I plan to upgrade to a Athlon 64 3200+. I have noticed that there are two such CPU. One with venice core and one without. What is the difference?Is it worth paying extra for venice CPU? What does it offer?Will there be a noticable performence increase with FS9 compared toa non venice CPU at the same frequency?

You also have 3200+ with Newcatsle and Winchester Cores too. :-)Venice runs at 2.0ghz, with socket 939Winchester runs at 2.0 also with socket 939 Newcastle runs at 2.2ghz You also have retail and OEM versions of each for sale, retail usually includes the heatsink and fan, OEM means you usually just get the chip.The Venice is known for pretty good overclocking success. From 2.09 up to 2.8 with stock voltage. Also the stepping is different than the older Newcastle core, so the Venice uses less power. IE, the venice is the cream of the crop.Whether you see differences in FS9 depends on more than just your CPU.Do you plan to Overclock at all?What MOBO and Chipset do you have?Make sure you get the correct chip for your MOBO and Socket though.Maybe share with us the rest of your system, and we can help you further.Regards,JoeGrab My FREEWARE Voice recognition Profiles here:[a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004misc&DLID=58334]Cessna 172 Voice Profile[/a][a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004misc&DLID=60740]FSD Avanti Voice Profile[/a].You will need the main FREEWARE Flight Assistant program to use it, get it here:[a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=genutils&DLID=39661]Flight Assistant 2.2[/a]

Thought I'd chime in here, as I just re-built my system this week using an AMD64 3500 Venice core on an Asus A8V board. So: The main differences between the Winchester and Venice cores are:They both run at 2200MHz, but the Venice is built using 90Nm core technology, whereas the Winchester uses 110Nm core technology. This means basicly that the Venice runs considerably cooler than the Winchester. I have overclocked mine 7% to a core speed of 2354MHz (that's nearly as fast as an AMD64 3800 (which runs at 2400MHz btw), and despite this, I'm running temps of 34-36

Making sense of it all here.Greg

>Do you plan to Overclock at all?I have no direct plan to overclock. >What MOBO and Chipset do you have?>I plan to get a ASUS A8V Deluxe Socket 939 AGP>Maybe share with us the rest of your system, and we can help>you further.>I plan to use my current Powercolor Radeon 9800 Pro 128M and Audigo player soundcard. All tis with 1 Gb 400 MHz RAM.

>They both run at 2200MHz, but the Venice is built using 90Nm>core technology, whereas the Winchester uses 110Nm core>technology. This means basicly that the Venice runs>considerably cooler than the Winchester. The two Athlon 64 3200+ I saw were both stated to have 90 nm.>One more difference btw: The Venice supports SSE3, whatever>that is :-) Hope this helps>Does FS9 use SSE3?

There is no such thing as 110nm core, its either 130 or 90, both the Winchester and Venice use 90nm, the only difference is Venice uses SSE3, which little to none programs use currently.

Whoops, my bad! Of course it should've read 130nm! The main thing is, the Venice runs much cooler than the Winchester, and, here in Germany anyway, the Venice costs about the same as the Winchester. So I thought: Why not, then the system will run a bit cooler and quieter.I wasn't aware what SSE3 was, as I said in my reply. One thing I do know though: The AMD64 CPU's rock! Now I plan to replace my 9800Pro with a 6800GT, as I have the feeling the 9800Pro is too slow for the new CPU. Just have to wait till my wife has got over this re-build, and then I'm going to buy a 6800GT!BestGrahame (EDHL)

I'm waiting for my AMD 64 3200+ Venice to arrive any day now.The Venice core, apart from being manufacted at 90micro also supports SSE3 and has improvements into the memory controller.The older cores had problems when using 4 DIMMS in 2 dual channel configurations, this is fixed with the Venice core.There are also some other minor bug fixes/improvements as per the AMD revisions documents.And as it's already said, it's very good for overclocking!George DorkofikisAthens, Greecehttp://online.vatsimindicators.net/811520/1704.pnghttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/betaimg.jpg

>And as it's already said, it's very good for overclocking!>Have they equipped it with sufficient overtemperature protection measurements so we won't have to worry about damaging the CPU?

Our complaint about AMD's CPUs was that they USED TO run too hot.When we wanted to overclock we had to virtually turn the inside on the PC case into a refrigerator.NO MORE. The new CPUs (Venice Cores and newer) consum just 67W compared to the 85W (prior cores) or the 90W of Intel's counterparts.Just make sure you get a BOXED CPU. They come with 3 years warranty istof 1 of the tray ones, and the box also contains proper (approved by AMD) cooling fan.Less consumsion, less current, less heat!Also there this old/new feature Cool-n-quite. Old because it's being used in laptops for years, new in desktops.When you don't use the CPU for heavy applications it runs in slower clock speeds. When you'll need it, it will throttle up to max speed immediately.Oh boy... They will think I work for AMD! No such luck! I just did some research as I was planning for my upgrade too...More info www.amd.com Cheers,George DorkofikisAthens, Greecehttp://online.vatsimindicators.net/811520/1704.pnghttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/betaimg.jpg