New things come with improvements, and one such improvement is what paved the way for the AM3+ series of chipsets over its AM3 predecessor. The AM3+ is designed to cope up with the requirements of the new and improved processors that were churned out by ASUS under their bulldozer series of processors.
Why was the change needed?
As the capacity of the processors improved, there was a demand on the market to come up with a new line of sockets that could cope up with these processors. By doing so, the system was able to use the processor to its full potential without any lags. During the time of its release in 2011 was when the use of multiple cores wherein high flow. Many processors came out to be on the race as one of the most excellent processors in the market.
Difference between the AM3+ and AM3:
- Pins & Diameter: The AM3 is coming with 941 pin connection while the AM3+ comes with just one increased tallying the count to 942 pin socket holes on its board. There is a change in the diameter of the socket as well. The previous version being 0.45 mm, whereas the improved AM3+ has 0.51 mm socket holes.
- Connectivity speed: There is a significant amount of increase in this section. The AM3 was capable of sending out 400 kHz from the CPU to the power controller while the AM3+ took an enormous leap and landed at 3400 kHz. This improvement is one of the primary reasons why there was a need for change in the first place.
- Power generation: These changes made sure that the AM3+ resulted in a higher power generation over the previous one. AM3 was able to withstand a maximum current of 110 A, whereas the improved AM3+ took on a maximum load of 145 A. As a result, the flow of current in the circuit became high, thereby increasing the overclocking characteristics of the processors.
- Cooling technology: As the world knows increased power results in increased heat generation & the AM3+ has that cover too. The cooler has been redesigned to increase the airflow in its chambers. By doing so, AM3+ was able to increase the efficiency of the unit and better performance.
- AM3+ motherboard: Since these AM3+ sockets are out in the market for quite some time now, they have a wide range of motherboard compatible with it. Some of the best am3+ motherboards are;
- ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0: It comes with 4 DDR3 RAM slots that can be expanded up to 32 GB of memory and 4 PCI express and 1 PCI for connectivity. It was released in the year 2012.
- ASUS Crosshair V Formula Z: It has 4 DDR3 RAM slots which help the user to expand the memory up to 32 GB. It comes with 6 PCI express slots for connectivity. It was released in the year 2014.
- Gigabyte GA 990 FX A- UD3: It also has the same RAM configuration with 6 PCI Express slots and 1 PCI slots for connectivity. It was released in the year 2013.
Note: none of these motherboards come with an inbuilt graphics processor.
Final Words
According to various experts, the major difference depends on the pine holes. As the difference comes with the durability and power delivery, the AM3+ Motherboards are supporting the new power generating functions and also CPUs with a higher level of processors. However, AM3 is widely used and is available at affordable prices. If you are looking for professional purposes, then choose AM3+ over AM3 for better functionality. But for general functions and operations, prefer AM3 only.
