AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
by Derek Wilson on July 28, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Two Flavors are Better than One: Socket A
First in line today is the socket A Sempron based on the K7 architecture.
Socket A Sempron 2800+
If the familiar rectangular shape of the core looks a little too familiar, that's probably for very good reason. The K7 Sempron is actually a 166MHz FSB 256KB Thoroughbred-B core.
Sempron's Secret
Upon first learning this, we were a little worried that we would see overlapping parts where new Semprons would actually be old Athlon XPs. Fortunately, this is not the case.
The slowest Athlon XP 166MHz FSB Thoroughbred-B was the 2600+ with a 12.5 multiplier (2.083GHz core clock). The highest K7 Sempron clock speed is 2GHz with a 12 multiplier.
What this does mean is that higher model numbered Semprons will be slower than "equivalent" Athlon XP processors. This does make a little bit of sense in that Sempron denotes a budget processor, which will be slower than the mainstream line. This is the same type of thing that we see when looking at a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 versus a 2.8GHz Celeron. They have the same "speed", but different performance.
In our opinion, this is a problem with marketing by clock speed, and we are disappointed to see AMD recreating a problem with artificial model numbers. So now, we have 4 different 2800+ CPUs (AXP Barton, AXP Tbred, Sempron Tbred, A64 Newcastle) and really no reason why this situation should have to exist. Hopefully, future model numbering plans will be better able to handle situations such as this.
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Pumpkinierre - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
Good to see the loss of cache having little effect. From 1Mb to 256K of L2 there would be barely 5% loss in overall performance even in cache biased demos and benchmarks and probably less in real gaming. 256K of L2 is right on the money, all that is needed is the S939 flavor with the dualmemory channel and a lasting socket. The a64 will show its true colours in data streaming activities once software is written or compiled for it rather than P4 biased software. cant wait to see the overclock.Zebo - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
Looks like there's going to hardly a difference between a Celeron 335 and Sempron 2800+.---------------
Comparing the top celeron to middle of the road athlon on a old socket A? Comparing a more expensive celeron to a less expensive sempron...
Hardly equitable. Look at the benches comaring competing processors. The 3100+ scores a, to use your words, 'WE PWNED INT3L OMG!!!' victory of 20+ % almost accross the board.;)
ncage - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
the overall value comes in upgradability. You can buy a socket 754 mb + sempron processor and be able to upgrade to an amd 64 chipset without upgrading your mb. So i think its awesomebearxor - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
I don't know...Looks like there's going to hardly a difference between a Celeron 335 and Sempron 2800+.
I don't think anyone could sit in front of either of these processors and tell a real-world difference.
While this looks like a victory for AMD, I think its really slim victory and not much of a 'WE PWNED INT3L OMG!!!' victory.
No doubt the overall cost of the Intel system will be higher, but will it matter for OEM's like Gateway/Compaq, etc?
I imagine we'll see systems using both from most manufacturers but the only downfall I see here is that regardless of which system you choose, you're already outdated with a very minimal upgrade path.
Zebo - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
Awesome!