Today AMD announced speed bumps to nearly every processor in its desktop lineup. Everything from the dual-core Athlon II to the six-core Phenom II gets a new family member today. And they’re all very attractively priced.
Most of these new Phenom II (6 core, quad core) and Athlon II don’t come with any major changes and hence we can expect the same performance from them, if not more.
New AMD Phenom II X6 1090T (6 cores) is clocked at 3.2GHz with 9MB of cache and can be boosted with TurboCore to 3.7GHz. This chip will have thermal design power rating of 125W and would be available at for $245.
Quad-core Phenom II lineup gets new 970 Black Edition processor that is clocked at 3.5GHz and is priced for $185 . While the dual-core Phenom II X2 560 clocked at 3.30GHz with 7MB cache is price at $105.
On the other hand, Athlon II family of chips gets quad-core Athlon II X4 645 clocked 3.1GHz with 2MB cache and 95W TDP rating. This Athlon II family quad-core chip will cost $122 which is actually bit higher than the Phenom II X2 560 CPU clocked at 3.3GHz. See, this is where AMD tricks you to choose between pricing and performance.
Llano is slated for release near the end of Q2 next year. While it won’t be a big step forward in CPU performance, we should see a huge increase in integrated graphics performance.
AMD Phenom II, Athlon II New Price List
| Processor | Clock Speed | L2 Cache | L3 Cache | TDP | Price |
| AMD Phenom II X6 1090T BE | 3.2GHz | 3MB | 6MB | 125W | $295 |
| AMD Phenom II X6 1075T | 3.0GHz | 3MB | 6MB | 125W | $245 |
| AMD Phenom II X6 1055T | 2.8GHz | 3MB | 6MB | 125W | $199 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE | 3.5GHz | 2MB | 6MB | 125W | $185 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | 3.4GHz | 2MB | 6MB | 125W | $165 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE | 3.2GHz | 2MB | 6MB | 125W | $145 |
| AMD Phenom II X2 560 BE | 3.3GHz | 1MB | 6MB | 80W | $105 |
| AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE | 3.2GHz | 1MB | 6MB | 80W | $93 |
| AMD Athlon II X4 645 | 3.1GHz | 2MB | 0MB | 95W | $122 |
| AMD Athlon II X4 640 | 3.0GHz | 2MB | 0MB | 95W | $100 |
| AMD Athlon II X3 450 | 3.2GHz | 1.5MB | 0MB | 95W | $87 |
| AMD Athlon II X3 445 | 3.1GHz | 1.5MB | 0MB | 95W | $76 |
| AMD Athlon II X2 265 | 3.3GHz | 2MB | 0MB | 65W | $76 |
| AMD Athlon II X2 260 | 3.2GHz | 2MB | 0MB | 65W | $69 |
| AMD Athlon II X2 255 | 3.1GHz | 2MB | 0MB | 65W | $66 |
A Third Phenom II X6
The 1075T 3.0 Ghz, priced at $245, can turbo up to 3.5GHz if three or fewer cores are in use. You get a 6MB L3 and a 3MB L2 (512KB per core).
The Phenom II X6 1075T has no competitively priced answer from Intel. The Core i7 860 is priced at $284, while the Core i5 760 will set you back $205. The default clock speed of the 1075T should bring it close to the Core i5 760 in many tasks, while anything threaded will for sure favor the 1075T.
Intel’s cores get better performance per clock, but not that much better. Single threaded performance and power consumption are both better with the Core i5, but the rest all falls in AMD’s favor.
A 3.5GHz Quad-Core
The new Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition pushes quad-core clock speed to 3.5GHz. The 970 ships with all cache enabled, so that’s 6MB L3 and 2MB total L2.
At $185 the Phenom II X4 970 only has to compete with the Core i5 750 or a bunch of dual-core Clarkdale CPUs. Without Hyper Threading, the matchup can be close.
Single threaded performance is close as AMD has a huge clock speed advantage. AMD gets attractive for slightly lower price and better upgrade path as you’ll can stick a Phenom II X6 in the same Socket-AM3 motherboard.
There’s almost a solution for every budget, and its affordable. Will Intel now slash down prices to give AMD some competition?
Related: AMD unveils CPU GPU Fusion [Llano]
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