What exactly is AMD's AM2 product strategy through next year and beyond?

Centauri

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I've been away in the Mac camp for several years now and it looks like I'll be stepping back into PC land quite soon. Regardless of any supposed awesomeness of Intel's next-generation hardware, I still refuse to give them money. And AMD had always been good to me.

Anyways, having been gone for a good while I'm a little out of touch with the total details of things like AM2. Before I go shell out for a nice AM2 board I was wondering if anybody could give me the lowdown on what AM2 will see AMD offer through it over the next year or two.

With 939, it was possible to use AMD's high-end Opteron processors. It was also the platform that dual-core debuted on. Will the Opteron line eventually go AM2? Will quad-core debut on AM2 as dual-core did on 939; is it too early to tell? And what of AMD's planned offerings for Sempron?

Any info is appreciated.
 
All AMD's product lines are going to AM2 (all the desktop ones, at least). That means Sempron, 64, 64 X2 and Opteron 1xx series. Quad core should be debuted on AM2 as well, from what I have heard.
 
AM2 = 939 with DDR2. IMO, it is not worth paying for. Just get a 939 in a month or so when prices really drop.
 
But I wanted what most message boarders want; a conversation...

Man, I have the worst luck. I'm working on moving my way out of Mac land because I got sick of the assholes and the first PC related inquiry I make in a long while lands me face to face with another one.

I'm not even gonna go into how much your being a teacher frightens me. Do you yell at your students for not waiting to use Google when they get home to answer the questions they talk to each other about?

You need to be deflated.
 
that whole "google it" to things you don't feel like explaining is one of the things I hate the most about forum life. WE KNOW ABOUT GOOGLE


as far as the original poster, I don't see much light ahead for 939, and if you're just coming back from a mac, then grab an AM2 setup. whatever AMD's plans are, I'm sure it's going to be centered around AM2 more than 939. We'll see though.
 
quad core will be on socket M2 according to a speech by some PR dude of AMD.

and the results of conroe are really quite stunning. conspiricy theorys have been running through my head, as everyone claims that the system they tested conroe on was "provided by intel" firingsquad said it, Xbit labs said it, Hard OCP said it, Tomshardware said it, everyone did. so whats the deal? my most recent theory is that ATI and Intel have gotten SOOO far into bed with each other that infact ATi has some killer X1999 in the conroe test systems. but then this would require all of the test systems sent from intel to be black boxes... with locks... so no one can get in.... hmmmmm.........

anywho conroe really is killer.

but yea. word is that AMD has something kooked up as a response for conroe, to be here by early 2007/late 2006. but who knows. they "promise 65nm technology by the end of the year"
so perhalps that will rain on conroes parade.
 
AM2 is the future, as it's been stated.. if you have a good s939 no reason to upgrade right now, but no point in buying the outdated s939 either.
 
Right now release DDR2 versions of Socket 939 processors... on Socket AM2.

Opteron 1xx Denmark to Opteron 1xx Santa Ana

Athlon 64x2 Toledo to Athlon 64x2 Windsor

Athlon 64 Venice to Athlon 64 Orleans

Sempron Palermo to Sempron Manilla

Starting Dec 2006, start shifting to the 65nm version of the AM2 processors.

Athlon 64x2 Windsor to Athlon 64x2 Brisbane

Sempron Manilla to Sempron Sparta

No idea what will happen to Opteron 1xx, Athlon 64 if they will shift to 65nm, die size is small enough on Athlon 64, though Santa Ana to 65nm might make sense, hope AMD does do it.
 
yea i want an optie 165 am2, oc it to 3Ghz. i want something that ocs amazingly anyways. my whole. i mean look at Ntune5. totally not gonna need bios anymore, unless i change timings, which i dont usually do, as it can tooooootally bugger up your system.

so yea. M2 + X2 4000 + Nforce 590 > Conroe (lga 775 to my knowlage isnt gonna support Nforce 5)

it really has become Intel and ATI VS AMD and Nvidia. intel and ati own the mainstream market (i mean really mainstream, if your in this forum your not mainstream... stupid dell... X300 and crap PD 805 for $2000.)
 
AppaYipYip said:
I guess I'm the kind of person that prefers doing my own research on things. I inspire my students to use the internet in creative ways. In fact, I do warn them to take ANYTHING said on message boards and blogs with a grain of salt. Forums are full of opinions and emotions that are easily misinterpreted.

In other words you are better than him.....lol



Like has been posted by others. AM2 is the new future for AMD processors. No real reason to upgrade, but you are limiting your upgrade options if your next AMD desktop isn't AM2 (same arguements for going with a PCI-E mobo vice AGP).
 
MrWizard6600 said:
yea i want an optie 165 am2, oc it to 3Ghz. i want something that ocs amazingly anyways. my whole. i mean look at Ntune5. totally not gonna need bios anymore, unless i change timings, which i dont usually do, as it can tooooootally bugger up your system.

so yea. M2 + X2 4000 + Nforce 590 > Conroe (lga 775 to my knowlage isnt gonna support Nforce 5)

it really has become Intel and ATI VS AMD and Nvidia. intel and ati own the mainstream market (i mean really mainstream, if your in this forum your ot mainstream... stupid dell... X300 and crap PD 805 for $2000.)
If your talking about SLI solutions then yeah, Nvidia's SLI solutions on LGA775 are a tad limited, though LGA775 + Conroe 2.4GHZ + P965 is not a bad combo either. Your only stuck if you need 7900 GT SLI or greater performance. Which is pretty damn high end, if you ask me.

Also from the benches around the web it seems the Socket AM2's Corssfire 3200 Chipset actually conusmes less power the Nforce 590.
 
1xx series Opeterons will be made on AM2.
The first quad core is going to be a 65nm based on Brisbane K8 architecture, it will be replaced at then end of 2007 by a K8L quadcore.
November/December this year will see the Brisbane dual core released (65nm K8) and then Q1 2007 will see a dual core K8L on 65nm.
 
Rofl-Mic-Lofl said:
AM2 is the future, as it's been stated.. if you have a good s939 no reason to upgrade right now, but no point in buying the outdated s939 either.

I agree with this. One thing about AMD that has been nice is that with a few bios updates, most new CPU's work on "older" boards (unlike trying to find a board that supports Conroe). I wouldn't be as concerned about buying an AM2 board now even with no immediate benefits and seeing how long it lasts with forthcoming CPU's.
 
I would have to say since its your coming from mac your best bet would be to go with the AM2 I see no reason not to
to me the price dif is not that big on the cpus and havent seen to many mobo but give it a few weeks
also did u read the AM2 article
 
synaps3 said:
AM2 = 939 with DDR2. IMO, it is not worth paying for. Just get a 939 in a month or so when prices really drop.

Um its the same price for mobos and procs and you get a socket thats relevant for the next few years. Worth the money id say.
 
Yeah, if you're buying new right now, there really is no good reason not to get AM2 IMHO. At most it's $50 more, and the immediate future of AMD is the new socket, not s939. DDR2 is also more reasonably priced.
 
I was going to buy my mom a new s754 AMD64 to replace her aging 478 P4 3.0ghz on AGP, but have decided to just pick up an AM2 mATX setup instead with either the 3000 or a lower priced Sempron. It's also so I can play games on her computer, should I need to :)

If I were buying in now, another reason I'd preffer AM2 is for the DDR2 support. If you/I went with 939, to get to AM2 from there we'd need to pick up a different kind of memory since DDR1 and DDR2 aren't compatible, rather than just a new CPU and board. It's just one less thing to worry about.
 
Rhitick said:
Um its the same price for mobos and procs and you get a socket thats relevant for the next few years. Worth the money id say.

The biggest plus for AM2 isn't here yet, but the K8L will eventually show up sometime in mid 2007.
 
CZ100B said:
The biggest plus for AM2 isn't here yet, but the K8L will eventually show up sometime in mid 2007.

The only problem is that mid 2007 is 3 or 4 computers for me down the road :). At this point, I see no reason in 2006 for AM2 with Conroe right around the corner.
 
If AM2 is to be AMD's new socket type, what is this planned LGA socket I hear of purposed for?
 
I'm in the same type of situation.... I'm currently running an AMD 64 2800+ 754, 1 gig pc3200, and an AGP 6600gt.... It's been about 2 years since i've done a serious upgrade, but when you don't have alot of cash right now theres NOT a whole lotta options for me ...

To upgrade to a decent rig that will be semi-future proof (as was my 754 based system) I would need at the minimum...

new m/b socket AM2 based..
new DDR2 ram...
new PCI-E vid card..
new Proc to throw in the board..
and a new power supply that has the 24 pin ATX 2.0 plug...

All that adds up to alot more cash than i'm willing to spend right now :(

Oh well, we'll see what the next 6-9 months bring...hopefully a drop in 939 procs and boards.. then that might actually might be a decent upgrade path to someone like me who is on a budget...
 
This is my question, are you even CPU limited with an fx-60 at all in any current or up-coming games for the next couple of years? I can't imagine 4 gig of ddr ram, fx-60 and a good dx10 or sli dx10 cards would be a problem with an "old" s939? I just cant see dx10 and vista needing MORE than an fx-60. So yes conroe is better ( alot ) it appears, but does that really matter with most GPU dependent games out there? I don't see good ddr ram, fx-60 and dx10 having any bottlenecks. I use the fx-60 example becaues in a few months it will be more affordable. Probably around 600-700 and that is the highest that the 939 will support. I just dont know why anyone would ditch socket 939 for awhile. Fx-60 is blazing fast.
 
Centauri said:
I've been away in the Mac camp for several years now and it looks like I'll be stepping back into PC land quite soon. Regardless of any supposed awesomeness of Intel's next-generation hardware, I still refuse to give them money. And AMD had always been good to me.

Anyways, having been gone for a good while I'm a little out of touch with the total details of things like AM2. Before I go shell out for a nice AM2 board I was wondering if anybody could give me the lowdown on what AM2 will see AMD offer through it over the next year or two.

With 939, it was possible to use AMD's high-end Opteron processors. It was also the platform that dual-core debuted on. Will the Opteron line eventually go AM2? Will quad-core debut on AM2 as dual-core did on 939; is it too early to tell? And what of AMD's planned offerings for Sempron?

Any info is appreciated.

Let's see what exactly is AMD's AM2 product strategy through next year and beyond? Maybe hope Intel slips or trips in the next 18 months? ;) :D
 
Donnie27 said:
Let's see what exactly is AMD's AM2 product strategy through next year and beyond? Maybe hope Intel slips or trips in the next 18 months? ;) :D

Kind of like Intel slipped and tripped it's way through the past two years ;) :D.
 
kirbyrj said:
Kind of like Intel slipped and tripped it's way through the past two years ;) :D.

yea and slipped and tripped its entrace to Conroe. i mean comon. who was the genious who thought of "Core". now everytime i say "core clock","core speeds","its core" or anything with "core" in it im forced to think of intels new line of processers. who the hell has the right to trademark the name Core anywho ;) :D .

poor intel. everyone likes to rag on you. even when you have the biggest parade in town.
 
Well socket AM2 is the path for future desktop CPU's. It was going to be called M2 but trademark issues or some such, so AM2 is the name. It is a 940 pin socket but isn't compatible with current 940 pin CPU's( different pin layout). While current line up leaves a little to be desired it was just a quick rev to take advantage of DDR2 and lower thermal rating from 110W to 89W and even down to 35W for energy efficient (read higher price for the same speed rating) and Semperons .So basically you get roughly 1-5%performance increase compared to a 939 cpu just less heat The real goodness should come near the end of the year or 2007.Quad core cpu are supposed to be Socket AM2 compatible but you never know. Socket F/1207pins (being released mid July?) will be for the Opteron line, will use LGA socket (like Intel's current socket), and will be able to useFB-DIMM (fully buffered dimm) and may even use other memory such as DDR3 (pure rumor). The nice thing about AMD cpu's in my opinion is that each reve doesn't require another chipset, look how many chipsets Intel has. As long as they don't do the socket 754 thing this looks like a very good upgrade path. Of course you can always wait for Intel's Core 2 Dou to be released and do a cost comparison. But Intel's upgrade path has been a slippery slope for the last few years. If you are the type of person that just gets a new system instead of upgrading get a socket 939 basically same performance as AM2 but cheaper and more options. If you tend just slowly upgrade such as new CPU and such get an AM2. If you want the fastest rig wait a couple weeks till Intel releases Core 2 Dou "Conroe" and read a few reviews then get the faster one. I'm sure [H] will have one when retail product is available.
 
yup. AMD doesnt do chipsets. its left to Nvidia, which is good because Nforce 5 looks stellar.

but 1207 pins on Socket F is new to me. LGA style socket... new to me....
 
MrWizard6600 said:
yup. AMD doesnt do chipsets.
Yes, They do. Theyre just typically server chipsets these days and left out of desktops... tis a shame, really..
its left to Nvidia, which is good because Nforce 5 looks stellar.
I really wish AMD would make chipsets because I have found NV's latest chipsets to be subpar.
 
dcam25 said:
The real goodness should come near the end of the year or 2007.Quad core cpu are supposed to be Socket AM2 compatible but you never know. Socket F/1207pins (being released mid July?) will be for the Opteron line, will use LGA socket (like Intel's current socket), and will be able to useFB-DIMM (fully buffered dimm) and may even use other memory such as DDR3 (pure rumor). The nice thing about AMD cpu's in my opinion is that each reve doesn't require another chipset, look how many chipsets Intel has.

I did put a ;) to show that I was only joking. It will not be 18 months until AMD moves to something better than the first AM2 based K8s. The only question is how much better will K8G and the K8L is and what it will cost. Meanwhile AMD will be getting done worse than what they did to Intel with X2 for the last year, folks talking about two years are off by year.
 
lithium726 said:
Yes, They do. Theyre just typically server chipsets these days and left out of desktops... tis a shame, really.. I really wish AMD would make chipsets because I have found NV's latest chipsets to be subpar.

DITTO!
 
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