Difference between sockets 754 and 939?

[DigitalDragon]

Basically, I've almost decided to buy an AMD Athlon 64. Now i want to decide whether to buy a 3400+ using the 754 socket or the 3200+ using the 939 socket. Both cost around the same, but i want to know which one would be better for gaming.

I also want to know the P4 equivalent of the 3200+, 3400+ as well as the 3500+

Would getting a 3500+ instead of the 3200/3400 ones i stated earlier give me a performance boost worthy of the price (which is around US$50 more expensive here in Hong Kong)

Any help would be greatly appreciated

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by DigitalDragon on 06/27/05 11:02 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Starfishy]

If they are the same price buy a s939. Many people are going to come on here now and show you some bench marks where the s754 has a slight advantage, but I assure you the performance of these chips is very close. As well, the s754 is no longer in production which means that any further upgrades you should make would require a new mobo and a new CPU if you go s754. Now some people are going to come on here and say that upgradability doesn't matter for just a CPU because nobody ever just upgrades a CPU. But that is not true, I just recently had the opportunity to upgrade one of my 3200+ chips up to a new venice core for a very good price and I couldn't resist selling my old one to a friend and getting the new one.

To make a long story short, I would get s939.

 

[dunklegend]

Socket 754 will accept Sempron or A64 uses AGP and like starfishy said AMD is not releasing new CPUs for it.

Socket 939 will accept A64 or a dual core X2 uses PCIe and I think it's the better alternative.

<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>

 

[DigitalDragon]

So basically, a Athlon 3400+ 754 will beat a 3200+ 939 in performance, right?

 

[dunklegend]

The socket 939 also has dual channel memory, I don't know about the socket 754 though.

<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>

 

[Starfishy]

Well, we have seen benchies going both ways on this. But yes, for the most part it is true. If you find a s754 and set it up the same as an s939 then you will see better performance out of the s754. But once again I will stress that it is not upgradable, and you won't be able to use PCIe, you couldn't get a venice core, you can't ever go SLI, I just don't like that option.

We haven't really seen performance tests showing the s754 vs a s939 venice, so I don't know how they would stack up against eachother.

 

[fishmahn]

Socket 754 is single channel, 939 is dual channel. 754 is now the 'budget' platform, and the 3700+ (2.4ghz) is the fastest cpu AMD has said they'll release for it.

Here's the funny thing about 754/939 comparisons: If you compare PR ratings (the 3000+, 3200+, etc.) 2 CPUs with the same PR rating and the 754 comes out a bit ahead. That's because a 754 3200+ is 2.2ghz w/512k cache, and a 939 3200+ is 2.0ghz w/512k cache. Dual channel helps, but not enough to overcome the 200mhz clock difference.

If you compare actual clock speeds, a 754 3200+(2.2g/512k) and a 939 3500+ (2.2ghz/512k), then the 939 will win because of dual channel.

IMO, unless money is exceedingly tight, get 939.

Mike.

<font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>