I think this was most likely price ridiculously high in order to keep demand down until they can step up production.

I suspect the prices will fall significantly by the end of the quarter, assuming no real production problems.

I disagree with that. I don't think AMD has a production issue. I think their mindset has changed about the way they will compete in the market.

AMD will continue to match Intel exactly. So unless Chipzilla decides to cut prices somewhat considerably A64 will remain an expensive option for the forseeable future.

Thanks for posting scores from the arguably dead AXP3200+. In games there's now roughly a 40% gap between the top end of AXP and the S9393 FX53.

Of course the price premium for that 40% is feeling mighty steep at the moment.

Allright,
enough crying about the prices. I remember just a couple years back, blowing $835 on a P3 733 Slot 1, and a year before that $800 on a P2 400 !

If you want the absolute fastest, you pay for it. Look at what performance you get for less than what those CPU's cost, just a few years ago.

If one were to keep the processor time filled with a Folding process set to Idle priority, would that negate the benefits of Cool n' Quiet?

The prices on the 'mainstream' A64 parts are staggering. :( There is essentially no segmentation between the A64 line and the FX line now. I had assumed (foolishuly apparently) that the 3700/3800 were going to slide in at the $600ish mark just like the 3200+ and 3400+ did at their introductions.

A tiny bit of intel blood in the water and amd goes and gets all greedy. :(

Here you go.

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.x86-secret.com/a...cles/cpu/s939/s939-2.htm&langpair=fr|en&hl=en&ie...[.com]

#56...IIRC they will come out with a 4000 chip in the future...at least that was a couple months ago....as well as their plans to support the 754 socket....me thinks they have a ways to go yet.

When I can get 50% more performance than my 2500MHz Barton, I'll jump, but only at a $150 or so (for cpu) price point.

These will be boutique cpu's. I doubt they will find as many suckers as back in the old days.

If my rig can't push Doom3, I guess my plan will be to get the slowest real 754 (i.e. not Paris) and overclock the bejeezus out of it.

I wish I could find the site that had the pics but somewhere I saw a mobo that had dual sockets for 754 and 939. Not that you could run both but you could drop a 754 in now and then upgrade to a 939 later. That seems like a really cool idea. Makes the old upgrade path a little easier not having to buy 2 mobos and all.

Is the heatsink mounting system for 939 going to be the same as 754?

I'm upgrading soon and 754s should start to go down in price a little now. If I know I could buy a good 754 cooling system and continue to use it for 939, I'd be inclined to spend a little more.

I think my Prescott 2.8 with 2GB 400MHz ram is plenty fast enough for my photoshopping. But there is no danying the lust one feels for a beast like this. If only for the pure and simple hitech and bragging factor.

Interesting divx results comparison:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q2/athlon64-3800/index.x?pg=8
http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=2065&p=7

Anand's review shows the Athlon dominating quite a bit more than TR's...

anyone know when i can actually buy one of these?

Kudos on the Ferris Bueller quote.

Thanks Scott, another awsome review.

Do we have any idea on how long socket 754 will be around?
Is it still around 6 more months or so, as reported before?

I am running one with a A64 3200+, and I am just curious on what speed the last cpu made for it will be, although it may be too early to tell now.

Also, anyone heard of any "powerleap" type socket adapters to come out for AMD?

Too bad you stole this review, in its Entirty from a bunch of
Russians.

so much for credibility. and you know what im talkin about

flux

too bad no review or results with the 3500+ and 3700+ also would have liked to seen a FX 53 940pin and 52. but still a good review.

The Intel crowd should like these new AMD CPUs. Since Intel is now going have to do some price slashes on their P4 Expensive Editions. Now that they no longer have the luxury only supporting unbuffered memory when comparied to the S940 FXs which required more expensive registered memory.

The table on page 3 lists the socket 939 processors with 800MHz HT. Do the new CPUs not use the new 1GHz HT, or is that a typo?

top review, as always.

Anyone else feel a little disappointed by the 3800+ rating chip. My feelings are that this is too high a rating and am therefore not blown away by this chip at all, specially due to its rediculously high price tag.

Oh well I guess your right lol, I just stumbled across your review
and couldnt help but notice some distinct similarities, but you got
those russians beat.

lol

As for page 2, why don't you make the table even more complete (& confusing) by including the other 3200+ (2.2 GHz, 512kB L2, S754) and 3400+ (2.4 GHz, 512kB L2, S754) CPUs that are also available. ;-)

A64-S939, PCI-E and some dual DVI ATi goodness seems like a really nice upgrade for the holiday season. :-)

Nice processors except for that price problem. More importantly than that is the uncertain future of upgrades for anything AMD or Intel for that matter. Socket 754 is becoming the value line with Paris, without 64bit. Socket 939 is here but is expensive, and then there is the looming spectre of a possible Socket 900 for DDR2 support in the second half of 2005. Not to mention the troubles at Intel and PCI Express out there. Its the sort of good time to upgrade but not really. Oh and then there is the dual core question looming out in late 2005. In other words its all uncertain, yipe!

Dang......... I was somewhat expecting a tad more out of the 939s.... And those prices @_@!! I fully agree with Johnny Rotten (#15) there.

I've also expected the PCI-E boards to show up with 939s, I guess I haven't followed the scene since many of you expected them to walk in in the late summer/early fall window. DDR2/BTX aren't an issue since AMD doesn't want (yet) the former and doesn't need the latter, but PCI-E would be great with an X800 >_<

Not too sure how much more i can wait for a new rig, or IF i should wait a tad more (fall would be the deadline). In terms of processors I think those are it from AMD untill Christmas. The new graphic cards just came out and since the X600 is just a faster Radeon 9600XT it doesn't seem worth it (lack of pipeline and all).

939's out but pricey, meanwhile RAM is imitating the oil prices, PCI-E's is walking to the shops s-l-o-w-l-y.....
..... and Shuttle needs a sexy 939 limited edition box for me to buy.

I need a few days to sort it all out, and welcome any and all constructive argument for my next purchase (think SFF rig)

Nice, but out of my price range :(

Scott are there any updated whisperings on when we'll be seeing PCI-E (for A64 obviosuly) from either VIA or nvidia? Last I had heard was late summer (ie August/september)...

Well, I read the review and minutes later pulled the trigger on a mobile 2600+@newegg. Socket 939 has offered no us surprises. I'll be waiting until the dual-core smp hype of next year before I jump to amd64(and windows64).

I would much more gladly lay down $600 for 2 opteron 244's than buy 1 athlon 64 3700+@$700. Anyway, the review was great. I'm only bitter because I am in "saving mode" right now ; (

Damn, now if only these chips weren't as expensive as building a new system on some of the older tech that looks like crap camparitively speaking but still fairs well all around.

It's about time. :)

Good review though I was hoping to see the 3700+ reviewed as well. [H] has the 3700+ reviewed as well if anyone else is looking, and it pulled in a strong performance, able to hang with the FX 53 and 3800+ most of the time, and even won a few benchmarks. Now i cant wait to see how well these 939 chips oc, particularly the 3500+.