Who will be first? 3100+ results

[Karnivore]

Been considering one of these, the Egg dropped the price a bit from the $140 something they were originally.... Might just have to order one Shows in stock...

[Shade00]

Nice! The boxed processor has really dropped in price. If that OEM starts to come down I'd imagine we'll see a lot more of them out there, especially since they're CGs.

Oh! Almost forgot.



That's what I've got so far. 100% stable. I think it's got more in it, although it is a fairly early chip; it's a week 18.

[Karnivore]

Not bad, have you run any benches to see how they compare with A64, and the AXP's? I'll have a K8N Pro that will need a processor as soon as the DFI arrives.

[Shade00]

Meh, no benches yet. I might run 3dmark in just as second to see what I can do. Yep, think I'll do that. I shall return with an appropriate compare.

[Karnivore]

Originally posted by Shade00
I shall return with an appropriate compare.

anything you can run would be great, Thanks!

[craig588]

If this starts beating the AXP then that whole line becomes obsolete because these are basicly the same price.

[Shade00]

The Sempron 3100+ beats the pants off of the AXP.

Alright, here's a 3dmark2k1 run at the same setting as on my Mobile 2800+ Clawhammer. I'm a bit puzzled by the results, honestly. The card is my backup card, but it's all I've got to run right now.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8088917 - 13888

This is the run with the same settings on the Clawhammer.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8053900 - 14024

Very small difference. I don't really understand why it's not larger.

Both CPUs were run at 2400mhz (300x8). The RAM was run at the same timings (2.5-2-2-6) at 200mhz. The video card is a 128-bit 9500 at 380/300.

[Shade00]

Hmm, looks like a bad Car Low run on my Clawhammer. Odd. Anybody care to figure out how many points a decent run would've given me? I don't know how many FPS there would be between the chips, so I can't really say what to estimate with.

[jfr0]

I think its 10 pts/ frame for car low so if you got 200fps thats only a 100pt increase

[Shade00]

Hrm. I found the formula for calculating a 3dmark score, and there still isn't a huge difference between the two. Very strange. I don't feel like putting the Clawhammer back in to give it another go right now, so maybe we'll see some more results soon.

[HKPolice]

Your 9500 is the bottleneck

[IvanAndreevich]

Yeah I also think the videocard might be limiting any CPU diff that may arise.

[dropadrop]

We compared a bit at ocforums between a guy with a sempron 1.6ghz 128kb L2 vs. my notebook with a clawhammer 1.6ghz 1mb L2 and in pifast 1mb test there was only 4seconds diferance. 56 vs. 60 seconds.

Compared to the price it's a great cpu, but you won't be breaking any records with it!

[Shade00]

Wish I had a better card to test with at the moment. You guys are probably right.

[RCochran]

I just don't understand why anybody would buy a nice A64 motherboard and put a Sempron in it. 64 bit is where we are headed. IMO Sempron is a step backwards. No 64 bit and cache starved. Might as well buy a P4 or Celeron.

[Karnivore]

Originally posted by RCochran
I just don't understand why anybody would buy a nice A64 motherboard and put a Sempron in it. 64 bit is where we are headed. IMO Sempron is a step backwards. No 64 bit and cache starved. Might as well buy a P4 or Celeron.

64 bit software is still a while off, jury is still out what the gains will be. By the time 32 bit is obsolete, I'll have upgraded many times. Besides that, some of us like to play with new stuff.

[Poki]

I can't help but think one of these sempron's would be a blast on the DFI board.
Cheap chip that you aren't gonna cry about dieing from too much vcore.

BTW, why does everyone buy OEM's when retails are only a couple bux more?
I have 101 uses for those retail HSF assemblies!

[Shade00]

Yeah, 64-bit is where we're headed, but you'll still be able to get 64-bit 754 chips whenever 64-bit takes hold. I'll be running 32-bit Windows XP for a while (as I imagine many will) and the Sempron works very well.

AMD's K8 chips don't take a huge hit from loss of cache. Nothing at all like the PIV-based Celerons. The Sempron 3100+ is a quite capable processor.

I found a review of the 3100+ over at Sharky Extreme that has the Sempron at 2.15ghz compared to a 3400+ CH. I wish they could've given us a compare at 2.2, but they were using a K8T800 board, so they couldn't reach any decent HTT speeds. Anyway, for the money, the Sempron is not far behind the 3400+ at all.

[RCochran]

Originally posted by Karnivore
64 bit software is still a while off, jury is still out what the gains will be. By the time 32 bit is obsolete, I'll have upgraded many times. Besides that, some of us like to play with new stuff.

The jury may be out for the masses but not for those who understand what is going on. It should be very clear to even a noob that 64 bit means gains across the board, sometimes as much as double. I like playing with new stuff too, but I care about performance. Sempron is not new. The socket 754 is not new. 256k cache is not new. The clock speeds are not new. So what is new? 2MB cache would be new. Sempron is old tech at new prices IMO. Shame on AMD.

I think it has been shown that the A64 takes a very big it from a reduction in cache. I believe this will be reflected in the 3DMark2001 scores.

[afireinside]

Yeah sure its stuff we have seen before but 256k cache on socket 754 is new and its fun to play with. By the time 64 bit goes mainstream I doubt anyone will still be on socket 754 or 939.

[Shade00]

Originally posted by RCochran
The jury may be out for the masses but not for those who understand what is going on. It should be very clear to even a noob that 64 bit means gains across the board, sometimes as much as double. I like playing with new stuff too, but I care about performance. Sempron is not new. The socket 754 is not new. 256k cache is not new. The clock speeds are not new. So what is new? 2MB cache would be new. Sempron is old tech at new prices IMO. Shame on AMD.

I think it has been shown that the A64 takes a very big it from a reduction in cache. I believe this will be reflected in the 3DMark2001 scores.

Eh, it hasn't been shown that AMD takes a very big hit from reduction in cache. It's a few percent at best. Like I said before, the loss is very little compared to the Celeron/PIV.

Even if we are going to 64-bit, you're missing the whole point of the Sempron. It provides a cheap (but very fast) processor until it becomes necessary to go 64-bit. When that time comes, all you'll have to do is pop in a new processor and go. Just because 64-bit is two times 32 doesn't mean we'll see 2x the performance, either. Most "noobs" also understand that we're not 64-bit yet, and a chip that offers 98% of the performance for less cost is still a good option. Why do you think people still buy Mobile Athlon XPs? They're not 64-bit.

Plus, the 3100+ a lot faster than the Athlon XP without costing much more.

So, until AMD releases a chip with 2mb cache, all of their chips will be old technology?

[Karnivore]

Originally posted by RCochran
The jury may be out for the masses but not for those who understand what is going on. It should be very clear to even a noob that 64 bit means gains across the board, sometimes as much as double. I like playing with new stuff too, but I care about performance. Sempron is not new. The socket 754 is not new. 256k cache is not new. The clock speeds are not new. So what is new? 2MB cache would be new. Sempron is old tech at new prices IMO. Shame on AMD.

I think it has been shown that the A64 takes a very big it from a reduction in cache. I believe this will be reflected in the 3DMark2001 scores.

I've been here since the 8 bit processsor, most likely a bit longer then you, and at least as long, I think I understand just fine, and I fail to put much faith in what "MIGHT" be.. Sure we'll see gains, however those gains are in the not-so-near future. Once we finally have retail 64 bit OS, then we'll start seeing software, even then its going to take time for everyone to optimize to take advantage of any added power. As was already mentioned by the time all this takes place we'll have more new hardware.

I think Having an A64 @ just under 3ghz, and a P4 @4.5, allows me to have a fair idea of performance. As for cache the "very big hit" you describe just isn't there, and unless your benching you won't know the difference, and yeah I speak from experience not reviews... If the 754 Sempron turns out to even semi-close (which early indications seem to be pointing at) It will be a decent value platform. You can shame AMD all you want but there is absolutely no reason to think someone is a "NOOB" if they want to try a Sempron...

Do what you want but you DON'T need to get nasty because someone else might enjoy playing with a Sempron. Last I checked it was MY money in my wallet....

[RCochran]

Originally posted by Shade00
Eh, it hasn't been shown that AMD takes a very big hit from reduction in cache. It's a few percent at best. Like I said before, the loss is very little compared to the Celeron/PIV.

Even if we are going to 64-bit, you're missing the whole point of the Sempron.

The cache hit may not have been shown to you but I have seen it and it is profound. And yes, I am missing the point of the Sempron. That's the whole reason for my post. I was hoping you guys could explain why anybody would want one other than to experiment with. They don't seem to have any advantages to the other 32 bit solutions out there. And if y'all are correct about 64 bit being so far off the arguement that buying a 32 bit CPU and then later a 64 bit one is not valid.

Questioning the statements of those who are questionable is not being nasty, just curious. I do apoligize for the noob comment. I didn't mean you guys. I was just saying what I feel should be obvious.

The fact that you can ask "even if we are going to 64-bit" as if we may not shows me that your thinking is flawed. We ARE going 64 bit. If Intel had a chip that could execute AMD64 instructions we would already be there. That assumes Intel and AMD would have milked the 32 bit cash cow sufficiently.

[Mongoose420]

WB Storm!,

[Shade00]

Originally posted by RCochran
The cache hit may not have been shown to you but I have seen it and it is profound. And yes, I am missing the point of the Sempron. That's the whole reason for my post. I was hoping you guys could explain why anybody would want one other than to experiment with. They don't seem to have any advantages to the other 32 bit solutions out there. And if y'all are correct about 64 bit being so far off the arguement that buying a 32 bit CPU and then later a 64 bit one is not valid.

Questioning the statements of those who are questionable is not being nasty, just curious. I do apoligize for the noob comment. I didn't mean you guys. I was just saying what I feel should be obvious.

The fact that you can ask "even if we are going to 64-bit" as if we may not shows me that your thinking is flawed. We ARE going 64 bit. If Intel had a chip that could execute AMD64 instructions we would already be there. That assumes Intel and AMD would have milked the 32 bit cash cow sufficiently.

Got anything to back up this 'profound' cache hit?

What do you mean they don't have any advantages over current 32-bit solutions? They're boatloads faster than Athlon XPs, and even faster than lost of PIVs. You can't say a 3100+ is slower than a Barton or a Prescott just because one has more cache.

I never asked a question about whether or not we were going to 64-bit. I know we are going to 64-bit. Go back and read what I said again. That main idea of what I was saying was that we're not going to 64-bit right now. My thinking is not flawed just because I don't agree completely with you, either.