How to Upgrade Your CPU
By Gabriel Torres on March 9, 2007 Page 5 of 6

Sockets 754, 939, 940, AM2 and F

AMD processors based on AMD64 architecture use a different approach. As their memory controller is embedded inside the chip (instead of being located on the north bridge chip from the motherboard), they don’t use the FSB concept, making it very easy for you to upgrade your AMD64 CPU. AMD64 CPUs include Sempron (socket 754 and socket AM2 versions), Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX and Opteron. As Opteron is a CPU targeted to servers, we won’t be covering this CPU on this tutorial.

Like all other CPUs you can only replace one CPU by another that uses the same socket type used by your motherboard. If you want to replace your CPU by another that uses a different socket, you will need to replace your motherboard as well (and sometimes also other devices, such as the RAM memory).

To make things simpler, we compiled the table below. At one side you have your motherboard socket and on the other which CPUs are supported.
Keep in mind that AMD64 CPUs are not rated with their real clock rate but with a “performance index”. So an Athlon 64 4000+ does not run internally at 4 GHz, this “4000+” is just a “performance index” (in fact this CPU runs at 2.4 GHz).

Since this table presents the current AMD CPUs available on the market, it may not have the latest models released (we will try to keep this table updated as much as we can).

Socket

Sempron

Athlon 64

Athlon 64 X2

Athlon 64 FX

754

All socket 754 models, available up to 3400+ (2 GHz).

All socket 754 models, available up to 3700+ (2.4 GHz)

Not supported.

Not supported.

939

Not supported.

All socket 939 models, available up to 4000+ (2.4 GHz)

All socket 939 models, available up to 4800+ (2.4 GHz).

All socket 939 models, available up to FX-60. *

940

Not supported.

Not supported.

Not supported.

All socket 940 models, available up to FX-53 (single-core, 2.4 GHz).

AM2

All socket AM2 models, available up to 3800+ (2.2 GHz)

All socket AM2 models, available up to 4000+ (2.6 GHz).

All socket AM2 models, available up to 6000+ (3 GHz)

So far only FX-62 (dual-core, 2.8 GHz).

F (1207)

Not supported.

Not supported.

Not supported.

All socket F models, available up to FX-74 (dual-core, 3 GHz).

* FX-60 runs at 2.6 GHz and is a dual-core CPU. FX-57 runs at 2.8 GHz but is a single-core CPU.


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