It took more than a year for the first dual core processors based off the Phenom architecture to be released from AMD. Phenom hit in late 2007 and it wasn't until late 2008 finally we saw dual core processors based somewhat off the Phenom architecture with the Athlon X2 7750. Luckily that isn't the case with Phenom II, launched early this year dual core processors will be in stores soon and being announced now during Computex. We'll be looking at two of these: the Phenom II branded X2 550 and the Athlon II X2 250. How do they stack up to AMD's previous offerings? Let's find out.

 

 

The Athlon II X2 250 is a new 45nm native dual-core and not a harvested quad core Phenom II which had a bad core or two. It features 1MB of L2 cache per core but unlike Phenom II has no L3 cache. It also is the first processor from AMD with hardware C1E low power state, all other C1E states for AMD processors are controlled by the BIOS. It isn't a Black Edition so you'll have to bump up the front-side bus for all overclocking. The memory controller runs at 2GHz with 128-bit wide memory controller. It is Socket AM3 so it supports DDR3 for future proofing but as with all Socket AM3 processors it should run fine in AM2+ motherboards. The die size is 117.5mm with a transistor count of around 234 million. AMD rates it for 65W and a max temp of 74 degrees Celsius. The processor will retail for $87 in 1,000 unit quantities.

The Phenom II X2 550 dual core is Phenom II quad core derived part with a bad core or two or one that wasn't up to the task at running at the 3.1GHz the processor runs at. It features 6MB of L3 cache, 512KB of L2 cache per core, 64K of L1 cache, 128-bit wide memory controller, 6MB of shared L3 cache for all cores. It is a Black Edition processor so the multiplier is unlocked allowing for easier overclocking. The memory controller runs at 2GHz and it also is a Socket AM3 processor built off a 45nm process but a larger 258mm die and a transistor count of around 758 million. It takes up a little more power at around 80W and is rated for a max temp of 70 degrees Celsius. This processor will set you back $102 in thousand unit quantities.

 

AMD is also announcing two other processors today, energy efficient quad and triple core processors. The Phenom II X4 905e runs at 2.5GHz and has a 65W TDP and the Phenom II X3 705e runs at 2.5GHz and also features a 65W TDP.

 

 

Here are the specs from AMD for all four new processors they're announcing today.

 

AMD Athlon™ II X2 Processor Specifications:

Model Number & Core Frequency: X2 250 = 3.0GHz
TRAY OPN# ADX250OCK23GQ
PIB OPN# ADX250OGQBOX
L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (256KB total L1 per processor)

L2 Cache Sizes: 1MB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor)
Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *
Memory Controller Speed: 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
Types of Memory Supported: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-6400 (DDR2-800MHz) -AND- PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066MHz)

HyperTransport 3.0 Specification: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth: Up to 33.1GB/s bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s total bandwidth (DDR3-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Up to 28.8GB/s bandwidth [Up to 12.8 GB/s total bandwidth (DDR2-800) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
Fab location: GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab 1 Module 1
Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
Approximate Die Size: 117.5 mm2
Approximate Transistor count: ~ 234 million
Max Temp: 74o Celsius
Core Voltage: 0.85-1.425V
Max TDP: 65 Watts
*Note: configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes



AMD Phenom™ II X2 550 Black Edition Processor Specifications:

Model Number & Core Frequency: X2 550 Black Edition = 3.1GHz
TRAY OPN# HDZ550WFK2DGI
PIB OPN# HDZ550WGIBOX
L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (256KB total L1 per processor)

L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (1MB total L2 per processor)
L3 Cache Size: 6MB (shared)
Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *
Black Edition processors support software selectable increases to memory controller, HyperTransport, DDR3 and CPU core frequency.

Memory Controller Speed: 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
Types of Memory Supported: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz)

HyperTransport 3.0 Specification: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth: Up to 37.3GB/s bandwidth [Up to 21.3 GB/s total bandwidth (DDR3-1333) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Up to 33.1GB/s bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s total bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
Fab location: GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab 1 Module 1
Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
Approximate Die Size: 258 mm2
Approximate Transistor count: ~ 758 million
Max Temp: 70o Celsius
Core Voltage: 0.850-1.425V
Max TDP: 80 Watts
*Note: configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes



MD Phenom™ II X4 905e Processor Specifications:

Model Number & Core Frequency: X4 905e = 2.5GHz
TRAY OPN# HD905EOCK4DGI
PIB OPN# HD905EOGIBOX
L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor)

L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor)
L3 Cache Size: 6MB (shared)
Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *
Memory Controller Speed: 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
Types of Memory Supported: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz)

HyperTransport 3.0 Specification: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth: Up to 37.3GB/s bandwidth [Up to 21.3 GB/s total bandwidth (DDR3-1333) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Up to 33.1GB/s bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s total bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
Fab location: GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab 1 Module 1
Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
Approximate Die Size: 258 mm2
Approximate Transistor count: ~ 758 million
Max Temp: 70o Celsius
Core Voltage: 0.825-1.25V
Max TDP: 65 Watts
*Note: configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes



AMD Phenom™ II X3 703e Processor Specifications:

Model Number & Core Frequency: X3 705e = 2.5GHz
TRAY OPN# HD705EOCK3DGI
PIB OPN# HD705EOGIBOX
L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (384KB total L1 per processor)

L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (1.5MB total L2 per processor)
L3 Cache Size: 6MB (shared)
Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *
Memory Controller Speed: 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
Types of Memory Supported: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz)

HyperTransport 3.0 Specification: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth: Up to 37.3GB/s bandwidth [Up to 21.3 GB/s total bandwidth (DDR3-1333) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Up to 33.1GB/s bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s total bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
Fab location: GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab 1 Module 1
Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
Approximate Die Size: 258 mm2
Approximate Transistor count: ~ 758 million
Max Temp: 72o Celsius
Core Voltage: 0.825-1.25V
Max TDP: 65 Watts

*Notes:

Black Edition processors support software-selectable increases to memory controller, HyperTransport, DDR3 and CPU core frequency

MC configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes

 

Here's our test system.

Mother Board	Gigabyte 790GX
Memory	Corsair XMS 4GB
Video Card	ATI Radeon 4850
Hard Drive	Western Digital SE 16 750GB
Case	Tsunami Thermaltake
Display	Samsung SyncMaster 30"

 

 

Windows Vista 64-bit SP1 was our OS with Catalyst version 9.5 for testing. V-sync was disabled.

 

 

 

We'll start off with Crysis which primarily uses two cores. Here we see the Phenom II X2 550 do quite well scoring fps and topping the Q9300 from Intel. The 7850 which runs at 2.8GHz lags 12 fps behind. The Athlon II also lags a bit due to the lack of L3 cache at 50.7fps despite being only 100MHz slower.

 

Unreal Tournament 3 supports multiple cores so the Phenom II X2 can't top the Phenom II X3 which almost matches the X4 955. That said the Phenom II and Athlon II are still much faster than the 7850.

 

 

 

 

The quad core processors rule here in Cinebench and we don't see much of a difference between the dual core Phenom II and Athlon II more than likely due to L3 cache not being as important in rendering.

 

 

Valve map creation also doesn't show much of a bonus from the large L3 cache of the Phenom II and instead cores rule again.

 

Valve particle bench renders thousands of particles to test CPU performance and supports many cores and as such again those CPUs come out on top. We see a slight decline from the Phenom II to the Athlon X2 7850.

 

Pov-Ray is another rendering benchmark and again we see the L3 cache doesn't do much.

 

 

 

Overclocking the Athlon II X2 250 we had pretty good success ending up just short of 4GHz. It wasn't quite stable but 3.8GHz was smooth sailing.

 

Our Phenom II X2 550 didn't overclock quite as good being more stable at 3.8GHz and generally stable at 3.7GHz.

Our power consumption was tested with the Radeon 4850. Idle was taken 10 minutes idle into the Windows desktop and load using Cinebench 10. We don't see much of a difference at idle between the two processors but more so at load the extra cache of the Phenom II starts to kick in.

	Idle	Load
Athlon 7850	125W	160W
Phenom II X2 550	136W	176W

Conclusion:

AMD continues to improve their standing in 2009 and the Phenom II X2 550 BE and Athlon II X2 250 are both amazing processors for around or under $100. The 45nm process continues to mature for AMD and so far at least with Core i7's very high price to entry compared to an $80 AM3 motherboard AMD is looking like an easier and easier choice. Things become a little less clear around September when the P55 chipset is released and Core i5 as it's been called, but that's hard to see from here and we know at launch those should only be quad core processors with the cheapest just under $200, so not much cheaper than a Core i7 920 if you shop around.

Overall while this may not be labeled a banner year for everyone it is a proof that don't underestimate this company: the final word is yet to be written on the champion of PC performance. AMD may not have the top tier now but they aren't out for the count either and generally offer the best value in any processors under $200 from quad to dual core.

Comparing the two processors against each other, for just $15 more the Black Edition Phenom II X2 seem like the obvious choice, however, as you can see unless you're playing games there's not much difference between the two processors. If you do plan to do gaming though the difference becomes immediate of the benefit of the L3 cache and it seems obvious which to go with. So that's the jist: if you game go for the Phenom II X2 or X3 if you don't the Athlon II should be fine for everyone else looking for the best sub-$100 processor.

 

Pricing:

 We don't see the processors at retail yet but the Athlon II X2 250 should go for $87 and the Phenom II X2 500 for $102.

Athlon II X2 250 Score: 93%

Phenom II X2 550 Score: 97%

 

 

AMD released their Kuma core, basically a dual core Phenom, back in December which performed much better than most expected, competitive with Intel's dual cores for the price. Since then, AMD has been busy with Phenom II launches but in time for AMD's 40th anniversary they've updated the Athlon 7750 Kuma core with the Athlon  7850 Black Edition.

There's not a lot more to say about the 7850 than we did in our 7750 review. As mentioned it is basically a dual core Phenom and in this case featuring an unlocked multiplier. Here's the official technical specs from AMD.

 

AMD Athlon™ X2 7850 Processor Specifications:

Processor Core Frequency: 2.8GHz

X2 7850 Black Edition Tray OPN: OPN# AD785ZWCJ2BGH

X2 7850 Black Edition PIB OPN: OPN# AD785ZWCGHBOX

L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (256KB total L1 per processor)

L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (1MB total L2 per processor)

L3 Cache Size: 2MB (shared)

Total Cache (L2+L3): 3MB

Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *

Memory Controller Speed: Up to 1.8GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management

Types of Memory Supported: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500 (DDR2-1066MHz)

HyperTransport 3.0: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 3.6GHz full duplex (1.8GHz x2)

Total Processor-to-system Bandwidth: Up to 28.5 GB/s bandwidth [Up to 17.1GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 14.4GB/s (HT3)]

Packaging: Socket AM2+ 940-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)

Fab location: GLOBALFOUNDARIES Fab 1 module 1 in Dresden, Germany (formerly AMD Fab 36)

Process Technology: 65-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology

Approximate Transistor count: ~ 450 million (65nm)

Approximate Die Size: 285 mm2 (65nm)

Max Ambient Case Temp: 73o Celsius

Nominal Voltage: 1.2-1.25 Volts

Max TDP: 95 Watts



*Notes:

Black Edition processors support software-selectable increases to memory controller, HyperTransport, DDR3 and CPU core frequency

MC configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes

Here's our test system.

Mother Board	Gigabyte 790GX
Memory	Corsair XMS 4GB
Hard Drive	Western Digital SE 16 750GB
Case	Tsunami Thermaltake
Display	Samsung SyncMaster 30"

 

 

Windows Vista 64-bit SP1 was our OS with Catalyst version 9.4 for testing. V-sync was disabled.

 

 

Not much change from a 7750 to 7850 but both top the 5000+ easily.

 

Similar results are seen in UT 3.

 

 

 

 

The 7850 is a little faster than the 7750 in Cinebench 10.

 

 

Creating a map the Phenom architectures perform much better.

 

Similar results in Valve particle benchmark.

 

 

Tried all we could we couldn't top 3.3GHz for the 7850 which is the same spot where our 7750 stopped. This seems to be the limit of the Phenom architecture which is why we never saw very high clockratings from that proc, unlike the Phenom II at 3.2GHz now.

	Idle	Load
Athlon 7850	105W	172W
Athlon 5000+	89W	141W

Conclusion:

Compared to Phenom II the Athlon 7850 may not be amazing but for the price, around $70, the only thing Intel has that it competes with is the E5200 which it easily outclasses. Power consumption is a little high for two cores but that is the older Phenom architecture. We'd be more excited for dual core Phenom II but for now Kuma is the best you can get in the sub-$100 processor market.

Pricing:

The Athlon X2 7850 can be had for $75.50.

Score: 96%

 

 

 

 

Although they seem still quite fresh, AMD's Socket AM3 Phenom II processors have been on the market now for two and a half months and although the Phenom II X4 810 hasn't been too spectacular the Phenom II X3 720 BE has been a hit with a higher default clockspeed and an unlocked multiplier at a great price. However, at the high-end AMD still has had the Phenom II X4 940 Socket AM2+ processor at the top running at 3GHz. That is until now as AMD now has a Socket AM3 processor as their flagship platform, the AMD Phenom II X4 955.

In case you have forgotten or haven't been keeping up, AMD's AM3 processors will work fine in Socket AM2+ motherboards. AMD has been heavily pushing the lifespan of their Socket and architecture, something which Intel can't lay claim to leaving the Socket 775 market for dead and splitting up future platforms into two markets, the LGA 1366 and LGA1160 which means more motherboards to buy and less backwards compatibility.

There are actually two new processors AMD is launching today, the Phenom II X4 955 and 945, both Socket AM3 processors with 125W TDP rating with the 955 running at 3.2GHz and the 945 at 3GHz. The 955 is 200MHz higher clock than AMD's previous best, the 940, and both run at a HyperTransport bus speed of 2GHz. The 940 ran at 1.8GHz. The chips feature 64KB of L1 cache per core, 512KB of L2, and 6MB shared L3 cache on top. As with all Phenom II's it is built on AMD's 45nm DSL SOI process which seems to be maturing to release a 3.2GHz processor

So not much is new other than Socket AM3 processor being AMD's best now. More so what's interesting is the software AMD has to go with Phenom, AMD Overdrive 3.0 beta should be out with this processor or if not on the way soon. It allows for custom profiles for say focusing on overclocking two cores for programs that only use two cores and lowering the other two cores to save power and maximize those cores. There are a number of built-in profiles and you can also add your own. We didn't get a chance to test this but we did lower the third and fourth core as low as possible to see if it effected our max overclock of a single or dual core which unfortunately it did not. To skip ahead a bit, 4GHZ is where we topped out, four cores or one core.

AMD also have updated AMD Overdrive with what they call Black Edition memory profiles for DDR3 memory.This will verify your RAM against an online database and adjust it for the maximum values. Pretty cool, right? Unfortunately the only Socket AM3 board we had in house wasn't quite stable with the 955 so this is another feature we'll have to look at later on. It is good to see AMD focus on the enthusiast and we recommend all owners of AMD CPUs check out Overdrive as it is great software.

Since not much is new let's move onto the technical specifications.



NEW Phenom™ II X4 Processor Specifications:
Model Number & Core Frequency: X4 955 Black Edition = 3.2GHz
Model Number & Core Frequency: X4 945 = 3.0GHz
X4 955 Black Edition OPN: TRAY OPN# HDZ955FBK4DGI
X4 955 Black Edition OPN: PIB OPN# HDZ955FBGIBOX
X4 945 OPN: TRAY OPN# HDX945FBK4DGI
X4 945 OPN: PIB OPN# HDX945FBGIBOX
L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor)

L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor)
L3 Cache Size: 6MB (shared)
Total Cache (L2+L3): 8MB
Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *
Memory Controller Speed: Up to 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
Types of Memory Supported: Unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz)

HyperTransport 3.0 Specification: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth: Up to 37.3GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 21.3 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR3-1333) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Up to 33.1GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]

Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
Fab location: GLOBALFOUNDARIES Fab 1 module 1 in Dresden, Germany (formerly AMD Fab 36)

Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
Approximate Die Size: 258 mm2
Approximate Transistor count: ~ 758 million
Max Temp: 62o Celsius
Nominal Voltage: 0.875-1.5V
Max TDP: 125 Watts

*Notes:
Black Edition processors support software-selectable increases to memory controller, HyperTransport, DDR3 and CPU core frequency

MC configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes
For DDR3-1333, AMD Phenom II supports 1-DIMM-per-channel @ 1333MHz

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our AMD test system.

Mother Board	Asus M3A78-T
Memory	Corsair XMS 6GB
Hard Drive	Western Digital SE 16 750GB
Case	Tsunami Thermaltake
Display	Samsung SyncMaster 30"
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon HD 4850

Here is our Intel test system for Penryn.

Mother Board	Asus Striker II Formula
Memory	Corsair XMS 6GB
Hard Drive	Western Digital SE 16 750GB
Case	Tsunami Thermaltake
Display	Samsung SyncMaster 30"
ATI Radeon HD 4850	ATI Radeon HD 4850

And our Core i7 system.

Mother Board	Asus P6T
Memory	Crucial 6GB DDR3
Hard Drive	Western Digital SE 16 750GB
Case	Tsunami Thermaltake
Display	Samsung SyncMaster 30"
ATI Radeon HD 4850	ATI Radeon HD 4850

 

 

Our test OS was Windows Vista 64-bit SP1. ATI Catalyst drivers were the latest from AMD at version 9.4. V-sync was disabled for all benchmarks as well as C1E and Cool 'n Quiet.

 

 

We'll start with UT3 which is the most popular graphics engine on the market and supports four cores. The Phenom 995 shows pretty much where we expect it improvement over the 940.

 

 

Crysis only supports two cores and as such the Phenom II 720 beats the Phenom II 810 in addition to the Q8200. Core i7 also sees no real boost with the Phenom II 955 basically performing exactly the same as the more expensive platform.

 

 

3DMark Vantage is dominated by the i7 but this is a synthetic score. The Phenom II also blows away the Penryn Intel quad core.

 

 

 

We decoded an 11 minute deleted scene from a DVD into QuickTime format for playing on iPods. The Phenom 955 gets about a good extra 20 seconds from the 940.

 

 

Valve particle benchmark tests how well processors handle rendering tons of particles on screen with multiple processors. The Phenom 955 again does about 10% better.

 

Valve Map creation renders a Valve map again we see similar performance from our other general performance benchmarks.

 

World in Conflict is a popular real-time strategy game with an intense engine. The 955 blows out the 940 here and Penryn.

 

Cinebench also uses all four cores and we see results that reflect that in our benchmarking.

 

 

Similar pattern in 3D rendering with Pov-RAY.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AMD has improved on their 45nm process to release 3.2GHz part at retail and it shows in our overclocking, hitting 4GHz with 1.55v. We wouldn't say this was 100% stable but 3.9GHz was much more so. For comparison, the 940 hit 3.9GHz top on high-end air.

 

	Idle	Load
Phenom II X4 955	107W	182W
Phenom II X4 940	104W	180W
Phenom 9950	122W	195W

Conclusion:

Phenom II continues to get better and faster and the Phenom 955 and 945 are great additions to the AMD lineup. When it comes to rendering and tasks that can take advantage of Hyperthreading, AMD has a tougher time but when it comes to game and tasks for most people, AMD offers much more value in a much less expensive but robust platform full of options and tweaking for enthusiasts such as unlocked multiplier at a low entry price and AMD Overdrive software. Phenom was tough to recommend, Phenom II has none of these issues and with the 940 chip showing up at under $170 at a number of e-tailers lately that's a steal. Great job with Phenom, and we can't wait to see how the six core Opteron CPUs work out.

Pricing:

You can get the Phenom X4 810 for $185 and we don't see any X3 720 CPUs out yet but we're sure they'll turn up soon.

Score: 96%

 

 

 

As you might have read AMD had planned to launch AM3 versions of Phenom II processors not long after the Socket AM2+ version was launched last month. Well today they have done just that launching the Phenom II X4 810 and the triple core Phenom II X3 720 as well as three other processors.

The processors being released at retail are the Phenom II X4 810 at $175, Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition at $145, Phenom II X3 710 at $125 all in one thousand units and the X4 910 and 805 available for tray only.
 

If you weren't already in the know these new Socket AM3 processors are also Socket AM2+ backwards compatible and should work in a number of Socket AM2+ motherboards with a BIOS update with no need for DDR3. That said though vendors are also going to start putting out Socket AM3 motherboards for use with DDR3 though we won't be testing that today. This should be great for current Socket AM2+ owners or those who simply don't want to pay more for DDR3 memory but allowing them to transistion to DDR3 if prices do start to come down. This is the only thing these processors bring from the previously released Phenom II processors.

The X4 810 ships at 2.6GHz and features 4MB of L3 cache which is down from 6MB L3 of the X4 940 Phenom II. The X3 720 BE does feature 6MB of L3, however, and runs at 2.8GHz The X3 710 also runs at 2.6GHz with 6MB of L3, the X4 910 at 2.6GHz with 6MB of L3, and the X4 805 at 2.5GHz with 4MB of L3. All are of course 45nm and feature the many enhancements of the Phenom II architecture. Here's the AM3 processor specs from AMD:

Common AM3 Processor Specifications: (for CPUs launching Feb. 9th)

L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor)

L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor for X4s / 1.5MB total L2 per processor for X3s)

L3 Cache Size: 4MB or 6MB (shared)… See above

Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *

Memory Controller Speed: Up to 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management (all current AM3 processors)

Types of Memory Supported: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3 (DDR3-1333MHz)**

HyperTransport 3.0 Link: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)

Total Processor Bandwidth: Up to 33.1 GB/s total bandwidth

Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)

Fab location: Fab 36 wafer fabrication facilities in Dresden, Germany

Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology

Approximate Transistor count: ~ 758 million (45nm)

Approximate Die Size: 258 mm2 (45nm)

Max Ambient Case Temp / X4 CPUs: 71o Celsius

Max Ambient Case Temp / X3 CPUs: 73o Celsius

Nominal Voltage: See above

Max TDP: 95 Watts (all current AM3 processors)


*Note: MC configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes

**Note: for DDR3-1333, AM3 boards will support 1-DIMM-per-channel @ 1333MHz

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our AMD test system.

Mother Board	Asus M3A78-T
Memory	Corsair XMS 6GB
Hard Drive	Western Digital SE 16 750GB
Case	Tsunami Thermaltake
Display	Samsung SyncMaster 30"
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon HD 4850

Here is our Intel test system.

Mother Board	Asus Striker II Formula
Memory	Corsair XMS 6GB
Hard Drive	Western Digital SE 16 750GB
Case	Tsunami Thermaltake
Display	Samsung SyncMaster 30"
ATI Radeon HD 4850	ATI Radeon HD 4850

 

Our test OS was Windows Vista 64-bit SP1. ATI Catalyst drivers were the latest from AMD an updated version of 8.12 not currently on their site. V-sync was disabled for all benchmarks as well as C1E and Cool 'n Quiet.

 

 

And we're off. We'll start with Unreal Tournament 3 which supports 4 processors but is also heavily based on XBox 360 architecture which uses 3 CPUs. As you can see you do lose some fps with the triple core Phenom II 720 although it has more cache and is clocked at a higher frequency than the X4 810. The 810 also easily outclasses Intel's Penryn based Q8200 quad core.

 

 

 

Crysis only supports two cores and as such the Phenom II 720 beats the Phenom II 810 in addition to the Q8200. Quad core support in games has become increasingly more common but still many games do not benefit at all from it. The 3GHz 940 still tops all others.

 

 

3DMark Vantage is a synthetic benchmark but this CPU score result should give you a general idea of how these processors can perform. The X4 810 out does the X3 720 again as well as sliding in above the Intel Q8200.

 

 

 

We decoded an 11 minute deleted scene from a DVD into QuickTime format for playing on iPods. None of them took too long to transcode and fall basically where we'd expect.

 

 

Valve particle benchmark tests how well processors handle rendering tons of particles on screen with multiple processors. Intel seems to do well in this benchmark usually but here the 810 comes in above the Intel Q8200. The Phenom I based triple core, the 8750, is far behind the Phenom II based 720.

 

Valve Map creation renders a Valve map again we see similar performance from our other general performance benchmarks.

World in Conflict is a popular real-time strategy game with an intense engine. The only CPU really lagging is the older Phenom 8750 but the Phenom II 720 does outdo the lower clockspeed, but more cores Intel Q8200.

 

Cinebench also uses all four cores and we see results that reflect that in our benchmarking.

 

 

The Phenom II 810 again beats the Q8200 in Pov-RAY 3.7. We wish this was a Black Edition processor to allow for easy overclocking but it's still a good deal for the price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Phenom II X4 810 is not a Black Edition processor and thus we can't adjust the multiplier to overclock it. We racked up the HyperTransport bus as far as it would go and overclocked the CPU to 3.2GHz or a 600MHz improvement while maintaining stability. Pretty much nothing else would make it go farther, increasing the voltage of the CPU or the chpset. We probably could have gone higher if we could adjust the multiplier.

 

The Phenom II X3 720 is a BE processor and thus was much easier to overclock. We topped out at basically the same level we did our Phenom II X4 940 at 3.8GHz stable. Throwing more voltage at it to try and get it to post past 3.8GHz did not help as we could never get into Windows with a stable overclock. A 1GHz overclock is great though and something in the past we'd be more likely to see from Intel than AMD so kudos to them.

	Idle	Load
Phenom II X3 720 BE	109W	165W
Phenom II X4 810	112W	174W
Phenom X3 8750	120W	195W

With the shift to 45nm production and improvements in Cool 'n Quiet AMD has also shaved off from the power requirements of the original Phenom. All of these are rated for a max 95W TDP.

Conclusion:

Some say AMD might have abandoned Socket 939 a little early but we don't think the same case can be made at all for Socket AM2 which is now almost 3 years old but still features the newest 45nm technology which supports DDR3 and will at least physically work in those boards and those with an updated BIOS one should have no problems at all with AM3.

Phenom II has shown tremendous improvement over Phenom I and finally makes AMD is competitive again if unable to top Intel they do have great processors at excellent values with the X4 810 topping Intel's Q8200 and the X3 720 BE being a great overclocker and going up against Intel's dual cores. With many AM2 boards also being quite cheap there's no reason not to buy AMD. We hope to follow-up in the future with DDR3 tests to see how much a boost one might gain but we don't expect more than  few percentage points and for most it won't be worth the cost to go to DDR3 but if you're starting fresh it's nice to have that option.

Pricing:

You can get the Phenom X4 810 for $185 and we don't see any X3 720 CPUs out yet but we're sure they'll turn up soon.

Score: 97%