| Phenom II X2 550 & Athlon II X2 250 |
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| Written by Jeff_Tom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 01 June 2009 22:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
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.
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%
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