AMD Phenom II and Dragon Preview Event - Invite Only

[N19h7m4r3]

If the 940 BE will also work in future AM3 boards, it's even better, because it saves you having to buy a new cpu later down the road

[Halk]

If the 940 BE will also work in future AM3 boards, it's even better, because it saves you having to buy a new cpu later down the road

My understanding was that it wouldnt, and it'd need to be the 945.

Edit : To be crystal clear on my understanding...

All AM3 Phenom II CPUs will also work in AM2+ slots. To enable this they will come with the standard memory controller they need for DDR3 in AM3, but also a DDR2 controller for AM2+.

The first 2 Phenom IIs will be AM2+ CPUs, and will not come with DDR3 controllers, or work in AM3 boards.

[charged3800z24]

My understanding was that it wouldnt, and it'd need to be the 945.

Edit : To be crystal clear on my understanding...

All AM3 Phenom II CPUs will also work in AM2+ slots. To enable this they will come with the standard memory controller they need for DDR3 in AM3, but also a DDR2 controller for AM2+.

The first 2 Phenom IIs will be AM2+ CPUs, and will not come with DDR3 controllers, or work in AM3 boards.

My bet is, the AM2+ have the DDR3 controllers, but since they are pinned differently and will not fit in the AM3 sockets, they will not be able to use the DDR3.

[informal]

My bet is, the AM2+ have the DDR3 controllers, but since they are pinned differently and will not fit in the AM3 sockets, they will not be able to use the DDR3.

Folks,just search chew*'s last posts on the am2+/am3 topic and you will see he was told that am2+ chips indeed have a "combo" IMC,so they should work in am3 board later on.The difference between am2+ and am3 Phenoms seems to be in other respects,ie. lower power draw,better OCing potential,higher northbridge clocks(which should make it a bit faster per clock than am2+).

[Halk]

Folks,just search chew*'s last posts on the am2+/am3 topic and you will see he was told that am2+ chips indeed have a "combo" IMC,so they should work in am3 board later on.The difference between am2+ and am3 Phenoms seems to be in other respects,ie. lower power draw,better OCing potential,higher northbridge clocks(which should make it a bit faster per clock than am2+).

In that case I wish I'd bought cheaper RAM :P

Seriously though that means a fantastic upgrade path for people.

Take out A64 x2, throw it away. Plug in Phenom II.

Take out Phenom II. Throw away old ram from A64 x2 days, and motherboard from A64 x2 days. Plug Phenom II into spanky new AM3 board, with new ram.

Take out Phenom II and plug in whatever AMD come out with later.

A nice partial upgrade path rather than the new board every two weeks it feels like we've had.

[Nedjo]

Folks,just search chew*'s last posts on the am2+/am3 topic and you will see he was told that am2+ chips indeed have a "combo" IMC,so they should work in am3 board later on.

I doubt that...

[informal]

I doubt that...

You may be right since chew* said that it was the impression he got from the talk with AMD's reps.It is very possible they misunderstood his question for am3 cpu -> am2+ socket .We need to wait for a while ,but if you have some juicy details(like you hinted ),then we may as well conclude it won't work like posted.

[Voodoo²]

How many pins are going to have the AM3 chips? 938? 936? If am2+ deneb have all 940 pins... well there is the answer. If AM3 sockets get all 940 holes it will be posible to fit this special am2+ denebs AND ALL AM2 chips too! i don´t think so! So AM3 will have less holes and AM3 chips will have less pins, that way they can fit in AM2+ boards but not the other way. Of course someone can try to cut those pins in AM2+ Deneb and see what happens.