Official Socket AM3 News Thread

[perkam]

Links to new news about Socket AM3 and AM3 CPUs (k8-l) go here.

This is also a reminder (AMD folks tend to forget or not know) that Socket AM2 WILL be going the way of the dodo come mid 2007.

Perkam

[BlackX]

Maybe you can put all info you have for the start? ;)

[Starscream]

Maybe you can put all info you have for the start? ;)


like the info that AM3 CPUs are AM2 motherboard compatible?
If that is stilt rue that is.

[xenolith]

like the info that AM3 CPUs are AM2 motherboard compatible?
If that is stilt rue that is.

That may be true, but compatibility doesn't mean same performance. ;)

[VulgarHandle]

That may be true, but compatibility doesn't mean same performance. ;)

you're right, it means upgrade friendly

[xenolith]

you're right, it means upgrade friendly

But "upgrade" in this instance might be a subjective term. We'll see...

[VulgarHandle]

well, as far as upgradeability, the only question i have is about ddr3, and wether or not it will work on the first AM3 socket, or will there be a ddr2 AM3 and a ddr3 AM3

if ddr2 and ddr3 both work on ANY AM3, then that's solid upgrade path..(not 1 stick of ddr2 and 1 skick of ddr3 of course)

AM2 now with DDR2, upgrade cpu later(k8l or w/e), then upgrade mobo to AM2, then upgrade ram to ddr3.....

oh and it's at least been mentioned that you might be able to run AM4(or w/e) CPU's on socket AM3, and thus it would continue

i think the point is to only have to upgrade 1 major component at a time

EDIT: perkam, if this discussion isn't to be held here let us know...and/or start a seperate discussion thread elsewhere for us please sir

[Pirated]

Hmmm....
they're coming but when?

[perkam]

well, as far as upgradeability, the only question i have is about ddr3, and wether or not it will work on the first AM3 socket, or will there be a ddr2 AM3 and a ddr3 AM3

if ddr2 and ddr3 both work on ANY AM3, then that's solid upgrade path..(not 1 stick of ddr2 and 1 skick of ddr3 of course)

AM2 now with DDR2, upgrade cpu later(k8l or w/e), then upgrade mobo to AM2, then upgrade ram to ddr3.....

oh and it's at least been mentioned that you might be able to run AM4(or w/e) CPU's on socket AM3, and thus it would continue

i think the point is to only have to upgrade 1 major component at a time

EDIT: perkam, if this discussion isn't to be held here let us know...and/or start a seperate discussion thread elsewhere for us please sirThat's ok. This is for discussion regarding AM3, and K8L is an AM3 cpu. :)

Pirated, the earliest any of the roadmaps have indicated is mid 2007 for release ("coming out"). However, they should be available to XIPs for testing in form of engineering samples before that, like with conroe.

Perkam

[gOJDO]

AM3 will have 939 pins:

However, 940-pin Socket AM2 processors are certainly not compatible to 939-pin Socket AM3 mainboard.

http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=633569&starttime=0&endtime=0

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

Time to plug in the ole Athlon 3000 and see what happens...

Just for the record, that's a joke.

Ryan

[.sentinel]

For the upcoming Socket AM3 interface, it has 939-pins and is designed to consistent with Socket AM2. With 939 pins only, Socket AM3 processors are compatible to 940-pin Socket AM2 mainboard. The only limitation is just DDR2 and Hyper-Transport 1.0 support only. However, 940-pin Socket AM2 processors are certainly not compatible to 939-pin Socket AM3 mainboard.

Actually AM3 is able to plug into AM2 but not vice versa.....

[`odin]

Time to plug in the ole Athlon 3000 and see what happens...

Just for the record, that's a joke.

Ryan
You almost got me there boy :D

So

AM3 =

step 1 = transition to 65nm
step 2 = SSE4 rev?
step 3 = K8L with L3 and added feature..

dual core only i assume

[arisythila]

AM3 should fit K8L which is quad core.

~Mike

[phelan1777]

okay so then what is the point of the AM2, if it is going dodo?

[arisythila]

Just a step up, I've noticed AMD likes to take baby steps. which is understandable, AMD cannot screw anything up.. If they do it they ahve to do it 100%, not 90%, not 75%. So basically, AM2 gives people something new to play with. Keeps people like me away from Conroe :-)

~Mike

[gOJDO]

Keeps people like me away from Conroe :-)
It keeps AMD fanboys away from any Intel chip

[Reznik Akime]

Kinda keeps me away from upgrading now like I planned. I don't want to have to spend money on a new board and CPU in just a matter of six months.

[arisythila]

It keeps AMD fanboys away from any Intel chip

Yep. Is it suppose to be a bad thing to be a "fanboy".

~Mike

[syne_24]

Just a step up, I've noticed AMD likes to take baby steps. which is understandable, AMD cannot screw anything up.. If they do it they ahve to do it 100%, not 90%, not 75%. So basically, AM2 gives people something new to play with. Keeps people like me away from Conroe :-)

~Mike

I noticed that too. But it's not helping on my wallet with these little upgrades and small transitions on the side. Did you see the updated roadmap? There are a lot of 90nm, 65nm, EE overlapping each other. I think they shouldn't realase too many version and keep it more concentrated. They are wasting their resources like that and they cant afford it like Intel can.

[VulgarHandle]

I think AMD knows what they can afford to do, and what they can't.

[sladesurfer]

:) http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTE0OCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==


We have some official AMD slides to share with you that outline AMD's upcoming Quad-Core technology that has recently taped out. This tech will be the heart of next-gen Opteron and Athlon 64 FX processors

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3663/1156253272nukaaqzwxg11lor7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[perkam]

I like being a Smart A S S.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2768&p=3The rest of the slides in that news story are new ;) Click on the link before making posts pls.

Perkam

[perkam]

We have an AM3/K8L news sticky for this :)

Perkam

[VulgarHandle]

so, is this rev.G, or k8l?

[perkam]

so, is this rev.G, or k8l?As has been explained a number of times :p Rev G/Brisbane is 65nm die shrink coming december...K8L/GreyHound is new architecture coming mid 2007.

Perkam

[phelan1777]

I just want to know if I can use AM3 on the new DFI board, or will I have to wait for another board. Dual core, quad core..........smad core, I just want the new board but not if it wiill not support AM3 well, and take advantage of all that AM3 will offer, same with the RAM.

[[XC] leviathan18]

you can use am3 procesor in any am2 board but you wont be able to use the DDR3

[turtle]

Pretty surprised this isn't posted already, but I just looked and I didn't see it. It's a nice breakdown of K8L:

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-k8l.html

I got lost somewhere very near the beginning, but it's gotta mean something to someone. :rolleyes:

[phelan1777]

you can use am3 procesor in any am2 board but you wont be able to use the DDR3


yeah, see that is my conern, so then getting the board would be a waste of money.

[turtle]

With that thoery, getting any board (or upgraded cpu) that supports DDR2 will be a waste of money, as both Intel and AMD will be transititioning to DDR3 in late 2007 to early 2008.

It's unfortunate, but DDR2 is not going to have a long livlihood at the top, as AMD took a long time to adopt the standard, while holding the crown with DDR1. This is not say you can't use a bloomfield in a 975x, or a AM3 K8L in a nice AM2 DDR2 board...It just may not be top of the line...That's hardly useless though. Also, you have to take into consideration that it may take a while for DDR3 to ramp in speed, so the fastest matured DDR2 may reign supreme even after DDR3 is made an option by both CPU manufacturers.

[[XC] leviathan18]

yeah, see that is my conern, so then getting the board would be a waste of money.

i dont see it as moeny waste instead you have a nice pc now until k8l in q1-2 2007 change cpu and i think the difference wont be massive when we get ddr3 and am3 at least in the first period... is a 2 years plataform top of the line plataform sound about right amount of time

[phelan1777]

With that thoery, getting any board (or upgraded cpu) that supports DDR2 will be a waste of money, as both Intel and AMD will be transititioning to DDR3 in late 2007 to early 2008.

It's unfortunate, but DDR2 is not going to have a long livlihood at the top, as AMD took a long time to adopt the standard, while holding the crown with DDR1. This is not say you can't use a bloomfield in a 975x, or a AM3 K8L in a nice AM2 DDR2 board...It just may not be top of the line...That's hardly useless though. Also, you have to take into consideration that it may take a while for DDR3 to ramp in speed, so the fastest matured DDR2 may reign supreme even after DDR3 is made an option by both CPU manufacturers.


Well I can't argue that, though going from 939 to AM2 is not much of a upgradge, but going from 939 to AM3 should be yes no? So instead of payin 600+ for RAM/MOBO/CPU for a minimal upgrade, I would rather use it for a good % upgrade.

Though this could be said with the GPU's as well, be it that the next Gen is around the corner as well..............wonder if I should sell my GTX.

[[XC] leviathan18]

well move when k8l comes.... march april 07 am2 and ddr2 thats a jump

[VulgarHandle]

funny there's all this talk on k8l, but nothing on rev.G.....hmmmm

[[XC] leviathan18]

rev g is 65nm SiGe and SOI 3rd gen it should be a glimpse of the future (specially if someones gets a nice yield and oc to see the improvement of SiGe) i think we will have to wait to amd fabs to get used to the new process

[VulgarHandle]

i know what rev.G is supposed to be....just saying it's funny that AMD talks more about K8L than rev.G..in fact, haven't seen anything on rev.G since..well...been a while, in fact, I don't think I've seen anything official, ever, except die-shots grouped with other die-shots, some of which aren't going to be made, and other was obviously K8L.....

[Magnj]

I guess I'll wait for K8L then to do any major upgrading...Video Cards will still be good so maybe that will be next.

[Sparky]

I have a feeling it'll be another year before I upgrade my CPU and ram (see sig pic). Plenty fast for now, and besides I'm broke anyway :p:
PCIe looks to be here to stay for a long time so a DX10 card would probably be my next upgrade since that could move on to the next generation boards.

[Silvermirage]

this is getting weird...

[Judaeus Apella]

What I wanna know is... how long will AM3 last until the next socket comes out. I was hoping that for my next build, I'll be able to think ahead and use a mobo I'll be able to upgrade later with a newer cpu down the road, when I need an upgrade. I don't want to have to junk it the next time I want an upgrade. I'd like to try and save as much money as I can while still being practical and squeezing every last dime out of it verses good performance. (not to be confused with insane performance)

[Sparky]

Things changed and they revamped AM2 to AM2+, AM3 is coming in 2009, been said on here before (not in this thread tho since it is waaaayy outdated).