Athlon 64 3000+ EOL'ed, New 3200+ and 3500+ E4 Stepping
by Kristopher Kubicki on November 26, 2005 3:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
For those of you who watch the Athlon 64 market very closely, you may have noticed the sudden dry up of lower clocked E3 Venice CPUs. According to industry insiders, AMD appears to have discontinued shipping the Athlon 64 3000+ to major retailers, although AMD roadmaps predicted this far in advanced. However, sources have now indicated that AMD has also stopped shipping the Athlon 64 E3 Venice 3200+ and 3500+ Socket 939 processors too. Higher clocked Athlon 64 chips, like the 3800+, are in allocation.
The halted shipments of the Athlon 64 3200+ and 3500+ are a bit of a surprise to most merchants we've talked to. AMD is already phasing in new "E4" chips, and pre-orders are already cropping up at various merchants. The E4 stepping has generally been reserved for San Diego, Venus, and Troy cores in the past, but the new stepping may steal some of the limelight away from AMD's exceptional Opteron 939 Venus since only the cache sizes are different now. Our price engine has already picked up the Athlon 64 3200+ and the Athlon 64 3500+ E4:
AMD Athlon 64 (939) 3200+ 512KB Venice
AMD Athlon 64 (939) 3500+ 512KB Venice
The new E4 chips carry the "CG" code name in the SKU. For example, the new 3200+ retail kit is labeled as ADA3200CGBOX. Don't let this confuse you with the "CG" stepping of older Hammer SKUs; those were labeled as "AR" and "AS" in the OPN (SKU).
The halted shipments of the Athlon 64 3200+ and 3500+ are a bit of a surprise to most merchants we've talked to. AMD is already phasing in new "E4" chips, and pre-orders are already cropping up at various merchants. The E4 stepping has generally been reserved for San Diego, Venus, and Troy cores in the past, but the new stepping may steal some of the limelight away from AMD's exceptional Opteron 939 Venus since only the cache sizes are different now. Our price engine has already picked up the Athlon 64 3200+ and the Athlon 64 3500+ E4:
AMD Athlon 64 (939) 3200+ 512KB Venice
AMD Athlon 64 (939) 3500+ 512KB Venice
The new E4 chips carry the "CG" code name in the SKU. For example, the new 3200+ retail kit is labeled as ADA3200CGBOX. Don't let this confuse you with the "CG" stepping of older Hammer SKUs; those were labeled as "AR" and "AS" in the OPN (SKU).
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bob661 - Monday, November 28, 2005 - link
Opteron cores.AnnihilatorX - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link
Venice is NOT Opteron. It was a succesor to the NewCastle. The Athlon64 3000+, 3200+ you can purchase now are all VenicesThey are 90nm parts with built in DDR controller and SSE3 support
the1jez - Sunday, November 27, 2005 - link
Does anyone know what the difference is in the e4 stepping and is this better or worse for the 3200+ etc...? Should I buy the old ones now while they still exist or is there some advantage to spending a few extra bucks for the e4??anyone know? or can you post a link that explains the e4 vs e3 stepping...
BigLan - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
First they pull the plug on OEM CPUs with some BS about them not being cheaper or as reliable or something, and now they're doing the same thing with one of the best overclocking chips.At least they gave us the s939 opteron, which I guess will be the new overclockers chip.
Pete84 - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
AMD may be making room for a Sempron series in the 939 format, and EOL'ing the 3000+ would give them the room to do so.pukemon - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
Actually AMD already does make aSocket 939 Semprons for HP, they're OEM only and aren't listed in any product literature. They're used in the HP Pavillions that have the ATI Radeon Express chipsets. Basically they use the same motherboard for Sempron, Athlon64, and Athlon64 X2 systems.phanna - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
Bah, the 3200+ chips overclock just as well, and looks like the prices on these aren't too much more than the old 3000+'s when they came out...I would say the new 3200+ is just as viable an overclocking option, especially once they drop down a little more in price. Also, I'm sure if you are still really in the market for a 3000+, you can still get one, just get em while you can.ShadowVlican - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
i wonder how these will OCPete84 - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
So what has been changed for the E4 stepping?semo - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
will there be a 64 3000+ at all now?and what's different with this new stepping. does it run cooler, faster or just some bug fixes?