AM2 - Conroe clarification

M

mrbagrat

banned
Dunno if this should be stickied, but I have seen a lot of questions regarding socket AM2 and Conroe.

Red CPU names signify Dual-Core processors.

AMD: Socket AM2

Intro: Socket AM2 is AMD's new socket line. The processor socket is called AM2, and consists of 940 pins. However, the AM2 pins are arranged differently then Socket 940, making Opteron processors incompatible with Socket AM2, and visa versa. Socket AM2 released May 23, 2006, and was made to replace Socket 939.

New Features: As of this time, benchmarks show that Socket AM2 doesn't offer much performance increase from socket 939 processors. However, it does offer DDR2 support compared to 939's DDR.

The AM2 socket line consists of (at this point)

Athlon 64 X2 Line:

Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6 GHz) $696.00
Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.4 GHz) $645.00
Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (2.4 GHz) $558.00
Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (2.2 GHz) $469.00
Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz) $365.00
Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (2.0 GHz) $328.00
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.0 GHz) $303.00

FX CPU line:

Athlon 64 FX-62 (2.8 GHz) $1,236

Athlon 64 CPU line:

Athlon 64 3800+ (2.4 GHz) $290.00
Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2 GHz) $208.00
Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz) $
Athlon 64 3000+ (1.8 GHz) $

Sempron CPU line:

Sempron 3600+ (2.0 GHz) $123.00
Sempron 3500+ (2.0 GHz) $109.00
Sempron 3400+ (1.8 GHz) $97.00
Sempron 3200+ (1.8 GHz) $
Sempron 3000+ (1.6 GHz) $77.00
Sempron 2800+ (1.6 GHz) $67.00

Intel: Conroe/Merom

Intro: Conroe and Merom are the codenames for Intel's upcoming processor launch. The Conroe line is slated to launch in July 23, 2006, followed by Merom in August 2006. Conroe will replace the Pentium D and Pentium 4 line, while Merom will replace the Yonah line. Conroe and Merom use Socket LGA 775, but they are not compatible with all 775 boards. They have different power requirements, and as of such only certain boards with a certain chipset will work.

New Features: Between Conroe and P4 processors, the Conroe uses a 14 stage pipeline down from the P4's 31 stage. While this does cut the clock speed down, it makes Conroe much more efficient. Also, the SSE path has been widened from 64 bits to 128 bits, causing SSE instructions to only take 1 cycle to execute, instead of 2.
Conroe Line

E4200 - (1.60GHz) $169.00
E6300 - (1.86GHz) $209.00
E6400 - (2.13GHz) $244.00
E6500 - (2.40GHz) $269.00
E6600 - (2.40GHz) $316.00
E6700 - (2.67GHz) $530.00
E6800 - (2.93GHz) $749.00
E6900 - (3.20GHz) $969.00
E8000 - (3.33GHz) $1199.00

Merom Line

T7600 - (2.33 GHz)
T7400 - (2.16 GHz)
T7200 - (2.00 GHz)
T5600 - (1.83 GHz)
T5500 - (1.66 GHz)



Any suggestions / corrections / comments?
 
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Well they are different in different places, what with taxes and shipping, and newegg doesn't have many. But sure, I'll post what newegg has.
 
Here are the prices for Core 2 Duo (Conroe):
conroeprices.jpg



They are also going to have Conroe Extreme Editions, but those prices arent on here yet.
 
looks like im gona get the E6700 if i don't get Kentsfield... wow, Conroe @ 3.3GHz??? crazy... i bet the FX-62 doesn't do better then that...
 
mrbagrat said:
New Features: Intel's Conroe and Merom line offer caches of up to 4mbs for the higher level CPUs. Aside from that, no major CPU-affected hardware changes have been described.
Click to expand...
There is a HUGE difference between the P4 and the Conroe.

First of all, the Conroe uses a 14 stage pipeline, lowered drastically from the 31 stage pipeline whic the P4 Prescott used. Of course this cuts the clock speed down by almost half, but the effeciency gained by using the 14 stage pipeline makes up for that clock speed deficiency.

Secondly, the entire SSE engine has been enlarged to 128 bits, as before, only the registers were 128 bits, and the SSE data path to the CPU was 64 bit. Now that the data path has been enlarged to 128 bit, SSE instructions only take 1 cycle to execute, instead of 2 cycles.

Next, Conroe is a 4 wide architecture. What this basically means is that the CPU can give 4 instructions at the beginning of the pipeline, and depart 4 at the end. Since the Pentium 4 could only issue 3 instructions for a pipeline, this improvement allows higher instruction bandwidth.

Lastly, and adding on to the third point, Intel has now also implemented something called "macro-op fusion", which is basically where certain x86 instructions can be combined into one instruction, so you are getting the performance benefits of a 5 wide architecture in a 4 wide architecture for certain tasks/operations.
 
[-0MEGA-] said:
Here are the prices for Core 2 Duo (Conroe):
conroeprices.jpg



They are also going to have Conroe Extreme Editions, but those prices arent on here yet.
Click to expand...

Wow, the one clocked at 2.4GHz is right in my price range! It's actually cheaper than I expected! Forget about the AMD X2, this Conroe or ahem.....Core 2 Duo is mine! ;)
 
Clutch said:
There is a HUGE difference between the P4 and the Conroe.

First of all, the Conroe uses a 14 stage pipeline, lowered drastically from the 31 stage pipeline whic the P4 Prescott used. Of course this cuts the clock speed down by almost half, but the effeciency gained by using the 14 stage pipeline makes up for that clock speed deficiency.

Secondly, the entire SSE engine has been enlarged to 128 bits, as before, only the registers were 128 bits, and the SSE data path to the CPU was 64 bit. Now that the data path has been enlarged to 128 bit, SSE instructions only take 1 cycle to execute, instead of 2 cycles.

Next, Conroe is a 4 wide architecture. What this basically means is that the CPU can give 4 instructions at the beginning of the pipeline, and depart 4 at the end. Since the Pentium 4 could only issue 3 instructions for a pipeline, this improvement allows higher instruction bandwidth.

Lastly, and adding on to the third point, Intel has now also implemented something called "macro-op fusion", which is basically where certain x86 instructions can be combined into one instruction, so you are getting the performance benefits of a 5 wide architecture in a 4 wide architecture for certain tasks/operations.
Click to expand...


Wow...thanks for all the info! I added some in, but I'll wait on the rest.

Prices for AM2 and Conroe have been changed from Newegg and Monarch Computer prices to the release prices stated by Intel and AMD. However, I am still missing prices for the Athlon 64 3200+ and 3000+, the Sempron 3200+, and all the Merom processors. If anyone finds these, PM me or post them here and I'll be sure to add them.
 
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Clutch said:
There is a HUGE difference between the P4 and the Conroe.

First of all, the Conroe uses a 14 stage pipeline, lowered drastically from the 31 stage pipeline whic the P4 Prescott used. Of course this cuts the clock speed down by almost half, but the effeciency gained by using the 14 stage pipeline makes up for that clock speed deficiency.

Secondly, the entire SSE engine has been enlarged to 128 bits, as before, only the registers were 128 bits, and the SSE data path to the CPU was 64 bit. Now that the data path has been enlarged to 128 bit, SSE instructions only take 1 cycle to execute, instead of 2 cycles.

Next, Conroe is a 4 wide architecture. What this basically means is that the CPU can give 4 instructions at the beginning of the pipeline, and depart 4 at the end. Since the Pentium 4 could only issue 3 instructions for a pipeline, this improvement allows higher instruction bandwidth.

Lastly, and adding on to the third point, Intel has now also implemented something called "macro-op fusion", which is basically where certain x86 instructions can be combined into one instruction, so you are getting the performance benefits of a 5 wide architecture in a 4 wide architecture for certain tasks/operations.
Click to expand...

they had micro-op fusion on the netburst core, and the additional prefetches were a good lesson learnt from the p4 era.

the main difference is the death of netbust (not before time) and the introduction of 'core'
 
fade2green514 said:
no major cpu affected changes
Click to expand...


Aye, I was talking about things the CPU affected. Like DDR2 support from DDR. But I'll leave that in anyway. Good info.

EDIT: Anyone know how to center text?
 
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fade2green514 said:
no major cpu affected changes
Click to expand...
There are huge changes, clutch mentioned most of them so im not going to mention them again.

If you look at how it handles programs, you can see how much of an improvement Conroe is over the P4's and Athlon 64's.
 
New Features: Intel's Conroe and Merom line offer caches of up to 4mbs for the higher level CPUs. Aside from that, no major CPU-affected hardware changes have been described.
Click to expand...
no major CPU-affected hardware changes
Click to expand...
hardware changes
Click to expand...
hmm... makes you think doesnt it
lol don't let me edit my post before you start quoting or anything good like that haha
 
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