Sempron 3400+ Review

Memory Performance: Sandra

Usually we do not include memory benchmarking in our CPU reviews because usually this test measures the chipset performance and not the CPU performance. But since on socket 754 and socket 939 processors the memory controller is integrated in the CPU – and not in the chipset as it happens in other platforms – we’d like to check the performance of the Sempron 3400+ embedded memory controller.

On the graph below you will find the results in MB/s. We also included on the graph the values for the maximum theoretic transfer rate of DDR300/PC3200 memories (3,200 MB/s) and also their maximum theoretic transfer rate when running at dual channel (6,400 MB/s).

Socket 939 processors (in our case, our Athlon 64 3800+) and the motherboards we used together with Athlon XP, Duron and Intel CPUs access memory using DDR Dual Channel mechanism, theoretically accessing memory up to 6,400 MB/s.

Sempron 3400+ used 96.69% of the available bandwidth, which is an outstanding result, since it shows that its embedded memory controller is capable of using almost all bandwidth available.

Just to give you a better understanding, Sempron 2800+, which is a socket 462 processor – thus its memory access is controlled by the chipset, not by the CPU – achieved a 2,393 MB/s transfer rate, using 74.78% of the available bandwidth. But since this processor was installed in a nForce 2 motherboard, which has the Dual Channel feature, actually it used only 37.39% of the theoretic available bandwidth. So, our Sempron 3400+ was more efficient in single channel configuration than Sempron 2800+ in dual channel configuration.