Phenom 940 or 955

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Pete1burn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
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Hard to decide. Save a little cash and get a 940 with an M3A79, or wait and get a 955 with an M4A79-T?

I don't overclock much. This is just to upgrade my Quad-FX system.
 
Depends. If you're not a overclocker go with the 940. DDR3 doesn't add nothing to the performance of the P2s at all. The only reason to go with the 955 is if you have the money to blow on it I guess. Also when the 955 comes out I bet they're will be nice deals on the 940, which maybe worth the wait.
 
They overclock ok. I have mine at 3.4 ghz currently. I could not seem to get over that with it.
 
I wish I could do a side-by-side comparison to see how much of a difference it will make over my current setup. Asus L1N64 and two FX-70s.

If I go Phenom 940 and M4A79 or something, can I continue to use my OCZ DDR2 800 or would I need new ram?

I know if I went 955 I would need DDR3.
 
Pete1burn said:
I wish I could do a side-by-side comparison to see how much of a difference it will make over my current setup. Asus L1N64 and two FX-70s.

If I go Phenom 940 and M4A79 or something, can I continue to use my OCZ DDR2 800 or would I need new ram?

I know if I went 955 I would need DDR3.
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You can continue using DDR2 800 with the 940 without issues. If overclocking I'd recommend a 790FX/SB750 motherboard (Like the ASUS M4A79-Deluxe). I'm not getting great results with my M3A78-T (790GX/SB750) mobo.

I choose AM2+ since these boards you can still drop a AM3 CPU in like the 955 and keep using DDR2.
 
You're kidding. I can put a 955 in an M4A79 Deluxe and keep using the DDR2-800 I have now?
 
Well that's pretty sweet. So I can save some cash by getting an M4A79 Deluxe, get a 955 when they come out, and keep using the DDR2 800 I currently have.

That will save me some cash to go watercooling.
 
I hate to be a bubble burster but a few things need to be pointed out.

1) The P2 940 wont fit into an M4A79-T, that is Socket AM3 and the 940 is AM2+ only.
2) The M4A79-T is AM3 and will only run DDR3 memory (I believe) so your old DDR2 800 wont work with it.

However, you CAN get the 955 when it comes out and it WILL work with your DDR2 800, just not in that board, you need to get an AM2+ board. I love my M3A79-T Deluxe (which is AM2+) for the record.
 
Tom128 said:
I hate to be a bubble burster but a few things need to be pointed out.

1) The P2 940 wont fit into an M4A79-T, that is Socket AM3 and the 940 is AM2+ only.
2) The M4A79-T is AM3 and will only run DDR3 memory (I believe) so your old DDR2 800 wont work with it.

However, you CAN get the 955 when it comes out and it WILL work with your DDR2 800, just not in that board, you need to get an AM2+ board. I love my M3A79-T Deluxe (which is AM2+) for the record.
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to correct you the board he picked is not compatible with ddr2 memory but the am3 chips fit into the am2/+ socket and have the ddr2 memory controller to add there are new am2+ boards with ddr2 that fully support am3
 
why does everyone keep commenting that the 940 overclocks good.. the 940 and 955 are the same exact processor.. 940 am2+ 955 am3.. the 955 has a 200mhz overclock from factory and a 1.25 VID(even though my 940 runs @ 3.2ghz @ 1.25v anyways) but they are the exact same processor..

am2+ are backwards compatible with am2, am3 is backwards compatible with am2+.. am2+ is not compatible with am3..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
why does everyone keep commenting that the 940 overclocks good.. the 940 and 955 are the same exact processor.. 940 am2+ 955 am3.. the 955 has a 200mhz overclock from factory and a 1.25 VID(even though my 940 runs @ 3.2ghz @ 1.25v anyways) but they are the exact same processor..

am2+ are backwards compatible with am2, am3 is backwards compatible with am2+.. am2+ is not compatible with am3..
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Only the OP mentions that he thinks the 940 overclocks nicely, nowhere else in the thread does anyone say it, I dunno where you get the "everyone" part.

As for oc'ing the 940BE, with my board which doesn't seem to be very good at OC'ing and testing it takes 1.412v just to get 3.4ghz stable with a 2.0GHz HT Link. I'm gathering that if I went with a 8+2 powered board with 790FX the OC ceiling will be better, but no guaranties.

Your 940 must be a freak, Recommended stock voltage for 940 is 1.325v per AMD's spec sheets. Running stock I can't get stable under 1.300v, but 1.3v is 100% stable though. Are you running watercooling?
 
Oops my apologies. I didn't know there was an M4A79 Deluxe, I only knew about M4A79-T Deluxe, I just thought the T was being omitted. The Asus mobo namespace is getting a bit too crowded imo... lol
 
RogueTrip said:
Only the OP mentions that he thinks the 940 overclocks nicely, nowhere else in the thread does anyone say it, I dunno where you get the "everyone" part.

As for oc'ing the 940BE, with my board which doesn't seem to be very good at OC'ing and testing it takes 1.412v just to get 3.4ghz stable with a 2.0GHz HT Link. I'm gathering that if I went with a 8+2 powered board with 790FX the OC ceiling will be better, but no guaranties.

Your 940 must be a freak, Recommended stock voltage for 940 is 1.325v per AMD's spec sheets. Running stock I can't get stable under 1.300v, but 1.3v is 100% stable though. Are you running watercooling?
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nah im not water cooling.. the only reason i got it run under the stock vid is due to this crappy motherboard that booted it at 1.25v instead of 1.325v and for some reason it worked.. atleast up to 3.2ghz but that was as far as i got.. never really did a stability test to see if it would hold.. but it ran and played a few games before said screw it and overclocked it even more.. though this boards not designed for this processor so 3.5ghz @ 1.424v is high enough for me til i replace it with a 790x later next month..


btw the voltage needs for the 940 are really weird.. was able to go from 3.0 to 3.3ghz at 1.375v then 3.4-3.5 was 1.424v then 3.6 is 1.44v and i think 3.8 is some where around 1.51v or something in that range.. so that might be what your running into with not getting 3.5 or higher stable..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
btw the voltage needs for the 940 are really weird.. was able to go from 3.0 to 3.3ghz at 1.375v then 3.4-3.5 was 1.424v then 3.6 is 1.44v and i think 3.8 is some where around 1.51v or something in that range.. so that might be what your running into with not getting 3.5 or higher stable..
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Well, at 3.6 @ 1.47v its not stable at all, crashes Prime95 in under a minute. After that I just gave up 3.6 and started looking for stability of 3.4, I really didn't start looking at 3.5. (This is all before the pressure mod I did below)

I think its a combination that might be holding me back, first I'm using 8GB of G.Skill @ 800mhz and my M3A78-T won't let it run at 1066 speed (a known AM2 limitation but lots of people don't have an issue with 4 sticks at 1066), then I have a mid-level cpu cooler (Gigabyte G-Power Lite) that I JUST tried to make my own pressure mod (taped a penny to the clip for extra pressure). After the mod my temps went up about 2 degrees from normal but I need to take into account a space heater under my desk to keep me warm which is heating the room up.

My temp increase might of gone up using Innovation cooling 7 carat diamond paste since pulling the retention clip to do the mod, although all I did was pull the clip off (did not pull the HSF off) it might of let pressure up causing the paste to loosen up and might need to reseat. I dunno. Only reason I tried the mod was because I was reading if you can get better pressure with IC7cD paste you would get better temps, so I'm waiting to see that. LOL.

Temps a weird on my PII also, 3.0GHz @ 1.300v idle: 28-30c/ load: 41-42c. 3.4GHz @ 1.412v idle: 34c/ load: 47-50c. Thats quite a jump for 400mhz per core / 13% overclock. Another reason i'm looking at better CPU coolers.

Anyways, good luck on a 790x chipset. I think if you are wanting these to OC, 8+2 power mobo is needed from what I've been reading.
 
Okay, to cut back to it: Is the better bet a 955 or a 940, the best bet on a AM2+ board? We know the DDR3 factor isn't one, so money better spent on GFX/RAM/HDD. So 940 or 955?
 
On the subject of 940 OCing, I'm running 3.7GHz at 1.475V. I believe my HT is stock at 1.8GHz, NB is at... 2.4GHz I think. I run a 790FX board with 8 gigs of 1066 RAM running at 1066.

As for 955 vs 940... doesn't really matter much, truth be told. Either option will work fine. Personally I'd go for the AM3 chip with an AM3 board, just for that extra little bit of possible future upgradeability. Who knows if future AM3 CPUs will always work with AM2+ boards, if DDR3 will become more necessary, etc.
 
Is it possible to get a Phenom II 940 on 4Ghz on air with a FX chipset? Has anybody tried it yet? I plan to get one soon.
 
i'd get the AM3 955 chipset.

by the time they come out Intel will have updated the Nehalems which along with the pressure of the PII 955 will cause the price of the i7 920 to drop, thus ensuring that the 955 has a pretty attractive price shortly after launch.
 
Good question.

Actually, to go further, 940, 945 or 955? Since the 945 is supposed to be just an underclocked 955, and the 955 might not have a black edition. Why pay for the 955 if you can overclock 200mhz to reach 955 speeds?
 
It's still not going to be as fast as i7. It doesn't really matter, but I went with a 940BE and an AM2+ mobo (gigabyte ga790gx-ud4h) since I already drowning in ddr2-1066. ddr2 @1066 is not much slower than ddr3, even in triple channel mode. Until you get into the really expensive high speed ddr3 anyway.
Running great so far, very powerful chip. You need very good air cooling or better if you are going to oc it beyond 3.4/3.5. Or cool weather. We don't get that in FL =(
 
I think I'm gonna go AM3 anyway. I can get some pretty good DDR3 memory for around $70-$100, although I can't seem to decide one a set.

If I get the bonus I'm up for at work, I might go i7, but there doesn't seem to be THAT much of a noticeable difference in performance.
 
Pete1burn said:
I think I'm gonna go AM3 anyway. I can get some pretty good DDR3 memory for around $70-$100, although I can't seem to decide one a set.

If I get the bonus I'm up for at work, I might go i7, but there doesn't seem to be THAT much of a noticeable difference in performance.
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If you get cheaper DDR3, it probably will be the same speed as slightly slower DDR2 with better timings would be, but a lot more future proof. You only need 2 sticks at least.
i7 is great but the % extra you will spend is a lot more than the extra performance % you are going to gain in most instances. Especially gaming, which is mostly GPU bound.

My 940 is owning my buddys C2Q at similar speeds so I am happy. Having my mem controller on core I bench much better ram bandwidth and latencies.
 
That's exactly my thought. The performance difference in gaming is negligable, so it's not worth the extra $200-$400 I would spend to get i7. A few of my buddies are giving me crap telling me that the i7 architecture will be around long after AM3 is dead, and i'm hurting my system's ability to upgrade in the future, blah blah.
 
Your friends argument is bad though, there will always be something else to upgrade too when you are done with the PII.
Newer mobo, faster DDR3, more cores, faster clocks, ect.
 
I actually have April 20th marked off on my calendar so I don't forget. I'm practically salivating. First upgrade in a long time. Currently running an Asus L1N64 WS-SLI, two FX-70s and 4GB of DDR2 800.
 
i'd be amazed if the 955 at 3.2GHz isn't as fast or slightly faster than the i7 920.

200MHz on the core clock and 200MHz on the HT, as well as miore mature DDR3 support, will all add up to a significant advantage over the 940BE.
 
R3MF said:
i'd be amazed if the 955 at 3.2GHz isn't as fast or slightly faster than the i7 920.

200MHz on the core clock and 200MHz on the HT, as well as miore mature DDR3 support, will all add up to a significant advantage over the 940BE.
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I agree that the 955 will be faster than the 940 due to faster core and un-core clocks, but it won't beat a i7 920. Forget it.
 
Right but the difference in gaming will be minimal, so for someone just building a gaming rig, it shouldn't matter.
 
totallamer.. you need about 1.51v or so to hit 3.8ghz.. which is still within amd specs..
 
Im waiting for 955 it still can be used in AM2 with DDr2 and AM3 with DDR3,,Its a nice jump over 940......it is very very nice to oc:D...April is almost here!
 
Pete1burn said:
...A few of my buddies are giving me crap telling me that the i7 architecture will be around long after AM3 is dead, and i'm hurting my system's ability to upgrade in the future, blah blah.
Click to expand...

Isn't that even more of a reason NOT to buy i7 now, at current prices ?

If it does end up having some longevity as a platform, wouldn't it make more sense to put together a decent AM2+/AM3 rig and save some cash right now, and have a look again in a year or two ?

My rig may not impress anyone here, I'm well aware, and I am on AM2+ (780G at that), but, for what I paid, I can't help but feel I'm getting far more than my money's worth out of it, and if I'm missing something in the games I play, I sure can't tell.

If money's no object, well, go for the gold, which is undoubtedly i7. I just personally could not justify the price difference when I spec'd out this build a month or so ago.

YMMV
 
If I can get the i7 stuff used for a bit of savings, I might go i7. I've just been planning this AM3 build for so long. lol
 
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