Socket 754 is regarded by the community as something in the middle, between the old era with AGP, IDE and PCI and the new era with PCI express and SATA drives and therefore is neglected and looked down upon. Most people who choose AMD will go with for their retro build with either socket A or socket 939. Socket 754 is considered a strange hybrid and will be neglected.

Okay, what discipline will we compete in?
I would just like to define the rules - what OS, what test packages, their versions and download links. 😀

shevalier wrote on 2025-10-01, 10:27:

Okay, what discipline will we compete in?
I would just like to define the rules - what OS, what test packages, their versions and download links. 😀

I will detail each and every thing!

Socket 754 is the first socket for Athlon 64; launched in September 2003 together with Athlon 64 3200, it represented a return to form for AMD and the first attempt to win back the performance crown from the Pentium 4 – that remains to be tested of course!
Period correct reviews were enthusiastic and people bought them in droves. I was one of them and in December 2004 I got myself an Athlon 64 2800 and an Abit KV8 PRO. Why so much later you may ask? Because I waited until the prices were low enough to afford one.

I believe that socket 754 provides some very interesting options for anyone who wants to build a machine for the early XP era – 2000 up to 2004.
Why this period? And how comes this is identical to the socket 462 era that you just covered in your old topic?
You will see why when I am going to put up the results, but for now I must state that the performance I am interested in and the results you will see are solely at maximum details. That means that all games will be tested at different resolutions at the highest settings. Synthetic benchmarks will be tested at the default settings first but all subsequent tests will be at the highest possible details.

I'm looking forward to your analysis!

Just a heads up, as you probably know, this issue affects a lot of VIA based Socket 754 motherboards: VIA zero bytes AGP memory bug | Navigation thread

Re: VIA AGP bug -> potential buyers need to give preference to motherboards with BIOSes from late 2003 or early 2004. Then they should be fine in Windows 98. Stability wise, Windows 98 is not something desirable unless you want to play games that require older DirectX to work correctly.

Socket 754 with AGP covers early/mid Windows XP era (2002-2004), PCIe extends it until 2005. There may be a few slow paced games from later period that work fine, but not racing games or FPS.

It would be great if this topic could cover:

• AGP, VIA, Windows 98 (including affected Abit boards with the AGP memory bug)
• AGP, nForce3, Windows 98
• AGP, VIA/nForce3, Windows XP
• PCIe, nForce4, Windows XP

The expectation is Athlon 64 in s754 should be able to squeeze more out of late AGP cards than Athlon XP. There are also AGP boards for s939, but those are rare whereas in s754 they are very common and cheap. The downside is availability of high clocked CPUs like 3200+/3400+ is not good. s939 is superior, but s754 could be "good enough". The main advantage of s754 is very low price, nobody wants them, they are cheaper than Athlon XP systems but slightly more modern.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-10-01, 12:02:

The expectation is Athlon 64 in s754 should be able to squeeze more out of late AGP cards than Athlon XP. There are also AGP boards for s939, but those are rare whereas in s754 they are very common and cheap. The downside is availability of high clocked CPUs like 3200+/3400+ is not good. s939 is superior, but s754 could be "good enough". The main advantage of s754 is very low price, nobody wants them, they are cheaper than Athlon XP systems but slightly more modern.

Mobile Athlon 64 4000+ will surpass everyone
Or, at worst, Turion ML-44
They are rare and impossible to obtain.

2.4-2,6GHz + 1Mb l2 cache
And high multiplier will not limit FSB (In fact, Hypertransport) overclocking.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-10-01, 10:47:

I'm looking forward to your analysis!

Just a heads up, as you probably know, this issue affects a lot of VIA based Socket 754 motherboards: VIA zero bytes AGP memory bug | Navigation thread

Thank you sir. I have read that topic however i have not used Windows me except for compatibility testing!

I have one Socket754 with nForce3 and Turion64.

Its my old build, that i can boot up again, bigger WD HDD went in. 😀
Someone recommended better graphics card than Radeon 9600XT.

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:15:

I have one Socket754 with Nforce3 and Turion64.

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-k8n-neo-platinum

If the infamous NF3 is still alive, and Turion has 1MB of cache, then this is a very good option.

shevalier wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:27:

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:15:

I have one Socket754 with Nforce3 and Turion64.

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-k8n-neo-platinum

If the infamous NF3 is still alive, and Turion has 1MB of cache, then this is a very good option.

Its my old build, that i can boot up again, bigger WD HDD went in. 😀
Someone recommended better graphics card than Radeon 9600XT.

Socket 754 DOS/Win9x/XP Machine

nd22 wrote on 2025-10-01, 12:46:

Thank you sir. I have read that topic however i have not used Windows me except for compatibility testing!

This bug affects Win98 too, not just WinME.

But WinXP should be fine.

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:28:

Its my old build, that i can boot up again, bigger WD HDD went in. :) Someone recommended better graphics card than Radeon 9600X […]
Show full quote

shevalier wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:27:

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:15:

I have one Socket754 with Nforce3 and Turion64.

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-k8n-neo-platinum

If the infamous NF3 is still alive, and Turion has 1MB of cache, then this is a very good option.

Its my old build, that i can boot up again, bigger WD HDD went in. 😀
Someone recommended better graphics card than Radeon 9600XT.

Socket 754 DOS/Win9x/XP Machine

I recently switched to SSD and I recommend it to everyone.
How to connect SSD to SATA1 (SandForce based SSD). And a small dirty test.

shevalier wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:49:

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:28:

Its my old build, that i can boot up again, bigger WD HDD went in. :) Someone recommended better graphics card than Radeon 9600X […]
Show full quote

shevalier wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:27:

If the infamous NF3 is still alive, and Turion has 1MB of cache, then this is a very good option.

Its my old build, that i can boot up again, bigger WD HDD went in. 😀
Someone recommended better graphics card than Radeon 9600XT.

Socket 754 DOS/Win9x/XP Machine

I recently switched to SSD and I recommend it to everyone.
How to connect SSD to SATA1 (SandForce based SSD). And a small dirty test.

Thanks, lets see how it ends up with storage. Why infamous nForce3? Does it brake up, are they faulty chipsets or what?

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:57:

shevalier wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:49:

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-01, 13:28:

Its my old build, that i can boot up again, bigger WD HDD went in. 😀
Someone recommended better graphics card than Radeon 9600XT.

Socket 754 DOS/Win9x/XP Machine

I recently switched to SSD and I recommend it to everyone.
How to connect SSD to SATA1 (SandForce based SSD). And a small dirty test.

Thanks, lets see how it ends up with storage. Why infamous nForce3? Does it brake up, are they faulty chipsets or what?

Single-chip nForce chipsets are very susceptible to failure(including from overheating)- both the nF3 and all subsequent.
And not everyone knew how to solder the nF3 with lead-free solder.
Almost all Asus nF3 motherboards have already failed.

And they have some weird problem with their powering.
Either the +5V standby voltage goes directly to the chipset, without a regulator, or +3.3V (I don't remember the details).
So, when the power supply fails, it's guaranteed to take the nF3 with it.
Overall the chipset is very fast and very problematic.

by the way
A weird and rare mut from Asrock
K8A780LM

AMD760/710 + socket754
+ problem-free SATA2
+ PCIe v2
+There are no issues with Hypertransport/PCIe/PCi frequencies.

Overall, the chipset is from a completely different era – AM3(+)

Socket 754 boards are still cheap so you can buy multiple with nForce3 chipset. Just check that fan can be attached to the chipset heatsink if needed and is not in an awkward position. I saw a s939 board like that with nForce 4 chipset. Due to location of the chipset it was basically useless.

Many s754 PCIe boards are microATX. It can be an advantage for those building compact systems.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-10-01, 14:28:

board like that with nForce 4 chipset

The dual-chip nForce 4 410, while unremarkable, is very reliable.
If you're building a system specifically for real usage ( for example retro gaming), the ASRock K8NF4G was considered a budget classic of its time.
But this is already the era of the PCI express.