Are socket 939 systems generally faster than 754's?

Caxus

I'm thinking of upgrading to a 939 Athlon 64 3700 San Diego. Right now i've got an old socket 754 Athlon 64 3200 with the 1mb cache. What i want to know is if that san diego will only be slightly faster because of the increased cpu speed or if it will be considerably faster because of the jump to socket 939 from 754.

This is primarily for gaming. I've thought about going dual core but everything i've read says that while some games USE both cores there isn't really and fps increase and that i'm better off putting that extra money toward a better video card. (x1900 instead of x1800)

RWB

Well Socket 754 should be ine for most gaming with a good card, the main difference is that there are not many socket 754 boards with PCI-Express, so your limited. One one hand you could buy a new Scket754 board with PCI-E so you can simply get a good high end card, but that would mean you are buying a motherboard and a new graphics card as well. Where as you could buy a new Socket 939 board and the same graphics card for about the same price, but you would need to buy a new CPU... either way has it's ups and downs.

The upside to upgrading your current setup is that you dont have to upgrade the CPU, although you could just buy an AGP card but tht's not gonna cut it if you wanna play the new games on high settings generally.

Or you could invest in 939, spend a bit more money, but have a system readily upgradable. But then again, sockets are changing again and soon 939 will be low end. I miss being able to have Socket A and just being able to keep upgrading things ONE BY ONE....

edcentric

If he wants to hold on to his 754 there is always the 7800GS that comes AGP. This would move him to modern video.
You might also consider going to more memory.
These won't cost a fortune and will easily keep you in the play for another year or more.

GrayFox

edcentric wrote:

If he wants to hold on to his 754 there is always the 7800GS that comes AGP. This would move him to modern video.
You might also consider going to more memory.
These won't cost a fortune and will easily keep you in the play for another year or more.

He won't notice too much of a proformence increase since he has a x800xtpe.

Caxus

You might also consider going to more memory.

I've never had any problems due to lack of memory, even in Oblivion.

Sledgehammer70

The performance difference between a 7800GS and a X800 is pretty big! Also the pure fact that the X800 is missing almost all the tech the 7800 has it would make a night and day difference in his game experience....

I think the 939 socket is the way to go. The market is flooded with them and a setup is cheap and you have the option of single & dual core that will run things pretty dang fast for the next few years... as the 754 series is pretty much dead... but the 754 series will still game very well and run well.

madmat

If you just shudder at the thought of laying out for a new mobo, GPU & CPU you could consider the Epox SLI 754 mobo. That'll get you to PCI-e, SLI capability and save you the (wallet) pain of buying a new CPU. Just a thought.

rapture

If you just shudder at the thought of laying out for a new mobo, GPU & CPU you could consider the Epox SLI 754 mobo. That'll get you to PCI-e, SLI capability and save you the (wallet) pain of buying a new CPU. Just a thought.

^Agree with that, you could get yourself a PCI-E 7900GT

Mt_Goat

I don't know how everyone got off on video cards as he asked if the socket 939 CPU's were any faster than their 754 couterparts. as far as the CPU's go the main difference is the Dual Channel Memory controllers on the 939 chips as the 754's are just single channel. Other than that the newer smaller cores on the 939's are much more efficient both power wise and thermaly. As the othewrs mentioned there are other reasons for upgrading.

lemonlime

The performance difference between 754 and 939 is very small, especially for gaming. Literally, the only difference is memory bandwidth. In gaming, I'd estimate the difference is around 5%.

Obviously, 939 has many other advantages (like Rev.E processors that handle larger amounts of memory better, cooler running 90nm chips and dual core support).

Personally, I would keep your PC for a while longer. Intel and AMD both have exciting new platforms (the former more than the later) just around the corner. Intel Conroe may very well be worth the wait, and a much more significant performance improvement.

muddocktor

lemonlime wrote:

The performance difference between 754 and 939 is very small, especially for gaming. Literally, the only difference is memory bandwidth. In gaming, I'd estimate the difference is around 5%.

Obviously, 939 has many other advantages (like Rev.E processors that handle larger amounts of memory better, cooler running 90nm chips and dual core support).

Personally, I would keep your PC for a while longer. Intel and AMD both have exciting new platforms (the former more than the later) just around the corner. Intel Conroe may very well be worth the wait, and a much more significant performance improvement.

I agree 100% with everything lemonlime said. With both Intel and AMD about to release new platforms (and sockets), you are better off just waiting for them to roll out and stick with your present setup. After all, an X800XT-PE isn't a slow vid card at all, unlike what Sledge would have you believe. For now, just overclock your present 754 a bit if your mobo will allow you to. That way you will see improved speed and gameplay without any extra expense. Just be sure to monitor temps closely when overclocking, especially if you raise vcore a bit.