Sempron is an AMD CPU targeted to the entry-level market, i.e., to users that don’t need a high processing power and are more worried with price than performance. Sempron main competitor is Celeron  from Intel and you can read our tutorial Sempron vs. Celeron D for a technical comparison between these two CPUs.

Sempron is available with five socket types: 462, 754, AM2, AM3 and S1 (this one for laptops only). Sempron processors based on socket 462 are simpler versions of Athlon XP, while Sempron processors based on socket 754, socket AM2 and socket S1 are simpler versions of Athlon 64. AM3 versions derive from Athlon II X2 processor, but with only one processing core.

Watch out: since socket-462 Sempron processors use a totally different architecture from other Sempron processors, it is not possible to compare them directly.

The “PR” (Performance Rating) system used by Sempron can only be used to compare models using the same socket type. It is not possible to compare Sempron’s PR rating with Athlon XP’s or Athlon 64’s. For example, a Sempron 3000+ isn’t necessarily faster than an Athlon XP 2800+ or than an Athlon 64 2800+. By the same token a socket-462 Sempron 3000+ isn’t necessarily faster than a socket-754 Sempron 2800+. As we said, we can only use this naming scheme to compare Sempron models based on the same socket. We can say for sure, for example, that a socket-754 Sempron 3000+ is faster than a Sempron 2800+ also based on socket 754.

Let’s talk now about the features of each Sempron line (socket 462, socket 754, socket AM2, socket AM3 and socket S1), where we listed all Sempron models released to date.