In addition to being exactly identical in the core and cache both chips are identical in that they use the HyperTransport Bus. This bus allows for high speed I/O communication at up to 8 GB/s bandwidth . Both chips offer Cool’n’Quiet technology for quieter operation and reduced power consumption. Using the following configurations (information obtained from AMD website) benchmarks were run and recorded by AMD.

The following benchmark tests were run: Overall Office Productivity (Geometric Mean of Benchmark Suite), Overall Digital Media (Geometric Mean of Benchmark Suite), and Overall Games (Geometric Mean of Benchmark Suite). I have included only the overall performance mean score. The entire publication is available here: AMD Athlon 64 Benchmarks May 2006

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Above image used from AMD’s website information

The following results were obtained from the benchmark program SYSmark. I listed only the overall results but made available the site containing the entire study below the graph.

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Above image used from AMD’s website information

As you can see the AM2 processor beat the 939 processor in overall performance by 7%. If you look at the entire testing results you will see that the AM2 chip consistently beat the 939 chip in all applications measured.

This speed advantage is great for the CAD designer or the molecular modeling programs on the scientific fronts and for other extreme processor intensive programs, but the hard core gamers want that speed so they can frag the hell out of others in FPS games such as Half Life CS.