Athlon 3700 Vs FX-55

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs Athlon 3700 Vs FX-55

So, i just bought the 3700 and looking at prices.

whats the fundamental differences between the 3700+ (San Diego) and the FX55. they both feature the exact same cores and sets. the only difference i can see is the higher clock spedd of the FX55. 2.6ghz v 2.2ghz.

and if thats the case, how do they warrant the difference in price? I baught it for 330 canadian while the FX55 is retailing for 1000 canadian

Edited by mpasternak on 08/16/05 02:14 PM.

Reply to mpasternak

The LOL Athong FX is multiplier unlocked.

<pre>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre>

Reply to RichPLS

There are 2 differences: 1) Clock speed as you've noted; and 2) FX-55 is multiplier unlocked both up and down, the 3700+ is only unlocked down.

If people will pay more for faster clock or unlocked multipliers, then that's what they do...

Mike.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx

Reply to fishmahn

ok. so the technology IS the same. and you'd get the same performance out of the 3700 if you upped the speed to that of the FX-55?

and what is this unlocked multipleir thingy

I'm new to the idea of Overclocking.. never done it since i've always owned intell and didnt trust the heat

Reply to mpasternak

There are two components that affect your "total" clockspeed: The Front Side Bus speed (FSB), and the core clock multiplier. The FSB is the speed at which the rest of your computer operates, and the Processor then runs at a multiple of what the FSB is. Thus, if you have a FSB of 200 MHz, and a processor with multiplier of 12, then you have a 2.4GHz processor.

Reply to emogoch

Yep, the 3700+ and the FX-55 are the same CPU. They may have even been neighbors on the silicon wafer during production.

The 3700+ may outperform the FX-55 once its sped up to 2.6ghz because to get the 3700+ to hit 2.6ghz you have to run the fsb* at 236mhz instead of 200 because the multiplier can't be increased. (see multiplier explanation below)

CPUs run at a clock speed (say, 2.2ghz). The fsb runs at a different clock speed (usually 200mhz today) The multiplier is used to convert the 200mhz fsb speed to the 2200mhz CPU clock (11 in this case, so 200mhz x 11 = 2.2ghz).

Take a look at the overclocking guides in the Overclocking/CPU section. The beginner's guide to OCing the Athlon is a good source for the basics. The A64 guide deals with a few A64-specific things.

Mike.

* note: Athlon 64's (and FX's) use Hypertransport for their 'fsb', but there's still a clock setting that serves the same purpose, so for these purposes, its still commonly called an fsb (front-side bus). The Athlon XP and Pentiums use a real fsb.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx

Reply to fishmahn

Not really. The FX chips are binned for certain qualities. They are made from the best parts of the die.
They are more likely to OC a little better, are capable of running at lower voltages (run cooler) and having the multiplier unlocked upwards, are a lot easier to dial in for different uses. This has become a real plus, when coupled with software managment progs like Abit's U-guru.
The FX will give a bit more, but it is a whole lot more money. I'm still too much of a cheap ass to get one.

Reply to endyen

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