Semprons now available

[Mercutio]

Don't know if anyone cares, but today's Newegg.com update shows AMD Sempron processors are now available.

Most of the chip lineup consists of Socket A processors that appear to be slightly crippled Athlon XP chips (slightly crippled = still way, way faster than a Celeron) with a slightly discounted price. For example there's a $5 price difference between a retail Sempron and a retail AthlonXP for 2500+ chips.

The upper-end chip is a socket 754 model. For those of us who have embraced the Athlon64 platform, I believe future revs of these chips will be our upgrade path as current Athlons move to socket 939.

 

[Tea]

Watch out for the numbers! They use a completely different numbering scheme, so (in general) the Sempron 2x00 is way down on an Athlon XP 2x00. I'll pozt examples when I get to work and have a spare moment.

 

[sechs]

Sempron? That's not kind of female sanitary product?

 

[Mercutio]

I'm more interested in the budget socket 754 product. I KNOW the Socket A versions are dogs - although at a rather more substantial discount, they'd still be tempting - CPU performance is ridiculous these days anyway.

For those interested in a REAL bargain, those still on Socket A platforms: $70 Mobile Athlon 2200+ chips are multiplier unlocked and a sizeable chunk can apparently do 12x200MHz... which is rather impressive considering that the XP3200 runs at a "mere" 2200MHz. Those not interested in overclocking might like to know that the mobile chips run at just slightly over room temperatures on stock coolers.

 

[Clocker]

Hi Merc-
Are those mobile chips inferior to their desktop counterparts in any way? Just curious...I would not mind trading in my 2500+ (@3200+) if I could get a couple hundred extra Mhz of Folding performance and reduced temperatures. I'm hoping this is a free lunch but I'm sure there's a catch... Please let me know what you think..
Clocker

 

[Mercutio]

Supposedly they aren't. They have the same amount of cache memory and operate at he same set of mulitipliers and frequencies. The difference is that the newer mobile chips are made with a smaller fabrication process, I think.

 

[P5-133XL]

I see little to no value in the XP-Semprons. They appear to be rebadged XP's with a different socket type that requires a new MB. What's the value over an XP? I'm not impressed.

The K8 Sempron's have benefits over the K7's and XP's and thus have value. Even then, most people buy their processor using the AMD P4 equivalency numbers (2500+, 3200+, 3800+) and thus the K8 sempron's won't be able to distingush themselves over their equivilent XP's, P4's, or even AMD 64's as long as those equivalency numbers overlap.

This will continue to be a AMD marketing problem untill 64 bit windows is the norm and once that happens there won't be any value to the Sempron's at all.

 

[CityK]

I see little to no value in the XP-Semprons. They appear to be rebadged XP's .... What's the value over an XP? I'm not impressed.

From a business (revenue) point of view, the K7 Sempron was an awesome move by AMD. From a technical standpoint, there is absolutely no value. In fact, the consumer is much better served (in terms of performance value) by cheaper, lower model numbered XPs.

Tabular clock speed and model number comparisons

with a different socket type that requires a new MB

Still socket A, and quite a few (recent generation) socket A Mobos have apparently been made compatable via a BIOS update. Perhaps consumers still running Duron 600s on recent model socketA mobos might benefit....somehow.

The K8 Sempron's have benefits over the K7's and XP's and thus have value. Even then, most people buy their processor using the AMD P4 equivalency numbers (2500+, 3200+, 3800+) and thus the K8 sempron's won't be able to distingush themselves over their equivilent XP's, P4's, or even AMD 64's as long as those equivalency numbers overlap.

Yep, AMD is going to cannibalize some of their own higher margin sales. Have no idea why they bothered with K8 variant....unless it was to recycle/reuse K8's that just didn't cut it as 64bit processors or something like that.

This will continue to be a AMD marketing problem untill 64 bit windows is the norm and once that happens there won't be any value to the Sempron's at all.

So true. And what ($) value the K8 Sempron currently has over a A64 2800 is, by what I've seen so far, almost completely negligible. We're talking saving $10-20, but getting ~5% less performance (not important) and giving yourself an OS livespan of about a year or so. Resale value of the bitwise-castrated K8 Sempron in 2006 will be measured in the currency exchange provided by 486s today.

 

[CityK]

For the sake of juxtaposition:

http://www.anandtech.com/linux/showdoc.aspx?i=2170&p=8