you don't mind spending some more, I would go with the nForce 4 Ultra and a Venice.

Just wait about 2 months. I'm sure Venice processors will have a price premium when they first come out, but after a couple weeks on the market they should cost the same as Winchester cores do now.

[Kills On Site]

Now are the Venices dual core when they cme out or is AMD planning a dual core release later this year?

[Psyche911]

No, they are not, upon release.
The dual core A64 processors will have double Venice cores though. I'm not sure when the dual core A64s will be out, but not for some time.

However, unless you routinely run very CPU intensive applications while doing other things like gaming, dual cores currently offer nearly no benefit. No games today are multithreaded. You will not see a benefit in games until the first multithreaded ones begin appearing in 2006.

And if you go Intel over AMD, you will definitely experience slower performance when running single threaded applications alone, like when you are gaming.

Not to mention, current Intel processors use tons of electricity and generate a lot of heat too. I just think they are a poor choice for almost everyone. Only people who want to do multiple CPU intensive things at once. Which I know I don't do.

[Tormentius]

I just think they are a poor choice for almost everyone. Only people who want to do multiple CPU intensive things at once. Which I know I don't do.

I've noticed that a recent hyperthreaded system I built at the office is a lot more nimble for day to day tasks (which include multitasking) than the A64 system I have at home. HT makes a nice option if you're in the habit of juggling a few things at once, even if they aren't very intensive. For gaming though I couldn't agree more. I recently had a screaming deal on an Intel w/HT and turned it down since I enjoy the A64 so much.

[Kills On Site]

Well you see I do both the sides. I have two computers, one is Intel that I use for my video trasncoding, music, movies, data and files and often have many things running at once. My other computer is an AMD that I use for gaming primarily.

[Psyche911]

So which are you upgrading?

I think I built this PC at a good time. Sure, it's begining to slow with newer games, but by the time I actually need an upgrade, dual core Athlon 64s should be out with some multithreaded games.

Tormentius, that's good to know. I've got a HT P4 here, and it does seem to be very responsive. But considering I'm coming from a 450MHz G4, that's not saying too much.

[Kills On Site]

Well one computer, the one in my living room, the current Intel is getting on the slow side and has no HT or dual cores, seeing as I am transcoding a lot more for my PSP and am noticing slow performace due to dated hardware also the fact that it is actually a gutted HP, I plan on putting an Intel 64-bit dual core computer in my living room before the year is out.

As for the gaming rig in my room, my OCed Athlon 2600 Mobile is crashing quite a bit so I plan on dumping it for a more stable system that will be Athlon 64.

Of the two I am fairly certain the living room PC will be replaced before the year is out, as for my gaming rig that is dependant as to how much cash I can earn this summer

[Psyche911]

I see.
Well, the first low-end dual core Intels look to be very good for the price. But I wouldn't be too happy about having to dissipate well over 100 watts of heat.

Sounds like it would be a good upgrade for you though...

[Kills On Site]

Well here it is Athlon 64 3500+ Venice core. I am sure more will come, but there is a Venice core for sale, a bit more then the other 3500s, better tho

[bitWISE]

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm? ... 742&page=5

[Psyche911]

Yeah, the 3500+ Venice went on sale 2 days ago all over. I believe the 3200+ and 3000+ are arriving on May 6th and 20th. Though I don't know which one is available on which date.

Still, I would think prices will drop maybe $10-15 a month or two after they're all available. They're extremely popular right now, so retailers can charge a premium. Though it's not as bad as when the Winchester first came out, thankfully.

[Kills On Site]

Well when the Venice core 3200+ comes out will it be in a retail version at newegg?