Athlon 64 3700+ Review

End of the Socket 754 Line?

By Josh Walrath

Realstorm Benchmark

            This is a software based ray tracing program that really stresses a CPU (since none of the 3D calculations are done by the video card).  640x480 resolution was selected, as well as shadows and reflections.

            Here we see a very solid 8% increase in performance in this benchmark.  Again, it relies nearly 100% on the CPU to draw the scene, and as such, any performance increase or decrease will be quickly spotted.  The high performance floating point unit is invaluable for this benchmark.  For comparison, a Pentium 4 3.4 GHz has an average framerate of 13.96 fps.  Having such a low latency memory controller doesn’t hurt either! 

WinRAR Compression

            For the final test I thought I would try something a bit different.  I took WinRAR and compressed 50 MB of files (a varied selection that includes non-compressible files like JPEGs as well as program files that can have a great deal of compression applied).  The latest version of WinRAR was used.  Aggressive compression was enabled, and the 50 MB file was squeezed down to 35 MB.

            We again see around an 8% difference between the two results, which matches very closely to the percentage increase in clockspeed. 

Overclocking

            If there was an area where the Athlon 64 didn’t show a lot of promise, it would be in overclocking.  While we have seen the latest Pentium 4’s hit 4 GHz, the same can’t be said about the Athlon 64.  The 2.4 GHz 3700+ that I have is able to easily hit 2.47 GHz, but after that things became a bit unstable.  Upping the VCore helps quite a bit here, but it was never particularly stable over 2.5 GHz.

            I did not try to use any water cooling, or other means to overclock it.  I did use a ThermalTake Silent K8 cooler, which performs much better than the stock cooler.  If a user has watercooling, or a phase change system, then overclocks to 2.6 GHz and above should be pretty easy.  Mileage will vary, but the particular chip I had did not want to go past 2.5 GHz without employing “heroic measures” to get the greatest possible overclock.

            The best performance I was able to get was running the processor at an 11 multiplier and running the motherboard and memory at 220 MHz.  This did increase the memory bandwidth fairly significantly, as well as run the processor at 2.42 GHz.  The MSI motherboard is also able to do ½ steps with the multipliers, so other results are definitely possible. 

Conclusion

            The Athlon 64 3700+ is considered the 3^rd fastest Athlon 64 out there (after the FX-53 and the Athlon 64 3800+), and it lives up to that distinction.  Running at 2.4 GHz with 1 MB of L2 cache, it blazes through most applications and games with ease.  The only area where it may fall short is in applications which require a lot of streaming memory.  This is an area where the Pentium 4 with its high clockspeed and ample bandwidth excels.  The Athlon 64 3700+ still only has the single memory channel providing 3.2 GB/sec of bandwidth, and its clockspeed does not enable it to keep up with the higher clocked Pentium 4 in these areas.

            When it comes to floating point operations, gaming, desktop application, and graphics editing, the Athlon 64 stands at or near the top in all of these areas.  For the average desktop user and gamer, the Athlon 64 is an amazing platform.  While it does not feature the HyperThreading functionality of the Pentium 4, it has more than enough horsepower to propel the average (and expert) user through their everyday tasks.  Applications such as CAD, GIS Mapping, and other engineering applications will happily consume the low latency bandwidth and strong integer and floating point performance of the Athlon 64.

            In running this processor day in and day out for the past several weeks, I have been very impressed by the overall speed and smoothness in my day to day applications.  The ability to run games at full speed, and not have the CPU be the limiting factor, has been fantastic.  The latest generation of games (such as Doom 3, CS:Source, Far Cry, and others) run on this processor without a hitch.  Even though the 3700+ only features the single memory controller, I have never felt that it was held back by it.  Having 1 MB of L2 cache certainly doesn’t hurt either!

            Overall, if a user wants to get near 3800+/FX-53 performance on their older Socket 754 motherboard, then the 3700+ is the processor to get.  Now that this particular processor has just squeezed under the $500 mark, it is a bit more affordable for those looking for a fast system right out of the box without overclocking.  The extra overclocking potential that it gives should provide performance at or beyond what the 3800+ or FX-53 products give at stock speeds.

            It is unfortunate that AMD decided not to put much spotlight on the 3700+, as it is an excellent processor for the Socket 754 market.  The motherboard selection for that market is much more mature and varied than what is available for the Socket 939 processors, not to mention cheaper.  Overall, the 3700+ would be an excellent processor for anyone looking to get a new system, yet still have a wide selection of motherboards to run it on.  While the price is a bit steep, it might very well be the fastest Socket 754 processor for quite some time.  As such, it will eventually go down in price.

            The only question remaining is if this will truly be the final Socket 754 product that AMD releases (other than the value market Sempron processor)?  I guess we shall find out in mid-October, when it is rumored that the last speed grade of Athlon 64 on the 130 nm process will be released.  The FX-55 and Athlon 64 4000+ will run at 2.6 GHz, but it has not been mentioned if there will be an Athlon 64 3900+ that will run on the Socket 754 architecture.  It would certainly be nice if AMD could throw Socket 754 users a bone!  This leads me up to what is truly the only question remaining (as it seems the previous question was not actually the final question…) will PCI-E make it to the Socket 754 space?  This is a very good question, especially considering that the video card communicates with the chipset at 8 GB/sec aggregate bandwidth,while the single channel Athlon 64 provides only 3.2 GB/sec.  Another thing to consider is that the bandwidth from the processor to the northbridge is 6.4 GB/sec vs. the 8 GB/sec that the Socket 939 processors provide.  Yet again, we shall see.

Overall Score: 92%

Pros

Fastest Socket 754 Processor in the World

Almost as fast as the much more expensive 3800+ and FX-53

Utilizes the mature Socket 754 foundation

Fairly cool running

Overclocks to at least 2.5 GHz

Less expensive than the 3800+ and FX-53

Cons

Still costs $500 US

Single memory channel

Bandwidth limited in some situations

Doesn’t overclock as well as other competing products

Upgrade potential of the Socket 754 platform is limited

Return to Home

Copyright 1999-2004 PenStar Systems, LLC.