Legit Processor Reviews
AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition Processor Review
| Manufacturer: | AMD |
| Product: | HDZ965FBGIBOX |
| Date: | Wed, Aug 12, 2009 - 11:00 PM |
| Written By: | Nathan Kirsch - |
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Final Thoughts and Conclusions
The AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Processor is a nice addition to their desktop lineup. The fact that the price is the same as the Phenom II X4 955 processor that came out just three months ago might upset a few people, but for the rest of the consumers it means that the prices on all the other processors just went down. AMD has a very impressive processor lineup and if the promised 'bundle discounts' arrive the prices will be just that much sweeter.
| CPU Name | Cores | Clock | L2/L3 Cache | HT Bus | Socket | TDP | Price |
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | 4 | 3.4GHz | 2+6MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 140W | $245 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE | 4 | 3.2GHz | 2+6MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 125W | $210 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 945 | 4 | 3.0GHz | 2+6MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 125W | $187 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 940 | 4 | 3.0GHz | 2+6MB | 3600MHz | AM2+ | 125W | $196 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 920 | 4 | 2.8GHz | 2+6MB | 3600MHz | AM2+ | 125W | $160 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 905e | 4 | 2.5GHz | 2+6MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 65W | $201 |
| AMD Phenom II X4 810 | 4 | 2.6GHz | 2+4MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 95W | $181 |
| AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE | 3 | 2.8GHz | 1.5+6MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 95W | $130 |
| AMD Phenom II X3 710 | 3 | 2.6GHz | 1.5+6MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 95W | $99 |
| AMD Phenom II X3 705e | 3 | 2.5GHz | 1.5+6MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 65W | $130 |
| AMD Phenom II X2 550 | 2 | 3.1GHz | 1+6MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 80W | $103 |
| AMD Athlon II X2 250 | 2 | 3.0GHz | 2MB | 4000MHz | AM3 | 65W | $76 |
Overall performance of the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Processor was strong, but not a shell shocker by any means. The extra 200MHz speed bump is nice, but it's not enough horsepower to catch up to the Intel Core i7 series by any means. It is enough speed to compete with nearly all of the Intel Core 2 Quad processors as they traded leads in many of the benchmarks. With that extra speed does come one downside and that is higher power consumption and CPU temperatures. Most of the Socket AM2+ and AM3 motherboards on the market are rated to handle 140W TDP processors, but make sure the mainboard you are planning to use does support a 140W TDP part.
The Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition was a much needed part for AMD and once again puts them a little closer to Intel. This is also the first time AMD has released a desktop 3.4GHz processor, so hats off to them on getting the clock frequencies up there. AMD might have one speed bump left in the Phenom II processor series, but then they better roll out the six core processors like they did with the 'Istanbul' Opteron server processor a couple months back. If we had to guess, that would be early next year and a possible CES launch wouldn't be too far fetched.
Legit Bottom Line: The AMD Athlon II X4 965 Black Edition is the fastest desktop processor that we have ever seen from AMD. It runs a little warm and gobbles down the power, but it also overclocks better than any other Phenom II processor that we have had the pleasure to use.
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Page 1 - AMD's New Speed Demon - Phenom II 965
Page 2 - Phenom II X4 965 Specifications Page 3 - The Test System Page 4 - Sandra 2009 Memory Bandwidth Page 5 - Photodex ProShow Gold 3.2 Page 6 - Microsoft Excel 2007 Page 7 - Cinebench R10 Page 8 - POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 25 Page 9 - POV-Ray Real-Time Raytracing Page 10 - Futuremark 3DMark06 Page 11 - World in Conflict Page 12 - Crysis Warhead Page 13 - Power Consumption Page 14 - Overclocking Page 15 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions |
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