Socket 939

[imported_Aelius]

Originally posted by: darXoul
Probably. Damn, I would like to see a comprehensive comparison of 3400+ and 3500+ OC results as well. If you search reviews around the net thoroughly, you'll probably find some answers but what I desire is a megareview devoted solely to overclocking of all A64 CPUs available on the market - complete with multiplier and FSB tweaking, voltage, etc.

Such a comparison would be marginally useful at best. The general consensus is that both can reach 2.5-2.6Ghz on air and both can reach 2.7Ghz using water or phase change.

A far more important comparison would be RAM. People tend to forget that just because you can go ahead and buy PC4000 or PC4400 RAM it doesn't mean that it will overclock well, let alone work at the stated speed.

Look at the benchmark for PC4400 RAM on this website. They couldn't even get some of the RAM to run on A64s and it refused to run at DDR550.

Apparently, according to OCZ, the problem is not with the RAM but rather motherboard companies who constantly put out motherboards with BIOS that are specifically designed to run well with BH5 RAM chips.

I agree with OCZ in saying that they should stop doing that and instead release BIOS that is more generic and allow for better compatibility across the board. Apparently some company has started that already but only with one motherboard.

That's sad.

Anyway a comparison of RAM would be far better for overclocking and to do it on motherboards that people here tend to buy and not some random board off the shelf.

 

[darXoul]

Originally posted by: Aelius


DDRII is a requirement for future Intel CPUs since Intel can't go any further with DDR anymore. That is why they are pushing it. Not so for AMD where it makes absolutely no difference what so ever. The design of AMD CPUs don't require DDRII to be used now or in the near future. Perhaps late model 90nm CPUs or dual core CPUs might change that but again that's a guess at best.

This is true and I realize that (high latencies on current DDRII modules, plus no need to go over DDR~500, even for overclockers) but knowing the market and artificial pressure on new standards, I wouldn't be very surprised if in reality DDRII became mainstream earlier than we all expect. On the other hand, AMD has already stated its opinion towards DDRII and the "migration" might happen late indeed. I certainly hope so.

PCI-E is currently useful for one thing only. Lowering the cost of producing motherboards and perhaps video cards. This means more profits for companies but I wouldn't bet on them passing the savings onto the clients.

Performance either stays the same or is marginally less when PCI-E is used. Look at some early benchmarks. It just underlines the fact that video cards cannot be engineered to take serious advantage of anything beyond AGP 4X until greater than 32-36GB/sec BUS can be reached outside of the video card itself. PCI-E is currently 800% behind the minimum requirement for that.

I realized that, too. PCI-E = AGP right now, in terms of performance. Sometimes it's marginally faster, sometimes slower. However, again - the market changes fast and I hope we don't end up limited in our video card choices once PCI-E is THE standard.

It's possible the new standards will follow SATA's path though - parallel "old" and "new" solutions available but no real hurry to switch.

Again AMD doesn't need any of the above 3 right now nor in the near future. It may be integrated in a year or two because of the requirement of the market (marketing is good at that) but it won't have jack to do with a requirement for the CPU.

Like I confirmed above, that's probably true but:
a) I really hope that e.g. in one year we'll still have the chance to get a great high-end video card using the AGP slot,
b) once you're up to a big upgrade (CPU, video card, possibly more RAM) - just think how much more you would have to spend in order to get a new motherboard. 10%? 20%? Insignificant, I say.

That's why I don't really think that current s939 boards are the Eighth World Wonder - whether new standards get adopted quickly and are CPU-dependent or not.

 

[darXoul]

Originally posted by: Aelius


Anyway a comparison of RAM would be far better for overclocking and to do it on motherboards that people here tend to buy and not some random board off the shelf.

Yes, I should have mentioned RAM, too. In fact, I forgot to add that another crucial factor should be examined - RAM modules (brands, latencies, voltage).

 

[matman326]

Yeah PCI-E offers no real world performance gains but who is that very large graphics company that came up with SLI??? Ohhh yeah the same company that make chipsets for AMD.

My guess is we all will see PCI-E become the "standard", at least for graphics cards.


P.S. It would kinda be sweet if Nvidia released a chipset that could feature two 16x PCI-e slots before Intel did it. Then AMD would soooooooo kick butt.

 

[imported_Aelius]

Originally posted by: matman326
Yeah PCI-E offers no real world performance gains but who is that very large graphics company that came up with SLI??? Ohhh yeah the same company that make chipsets for AMD.

My guess is we all will see PCI-E become the "standard", at least for graphics cards.


P.S. It would kinda be sweet if Nvidia released a chipset that could feature two 16x PCI-e slots before Intel did it. Then AMD would soooooooo kick butt.

True. However how many people are going to blow $2,000 on a pair of brand new high end video cards? That's in Canadian dollars and I doubt anyone who isn't filthy rich is going to blow that much just on video cards.

I'm willing to blow $2,000 that is going to last me about 5 maybe 6 years like the Apple 20" Aluminum Cinema Display I'm going to get in a couple of weeks. However I can't justify spending that much on a pair of video cards until it becomes a requirement for high IQ and even then not at that price. Maybe half that or less. Keep in mind that it will be useless within a couple of years at most. That's not good investment for something so expansive.

I hope not or at least I hope the price of video cards drops back to what they used to be when the last SLI technology was out by 3Dfx. Back then you could buy 2 high end video cards for about $200-250 Canadian each.

Hopefully the good old days will come back but somehow I doubt it. Not unless the RAM used in video cards is heavily reduced in price. That won't happen until the companies responsible for the heavily controled RAM chip monopoly stop screwing over everyone else. That won't happen until they get dragged into court, which might happen in the next few years. Currently they are under investigation.

Oh and it would also require the downfall of everyone's favorite RAMBUS who is leeching off everyone else including you who pay $600 Canadian for a GB of RAM. That remains to be seen.

Quite honestly that's a lot of ifs and buts, but you never know. Things might work out.