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AMD Releases Sempron Earlier Than Expected
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."
By "it appears as though the Socket A based Sempron performs abysmally" they probably mean that these $30-40 budget processors are only ~5-8 times faster than as say a "K6-2 400" or equalient "Pentium 2" -- processors which did provide and still provide all the performance you need on a non-gaming/non-dev desktop machine.
"Bah, these $30 chips don't run Doom 3 at Max Extreme Settings. We're so disappointed. They are useless!"
Belief is the currency of delusion.
It's been increasingly apparent that I wouldn't buy most CPUs today until they hit a minimum performance level. Until that "minimum" is something that's capable of running almost any app I throw at it.
While that's a moving target and always will be, at the moment what I'm running on it really begs for a CPU like these. And with them as a new low-end, I'm really set for an upgrade.
The last time I felt so excited by a speed upgrade was when I bought my first PPC Amiga. Good to see the IT world can keep on delivering.
'...AMD has elected to stick with its "fake subatomic particle" naming scheme rather than veer into Intel's "fake member of the periodic table of elements" naming scheme. Sempron is largely a branding exercise, so the name is important. The Sempron name is intended to evoke phrases like "semper fidelis" and other such tokens of solidity and steadfastness. Roughly translated from a mix of Latin and leet-speak, though, Sempron means "always pornographic," and I fear the little CPU will never fully escape that connotation of its recently fabricated moniker. '
"Always faithful to porn"!!! That's my kinda CPU (Completely Pornographic Unit)
I am really annoyed that Intel and AMD market these low end procs. Usually for $10 more you can get a similar speed older processor that performs better. Most consumers do not know the difference and they buy junk HP desktops that I used to have to fix every other week.
GroupShares Inc.
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artlu.net
Looks like AMD can really give Intel a beat down on the low end market now.
Will this finally force Dell to start selling AMD chips in their machines? I can't imagine they would be able to ignore the price and performance advantage.
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.
I am so happy that AMD is really giving Intel a run for their money. I remember when they had so many problems with their first few processors. Now that their processors are strong and stable they have a lot of 'followers'. Their processors are a great value and definately worth every penny.
I love rooting for the underdog and watching them really become a force in the market. Kudos to AMD and good luck in the future.
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
I'd call my new processor an Imtell Pantiom Quattro, and install it in my genuine Sorny laptop, and then stream MP3s from it to my Magnetbox stereo.
Imtell Pantium: now with 5% more pant.
my pet machine
Is it just me or are the processor names getting lamer and lamer
Since the government controls >50% of the GDP all systems are, naturally, going to mimic the trends being set by the government.
This is a natural counterpart of things like "War against Terror" and "Office of Homeland Security".
Everything in life is becoming lamer and lamer...
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
This sounds like just another pretty name at a cheap price, designed to gain market share by selling processors to the same bunch of people who buy cars based on the color.
ED: I found the car I'm going to buy.
JOHN: That's good. What is it?
ED: I don't know, but it's RED.
The thing I like most about this job is all the rocket scientists who bang their mice on their desks shouting 'It Broke!
Put it another way, buy an Athlon64 MB and put an Athlon 32 cpu in it. WHY?
Sounds like a good upgrade path to me- Buy a socket754 mobo and a sempron, and later on down the road you can upgrade the memory and CPU and double your performance when you can afford it.
The hell with this Semipr0n crap, I'm waiting for the new processor instructions for streaming video and integrated XXX chat that come with the Fullpr0n chip!