AMD: Sempron Or Athlon - Which One Do I Buy ?

[marcin 0]

HelloI have a problemNow I am using AMD Athlon XP 2500+, and I want to change it to Sempron 2500+ 64bit.What shoud I do? Everyone say, that Athlon is better, but I don't know which one is faster and better :/And when I will buy it, should I change my hdd to sata2? will it be faster? please tell me, what to do

Edited August 24, 2005 by microscopic^earthling (see edit history)

[WeaponX 0]

I'm not into processors that much, but I think the Sempron's are just a newer Duron-like chip. So it's the lower end chipset for the AMD processors. I recommend getting the AMD Athlon since they will give you better performance with the higher L2 Cache (which the Sempron lacks - it's lower and decreases performance).I don't think you should get SATA unless speed is an absolute issue. I heard that the increase is probably not a lot especially if you are not into using programs that require heavy cpu resources.

[jipman 0]

if (cash = 'a lot'){ buy_athlon();}if (cash = 'not a lot'){ buy_sempron();}

Semprons are kinda like athlons but purposefully downgraded and crippled to lose performance.

[FantasyFootballGuy 0]

I think Sempron is just a toned down version of Athlon. If you can cough up the cash, go with the Athlon. I have an Athlon and I highly reccomend it.

[abhiram 0]

think Sempron is just a toned down version of Athlon.[/quote

 

Is it a toned down version? I thought the Sempron is just the same as Athlon renamed to Sempron. I recall reading somewhere that they did that because they couldn't use the same name for economy class processors and so they had to have a new name (just like celeron is used for intel). But they didn't downgrade it as far as I remember.

[WeaponX 0]

Is it a toned down version? I thought the Sempron is just the same as Athlon renamed to Sempron. I recall reading somewhere that they did that because they couldn't use the same name for economy class processors and so they had to have a new name (just like celeron is used for intel). But they didn't downgrade it as far as I remember.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nope. From what I understand, Sempron is just the lower class of the Athlon chip as mentioned earlier by FantasyFootballGuy.

 

I would compare AMD's Athlon processor to Intel's Pentium processor; and AMD's Sempron processor to Intel's Celeron processor. It's just the lower class model and probably not the best choice if you want good performance.

[wutske 0]

Semprons are actualy TB's AMD could sell anymore. The only difference is that they halved the amount of available cache and they upped the FSB, and because of that last one, they also gave a higher rating per MHz. A 2500+ sempron runs at 1750Mhz, so it's actualy "a lot" slower then a Barton 2500+ (less MHz and 1/4 the amount of cache).Also, These semprons do not have cache. I tought the newest semprons (S754) have 64bit instructions enabled.But if you consider upgrading your system, I'd go for a S939 CPU (2800+ or something), with a simple but good board. Ram and AGP card could probably be re-used.

[wutske 0]

Semprons are actualy TB's AMD could sell anymore. The only difference is that they halved the amount of available cache and they upped the FSB, and because of that last one, they also gave a higher rating per MHz. A 2500+ sempron runs at 1750Mhz, so it's actualy "a lot" slower then a Barton 2500+ (less MHz and 1/4 the amount of cache).

Also, These semprons do not have cache. I tought the newest semprons (S754) have 64bit instructions enabled.

 

But if you consider upgrading your system, I'd go for a S939 CPU (2800+ or something), with a simple but good board. Ram and AGP card could probably be re-used.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Forgotten a small detail. The socket A semprons are slimmed down thouroughbreds. The S754 are (?) winchesters (?) with half the cache and no 64bit instructions enabled.

[Jeigh1405241495 0]

Yea, unless money is a real issue I'd reccomend stearing clear of the budget processors... I've had some bad experiences with them on my own machine and friends/family. Not necessarily that they are 'bad' but the performance is just never what you would expect. If you are into gaming at all I would for sure say wait until you can get the real deal as the neutered Sempron's just dont have as much kick to them.

[wutske 0]

Semprons aren't bad, same for Celeron D (the old celerons were bad). These budget cpu's are fast enough for office use and a bit gaming and multimedia. They are better for HTPCs, because they mostly run a bit cooler then "full featured" cpu's, so they can be cooled much quieter. And you don't realy need much more than 1GHz for DivX, even a PIII could do that.

 

I only suggest you not to downgrade your pc, would be kinda dumb, no ? .

[qwijibow 0]

Now I am using AMD Athlon XP 2500+, and I want to change it to Sempron 2500+ 64bit.

is nobody going to point out that....

1) both those cpu's will give almost identicle performace (similar to a pentium 4 2.5Ghz < which is what the 2500+ means)

2) Unless you are planning on using Linux, going 64bit is popointless. Wino#dows XP 64 is pretty much just a proof of concept, all comercially available software is still 32bit.
AND, when Vista 64bit is FINALLY released, that cpu will probably not be powerfull enough.

DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY !
keep the cpu you are currently using.

[skorv 0]

Hello

 

I have a problem

 

Now I am using AMD Athlon XP 2500+, and I want to change it to Sempron 2500+ 64bit.

What shoud I do? Everyone say, that Athlon is better, but I don't know which one is faster and better :/

And when I will buy it, should I change my hdd to sata2? will it be faster? please tell me, what to do

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Athlon XP is the one to go for if you intent to do gaming and extreme apps like 3d rendering, multimedia encoding and stuff...

If you want a computer to work on word and excel and so on... sempron is a cheaper way to go.

[solankyno1 0]

Very good information in this thread. Until now I was thinking that Sempron are better that Athlon processors because they are introduced later than Athlons. My computer is Athlon 2400 and I have never feel until now that I should take Intel instead of it but I have never used Sempron so can't say anything about it.