AM2 vs. LGA775 Lifespan

[delsvr]

Of course no one knows for sure, but how long do you estimate AMD will develop its processors for the AM2 socket? Will AMD's upcoming 65nm process CPUs require a new socket type? I'm hosting a 754 Athlon 64, and I'm wondering which route I should take, and my biggest concern is whether or not I'll have an upgrade path.

 

[broly8877]

AM2 will accept AM3 CPUs... granted, they wont run the way they're supposed to (HT3.0 and DDR3), but it'll run them.

That's at least until 2008.

VRM11 LGA775 boards will run Kentsfield (Conroex2, quad-core) later this year.
45nm conroes will probably use the same socket, but will more than likely require a new chipset/vrm (classic Intel)

 

[Shimmishim]

i think it's hard to compare AM2 to 975x

you should compare AM2 to LGA775, since AM2 is a socket and 975x is a chipset.

but i agree with broly.

intel ALWAYS releases a new chipset when a new chip comes out even if it's compatible with the socket... dang intel!!!

 

[996GT2]

AMD says AM3 will be backwards compatible with AM2, although you lose some of the functionality (i.e. DDR3). Intel has many more chipsets than AMD, as they release new chipsets with the release of a new CPU.

i.e. LGA775 chipsets: 915. 925, 945, 955, 965, 975; also NForce intel edition and others
AMD AM2: NForce series, VIA and a few others

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
i think it's hard to compare AM2 to 975x

you should compare AM2 to LGA775, since AM2 is a socket and 975x is a chipset.

but i agree with broly.

intel ALWAYS releases a new chipset when a new chip comes out even if it's compatible with the socket... dang intel!!!

Yeah.. almost always. Intel never fails...

I built my new rig back at the end of February. Waiting was not an option.. I needed a new rig immediately, and I knew Conroe was coming out in the summer.

I ended up getting the Intel D975X Bad Axe.. of course I ended up with a revision 3.02 and now I've discovered that you have to have Revision 3.04 or later to run Conroe.

I will not buy another motherboard just to run Conroe... but on the otherhand.. with Intel price cuts, and Conroe released, in addition to a few more Pentium D's coming out.. I may be in the market for one of those Pentium D 950's or 960's.. which should be cheap

 

[Excal78]

Originally posted by: delsvr
Of course no one knows for sure, but how long do you estimate AMD will develop its processors for the AM2 socket? Will AMD's upcoming 65nm process CPUs require a new socket type? I'm hosting a 754 Athlon 64, and I'm wondering which route I should take, and my biggest concern is whether or not I'll have an upgrade path.

Very good question. I wonder that too. I wish Intel would be more reliable in terms of upgrade. With AM2 at least we know that the AM3 will acceptable for AM2 sockets but about Intel?
I am planning to make a major upgrade (motherboard, cpu and gpx) in christmas but I don't want to make a similar purchase for a while after that.

 

[theteamaqua]

AM2 will prolly be longer. i ehard K8L will be on this...

LGA775 doesnt really mean u can run conroe .. it needs VRM11

so .. eyah

 

[JPH1121]

You don't lose any functionality by having an AM2 motherboard with an AM3 chip. Same socket, just the motherboard must support only 1 type of RAM...either DDR3 or DDR2

But yeah, you'll have to buy a new motherboard if you want DDR3

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: jlbenedict
I built my new rig back at the end of February. Waiting was not an option.. I needed a new rig immediately, and I knew Conroe was coming out in the summer.

I ended up getting the Intel D975X Bad Axe.. of course I ended up with a revision 3.02 and now I've discovered that you have to have Revision 3.04 or later to run Conroe.

I will not buy another motherboard just to run Conroe... but on the otherhand.. with Intel price cuts, and Conroe released, in addition to a few more Pentium D's coming out.. I may be in the market for one of those Pentium D 950's or 960's.. which should be cheap

Just use a wire-mod:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99298

Takes less than an hour.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: JPH1121
You don't lose any functionality by having an AM2 motherboard with an AM3 chip. Same socket, just the motherboard must support only 1 type of RAM...either DDR3 or DDR2

But yeah, you'll have to buy a new motherboard if you want DDR3

That sounds like lost functionality to me. Call me crazy.

 

[bobdelt]

I'd imagine that Intel is going to ramp up the FSB, especially with the quad cores coming soon. So I'm thinking there are going to be new chipsets for 1333 or higher fsb, but a lot of boards today can handle tha speed so I wonder what will happy. Hopefully intel doesnt change the socket or require a new voltage regulator. Maybe they will realize that people are starting to get up with their shannanigins

 

[coldpower27]

Well in 2nd Quarter of 2007 they will be releasing the Bearlake family which will have 1.33GHZ FSB support, so if they do desire new processors with 1.33GHZ FSB they can make them with the launch of the chipset. On the other hand however, with Intel they like to release new chipset families once a year at the minimum, as unlike AMD they have a chipset business to worry about.

We will have to see what AMD does, if they ATI merger thing actually goes through fully, and ATI does get integrated as a subsidiary of AMD.

 

[nyker96]

Yes I have seen reports that Intel's overall memory bandwidth is quite low with current support chipset so this means they will go to new chipset when they go quad or above. It is only a guest but it seems logical with the available data.

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: nyker96
Yes I have seen reports that Intel's overall memory bandwidth is quite low with current support chipset so this means they will go to new chipset when they go quad or above. It is only a guest but it seems logical with the available data.

No your logic doesn't quite work, as Kentsfield and Clovertown have both been shown to have 1.06GHZ FSB, they will still run perfectly on exisitng 975X and P965 likely hardware. It just that Intel like to contniue releasing new chipsets with supprot of new technologies and things like that.

The Core Architecture at this time hasn't been shown to rely very much on memory bandwidth for it's performance, actually thats what the big caches there are for, to limit the need to go to main memory for data.

 

[harpoon84]

I think 'upgrade paths' are overrated.

If you are the type that upgrades every 2 - 3 years, by the time you do upgrade chances are your mobo is so outdated it will make more sense to just ditch it and grab the latest mobo + CPU, instead of crippling a current CPU with a last gen mobo/chipset.

Hardcore upgraders (every 6 months type) don't really care too much about upgrade paths either as they change mobos all the time to keep up with the 'latest tech'.