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AMD SEMPRON 3100 REVIEW

"In this article we test the AMD Sempron 3100 cpu against the Athlon XP 3200 and XP 2500. The following software was used, Half Life 2, Doom3, Far Cry, Tribes Vengeance, Warhammer Dawn of War, Xpand Rally, Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake III Arena, 3dmark 2001-2005, SiSoftware Sandra 2005, Cpu Bench 2003, Metabench, Kribi Bench, Realstorm and Science Mark 2."

AMD Sempron processors for desktop and mobile products offer best in class performance, compatibility with all the applications you need, and the reliability of AMD processors. Best-in-class performance for everyday computing. The AMD Sempron™ processor performs at the top of its class when running the home and business applications that you need most. Full-featured to improve your computing experience. The AMD Sempron™ processor lets you enjoy a dynamic Internet experience with smooth streaming video and audio. Compatible with leading operating systems and over 60,000 of the world’s most popular software applications. Enjoy reliable, responsive performance on thousands of software applications—including those that let you communicate with family and friends. With 35 years of design and manufacturing experience, you can count on AMD to deliver innovative solutions that meet real customer needs.

Today we are looking at the AMD Sempron 3100 processor which is the fastest Sempron cpu currently available (atleast until the AMD Sempron 3300 becomes available). The previous Sempron processors used Socket A but the AMD Sempron 3100 is strictly Socket 754 only. Although the AMD Sempron 3100 is mostly an Athlon64 processor it does have a few differences. The AMD Sempron 3100 has 64bit support disabled so it's only a 32bit processor and it also only has 256k L2 Cache unlike the Athlon64's 512k cache.

However the AMD Sempron 3100 does still contain alot of very useful Athlon64 technology:-

INTEGRATED MEMORY CONTROLLER - Improves the memory performance by integrating a DDR memory controller into the processor. By running at the processor’s core frequency, an integrated memory controller greatly increases bandwidth directly available to the processor at significantly reduced latencies.

COOL'N'QUIET - "In the past, increased processor performance has often meant increased power consumption and increased noise levels. AMD Cool‘n’Quiet™ technology is an innovative solution available on AMD Athlon™ 64 processor-based systems that can effectively lower the power consumption and enable a quieter-running system while delivering performance on demand, for the ultimate computing experience."

NX BIT - "With the power of AMD64 technology, your computer has security built right in. The combination of AMD64 technology with Windows XP SP2 can help your system to better withstand attacks from certain classes of viruses. This can help you experience safer e-mail and Internet browsing."

PROCESSOR TYPE	TYPE	MULTIPLIER	CLOCK SPEED	L1 CACHE	L2 CACHE	BUS SPEED	PRICE
AMD SEMPRON 3100	PARIS	9	1.8Ghz	128K	256K	400Mhz	$119 (£82)
AMD ATHLON XP 3200	BARTON	11	2.2Ghz	128K	512K	400Mhz	$129 (£93)
AMD ATHLON XP 2500	BARTON	11	1.8Ghz	128K	512K	333Mhz	$63 (£51)
PROCESSOR TYPE	TYPE	MULTIPLIER	CLOCK SPEED	L1 CACHE	L2 CACHE	BUS SPEED	PRICE

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR	AMD SEMPRON 3100
	AMD ATHLON XP 3200
	AMD ATHLON XP 2500
VIDEO CARD	MSI GEFORCE FX 5900 XT VTD128
NVIDIA DRIVER	FORCEWARE v66.93 WHQL
MOTHERBOARD	GIGABYTE K8NS PRO
	ASROCK K7S8XE+
MEMORY	2x512MB OCZ GOLD XTC PC3200 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM	WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 2
DIRECTX VERSION	v9.0c

GAMES SOFTWARE

DOOM III

	65
	64
	59

FAR CRY

	81
	74
	65

HALF LIFE 2

	90
	76
	66

TRIBES VENGEANCE

	103
	95
	83

UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004

	114
	105
	91

WARHAMMER 40K- DAWN OF WAR

	62
	54
	45

XPAND RALLY

	59
	63
	54

AMD SEMPRON 3100 AMD ATHLON XP 3200 AMD ATHLON XP 2500

COMMENT - "Even using low quality settings Doom3 performance is still video card limited with the MSI GeForce 5900 XT, the Sempron 3100 wins but only by 2%. Far Cry doesn't seem to be so video card limited and the Sempron 3100 beats the Athlon XP 3200 by 9%. Things improve even more for the Sempron 3100 when it beats the Athlon XP 3200 by 16% with Half Life 2. The Sempron 3100 also beats the Athlon XP 3200 in Tribes Veneance by a very good 11%. Unreal Tournament 2004 was another victory for the Sempron 3100, this time by 8%. Warhammer 40K Dawn of War is very cpu intensive and the Sempron 3100 outperformed the Athlon XP 3200 by 13%. Xpand Rally was the only game tested which the Sempron 3100 couldn't win, the Athlon XP 3200 wins by 7%."

CONCLUSION - "What an impressive result by the AMD Sempron 3100, it appears the integrated memory controller really helps with games. Even though the Sempron 3100 is clocked 400mhz slower than the Athlon xp 3200 and has a smaller cache it still manages to beat it most of the time. However when raw speed is required when using maths applications or encoding video etc the 1.8ghz Sempron 3100 performs more like the 1.8ghz Athlon xp 2500 which is to be expected."

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