AMD 45nm Phenom II analysis and review

Based on the company's 45nm manufacturing process and brought to market a couple of months after the launch of the similar server part, Shanghai, AMD's Phenom II quad-core processors promise higher clock speeds, to better compete against Intel's Core 2 Quad CPUs.

Phenom II 920 and 940, released at clock-speeds of 2.8GHz and 3.0GHz, respectively, will be available to buy in a couple of weeks. We investigate whether the advancements over incumbent Phenom X4 are enough to make them serious contenders in the <£250 market.

Processors	Cores	Architecture	Process	Clock speed	L2 cache (total)	L3 cache	Memory-controller speed	Voltage	TDP	etailer pricing
AMD Phenom II 940 Black Edition	4	K10	45nm	3.0GHz	2MB	6MB	1.8GHz	0.875-1.5V	125W	£215
AMD Phenom II 920	4	K10	45nm	2.8GHz	2MB	6MB	1.8GHz	0.875-1.5V	125W	£175
AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition	4	K10	65nm	2.6GHz	2MB	2MB	2.0GHz	1.05-1.3V	125W	£140
AMD Phenom X4 9850 BE	4	K10	65nm	2.5GHz	2MB	2MB	2.0GHz	1.05-1.3V	125W	£130
AMD Phenom X4 9750	4	K10	65nm	2.4GHz	2MB	2MB	1.8GHz	1.1-1.3V	95W	£120
AMD Phenom X4 9650	4	K10	65nm	2.3GHz	2MB	2MB	1.8GHz	1.1-1.3V	95W	£112
AMD Phenom X4 9350e	4	K10	65nm	2.0GHz	2MB	2MB	1.8GHz	1.0-1.125V	65W	£110
AMD Phenom X3 8750	3	K10	65nm	2.4GHz	1.5MB	2MB	1.8GHz	1.05-1.25V	95W	£99
AMD Phenom X3 8650	3	K10	65nm	2.4GHz	1.5MB	2MB	1.8GHz	1.05-1.25V	95W	£82
AMD Phenom X3 8450	3	K10	65nm	2.1GHz	1.5MB	2MB	1.8GHz	1.2-1.3V	95W	£75
AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition	2	K10	65nm	2.7GHz	1MB	2MB	1.8GHz	1.2-1.25V	95W	£65?
AMD Athlon X2 7550	2	K10	65nm	2.5GHz	1MB	2MB	1.8GHz	1.2-1.25V	95W	£55?
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ BE	2	K8	65nm	3.2GHz	2MB	N/A	1GHz	1.35-1.4V	125W	£72
AMD Athlon X2 6000+	2	K8	65nm	3.1GHz	1MB	N/A	1GHz	1.1-1.4V	89W	£63