First review of Opteron s939

[Petr]

Petr: How did you get that CPU for the review?

They are available for sale in our country - here .

[dinos22]

I think the 2MB cache ones are Dual Core counterparts
2x1MB Cache ..............I want one of those Opteron 165 CPUs

WOW, there are s939 opterons there with 2mb L2 cache!

[wonderwall]

Hum 175 with 2MB and Dual Die, will be great

I want 175.

[Daved+]

Hum 175 with 2MB and Dual Die, will be great

I want 175.

Group buy!

[drcrawn]

They are made and shipping in Sun servers AFAIK, IBM will be shipping soon as well. The x75 series are shipping like nuts and with good reason.... they take the performance of the socket 940 to xtreme levels.... though I do have to add that at the 8way status the PPC servers are still kicking butt.... I think that will be remedied as companies like Serverworks and Nvidia make more serious chipsets for these Opty's as the potential is definitely there..

The 2mb L2s are dual core, yes.

Ugly and Grey, AMD does not have .09 100 series Opterons for s940 listed on thier site. I don't think they exist. The older .13 100 series s940 Opterons have been around for quite some time now, but AMD isn't moving them to .09 process with sse3 support. There isn't a market really. BTW, why would Sun sell single cpu servers on s940?

Also, there are no dual core 100 series s940 opterons at all.

I would love to buy a 154 instead of a 254, but they don't exist for s940! even though AMD said they would make them. The demand for single cpu servers (s940) is virtually nonexistent.

[VVJ]

Hey, Petr, nice pix, man! =) Well, here is some info on your CPU:

[clayton]

I love Opteron 175 so much...
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2.../index.x?pg=10
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FORD XY FALCON GT SPECIFICATIONS

[Cpt Twitchy]

or the fact that they have 3 hypertransport links...

That is not true. The 100 series cannot be used in a dual system. The 200 series is for dual use only but can be used in a single system and the 800 series is good for 4way and 8way systems and are also backwards compatable.

One thing that I assume would help w/ oc'ing is that iirc Opterons have better memory controllers then A64.

[Stuperman]

WOW, there are s939 opterons there with 2mb L2 cache!

I think those are dual core, so 2x 1mb...
=

[clayton]

No question about it. Opteron 175, 170, and 165 are the only dual core models for the 100 series. http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...26_609,00.html

Too bad you can't use non-ecc on 939 Opterons.
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Starcraft 2 Replay

[saratoga]

That is not true. The 100 series cannot be used in a dual system. The 200 series is for dual use only but can be used in a single system and the 800 series is good for 4way and 8way systems and are also backwards compatable.

One thing that I assume would help w/ oc'ing is that iirc Opterons have better memory controllers then A64.

They don't even have better memory controllers then the A64 because these are A64s. AMD just changes the label on the box so corporate types will be willing to use them in severs. Its still the same chip though.

[s7e9h3n]

They don't even have better memory controllers then the A64 because these are A64s. AMD just changes the label on the box so corporate types will be willing to use them in severs. Its still the same chip though.

Sorry, you're wrong. The Opterons have the "ultimate" memory controllers among AMD cpu's - optimized through HW for performance and stability. The FX- series of processors are based on the Opteron's full 128-bit architecture while the A64's use only a true 64-bit memory controller. These s939 Opterons are AMD entry into the worstation/server market as the s940 Opterons weren't too popular . These cpu's will definately outperform any A64 @ similar speeds. I've been told that we may even see the eventual phasing out of the FX-line of processors in favor of these s939 Opterons (at least until DDR2 arrives). AFAIK, one thing which won't happen, is the production of any s939 multi-cpu Opties

[drcrawn]

So then these s939 Opterons should not use 2T timing ever? That's a good selling point, I see them lining up with 4 sticks of their bh-5 now...

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...docs/26094.PDF

p.109

Wonder which current s939 boards will be compatible or if that will be an issue.
So basically AMD is moving single cpu servers to s939 to allow for cheap unbuffered ddr...and abadoning the single cpu s940 user to some extent.

Tyan has a s939 Opty board for sale now.

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/opteron.html

[OC Detective]

No question about it. Opteron 175, 170, and 165 are the only dual core models for the 100 series. http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...26_609,00.html

Too bad you can't use non-ecc on 939 Opterons.

You can use unbuffered RAM on Opteron 939s no problem.

[saratoga]

Sorry, you're wrong. The Opterons have the "ultimate" memory controllers among AMD cpu's - optimized through HW for performance and stability.

First, this isn't an opteron, its a San Diego. Regardless, the memory controller is functionally identical between the 64/FX and Opteron lines aside from some minor electrical differences to accomidate registered RAM and all that entails.

The FX- series of processors are based on the Opteron's full 128-bit architecture while the A64's use only a true 64-bit memory controller.

Completely wrong. All S939 and S940 based CPUs have 128 bit memory controllers (ignoreing parity lines anyway). Only S754 currently has a 64 bit CPU. If you don't believe me, look at the pin outs.

These s939 Opterons are AMD entry into the worstation/server market as the s940 Opterons weren't too popular . These cpu's will definately outperform any A64 @ similar speeds.

No they won't because these San Diegos are transistor for transistor identical to the San Diegos in A64s.

Anyway, jeez man, do some reading. AMD publishes all this in their tech sheets.

[largon]

^I agree. Opteron's "superiority" in memory handling is totally based on using DRAM with x4 configuration -> number of x4 DRAM ICs used in registered dimms stresses mc as much as half the amount of x8 ICs.

[Petr]

Opterons for s939 use unbuffered non-ECC or unbuffered w/ ECC. They can not use registered DIMMs. The memory controller is exactly the same as on A64, therefore with four double sided DIMMs, you have to swith to 2T timing. The performance is identical to A64 with 1 MB L2 cache on the same frequency.

[largon]

'Was talking about S940 Opterons.

[uOpt]

You can use unbuffered RAM on Opteron 939s no problem.

Actually it requires unbuffered RAM.

ECC is a different matter and I bet 45 cokkies it can do both ECC and non-ECC.

Of course the mainboard BIOS has to cooperate to enable ECC and those are hard to find on socket 939 (mostly Asus boards that support ECC on 939).

[berk]

So where the f*&k are we with these things? I'm tired and going to bed.Can someone give a technical 'synopsis'?

[uOpt]

I am sure that a 939 Opteron is only different from an Athlon 64 939 by its QA before leaving the factory.

At this time I don't even see any evidence that the additional hypertransport links are connected to anything. Or exist for that matter.

The moment registered memory goes away so goes the advantage of serving large amounts of RAM fast. That's the whole point about registered memory.

[drcrawn]

Opterons for s939 use unbuffered non-ECC or unbuffered w/ ECC. They can not use registered DIMMs. The memory controller is exactly the same as on A64, therefore with four double sided DIMMs, you have to swith to 2T timing. The performance is identical to A64 with 1 MB L2 cache on the same frequency.

No real advatage to buying a s939 Opteron then, IMO. Like I said, this is nothing more than AMD switching single cpu servers to cheaper unbuffered ram.

Registered memory is tremendously expensive still...

[largon]

drcrawn,
San Diego core for the same price of a 3000+ is no real advantage?!
These are FX's with lower multi and price!

No cons.
Just pros.

[s7e9h3n]

Anyway, jeez man, do some reading. AMD publishes all this in their tech sheets.

I don't think I was too clear in my statement. You're speaking in terms of purely @ the hardware level while what I meant to address was the diferences in how the memory controllers are hard coded. Trust me, while the information that's available publicly may imply that the memory controllers in the Opterons and A64's are functionally similar, their differences lie far beyond the ability to hand registered dimms........

[Ugly n Grey]

I don't think I was too clear in my statement. You're speaking in terms of purely @ the hardware level while what I meant to address was the diferences in how the memory controllers are hard coded. Trust me, while the information that's available publicly may imply that the memory controllers in the Opterons and A64's are functionally similar, their differences lie far beyond the ability to hand registered dimms........

You are asking for an unsual amount of trust considering AMD is not known for publishing false claims about their processors capabilities...you have any data?