Welcome AM2 !

[TrinireturnofGamez]

 AM2 has officially launched an will be made available for sale soon , the processors for it currantly are not much faster than those on socket 939 , but the platform holds promise ,also AMD has managed to cut processor power consumption by respectable amounts , 89 watts for a high end dual core system from 110w
  AMD is also selling a line of ''Energy Efficient'' cpus with only 65watts of power consumption for slightly higher prices,  this also includes dual core cpus , also a 35 watt line of ''energy efficient'' single cores ie. Sempron , A64 and the slowest dual core available @ 2ghz,  the 3800+ X2.
     

  Also laudable AMD has managed to increase performance by as much as 13.5%  when moving to DDR2 while using an identical cpu with the same clocks  , while intel's first DDR2 processors were SLOWER...
 
 While likely AMD will loose to intel in performance , the power consumption of the two lines of processors will be comparable , very admirable considering intel is using a 65nm process versus amd's larger ,hotter 90nm..



 Pricing of the dual core parts remains the same , though the semprons will be available at slightly lower prices , and the Athlon64 3500 is now 189 USD , down from its initial 225-250 pricing. 


http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_athlon_64_fx_62_5000/default.asp

125 watts ( higher than FX 60 ? probably taking in account overclocking since its legal on the FX line)
FX-62   $1,031
89 watts
X2 5000+   $696
X2 4800+   $645
X2 4600+   $558
X2 4400+   $470
X2 4200+   $365
X2 4000+   $328
X2 3800+   $303

65 watts
Athlon 64 3800+   $290
Athlon 64 3500+   $189
Sempron 3600+   $123
Sempron 3500+   $109
Sempron 3400+   $97
Sempron 3200+   $87
Sempron 3000+   $77



 low power line :
65 Watts:   
X2 4800+   $671
X2 4600+   $601
X2 4400+   $514
X2 4200+   $417
X2 4000+   $353
X2 3800+   $323

35 Watts:   
X2 3800+   $364
Athlon 64 3500+   $231
Sempron 3400+   $145
Sempron 3200+   $119
Sempron 3000+   $101

  Note : intel practically giving away P4s these days , all those dells you seeing in the papers with lowered prices exist because intel is trying to rid its stock of P4s and stop AMD from tiefing customers at the same time ,its much better to make a small profit than to have someone buy a better Athlon and have intel make no profit at all... Thus intel processors can be found for as much as  half the price of AMD right now.. 
   Intel dual core Pentium D's are selling for 120USD for the 2.66ghz models and 300 for 3.2ghz , while the cheapest AMD dual core X2 goes for 290 USD ..

[Spazosaurus]

All this looks nice, but i think i'll be waiting to see what the conroe looks like befoe i make any upgrade secisions.

[W1nTry]

I suspect conroe will b1tch slap AM2 all over the place, so if/when it happens don't say we didn't warn yah. You'll be waiting got K8L (at least AMD hopes) to see the performance gap close again. Or maybe a heavy optimization of the AM2 core.

[TriniXaeno]

Nice piece Trini

I would have loved to see the Ghz rating included. That would answer questions like whether that 3500+ Low Watt version was still a 2.4Ghz CPU or not?

How long before Conroe btw.

[TrinireturnofGamez]

 same clock speeds , but they run on a slightly different silicon process....
   AMD now can make batches of processors along different guidlines , not just high speed and low speed clocks , but on power consumption also.... Yes low power cpus run on the same clocks , but they are made using a process optimized for low power and are binned for clock , those that can run @ 35w for 2.2 become a64 3500s , those that can't are modified by disabling cache to semprons...  It involves probably a more expensive silicon process and more expensive binning process so  a higher price is expected..
 
  Conroe is supposed to be out in  late june or july , the paper launch is supposed to be coming up soon ... AMD is launching first and so will get some sales before they are stomped into oblivion...

[TriniXaeno]

lol @ stomped into oblivion.

The mass sales are at the bottom of the processor food chain.

I hardly doubt conroe is coming to compete with the Semprons and A64 3000+, where AMD pwns.

They may reclaim the performance crown at the top with a US$500-1000 offering but entry level and middle market is all about more sensitive pricing.

A game that AMD has been able to beat intel at for the past 4-5 years.

Though I must admit, those low Intel dual core prices you posted shocked me. Never realised that Intel were undercutting them by such huge margins.

2006 should be an interesting year for CPUs indeed.

[Beomagi]

I hardly doubt conroe is coming to compete with the Semprons and A64 3000+, where AMD pwns.
...
Though I must admit, those low Intel dual core prices you posted shocked me. Never realised that Intel were undercutting them by such huge margins.

At $125 for the 805 pentium D, it's hard to even recommend the sempron or 3000+. Hey you save on memory if you upgrade too. After using the 805 and a more powerful single core a64 - the 3400+, there's no way i can recommend a low end single core a64 over it.

monarchpc.com has AM2 procs and motherboards in stock

In a couple months we'd have woodcrest and core2 - and they show huge gains to those waiting to buy them, especially overclockers that would buy the low end model and overclock (here's an early sample - core 2 at 3.9 GHz!!) after that the next interesting bit should be amd's K8L due next 2007