When it comes to choosing a processor for my computer, or when helping some friend of mine to assemble a new one, I prefer to go with AMD CPU. In my case it’s 100%, while some friends still have the notion of that Intel are superior and so on (result of strong branding and history) and AMD still not being 100% compatible(!). They are not geeks, so I try to forgive them for such, hmm …, meaningless thoughts. Well then, to previewing the latest processors from AMD that are Socket-AM2 based.

Despite the upcoming announcement of pretty promising Intel CPUs, Socket AM2 platform from AMD attracted a lot of attention. The AM2 desktop (revision F) processors being announced today are based upon Windsor, Orleans, and Manila cores for the Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64, and Sempron series respectively. AMD’s physical socket change does not appear to have been necessary for the move from DDR to DDR2, but it was likely done to prevent consumer confusion when installing components. While component-wise this AMD launch today isn’t as ground-breaking as Intel’s Grantsdale and Alderwood launch that had delivered DDR2, PCI Express, Land Grid Array CPU package, and other changes for the platform, today is AMD’s first time benefiting from Double Data Rate 2 system memory. With many of the initial DDR2 problems now addressed, such as the high latencies, and the frequencies now exceeding 1GHz, it is certainly time for AMD to join this bandwagon. One of the advantages of AMD’s DDR2 adoption is the official support for DDR2-800MHz by the CPU, while Intel’s competition remains at DDR2-667 until later this year when they will finally get into DDR2-800+ support.

Speaking of the “devil”, here are what Athlon 64 X2 core Revision F and AM2 scoket with 940 pins look like:

(not much different from current S939 X2 processors)

Another important achievement resulting from the transition to AMD’s new Revision F core is the lowering of processors’ power consumption. As announced last week, the energy efficient (EE) AM2 processors can provide 37 percent greater performance-per-watt than standard AMD processors, and the new Athlon 64 X2 solutions can provide up to 154 percent greater performance-per-watt. One of the numbers that AMD has thrown out in its press release last week as a dual-core processor consuming a mere 14 Watts … picture that.

One of the other advantages to have been delivered is with AMD’s Pacifica Virtualization Technology — the competitor to Intel’s Vanderpool Virtualization Technology. AMD’s Pacifica will support all x86 modes, including the Virtual 8086. AMD has also implemented Presidio technology for enhanced security built-in and can support TPM components. Pacifica technology will also boast an exclusive feature for protecting buggy code or malicious content from running on the AM2 processor.

All major motherboard makers have shown strong support for AM2 socket – DFI, Epox, ABIT, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, which have ready versions to roll-out. On the chipset side, nVidia’s nForce 500 series becoming available today include the nForce 590 SLI, nForce 570 SLI, nForce 570, and nForce 550. The ATI Xpress 1100, for use with AMD notebooks can also be used with desktop systems and Xpress 1150 now integrates faster graphics (X300 core), and a handful of additional optimizations. SiS and VIA will also be throwing new AM2-supportive chipsets as well. As usual I see nVidia having the best mix of features to performance comparing to competitors, and as I currently am using nForce4 Ultra, when time will come to upgrading my system, I am likely to go with nVidia again. Here is how they have categorized their 5xx family.

On Linux Front

ATI’s SB600 with its SATA, PATA, and audio capabilities, have already been merged with the 2.6.17 kernel in its release candidate 3. For those motherboards continuing to use previous Socket 939 Chipsets, such as the ASRock AM2NF4G-SATA2, there should be no extraordinary Linux problems to note as the nForce 4 is already well supported within Linux. We do anticipate that the nForce 500 series arrival will be smooth now that NVIDIA has experienced territory in Linux as they now know what will be required of them in this arena.

My Upgrade Path

As I am currently running Athlon64 S939 Venice E-6 core processor, which is overclocked to 2.9Ghz, I find it quite sufficient and wont be upgrading to AM2 this year. You may ask why. Well the reasons are that not much applications, including games, are utilizing the power of dual-core processors. I don’t see that I’ll be able to run dual-core each running at 2.9+Ghz. By the time I decide to upgrade the prices on processors will be lower, compared to premium AMD will charge in coming months as they are new, and newer revision will be out, with even lesser power consumption, maximising the overclocking potential of the CPU. The pricing on DDR2-800 are also likely to fall in next 6-8 months, especially the ones with lower latency, though time has shown that prices start to go up on DRAM chips when there is high demand, or cause of some factory catching fire. Same is true for motherboards. When they are just released in market, pricing is quite harsh on users, and I am no rich guy.

Another factor, which is very important one for me is the support of new hardware in Linux kernel. By the time I will decide to upgrade, newer kernel be rolled out with much better support and integration for AM2 chipsets, and the features that these chipsets will have. Hopefully such kernel will be supplied with the next major release of SUSE Linux, which will be 10.2. And really would love to see much lesser problems when encountering with smp-kernel and drivers and also applications.

In future I’ll be looking at mid-range AM2 Athlon X2 processor which can overclock to around 3Ghz on each core, and also motherboard with nForce 570 Ultra. Why not SLI, because I don’t need one. If I have money for two video cards to use in SLI mode, I will prefer to go with one card that is more powerful. And on top of that I don’t have 3-4 monitors, hence the need for more than two connectors. I can also opt for video cards that have 2 GPUs on one PCB. And as I am not into gaming that much, don’t think I’ll be getting such one either. Unless I find a bag full of $$$ :)

Final Thoughts

Am I impressed? Not sure, at least as of now. One thing that I have to mention is that I was expecting more performance gain when switching to new AM2. Basically I see minor modifications to already famous Athlon64 processors and noticed that they didn’t make any in-depth architectural changes. These type of moves from AMD can lead to loosing market share and eventually to complete defeat. So I hope that AMD will be gearing up and bringing faster technological breakthroughs and implementing them in their processors and really hope that they have some trump card under their sleeves.

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