AMD Single Core/Midrange CPUs
Moving on to the mainstream offerings, prices become far more attractive on the AMD side. There have also been some major price cuts recently, dropping even some of the fastest single core offerings into the mainstream/budget price ranges. Check out the price graph on the Athlon 64 3800+.
If all you really care about is gaming performance, a fast Athlon 64 processor is currently the best price/performance offering. At the previous price of $280, the 3800+ would have been a tough sell, but for $147 it's a great buy [RTPE: ADA3800BPBOX]. Unfortunately, the great prices don't extend to the San Diego cores, so our recommendation is to either spend the money for the X2 chips or stick with the Venice cores. Here are the complete price lists for single core Athlon 64 processors for sockets 939 and AM2. (Please disregard the FX chips that show up; the granularity of our filtering has some limitations.)
After carrying an initial price premium, the AM2 processors have once again matched their 939 counterparts in terms of price. For the overclocking enthusiast that doesn't want dual cores, the most attractive option on either socket is the 3200+: [RTPE: ADA3200BPBOX] $98 for socket 939 and [RTPE: ADA3200CNBOX] $105 for AM2. The reason we recommend the 3200+ over the 3000+ for overclocking is that the 10X CPU multiplier provides a bit more flexibility, and we feel it's worth the extra $10-$15. If you're willing to spend a bit more, the AM2 3800+ [RTPE: ADA3800CNBOX] at $149 is a great midrange pick for AMD's new platform. Perhaps it will be enough to keep you happy while you wait for the quad core chips to arrive?
Moving on to the mainstream offerings, prices become far more attractive on the AMD side. There have also been some major price cuts recently, dropping even some of the fastest single core offerings into the mainstream/budget price ranges. Check out the price graph on the Athlon 64 3800+.
If all you really care about is gaming performance, a fast Athlon 64 processor is currently the best price/performance offering. At the previous price of $280, the 3800+ would have been a tough sell, but for $147 it's a great buy [RTPE: ADA3800BPBOX]. Unfortunately, the great prices don't extend to the San Diego cores, so our recommendation is to either spend the money for the X2 chips or stick with the Venice cores. Here are the complete price lists for single core Athlon 64 processors for sockets 939 and AM2. (Please disregard the FX chips that show up; the granularity of our filtering has some limitations.)
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Calin - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
The only reason you could have to buy an Sempron (AM2) over an Athlon would be the lower power use (35W TDP for the new Semprons compared to the 65W TDP of the Athlons64 AM2 (or 89W of the X2 versions).Could there be an evaluation of the difference in power use between the same frequency Sempron and Athlon64 processors? Thanks
johnsonx - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
The low power Semprons aren't available yet, nor are the low power Athlons at the current time. Currently shipping Semprons and Athlons are all 65W TDP.Looking at the recent price lists, I'd make a bet that all the single-core Athlon64's are going away before long, with the possible exception of the highest performing parts. It's the same logic that applies to the 1Mb cache parts: single-core A64's cost AMD more to make than Semprons, yet AMD can't really charge more money for them because of their convoluted model numbering system.
Having an Athlon64 3000+ that is clocked the same but has 4x the cache as a Sempron 3400+ just makes a mess of things.
mino - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
Well they are :)AFAIK pretty much any 90nm Sempron(doesn't matter which socket) is in the 20W-35W power consumption range.
Calin - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
I saw on offers Sempron (AM2) processors with TDP of 35W, compared to the Athlon64 (AM2 versions) with TDP of 65W and the dual cores (again AM2) with 89W TDP.I suppose the low voltage versions are not here yet, but the power rating in offers still remains
JarredWalton - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
You will also be able to get low power X2 and Athlon 64 chips in the near future. I will see about testing an Athlon 64 3000+ (AM2) compared to the Sempron 3400+ (AM2). My experience in the past is that AMD's TDP power numbers have been extremely conservative, so I would be surprised if Sempron chips are more than 5 Watts lower. That might matter for notebooks/laptops, but for desktops 5 W is basically meaningless -- you're looking at $5 (or less) for power costs over the course of an entire year, assuming the system is running 24/7/365.Calin - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
Thank you very muchSonicIce - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
I can't belive how cheap single core Athlon 64's have gotten. This is a very good thing! Hopefully dual cores will fall soon.jelifah - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
That's what Jarred was trying to say in his article when he said 'if you can wait a month'July 24th AMD is expected to slash prices by around 50%. And yes that includes the pretty little X2 3800+, which should be available for $150. Now the only question is how quick NewEgg can ship them on that day, because I WILL place an order at that price.
I'm actually going to be paying LESS for a dual core than I paid for my socket 939 3000+ single core 18 months ago.
ChronoReverse - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
I'll be watching prices very carefully in the upcoming months. Right now I'm still undecided as to getting an used s939 3800+, a new AM2 3800+ or getting the $160 Conroe.Great times ahead now that there's competition again.
Rebel44 - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
Yeah they will - I´m just waiting for release of new Intel´s procesors because AMD announced to lower prices of X-2´s by up to 50%:-)