AMD Phenom II X3 720 and Phenom II X4 810 Processors
AMD is announcing five new Socket AM3 processors that many enthusiasts have been waiting many months to launch. These processors are based off the same 45nm 'Deneb' core that the previous Phenom II processors use, but with a few tweaks and a new memory controller. This new memory controller allows the processor to run both DDR2 and DDR3 memory kits, which is good news for AMD as up to a 5% performance boost can be seen when running DDR3 memory on Phenom II processors.
One thing about the launch of the AMD Socket AM3 processors that seemed a bit strange was the lack of a flagship part. It is a shock that AMD didn't pull out an AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition running 3.4GHz or something like that as they have touted how well the new Phenom II cores scale when overclocked. Since Intel has the performance front won with the Core i7 Series why not launch something on the top to make the battle a little more interesting? Our guess is that AMD wants to hit the mainstream market with parts that people can afford. It might not sound like good news to enthusiasts, but the mainstream market is where the vast majority of the chips sell. In this economy you have to keep the parts moving and that looks like what AMD is doing with the launch of these five new processors.
Yeah I'm shocked that they didn't have one as well... I hit on that in the conclusion, but still shocked.
Also I updated the overclocking section this morning as I couldn't sleep even though I tried to hit the sack at 3am. I have been able to reach 3.84GHz now, so I'm happy with the overclock on air.
There is an AMD Phenom II X4 945 in the works, it launches in April I believe. Chances are this will also be a ~$300 Black Edition running 3GHz. Supposedly AMD was having trouble with their DDR3 memory controller or so the rumor goes. I've already seen some 5.9GHz shots of an AM3 chip running on LN2 with DDR3-1720CL6 so it sounds like the memory controller is working fine now. Just two months until we get to really have some fun
Gomeler wrote:There is an AMD Phenom II X4 945 in the works, it launches in April I believe. Chances are this will also be a ~$300 Black Edition running 3GHz. Supposedly AMD was having trouble with their DDR3 memory controller or so the rumor goes. I've already seen some 5.9GHz shots of an AM3 chip running on LN2 with DDR3-1720CL6 so it sounds like the memory controller is working fine now. Just two months until we get to really have some fun
Well, I've been waiting many moons for these AM3s to come out, what's a few more... Besides I'm sure my night school classes grades will benefit from these chips coming out later rather than sooner...
Apoptosis wrote:Yeah I'm shocked that they didn't have one as well... I hit on that in the conclusion, but still shocked.
Also I updated the overclocking section this morning as I couldn't sleep even though I tried to hit the sack at 3am. I have been able to reach 3.84GHz now, so I'm happy with the overclock on air.
Wow, not bad. It's nice to see AMD keeping up a good fight.
This kind of reminds me of ATI 38XX video cards. They came out and not bad but not the best. Then the 4 series cards came out and brought the heat. I'm guessing that AMD's next CPU is going to bring the performance level up to Intel’s.
geokilla wrote:3.84Ghz. Seems that no one can hit that 6Ghz that AMD advertised so much before Phenom II was released.
I thought AMD said ~4 GHZ on air, ~6 GHz on LN2.
X3 780 BE looks pretty nice though. Power consumption isn't too shabby either versus older AMD processors, though it must improve to compete against Intel!
geokilla wrote:Why oh why am I getting the itch to build an AMD HTPC when the economy is doing so bad?!
3.84Ghz. Seems that no one can hit that 6Ghz that AMD advertised so much before Phenom II was released.
There have already been a few 6GHz chips. 3.8GHz to 4GHz is the typical wall on ambient cooling, single-stages(-35C) will net you 4300MHz to 4400MHz, dry-ice(-78C) will net you 4.8-5.1GHz, and LN2(-196C) will pull in 5.6GHZ-6.1+GHz. As always it depends on the chip but this seems to be the typical scaling. Deneb scales with cold incredibly well, it's a drastic departure from Intel's 45nm chips where they could achieve 90% of their frequency on a single-stage.
I'm hoping that after another month or two of manufacturing refinements that they will come out with a black edition that if it doesn't take the performance crown back as least come close.
AMD 960T OC'ed to 4gz
ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970
2 X G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000)(16gb)
EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-2682-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16