AMD's Phenom II at 6.5GHz, smash 3DMark record

A team of hardcore speed freaks with access to liquid nitrogen and liquid helium created an environment for OC'ing one of AMD's latest Phenom II X4 chips in -232 degrees Celsius weather. Once the silicon was appropriately chilled, they proceeded to push the clock speed to a staggering 6.5GHz, which proved nimble enough to deliver a patently absurd 45,474 3DMark05 score.The adoring public was there to bear witness, and every nail-biting second of it is hosted up in the video just past the break.

AMD's Phenom II at 6.5GHz, smash 3DMark record

via:engadget.com

Dual-core Phenom pops up again

Much (digital) ink has run on the subject of dual-core Phenom derivatives. Rumor sites initially expected such chips to launch quad-core Phenoms last year, but we later heard that AMD had shelved the concept until the 45nm switch. Then, 65nm dual-core Phenom listings somehow made their way onto a price search engine in Europe, and unofficial benchmarks of a 2.2GHz model surfaced. We still haven't heard a peep from AMD on the subject, though.

Expreview now claims to have the latest scoop. The Chinese site says AMD may have given up on the 2.3GHz chip we heard about last month, but the chipmaker's October roadmap includes two new dual-core Phenom derivatives. Branded Athlon X2 7550 and Athlon X2 7750, the two CPUs have respective clock speeds of 2.5GHz and 2.7GHz, which they each pair with 3MB of total cache—likely 512KB of the L2 variety per core and 2MB of shared L3 cache per chip.The roadmap reportedly pegs the arrival of these CPUs in the first quarter of next year. However, Expreview says AMD will manufacture them using 65nm process technology, and both models will have 95W thermal envelopes. This claim sounds a tad implausible, although AMD has made some strange moves in the past.

AMD slashes prices on triple-core Phenom X3 processors

AMD may have some new dual-core Phenom processors around the corner, but it looks like those wanting to build an AMD rig on the cheap don't have to wait until then, as the company has just slashed the price on its triple-core Phenom X3 processors, a move that follows some similar price cuts just a few weeks ago. As of now, you can get an X3 8450 for $104 (down from $125 in July), an X3 8650 for $119 (down from $145), an X3 8750 for $129 (down from $175), or even an X3 8750 Black Edition with overclocking support for just $134. As TG Daily points out, that pits the processors up against the low-end of Intel's Core 2 Duo offerings, which certainly makes 'em an attractive option for those looking to get the most bang for the buck.

A quick look at Intel’s price sheet reveals that AMD decided to price its X3 processors at the very low-end of Intel’s Core 2 Duo range. The 8450 is priced right between Intel’s budget 45 nm dual-core E5200 ($84) and the regular Core 2 Dup lineup, which begins at $113. AMD’s X2 dual-core CPUs are priced between $66 for the 5000+ version and $92 for the 6000+ model.

There is no doubt that AMD’s triple-cores are bargains in today’s PC market. According to Hot Hardware, a 2.4 GHz X3 8750 is outperformed by a Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0 GHz by just 6%. However, the X3 sells for $129, while the E6850 runs for $183, according to Intel’s latest processor price sheet.

Dual core Phenoms could be around the corner

This time a few different sources report the chipmaker's given its channel partners the high sign indicating "Kuma" dual-core Phenom-based processors will finally see the light of day. For those too shy to indulge in triple- or even quad-core action, El Reg says Phenom X2 dual core chips will range from 2.3GHz to 1.90 Ghz, sporting 1MB L2 cache and 2MB L3 cache for. Freaky 3-core overclockers can look forward to new, better performing 2.4Ghz Black Edition Phenom 8750s, and more efficient 125-watt Phenom 9950 CPUs, if we can trust leaked German sales charts -- and we always do, don't you?

Here are the specs:

AMD Phenom X2 GE-6600: 2.30GHz, 1MB L2 cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 cache

Phenom X2 GE-6500: 2.1GHz, 1MB L2 cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 cache

Phenom X2 GE-6400: 1.90GHz, 1MB L2 cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 cache

As covered earlier, the chips will be fabbed at 65nm and join the tri-core Phenom X3 and quad-core Phenom X4.

Of course, the details should still be taken with a grain of salt at this point. AMD has previously denied canceling Kuma, and as usual, when we contacted the company, it refused to comment on unannounced silicon.

"We are, of course, planning additional CPU releases later this year, but I can't get into the specific details on those releases ahead of launch," an AMD spokesman said
theregister

AMD launches ‘business class’ Phenom, Athlon chips

AMD on Monday announced “business class” versions of its Phenom and Athlon processors for the commercial markets. The big pitch: PC manufacturers will maintain AMD’s business class systems for 24 months to ensure that systems aren’t phased out before they are deployed.

The chipmaker (all AMD resources) is angling to differentiate itself from Intel in the commercial markets and says that stability of platform is important to public sector purchases as well as enterprises.

Hal Speed, AMD’s marketing architect, said that ensuring longevity of supply is critical for desktop deployments because sometimes the life of the PC cycle can undercut the time to deploy them. Speed also noted that AMD upped its warranty from one year to three years for its business class systems. “We were looking to remove complexity,” said Speed. “IT departments don’t like change.”

AMD is looking to assure corporate buyers that its systems will have some longevity to accommodate longer PC buying cycles. Since these systems have up to a 24 month lifecycle companies won’t have to change disk images of their desktops.

Among other components of AMD’s business class effort:

• Phenom X3 triple-core and X4 quad-core processors are featured as well as X2 dual-core processors.
• OEMs can choose AMD 780V chipsets, ATI Radeon HD 3000 graphics or non-AMD graphics and chipsets.
• AMD is introducing five new motherboards for system builders that will have at least 18 months longevity.
• Business class commercial notebooks will be available in the second half.

As for OEM support, HP will have its HP Compaq dc5850 Business PC available Monday. Dell will use AMD’s business class chips in its Optiplex 740 systems and Lenovo and Fujitsu are also on board.

It’s unclear whether this business class effort will make a difference. For instance, if you were initiating a PC upgrade cycle today AMD’s 24 months of stability would be a selling point. However, there are diminishing returns after a year.

source:http://blogs.zdnet.com/

AMD introduces bug-fix three-core Phenoms

AMD has rolled out a trio of tri-core processors, all revised versions of the Phenom X3 CPUs it introduced last month.

The new line-up comprises the 2.4GHz 8750, the 2.3GHz 8650 and the 2.1GHz 8450. They're priced at $195, $165 and $145, respectively.

All three contain 'B3' cores, an improved version of the 'B2' X3s released to PC makers less than a month ago. At the time, AMD provided benchmark numbers that indicated a small but significant performance boost over the B2 models.

For example, the 8650 yielded numbers up nine per cent on those produced by the 8600, despite identical specs beyond the core stepping.

AMD insisted the older core was "perfectly fine". But not so fine that the 8400, 8600 and 8700 haven't been kept on the chip maker's official price list. All three have been dropped to make room for the new versions.

AMD also introduced two low-power, 45W Athlon X2 chips, the 4450e and the 4050e, clocked at 2.3GHz and 2.1GHz, respectively.

AMD's Phenom X3 processors Review

Good things often come in powers of two, especially in computers. Two, four, eight, or sixteen copies of a common resource—rendering pipelines, megabytes of memory, processors, what have you—are instantly recognizable quantities that will most assuredly lead to additional goodness.

But three? Not so much.

Oh, sure, you have the odd exceptions, like a three-disk RAID 5 array or three-way SLI, but these are exceptions, and they are quite literally odd. Even less common is the case of three CPUs. I've been racking my brains for a few days trying to come up with past examples of three-way multiprocessor configurations in PC history, and I've been coming up blank. Now that I've said that, some old-timer will post in the comments about the Univac EP-3333, to which he fed punch cards back in the day. Bully for you, Methuselah, but my point remains: triple-processor configurations are exceptionally rare in the PC world.

They are, however, about to get a whole heckuva lot more common thanks to AMD's new triple-core Phenom X3 processors. These are essentially just quad-core chips with one core disabled, sacrificed for the cause of product segmentation. Can't you just hear millions of tiny transistors screaming out in pain and then going silent? The core-botomy has happy side-effects, though, not least of which is extending the Phenom lineup to under 150 bucks.

The advent of these triple-core specimens raises some intriguing questions. Can AMD gain ground on Intel's very potent dual-core CPUs by disabling a core and slashing its prices? Will the Phenom's relatively low per-core performance be offset by the presence of a third core? What's the right tradeoff here? We've taken these questions as an excuse to run way too many benchmarks on the new Phenom X3 chips. Then we made up some answers. Keep reading to see what we found.

read full article:techreport

AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition review

Although the release of the AMD Phenom processor series took place back in November of last year, roughly four months ago now, the highly touted quad-core processor has received limited action so far in the computer world and a lot of negative press coverage for reasons we have documented well enough during all this time.

In our hands-on experience with the first wave of Phenoms, we didn't think the situation was as dire as many made it out to be. But regardless, it was a combination of a poor product launch with corporate financial trouble that raised the company to the spotlight.

In terms of performance, AMD has stated that the new B3 processors will be no faster than the original Phenom X4 CPUs without the TLB erratum fix enabled on a clock-for-clock basis. Therefore the Phenom X4 9600 and the new Phenom X4 9650, for example, should be no different in terms of performance. Just as well that should mean that today’s flagship Phenom, the X4 9850, should sit somewhere between the Phenom 9700 and 9900 processors that we reviewed earlier this year.

It will be interesting to see how the 9850 stacks up against the rest of the Phenom family and of course, Intel's Q6600.

View: AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition review @ TechSpot