AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition

INTRODUCTION

We thought we saw the last of the K10 based processors from AMD with the release of the Phenom X6 1100T BE and the Phenom X4 970 BE, but we were wrong. While we probably will not see any new six-core Phemoms until Bulldozer arrives, AMD has bumped up the fastest quad core by 100MHz and put out the Phenom X4 980 BE. The Phenom X4 980 BE runs at 3.7 GHz and costs $185, and will replace the current flagship quad core Phenom II X4 970 BE. Besides the 100MHz speed bump, there are no other changes to the processor. The processor still fits the 125W TDP, with 6MB L3 and 2MB total L2. It is still based on the Deneb core so users will not get TurboCore support like the six-core Thuban based processor.

The new processor's pricing means that the processor will be in direct competition against the Intel Core i5 2500K. We have already seen the performance of the Sandy Bridge and with the Hyperthreading support, the Intel system would ended up faster in heavy threaded application. However, with 3.7 GHz running on all four cores, AMD wins in the raw clockspeed--the Core i5 tops at 3.3GHz when all four cores active. AMD also paves a better upgrade path as the processor will be compatible with AM2+ and AM3 boards. So, there is no need for a major upgrade for users who already own a recent AMD board.

Furthermore, motherboard manufacturers such as ASUS and GIGABYTE have announced that some of the current AM3 boards will be compatible with the upcoming AM3+ processor (Bulldozer). While we cannot know performance numbers or issues until we get our hands at the AM3+ processor, it does at least give some comfort to AMD users that they can run Bulldozer without having to buy a new board.