Today AMD launched their new unified desktop socket format, Socket AM2.
Socket AM2 is set to replace AMD's socket 939 which will be EOLed (end
of life) at the end of this year, and will support both AMD's high end
Athlon 64 X2 and FX processors as well as their low end Sempron
processors. Socket 754 is set to remain in AMD's lineup throughout the
end of 2007 as a way to mantain an inexpensive single channel DDR based
platform.
Socket AM2 marks AMD's change from DDR memory to DDR2 memory, as well
as the move of their Sempron value lineup from single channel to a dual
channel memory format.
Here are several reviews from around the web:
AnandTechX-Bit LabsHardOCPHot HardwareExtremeTechFiringSquadWhat AMD has accomplished today is indicative of the evolution and
migration of an architecture, that will pave the way for future
performance and enhancements. The move to DDR2 memory was inevitable
and as future Athlon core architectures evolve, the company will have
much needed bandwidth to service ever-hungry dual core processor
pipelines. Frankly, in some spots we were hoping for better performance
from AM2 but in the back of our minds we suspected this may not be the
case. Regardless, you simply cannot take away the fact the new Athlon
64 FX-62 and Athlon 64 X2 5000+ are two of the fastest processors money
can buy for the PC right now; and the former is easily the fastest
desktop chip on the market at the moment.- Hot HardwareSumming up everything we have said about the new AMD Socket AM2
platform we have to admit that the introduction of DDR2 SDRAM support
is a small evolutionary step forward. Our tests showed that the
transition to DDR2 SDRAM doesn’t bring in any significant
performance gain. Moreover, you have to make sure that your system uses
the fastest DDR2 SDRAM with 800MHz frequency and minimal timings if you
want to see any performance improvement at all. The widely spread
DDR2-667 SDRAM may sometimes provide absolutely no performance gain at
all compared with the Socket 939 platforms supporting DDR400 SDRAM with
low timings settings.- X-bit Labs
As AMD makes the transition to DDR2, it's clear that Intel's NetBurst
line of desktop CPUs is on its final lap. Waiting in the wings is
Intel's Core 2 Duo line, more commonly referred to by its code name,
Conroe. But Conroe is not shipping until later this summer, while AMD
is out of the starting blocks with its AM2 line. As we've seen, DDR2
has had a positive impact in some performance metrics, though the
differences don't seem to be large.
For the time being, AMD's Athlon 64 FX-62 pretty much captures the
desktop CPU performance crown, especially for PC gaming, but you'll pay
a steep price. Even the 5000+ weighs in at barely south of $700. Still,
the performance is generally exceptional.- ExtremeTech
It is ironic and equally unfortunate for AMD
that on the eve of Intel finally getting its act together, that the
Socket-AM2 launch is so devoid of any sort of performance improvements.
It's clear that AMD's architecture just simply isn't starved of memory
bandwidth at this point, and it will take either higher clock speeds or
architectural improvements to make the move to DDR2 necessary. We are
happy with the fact that AMD at least kept memory latency down while
moving to DDR2, but at this point there's simply no use for the
bandwidth.
In the coming months we will see the official launch of Intel's Core
2 Duo processors, based on the Conroe core. Only time will tell how
availability will affect pricing of those CPUs, but Intel is quite
eager to ready them. AMD is also patiently awaiting the launch of Core
2 Duo, in fact one of its stipulations for sending out Socket-AM2
review kits was that the CPUs not be compared to Conroe. We understood
and agreed with AMD's stance on the issue, simply because Core 2 Duo
(Conroe) isn't shipping yet while AM2 is, but we do get a sense of
concern whenever Conroe is brought up around AMD. - AnandTech
