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AMD Releases Sempron Earlier Than Expected

Posted by timothy on from the suitcase-in-hand dept.

I_am_Rambi writes "AMD has released the Sempron today, a release date that moved up from Aug 17th. Because of this move, some of the reviews that are out, will be continued later on. Some sites already have reviews including Toms Hardware, Anandtech, and Tech Report. The Sempron, AMDs budget processor, is staged against the Intel Celeron." Jason Jacobs writes with a review on Techware Labs, and Hack Jandy adds a link to a review at HotHardware, writing "it appears as though the Socket A based Sempron performs abysmally while dollar for dollar the Socket 754 version levels every Intel CPU."

9 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Beats the Celeron... by xot · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Sempron beats the celeron in almost all the benchmarks, so if its priced cheaper than the Celeron or even 5% more I see no reason why anyone should buy a Celeron!
    I am a recent AMD convert with a brand new Athlon 2800+ Mobile version.It really does beat Intel hands down.

    --
    Lord of the Binges.
    1. Re:Beats the Celeron... by Anita+Coney · · Score: 5, Informative

      There was "never" a time to buy a celeron. Sorry, there was once such a time. The celeron 300A. It was so cheap it was practically free and could be easily clocked to 450MHz and higher. But, other than that one chip, you're right.

      --
      If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
  2. Re:Low end market by Original+Buddha · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why start now? It's been well documented that 1.6 Durons are better performers than Celerons for half the price.

    http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.asp x? i=1927

  3. Quick take on major differences by IronChefMorimoto · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Semprons are available in Socket A (AthlonXP) and Socket 754 flavors.

    Anandtech - http://www.anandtech.com (better article)
    Tomshardware - http://www.tomshardware.com

    Big differences are...

    ATHLONXP vs. SEMPRON (SOCKET A) -- can't really tell upon first glance. The Sempron is available in the same speeds as the AthlonXP and based on the Thoroughbred B core (I'm running a Barton and a Thoroughbred B pair of cores in mine and Allison's desktops). The Sempron tops out at a slower over speed vs. the AthlonXP lineup. How confusing is that? The FSB, right now, tops out at 333Mhz, so it might be a little odd to pair a Sempron Socket A up with DDR400 (PC3200) memory.

    ATHLON64 (SOCKET 754) vs. SEMPRON (SOCKET 754) -- same issue -- they both look the same and have the same speed numbering. However, the original 754 was a Clawhammer (1MB L2 cache), followed by Newcastle (512KB L2 cache). Now, the Sempron has a 256KB L2 cache and NO x86-64 instructions. You can run matching memory FSB speeds of 400MHz with the 754 variant of the Sempron.

    The Anandtech article noted that the AthlonXP is the better performance value now, until it's phased out. After that, the Sempron 754 is a good entry-level processor vs. a slightly slower full Athlon64.

    Ugh -- talk about confusing. No more so, I guess, than Intel having 2.8GHz P4 Prescotts and 2.8GHz Celeron Ds.

    IronChefMorimoto

  4. Re:Low end market by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Dell has been making overtures that indicate it would like to sell AMD, but is currently locked into a deal with Intel that prohibits such an arangement.

  5. Fixed Toms Hardware link by maroberts · · Score: 1, Informative

    AMD's Sempron

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    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
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  6. Re:Sempron Fi by JAgostoni · · Score: 2, Informative

    Problem is that you can't trademark the names that make sense. That is why Intel switched from 486 to Pentium. Now the competition could not call their's "Pentium" compatible because it's trademarked.

    Given that, there is a serious problem for companies finding trademarkable names anymore. That is why there getting more and more ridiculous.

    I think, however, they should use more superlatives: The Spectaculon, or Superfastium. Probably already taken though...

    --

    -----
    Web Hosting @ HostForADollar.com
  7. Re:Low end market by JediLuke · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah its called their OEM agreement...and much like MS with most companies, Intel pulls the same crap. "Oh you want these reference designs? Oh well you're going to have to stop selling AMDs"

    --

    JediLuke
    -Do or Do Not, There is no Try
  8. You dont need a fast pc by a5cii · · Score: 2, Informative

    to get things done

    I have a Celeron 333mhz, 384mb 133 sd-ram, 120gb 7200rpm hdd, 4mb ati rage pro turbo, yamaha ds-xg, 10-100base ethernet

    this machine runs windows 2000 pro and is used as a router, file server, web server, ftp server and is used for everything from graphics to video editing, it can be slow sometimes but most of time its perfect.

    the only thing it wont do is use games but since i use another for games it doesnt matter. Its sort of used as a guest computer so that anyone visiting can browse the net or catch up on work if they are staying overnight.

    if you want wordprocessing, simple games etc... an Acorn A3000 @ 8mhz with 4mb ram and no hdd works surprisingly well