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AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor Review

When it comes to desktop processors the AMD Phenom series of processors hasn’t been too phenomenal, but that could all change today as AMD is launching the Phenom II series. Will this new processor usher in a new era of value and performance or leave consumers wanting more. Read on as we go in-depth on the Phenom II and compare it to the Intel Core i7 920 processor to see how each processor does in a battery of tests.

For the average consumer, Phenom II is a surprisingly efficient powerhouse and its power consumption numbers will only get better once all the power saving features are enabled in BIOS. It is also a relatively cheap platform, compared to Core i7. An off-the-cuff estimate, I'd say you pay 60% of the price for a Core i7 system and get 80% of the performance.

Article Title: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/860/1/
Pricing: $275

Just WOW, some of those numbers are outstanding for an AMD chip!

Yea, especially the power consumption!

Looks like consumers will win again. I usually lean toward Intel, but looks like AMD has a hot new chip on the scene and Intel will hurt some. Glad to see some decent competition back in terms of performance. I give A+ for effort and A- for product. Once AM3 is out, the playing field should even out more. Keep Intel on their toes AMD! Nice work.

I was hoping for a higher OC and Intel getting stomped at AMD stock speeds. I hope that they can with future versions of the chip beat the snot out of Intel.

DX wrote:I was hoping for a higher OC and Intel getting stomped at AMD stock speeds. I hope that they can with future versions of the chip beat the snot out of Intel.

Honestly, the last AMD processor I've touched was my Athlon 64 3200+ so I was running blind for a few days in regards to overclocking It was very important to get all the numbers in before I started bashing the chip with voltages so the overclocks shown in this article are what I'd consider the bottom level. I need to now do a separate review of the 790GX board that Gigabyte kindly sent to me and then I'll do my best to put up some nice OC numbers with Phenom II. Give me a week and if I'm lucky I won't kill anything while having something to show for it

The article was a good read.

This has given me hope in AMD once again. They may not be king of the hill, but they do have a worthy product now for great consideration. At this time, I'm running AMD X2s. Didn't want to jump into the quad since there were still outstanding issues. Now with this article and information, the move to this newer Phenom II holds merit light a green light to move up into.

Thanks for taking the time and exhaustive write up. It's not easy as it seems to compile so much information. Great work for you and great work for AMDs efforts getting things right.

Glad to hear somebody found the article useful. It was indeed exhaustive, have taken a 3 day break where all I did was binge on food and sleep since The jump from an AMD 64 X2 to a Phenom II X4 would be quite substantial and definitely worth the investment compared to the A64 X2 -> Phenom I X4 jump. These chips are the real deal, what Phenom should have been at launch a year ago.

When these chips shake up the price war between AMD and Intel, I may actually be able to upgrade to a 45nm quadcore!!!

It is definately a good read. I have seen the 940 chip up to 4ghz on air. Not sure how stable it was but it was stable enough for 2 runs on the crysys benchmark. Now I have to decide between building an I7 platform or the Phenom II platform.

I just recommended a i7 setup for gaming and kind of regretting it now. These numbers don't look to bad.

At CES they got a Phenom II 940 overclocked to 6.3 on LN2.

FeRaL wrote:At CES they got a Phenom II 940 overclocked to 6.3 on LN2.

Got a link or something to that info?

stev wrote:

FeRaL wrote:At CES they got a Phenom II 940 overclocked to 6.3 on LN2.

Got a link or something to that info?

Yeah I missed that one... I was in the AMD overclocking competition at the Tiger Direct PC Charity Race and hit 3.9GHz on air.

Most of the CES extreme overclocking with Phenom II was reported over at XtremeSystems.
Here is a link to the start of the posts regarding LHe + PHII overclocking : link
Specific post by SF3D with the 45,xxx 3DMark 05 run at 6.1GHz : link

pwcmed wrote:I just recommended a i7 setup for gaming and kind of regretting it now. These numbers don't look to bad.

With a budget, Phenom II is an overall win as you can spend less money on the CPU/mobo/memory and put more money into the GPU configuration. Without a budget, Core i7 is the ideal platform but not many people have no budget to worry about.

Gomeler wrote:

pwcmed wrote:I just recommended a i7 setup for gaming and kind of regretting it now. These numbers don't look to bad.

With a budget, Phenom II is an overall win as you can spend less money on the CPU/mobo/memory and put more money into the GPU configuration. Without a budget, Core i7 is the ideal platform but not many people have no budget to worry about.

So, with an economy now in the tank, a smart money buyer would end up going AMD Phemon II for a win-win solution right now.

Gomeler wrote:Most of the CES extreme overclocking with Phenom II was reported over at XtremeSystems.
Here is a link to the start of the posts regarding LHe + PHII overclocking : link
Specific post by SF3D with the 45,xxx 3DMark 05 run at 6.1GHz : link

This picture...
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,67273 ... w=original

Wow

i just met someone today who said he was hitting a hard FSB wall that also needed 1.5v to get to, not sure which Phenom II it was, but i assume they OC the same, he was at 3.5GHz i think

Not sure if the will oc the same. The 940 has an unlocked multiplier, the 920 doesn't