Legit Processor Reviews

AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.9GHz Quad Core Processor Review

Manufacturer: AMD
Product: AMD Athlon II X4 635
Date: Wed, Feb 03, 2010 - 12:00 AM
Written By: Dan Stoltz -
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The AMD Athlon II X4 635

AMD Athlon II X4 635 processor

The AMD Athlon II X4 635 is the latest and greatest quad-core Athlon II processor to be released. The AMD Athlon II X4 635 comes priced at a low price of $125.99 plus shipping. Based on the Propus Die, the Athlon II X4 635 has a clock speed of 2.9GHz with a 2000MHz HT link and memory support for both DDR2 and DDR3. The chips overall clock frequency is just 100MHz faster than the AMD Athlon II X4 630, which costs $108.99 plus shipping. For an extra ~$20 you get another 100MHz speed bump, which might make some of you yawn, but at least AMD is headed in the right direction. Both the AMD Athlon II X4 630 and 635 processors are great quad-core CPUs that are ideal for someone looking for the threaded performance that only a quad-core processor can offer.

AMD Athlon II X4 635 CPUz

Taking a closer look at the AMD Athlon II X4 635 we can see some of the particulars. With a bus speed of 200MHz a multiplier of x14.5 is needed to achieve the rated speed of 2.9GHz at a rated voltage of .85-1.25. The Athlon II X4 635 a total L2 cache of 2MB which it shares in common with the Phenom II processors, but is missing the L3 cache of the Phenom II's. Featuring a 95W TDP means that the Athlon II X4 635 has the same power rating as a triple-core Phenom II processor. The Athlon X4 635 is not a Black Edition processor which means the multiplier is locked. The only way we are going to be able to do any overclocking is to raise the FSB. We will get back to that later in the article.

AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus Die

The Athlon II series is on the lower end of AMD's price spectrum. AMD is able to keep the price down on the Athlon II series for several reasons. The lack of any L3 Cache on the Propus Die is one of the reasons the Athlon II's can maintain the low price point. The smaller die of Propus means that it will be less expensive to manufacture and allows AMD to hit aggressive price points for quad core processors.  Built from the ground up the Propus Die measures 169mm's and is manufactured by GLOBALFOUNDARIES at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany using the 45nm DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) process that all the other higher-end Phenom II processors use.

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 $179
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE 4 3.2GHz 2+6MB 4000MHz AM3 125W $165
AMD Phenom II X4 945 4 3.0GHz 2+6MB 4000MHz AM3 125W $159
AMD Phenom II X4 925 4 2.8GHz 2+6MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $139
AMD Phenom II X4 910e 4 2.6GHz  2+6MB  4000MHz AM3 65W $169
AMD Phenom II X4 905e 4 2.5GHz 2+6MB 4000MHz AM3 65W $175
AMD Phenom II X4 810 4 2.6GHz 2+4MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $139
AMD Phenom II X3 720BE 3 2.8GHz 1.5+6MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $104
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 $119
AMD Phenom II X2 555 2 3.2GHz   1+6MB 4000MHz AM3 80W $99
AMD Phenom II X2 550 2 3.1GHz 1+6MB 4000MHz AM3 80W $91
AMD Athlon II X4 635 4 2.9GHz 2MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $120
AMD Athlon II X4 630 4 2.8GHz 2MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $102
AMD Athlon II X4 620 4 2.6GHz 2MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $99
AMD Athlon II X3 440 3 3.0GHz 1.5MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $84
AMD Athlon II X3 435 3 2.9GHz 1.5MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $75
AMD Athlon II X3 425 3 2.7GHz 1.5MB 4000MHz AM3 95W $72
AMD Athlon II X2 255 2 3.1GHz 2MB 4000MHz AM3  65W $75
AMD Athlon II X2 250 2 3.0GHz 2MB 4000MHz AM3 65W $65
AMD Athlon II X2 245 2 2.9GHz 2MB 4000MHz AM3 65W $61
AMD Athlon II X2 240 2 2.8GHz 2MB 4000MHz AM3 65W $53

The AMD Phenom II and Athlon II product stack is strong as usual with prices starting out at just $53 for the AMD Athlon II X2 240 and rising up to $189 for the Phenom II X4 965 BE. The AMD Athlon II X4 635 comes at $119, which means that it is only $25.00 less than a Phenom II X4.  When an Athlon II X4 processor is combined with a sub-$100 motherboard featuring the AMD 785G chipset, you can clearly see that AMD has a great platform at a very solid price point.

Next Page - The Test System


Review Index
Page 1 - The AMD Athlon II X4 635
Page 2 - The Test System
Page 3 - Sandra 2010 Memory Bandwidth
Page 4 - PCMark Vantage
Page 5 - 3DMark Vantage
Page 6 - POV-Ray
Page 7 - Photodex Proshow 4.0
Page 8 - Cinebench 10
Page 9 - World in Conflict
Page 10 - Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Page 11 - Overclocking the AMD Athlon II X4 635
Page 12 - Power Consumption
Page 13 - Final Thoughts and Conclusion