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What's the difference between an Opteron and an Athlon 64?



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 26th 03, 05:43 AM
Wes Harrison
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Default What's the difference between an Opteron and an Athlon 64?

Well, they're both 64 bits and both use an x86-based instruction set and
both made by AMD so what exactly is the difference? Is it like the
difference between a Pentium and a Xeon?

Thanks and excuse my naivety.

Wes


  #2  
Old November 27th 03, 04:38 AM
Carlo Razzeto
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"Wes Harrison" wrote in message ...
Well, they're both 64 bits and both use an x86-based instruction set and
both made by AMD so what exactly is the difference? Is it like the
difference between a Pentium and a Xeon?

Thanks and excuse my naivety.

Wes


The Opteron has multi-cpu support, the Athlon64 truely does not. The
Opteron has duel channel ddr memory the Athlon64 has one. The Athlon64
can use unbuffered memory the Opteron cannot. CPU socket... That´s
about all I can think of off the top of my head

Carlo
  #3  
Old November 28th 03, 01:12 PM
Wes Harrison
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"Nate Edel" wrote in message
...
Carlo Razzeto wrote:
The Opteron has multi-cpu support, the Athlon64 truely does not.


True for the Opteron 24x and 84x series; the Opteron 14x is in practice
single-cpu only.

The Opteron has duel channel ddr memory the Athlon64 has one.


IIRC, the Athlon64 FX has dual channel memory as well -- it's more of a
Socket 754 vs Socket 940 difference.

The Athlon64 can use unbuffered memory the Opteron cannot. CPU socket...


Also AFAICT a Socket 754/940 difference: the Athlon 64 FX also seems to
require registered memory.

Also, currently shipping Opterons have a 333mhz FSB, while Athlon 64 and
Athlon 64 FX both have a 400mhz FSB; there are, however, 400mhz FSB

Opterons
in the pipeline.

Finally, the available clock rates are different: the Athlon 64 is

available
only in 2.0ghz, the Athlon 64 FX only in 2.2ghz, while the Opterons are
available in 1.4,1.6,2.0, or 2.2ghz speeds.


Thank you both for your replies. So what would be the difference in
application of the two processors?

Wes


  #4  
Old November 28th 03, 03:59 PM
Per Ekman
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"Wes Harrison" writes:

Well, they're both 64 bits and both use an x86-based instruction set and
both made by AMD so what exactly is the difference? Is it like the
difference between a Pentium and a Xeon?


Opterons have 3 HyperTransport channels, Athlon64/FX-51 has one.
Opterons and Athlon64 FX-51 has a 144-bit wide memory bus while
Athlon64 has a 72-bit wide memory bus. Athlon64s may appear with
smaller caches but AFAIK the only currently available one (3200+) has
1MB of L2.

*p
  #5  
Old November 29th 03, 12:31 PM
Stephen Lee -- post replies please
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According to Per Ekman :

Opterons have 3 HyperTransport channels, Athlon64/FX-51 has one.


Does that make any performance difference?

Curious,
Stephen
  #6  
Old November 29th 03, 04:31 PM
Carlo Razzeto
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"Stephen Lee -- post replies please" wrote in message
...
According to Per Ekman :

Opterons have 3 HyperTransport channels, Athlon64/FX-51 has one.


Does that make any performance difference?

Curious,
Stephen


It makes a multi-cpu/no multi-cpu difference. Opteron line cpu's can support
multi-processeors... No A64/AFX cpu can.

Carlo


  #7  
Old November 29th 03, 09:27 PM
David Schwartz
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"Stephen Lee -- post replies please" wrote in message
...

According to Per Ekman :


Opterons have 3 HyperTransport channels, Athlon64/FX-51 has one.


Does that make any performance difference?


It would likely make a significant difference if you used them, none at
all if you didn't. Other than connecting additional CPUs on the other HT
channels, the onlt other significant current application is to put the AGP
port on its own channel.

DS


  #8  
Old November 30th 03, 05:02 AM
Carlo Razzeto
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"Nate Edel" wrote in message
...
...although there's also the question of how many of the HT links

implement
the coherency protocol; the 84x implements it on all three links, the 24x

on
one of them, and the 14x on none of the three.

Which, of course, means that the 14x is _not_ multi-processor capable.


That's fine, and the current AthlonFX would be a modified 14x Opteron, but
that of course will change soon, so I've been purposly ignoring the current
FX as you've noticed....

The other question is whether this is _really_ a hardware difference, or
whether (and this goes for the 2nd and 3rd links on the A64FX, too) it's
purely a matter of the processor-ID and what the chipsets will/won't
support.


There is a difference because the A64 and future AFX's do/will lack the
extra HT link *physically* there for there is a real difference.

--
Nate Edel http://www.nkedel.com/

"But Marge! I've never felt so accepted in my life. These people looked

deep
into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I

joined."

Carlo


  #9  
Old December 1st 03, 10:06 PM
Mike Smith
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Nate Edel wrote:

Carlo Razzeto wrote:

The Opteron has multi-cpu support, the Athlon64 truely does not.



True for the Opteron 24x and 84x series; the Opteron 14x is in practice
single-cpu only.


The Opteron has duel channel ddr memory the Athlon64 has one.



IIRC, the Athlon64 FX has dual channel memory as well -- it's more of a
Socket 754 vs Socket 940 difference.


The Athlon64 FX51 is essentially an Opteron 148 with a different name,
including being a Socket 940 CPU.

--
Mike Smith

 




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