Difference between front side bus speed and actual speed?
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Bronze Member Username: James_the_godDoncaster, South Yorkshire England Post Number: 62 Registered: Jan-05 | Alrite all you computer experts. Im going to buy a new computer and I want it to be an AMD. I am looking at the 64 bit Athlon 3000+ or 3200+ because they are a lot better at performing that Intel or 32bit AMD processors. However, whats important, the speed of the processor that it says which would be 1.8 and 2ghz in the mentioned processors or the the FSB speed? I have the impression that the FSB is the one that makes your computer faster, but if this is so, then why dont manufacturers give the FSB rather than the actual speed? Also, can you tell me what EXACTLY the the actual advertised speed of the processor is for? |
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New member Username: GoonPost Number: 6 Registered: Feb-05 | ok first off...AMD rules. this is goign to be hard to explain...but the math works out. amd and intel are different when it comes to the processors. Although an AMD64 Athlon 3400 runs at 2.4ghz...it is equivlant to an Intel 3.4ghz processor. the reason for this is that the clock cycles faster in an Amd appose to an Intel. so even though it's only 2.4ghz...the clock cycles faster than an intel making it equal to an Intel 3.4ghz. that is why AMD advertises it as an AMD Athlon 64 3400, and not an AMD 2400. they do it to compare themselves to the competition. the FSB is different from the actuall processor speed. if i'm not mistaken an AMD 3000 runs a bus speed of 2000mhz, which isn't bad at all! i can't remember what the fsb is actually for, but i believe it has somethign to do with communicating with the north or south bridge...i.e. ram, pci slots agp slots hdd things like that. I THINK!? I hope I answered your question, hope it helps! p.s. you wont go wrong with any amd 64...i love mine =) |
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Rambus+King Unregistered guest | Processor speed is the rate at which the processor functions. Bus speed is the speed at which the CPU can communicate with the chip set and the rest of the computer. Thats one of the advantages of the AMD 64- they go anywhere from 800 to 2048 MHz in front bus speed, while a P4 is constrained to 1066 MHz (If you dish out $1000). So, socket 939 are you? Don't worry about your front bus speed- AMD 64's all have good ones. Go for the 2.0 GHz 3200+ (As a general rule, I always say go over 2 GHz, regardless of bit type), and be proud: only the most insanely priced Intels can touch you. Go AMD! |
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Bronze Member Username: James_the_godDoncaster, South Yorkshire England Post Number: 70 Registered: Jan-05 | Exactly, thats how much better AMDs are, they're noticably so much faster. I think the computer I want is actually socket 754? not the 939 but still it'll perform great. Why would you choose the 3200 over the 3000. I heard that they were pretty much the same with no performance difference. Also 512mb of RAM would be fine for a 64bit processor wouldnt it, seeing as the FSB speed would be 1800mhz-2000mhz. Thanks |
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New member Username: Rambus_kingPost Number: 3 Registered: Feb-05 | Jelvis, the 3200 has a 200 MHz performance enhancement in both the 32 bit applications and the 64 bit applications. And, as a rule, always get the fastest processor you can get: its alot cheaper to upgrade RAM or a hard drive than to go out and buy an entire new processor. I would suggest getting the fastest processor you can get, and don't go over 512 MB of RAM when you first build your computer. Instead, throw the money you save in RAM into the CPU, and upgrade RAM later. Just a suggestion. |
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New member Username: SheehajePost Number: 1 Registered: Feb-05 | To correct a couple things... AMD does NOT have more cycles (cycles is the basis for the Mhz/Ghz rating), it has more instructions per cycle. And, to add to TBW, I usually get the highest CPU speed with out a huge jump in price to the next speed. There is always a faster processor coming out, and the latest and greatest usually are huge jumps in price, but not in speed. This is done to re-coup development costs. The other upside is you get a little older processor, but you can read reviews that have thorougly tested the processor. Sometimes newer processors do have problems. I am running an AMD 64 3200+, and I certainly approve of it. At the time I purchased it, the 3200+ was just a little more expensive than the 3000+, but well under the price of the 3400+, not sure of current pricing. Back to the original Question: Jelvis, there are many factors in overall computer speed. AMD 3000 or 3200 will be plenty, there aren't too many faster processors, BUT: You will have to wait for maximum performance because the OS, Drivers and Applications have a ways to go to catch up. XP 64bit is still beta, and drivers are being recompiled and performance tuned still. GNU/Linux has a lot of 64 bit Distros, but only some applications are compiled for 64bit. There is a small performance hit for running 32bit under Linux. FSB should be fine, the other main factors are ammount of RAM, harddrive speed, PCI factor, cards you are using. If have a little RAM, things aren't going to run fast as you use more background tasks/applications because you start swapping to HD. Then HD is a huge factor cause a faster harddrive can add performance if you are swapping. I recommend at least a gig of the fastest memory you Mother Board can handle. Even if you don't use it all, it can help keep the computer from crashing if there is a memory leak (protected memory is still a bit of a myth). If you need a point of refference, try www.tomshardware.com I'm only plugging the site because I check it regulary to keep up on hardware trends and reviews. If I didn't/wouldn't use it, I wouldn't recommend it. It should answer most of your questions. |
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Unregistered guest | Just to clarify on the topic of clock speed... John is right. Clock speed does not directly relate to the processing speed of a chip. All microcroprocessors (MPUs) require a clock signal as an input; however, each kind of MPU is designed to utilize that clock signal differently. In almost all cases, the incoming speed is divided (in the MPU) by some factor (usually 4 or 8) which is used as an instruction incrementer. This division of the main clock actually controls the speed of the instruction "cycles" (instructions all require so many cycles or data maneuvers to complete their function). Another factor to consider is the MPU architecture. Pentiums, Celerons, and AMD's all have their own distinct architectures or ways of handling standard computer instructions. Some chips, such as AMD's are designed to handle larger portions of data at once and this usually results in faster handling of data even if they are clocked more slowely than their market competitors. Despite this, there are some downfalls to using a larger data bus, not the least of which is the transition of software designed for 32-bit systems onto differing systems. (This which is likely why we don't see more 64 bit or larger processors out there in average consumer applications) The last factor which comes to mind is differing architectures may require differing amounts of instruction cycles to execute the same computer instructions (based upon data size, memory accessing procedures, etc.) This too can affect the overall processing speed. |
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Unregistered guest | i have a AMD Athlon 3400 + at 2.4 Ghz with 6600 GT graphic card.......but why is that it only gives 1515 score at 3d mark 2005 ......with 1024 MB ram at 400 Mhz .............and before i had a computer intel pentium 4 2.4 Ghz with 512 MB ram at 333 Mhz ........but it gave score with 6600 GT at 1550 in 3d Mark 2005 ..............so what is the problem here can any one help me |
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Anonymous | I'm about to put together a new PC and have thought and researched long and hard on it. I'm not yet going 64Bit because I can not find a good cost efficient motherboard that supports AGP. PCI-E cards are still a little out of my price range. I am however curious about something I've heard in the past, and it's authenticity. Doesn't your RAM's speed factor into everything for computing too? If you have 400MHZ RAM and a 2000MHZ FSB MB, wouldn't your speed still be restricted to 400MHZ on the FSB side? It seems like the lowest memory speed would be the top speed you would be able to go. Additionally, a 32bit Athlon XP 2800+ for example is a 1.9 GHZ processor, but a 64bit Athlon XP 2800+ is a 1.8 GHZ processor, for all that extra money is it worth even going 64bit this soon for a 10% increase on the CPU side? (Keeping in mind that you'd have to pay outrageous prices for better RAM if the above statement is correct) Thanks, any insight/input is greatly appreciated. |
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Anonymous | On some motherboards you don't have to worry about memory because the processor will work separate from the memory, most of the 939 sockets are like this. And memory is only used one percent of the time by the processor. The processor uses its cache for the most part. Once 64 bit applications start to appear on the market you'll see the difference right away. It's more than twice the speed of a 32 bit processor if the application is utilizing it correctly. I work for Microsoft and I'll let you know that the updates for the new 64 bit drivers fix just about all of the bugs. In any event, if your buying a new system you have to think of the future, and go with 64. |
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Unregistered guest | but it doesnt make sense...wuts the point of having a fast car that goes 300mph if u can only drive on a 65mph lane? the same implies to the cpu transfering data through the bus? and whats the deal with "Front Side"? are they trying to fool people in to buying the product by selling them the hype? We are better then this.. come on. For me i would rather know if the Bus speed between the Cpu And memory will be a fast lane i'm talking 3Ghz or more what the hell would u do with a chip thats 4Ghz with a 800mhz Bus? its not even gonna use its max speed. |
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Anonymous | I am building a PC with an Athlon64 3200+ processor. Would you guys know of any suitable memory to go in sync with it? |
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Silver Member Username: James_the_godDoncaster, South Yorkshire England Post Number: 123 Registered: Jan-05 | Hmm forget I made this thread! Well anyway after nearly 2 and a half months since I started this topic, I've pretty much decided what my new pc will be. It depends actually on how well I do in my gcse's because im 16 and my parents are buying it me. I think it will be an AMD 64 3500+ 939 pin, 80gb harddrive because I personally I dont need any more at all, a geforce 6600gt card, and the pc comes with 256mb or ram. I will buying an extra 512mb so the total ram would be 768mb. After this I want to create a computer based hi-fi, so I'll probably buy an M-audio Audiophile 2496 card, a Nadc320bee amp and probs some wharfedale diamond speakers. Personally compared to my pc and soundsystem now, that is like winning the lottery. *drools over the thought of a fast processor* |
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asdasdasdasd Unregistered guest | heh. i got: amd athlon xp 2600+ @ 3200+ 512mb of pc-2700ram 100gb and 40gb hdd. radeon 7000 64mb ddr. * *i have a lot of upgrading to do :P |
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asdasdasdasd Unregistered guest | heh. i got: amd athlon xp 2600+ @ 3200+ 512mb of pc-2700ram 100gb and 40gb hdd. radeon 7000 64mb ddr. * *i have a lot of upgrading to do :P |
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Bradly Unregistered guest | HaHAHAHAHAH i wish i had what all of you have heck right now i am running on a Celeron D processor 2.8 Ghz 533mhz bus speed, 256mb pc-2100ram, a 40gb hdd that works only part of the time, and a Geforce 4000 PCI graphics card with 64mb of ram. You guys are so lucky i would die to have what you do. Oh and my computer crashes every 1-3 days  |
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Unregistered guest | I haves a quesiton. Say in * http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=12790 29&CatId=0 * as an example. The Motherboard has a FSB of 266/333/400 yet the processor has a bus speed of 1600, does that mean the processor is limited to 400Mhz bus speed? I'm pretty fluent with computers but bus speed confuses me a little. Feel free to email me at The_used_fan_15@yahoo.com |
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Microsoft guy Unregistered guest | In regards to "Thrice 451" post: Not quite as bad as you think, but it isn't using the 1600 MHz that's for sure. If you know anything about hypertransport technology you'll know that it runs twice the speed as the bus says. It will say whether the bus speed is hypertransport or not when you read the specs on the motherboard. I don't know the actual mathematics involved but you're looking at something much less than 1600 MHz speed. It's not a bad thing to have a processor about 200 to 400 MHz faster than the bus because the processor will utilize the bus a little more than if the bus and processor are the same speed. I have 2000 bus and 2000Mhz processor because of the hypertransport technology makes my 800 bus twice the speed and I can over clock it by 200; the over clocking is also doubled from the hypertransport technology. In any event, if your looking for a system go with something with 64 bit, PCI express SLI technology, and a striping RAID with two or three serial ATA drives, which is what I have in my system. The RAID makes my hard drive as fast, if not faster, than memory. Well, I love technology, if you can't tell. I built this system from parts I bought at newegg and built it myself, which is the best way to go as it only cost about 700 or so to do it this way. Of course, I did buy the motherboard from another company on line but I can't remember off hand...anyway, just look around for the best deal; newegg is normally the ones with the best deal though. Talk to you guys later, Microsoft guy... |
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Unregistered guest | In regards to Microsoft guy, Thanks for your help. I just havn't seen a board anywhere close to even 1000Mhz, although I have not shopped anywhere but tiger. I've heard of newegg.com and looked at cases on the site once, If it turns out to be as good as tiger I may do some shopping there, especially if I can't find a motherboard with more bus speed. I am, in fact building a new computer. I am looking for the following in building it: My budget is limited to about 600-900 dollars. Motherboard supporting PCI Express, Raid Controlller (IDE, unless someone can explain scsi), Dual Channel 400Mhz ram support, 2000 FSB or 1600. I can buy a raid controller with comparable speeds to intigrated as far as I know so that isn't a must on the mobo. amd 64 bit processer (3200+ pref, 2000 bus) 256meg PCI express video card (dual display is a maybe) Sound card is pretty flexable Raid hard drives- I was looking for the best setup for gaming, I've heard of running windows on one hd and your programs on another but not quite sure how exactly the best setup is for speed Case- Glass door, very cooling efficient PSU- maybe a modular x-connect, i want something with low heat production cooling - I was leaning towards water cooling on this computer but I dont want to spend more than 100 dollars. My room becomes an oven, currently my xp2100 overheats all the time when running hardcore gaming. Cd drives - I'm not that picky about cd-roms, I want a reliable one for about 80 dollars max. Floppy- woot Ram - I want about 1-2gigs dual channel 400mhz ram Ethernet - nothing fancy ____________ There she blows. I think I can do that for about 700 dollars. I would really appreciate your input and guidance. Thrice_451 edited ! Also I am buying an lcd, 17' or 19' with a relativly low response time for gaming. If i get a 17' I will probably lean towards dual display and set up a crt to go with it. The monitor, for now, is outside of my budget listed, but it will be bought. |
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kill Unregistered guest | is fsb that important? 533 mhz = ? |
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Thrice_451 Unregistered guest | In the games now (which is the main purpose of the computer) the fsb is almost more valuble than the processing speed. |
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Microsoft Guy Unregistered guest | Go to asus.com and look for the motherboard with the features you like. Then go to pricewatch.com and look for a good deal on that board, but make sure it's the exact board you're looking for, as memory and processor are counting on a specific kind of allocation. Last but not least, as time goes buy you will find the same thing you're looking for cheaper and cheaper and better, so be sure it's what you're looking for. Good hunting! Microsoft Guy |
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Anonymous | Oh, another think, don't buy a RAID controller because you'll be bottlenecked at the pci clot. So, just get a motherboard that uses Serial ata and has built in RAID controllers. |
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jo jack Unregistered guest | this is to anyone who knos alot about computers and can help me in not so complicated language. im gating a new computer that is AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ 512 MB DDr RAm 160 GB(and front side bus is 1.6 ghz) serial ata harddrive. and i was told that the processor speed is "double clocked" which suposely meant that it was doubled in speed? so i wanna know how fast this computer actually is and if it is better than an intel pentium 4 processr computer that is around 3.2 ghz. so can any one please tell me everything i need to know? |
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it is me Unregistered guest | Just want to warn about striping: because it writes your data across all hard drives in the RAID array, if one hard drive dies, the data on all hard drives becomes useless. Example: you have a 6MB file and 2 HD - 3MB is written on each HD. If either HD dies, you lose half the file and it becomes useless. Also, Microsoft Guy - although striping is very fast at sequential writing there's no way your hard drives perform better than your RAM. Hard drives are slower because as you start storing information on them, their size causes longer seek times for reading and writing. |
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New member Username: Nip_kidNorth Bay, ON Canada Post Number: 1 Registered: Oct-05 | Jelvis one thing to consider is the type of ram you buy. A socket 939 motherboard will be made for dual ddr memory. Meaning you buy matched pairs of ram. The chipsets for the 939 board have memory controllers that will access the ram dual chips simultaneously improving the memory bandwidth. Why have this option and not take advantage of it? |
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Silver Member Username: James_the_godDoncaster, South Yorkshire England Post Number: 190 Registered: Jan-05 | Vic. Thanks for the post but im quiet aware about ram now lol. Ive aided many people in other forums about Ram choice and one in this forum somewhere I think. Plainly, money is the issue, I would buy 2x1gb sticks and then dual channel would be active although channel A would have a 1gb stick and a 512mb stick and channel B would have a 1gb stick and a 256mb stick. Altogether I would then have 2.76gb of ram which would last me for the rest of the time i have this computer i suppose. It's just saving £120 to get the ram! I suppose I could get 2x512mb sticks and replace one of my current 256mb sticks for another 512 but itd just seem a waste of my dimm slots knowing i could have 4gb of ram instead of 2gb or 2.76gb knowing i could upgrade if i wanted without having wasted money. I did a memory benchmark in everest and my bandwith was 3000mb/s. Then as an example benchmark there was my processor but with dual channel ram achieving over 6000mb/s. At the moment I have other things I'd prefer to spend my money on i guess! |
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Silver Member Username: G3nocd3San Jose, Ca USA Post Number: 324 Registered: May-05 | Yea, like your woman, kuz we all know ladies are even more expensive than computers. ROFLMAO. Isnt it tru tho. I wish i had money to put into another comp, but for now, the lady and vehicle takes all my money  and vic, just cuz u have a 939 dosent mean its made for dual channel. I run single channel in my 939 comp. Its a fact that dual channel does almost little. Until all the other hardware and also software matures, dual channel wont really give you much of a performance boost. My single channel corsair runs fine for now. Maybe in a year or to when pci-e has taken over fully will we see dual channel ram being used more widely. Until then, there is almost no point in upgrading, since there is only a slight performance boost. The same with the pci-e SLI setups. (SLI only really helps with massive resolutions like 1680+) People are so caught up in the race to be the fastest, that they dont realize that for the money everything costs they gain only a slight (if that) performance boost. I still run most of my comps with agp vid and single channel ram, since i have better things to spend my money on than a thousandth of a mb in transfer rates. 1 gig of ram is efficient. I even have one of my servers on pc2700 ram still which is kinda out of date, but only a small loss in performance is noticed. Spend your money on a good powersource or something. When a power surge hits, even with a surge protector, it can kill you comp like nothing. So trust me, theres way more to worry about than simple ram specs. (that was to vic, not you jelvis, lol you kno your sh!t so i dont gotta explain to you. ) |
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Anonymous | I have Asus P5AD2-E Premium, 3.4Mhz Pentium 4 Processor 550 Hyper-Threading Tech 800MHZ FSB LGA775 1MB L2 Cache 2GB RAM, Sony DVD DL Burner & Toshiba External DVD Burner. I built this by myself I have a question regarding the FSB when I run the NERO Check System it says I got only 220 Bus Speed, why is it like that? Why is it still slow? I have a Satellite Toshiba Laptop 1.9Mhz and processed the same home movie compilation and I think the speed is more faster. Can anybody tell me why? |
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Good advice guy Unregistered guest | Uhh well , i know this may sounde quite bad or dumb but actually emachines just launched 2 new computers that really struck me, i bought two of the latest ones they have 200gb 2.2ghz 2000mhz x200 pci-e radeon shared memory and ,1024 ram i find this that for the price is like WOW i literally found it amazing that emachines came out with such an advance i mean with their rep id figure they give up but they didnt |
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Good advice guy Unregistered guest | Uhh well , i know this may sounde quite bad or dumb but actually emachines just launched 2 new computers that really struck me, i bought two of the latest ones they have 200gb 2.2ghz 2000mhz x200 pci-e radeon shared memory and ,1024 ram i find this that for the price is like WOW i literally found it amazing that emachines came out with such an advance i mean with their rep id figure they give up but they didnt |
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Kazmot Unregistered guest | How can i improve my Front Side Bus or How can i over clocking my FSB?, here are my stuff: CPU = Pentium 4 2.66Ghz LGA775 (506) 533Mhz MoBo = ASUS P5P800S 800Mhz/533Mhz DDR RAM = HTL 256mb (PC400) Video Card = Inno 3D FX5200 128Mb - 128bit Pls email me bernardsoriano@dti.gov.ph |
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New member Username: Waldo69Tx Post Number: 1 Registered: Mar-06 | I am reading alot about FSB and processor clock rates. Just to clarify my ASUS P4T mother board has a FSB of 400mhz with a 850 chipset. I am going to upgrade from a 423 socket to a 478 socket using a convertor for faster processer speed availability as the 423 maxes out at a 2G speed. I am looking at a P4 3.4G at a FSB of 800mhz. Will my motherboard recognise and function with this processer? Any help will be apperciated. |
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New member Username: EthompsonPost Number: 1 Registered: Apr-06 | Hey folks. I still don't see a good verified answer on here about FSB speed and how it affects a system. Example. I see a machine at walmart now.Its an HP Pavilion Media Center a1253w-b PC Bundle w/17" LCD, 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Processor Here are the specs:Processor & Chipset Processor 1 x AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2GHz Bus Speed1600MHz Cache 512KB L2 Memory Standard Memory 512MB DDR SDRAM Maximum Memory 4GB DDR SDRAM Memory Speed 400MHz DDR400/PC3200 Memory Slots 184-pin DIMM (4 Total/2 Free) Storage Hard Drive 100GB Ultra ATA 7200 rpm Question: Walmart and Sams are infamous for great deals on the bundle pcs, usually there is a catch, slow memory (like one step back, or some other motherboard limitation like slots avail, or slot types/shared pci etc.) None of that matters to me The only thing I see is this. Isn't the 3400+ almost always listed with a 2000 Mghz bus? what does 1600 do? If everything else is the same on a system what does the 400 Mghz difference in CPU bus speed actully do? also here is a link to the pc. This seems like a pretty good deal. huh? http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4861605 I use cakewalk sonar for windows and an EMU sound card thats all, I even unload the explorer.exe shell before I run Sonar. I have a 1.9 now and my songs are dropping out. I just need the fastest CPU,Memory, I can get my hands on for the money. I was gonna get a barebones buildup but living in hawaii I can't find anyone to ship reasonably |
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New member Username: WithinsideCanada Post Number: 1 Registered: Jun-06 | Thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. I came here looking for answers, only to find more questions. I beieve everyones forgetting what DDR (Double Data Rate) means. I'm not an expert. I bought an ASUS A8N-SLi Premium which has 2000MT/s, 1600MT/s front side bus. I'm looking to get an AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ which has a FSB of 1000MHz. The board uses DDR ram, and has HT technology. I could get a CPU with an 800MHz FSB since 800x2 is 1600MT/s (Mega Transfers/second). My question now is what cpu has the fastest FSB? and can I use a cpu with a FSB higher then 1000MHz? |
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New member Username: MohanCoimbatore, Tamil Nadu India Post Number: 9 Registered: Jul-06 | FSB is like a bottle neck and larger the bottle neck, better flow of data. |
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New member Username: MohanCoimbatore, Tamil Nadu India Post Number: 10 Registered: Jul-06 | Check this one for Bose Speakers |
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New member Username: Jim_2Post Number: 1 Registered: Feb-07 | i have amotherboard which says fsb800mhz can iuse a cpu with a fsb of 1600mhz |
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Silver Member Username: StefanomVienna, VA United States Post Number: 454 Registered: Apr-06 | The front side bus is effectively the interface your processor has with your computer. Most things, such as your memory, PCI slots, etc will go back to it. Generally the faster, the better, but don't expect some 200% performance gain by going with a 1600mhz fsb over a 800mhz fsb. How much of a gain you get depends on the processor generally. You can find that at various hardware sites like anandtech or tomshardware. |
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New member Username: Chris99872Post Number: 1 Registered: Sep-08 | Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Tri-Core Processor TM-91, MMX, 3DNow (3 CPUs), ~3.6GHz Memory: 6918MB RAM Hard Drive: 547 GB Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7000M / nForce 610M You little boys and your tiny toys.. welcome to the real world. HP |