AMD Launches Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition, Fastest Phenom Yet
AMD Launches Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition, Fastest Phenom Yet
Posted 04/23/2009 at 6:00am
| by Paul Lilly
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(Image Credit: AMD)
AMD faithful and bargain hunters alike have a pair of new toys to play with starting today, as AMD launches two new processors for its socket AM3 platform, the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and 945. Both parts boast compatibility with AM2+ (DDR2) and AM3 (DDR3) motherboards, while the Phenom II X4 955 BE supplants the AM2-based 940 as AMD's new flagship entry in its Phenom line.
Coinciding with the launch, AMD has also overhauled its Dragon Platform Technology, saying "every aspect of the platform has been improved and the overall value is impressive." And we'd have to agree, considering both new chips are being priced below $250. Let's take a closer look at the whole kit-and-kaboodle.
Phenom II X4 945
Starting with the lower model number, AMD's Phenom II X4 945 might conjure up a sense of déjà vu when glancing at the spec sheet, and that's because it's essentially the same chip as AMD's Phenom II X4 940, only in AM3 trim. What this means is that the 945 also comes clocked at 3.0GHz and packed with 8MB of L2+L3 cache (4x512KB L2 cache per core + 6MB L3 cache), but unlike its predecessor, the 945 supports DDR3 memory when used with an AM3-based motherboard. For those not yet ready to upgrade their existing board and buy new RAM, the 945 also works with AM2+ mobos.
(Image Credit: AMD)
Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
Ranking as the more exciting release, at 3.2GHz AMD's Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition comes clocked faster than any other Phenom processor to date. And like the 945, the 955BE works with both AM2+ and AM3 motherboards, the latter of which brings support for DDR3-1333MHz memory. When paired with DDR3, AMD says to expect up to 37.3GB/s of total processor-to-system bandwidth, or up to 33.1GB/s when paired with DDR2-1066 memory and an AM2+ board.
No changes in cache separate the 955BE from the 945 or 940BE, but like all of AMD's Black Edition processors, the 955BE sports an unlocked multiplier, and AMD tells us its new chip "should demonstrate substancial overclocking headroom."
In part keeping with the company's aggressive pricing strategy, and out of necessity given the pressure being applied by Intel, the 955BE should see street pricing set to around $245. According to AMD, this makes the new chip a better buy than Intel's $270 Core 2 Quad Q9550, not only in price, but performance too, where a suddenly spunky AMD tells us the 955BE "definitively bests quad-cores within its price range."
(Image Credit: AMD)
Dragon Platform Receives New Wings
New processors aren't the only thing on tap over at AMD. The chip maker has given its Dragon Platform a face lift of sorts, which consists of the following combination of parts and technologies:
- Radeon HD 4890 graphics card
- AMD 700-series chipset-based motherboards
- AMD OverDrive 3.0 (new)
- Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor (new)
(Image Credit: AMD)
AMD's 955BE requires an updated BIOS to run properly, and so far, the company says a handful of motherboards are prepared for the release. These include:
AM3 / 790FX
- Asus M4A79T Deluxe
- MSI 790FX-GD70
- Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-UD5P
AM3 / 790GX
- Asus M4A78T-E
- MSI 790GX-G65
- Foxconn A7DA 3.0
AM2+ / 790FX
- Asus M3A79-T Deluxe
- DFI Lanparty DK 790FXB-M2RSH
AM2+ / 790GX
- Asus M3A78-T
- Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H
Kick into High Gear with AMD OverDrive 3.0 Software
Continuing its marketing blitz, AMD appears to be flying high over its new OverDrive 3.0 software. New to version 3.0 are AMD Smart Profiles, which gives end-users fine-tune control over the processor's individual cores on a per appliation basis. So say you fire up a game optimized for dual-core processors - with OverDrive, you can ramp up the clockspeed on the two cores that will be utilized, while clocking down the other two cores.
(Image Credit: AMD)
Also new to version 3.0 are Black Edition Memory Profiles (B.E.M.P.). Similar to Nvidia's EPP profiles and Intel's XMP profiles, expect to see memory makers release modules desiged specifically for AM3-based systems. When enabled, B.E.M.P. will set more aggressive frequency and latency settings based on pre-tuned memory profiles.
Other enhancements to include a customizable autoclock, better hardware monitoring support, and Windows 7 compatibility.
What Does it all Mean?
No doubt it's been a rocky couple of years for AMD, who fell from atop its perch as the performance leader to now struggling just to keep pace with Intel's last-gen silicon. The good news is AMD seems to finally be in a groove with its Phenom line, and this latest launch provides AMD with a DDR3 foundation to build upon, while also offering AM2+ motherboard owners a drop-in replacement without the need for new RAM. And at less than $250 for the CPU and several sub-$200 AM3 motherboards to choose from, the 955BE offers a compelling alternative to that Core i7 rig you may have been considering, at least on paper.
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ghot
April 27, 2009 at 10:38pm
....a decent motherboard with an nVidia chipset...made by Asus! Of course it would also have to have the memory and the PCI-E slots parallel to one another for better airflow. The ASUS M2N32 SLI Deluxe motherboard is built this way and guess what......it works!!! The ONLY reason I am going to upgrade my motherboard...soon.....is because I want SATA 3GB/s and PCI-E 2.0 slots. Other than that...I wouldn't upgrade it.
The only thing AMD needs to do is start making bigger L1, L2 and L3 caches. Then the world woulld be good again :)
Take an OS, and edit out all the efficiency, and what you have left is a post-XP Microsoft operating system :)
tugboat_2
April 27, 2009 at 8:34pm
Sorry Guys and Gals,
Am new to this forum/commenting biz so bear with please.
There is one thing everyone seems to be forgeting, especially in the current economic climate. All you need is a gun big enough to kill the beast one time. And do so for a reasonable time into the future. At least until the beast evolves again. The beast for most of us is games. Crysis has forced the world to make a power leap with a lot of agitation from various operating systems.
My point is this, if I can build a system that can run any current game/OS in reasonable style for a couple of grand less than the cutting edge machine then I HAVE lived up to the spirit of the Maximum PC community. If (and I hope its true) this new AMD will do this with the right GPU/chipset/mobo etc then I am going to take a real hard look at it. A good part of power computing is finessing max perf with minimum material. In other words YOU DON'T NEED A GUN THAT WILL KILL THE BEAST 50 TIMES OVER. Just one or 2 will be fine.
I am retired and have a limited income. but can save for the biggest gun if need be. But a true power user should be able to build a mall with a box of popcicle sticks and some toothpaste.
What we really neeed is some quality input from this forums benefactor on where AMD's sockets and mobos are going with a SERIOUS eye on future proofing. Likewise with (for want of a better phrase) gaming engines and what is in the immediate future between the mfr's of CPU's/GPU's As in are they going to merge in a couple of years.
If you can't dazzel em with Brilliance, baffle em with bull puckey. (From the tome; Murphy's Law, Annex 5, Smooth Recoveries)
tugboat_2
April 27, 2009 at 10:53pm
One comment on my own post.
I won't even bother asking about Intel's CPU/Chipset/mobo intentions they'er so greedy if they change the print style on the chip you have to buy a new mobo or chipset. This is one area I would like to see AMD continue or improve their record.
If you can't dazzel em with Brilliance, baffle em with bull puckey. (From the tome; Murphy's Law, Annex 5, Smooth Recoveries)
schmitty6633
April 24, 2009 at 12:50pm
TO SUM THIS WHOLE ARGUMENT UP: tHIS I SJUST ANOTHER PHENOM PROCESSOR FASTER THAN OTHER PHENOMS BUT A LONG WAY FROM COREI7. COREI7 IS SOMEWHAT MORE EXPENSIVE BUT IT BLOWS THE PHENOM OUT OF THE WATER. WAY TO GO INTEL!!
Arkhon
May 01, 2009 at 1:00pm
Wow. Why must you always shout? Is it because you're mad about AMD making worse chips than Intel? Of course this can't compare to the Core i7, but if you buy AMD you buy from a company that isn't antagonizing a major video card GPU manufacturer, plus you get very good performance for the money.
I don't see how Core i7 can possibly be only "SOMEWHAT MORE EXPENSIVE" when you factor in the cost of buying a new motherboard, because the Core i7 is incompatible with older sockets. These Phenom II's drop into Socket AM2+ and Socket AM3 motherboards, so you wouldn't have to buy a new one.
On another note, I have never understood typing in all caps. My best guess is because those who do it are too stupid to learn the other half of the alphabet. The caps lock key is only a few millimeters away, don't give up now!
jihnn
June 30, 2009 at 6:03am
hmmm i didn't see where where he said he actually owned an i7 he just said way to go intell..... if he actually had the cash to own one certainly he would have posted the spec's of his big bad rig
i didn't see that
one might actually say wtf intell make your parts a lot more affordable. in this economy amd gets my vote at least till my mortage is paid off and i can take out a loan for intell parts
cfmwarren
April 24, 2009 at 12:09pm
There have been about 5 people saying that core i7 is the way to go, yet they dont understand that motherboards are more expensive and DDR3 triple channel RAM is worth its weight in gold. Not saying that its not worth the extra cash, core i7 is a beast of a chip...
Please do your research to all of you sticking with core i7.
AMD Athlon X2 5400+ OC'd 3 GHz, 2 9600 GTs OC'd 700, 4GB DDR2-800 OC'd 870
schmitty6633
April 24, 2009 at 12:51pm
People want to stick to Corei7 because of how fast it is. No doubt bout that
skhills
April 24, 2009 at 7:24am
Up to this point AMD has used the fact that cheaper motherboards and DDR2 memory make their systems worth the trade off for lower CPU performance for comparably priced intel procs. With DDR3 support on their quads now, only the motherboard pricing stands in the way of jumping to a much faster Core i7 build.
We'll let the market decide who wins out.
Nipyf2
April 24, 2009 at 3:38am
ok so this cpu would be very attractive if it was a bit cheaper. For this price you might as well go for the core i7 920 and not spend that much more.
Still this is a step in the right direction. Personally I use AMD but they really need to make some processors that can compete with intel.
unixfool
April 24, 2009 at 11:06am
Before you said that, you should've checked out the prices on motherboards and memory that supports the Core i7. When you add everything up, you'll more than likely see that an AM2/AM3 system will have a lower cost. It's certainly not just an issue of CPU cost alone.
Zoomer
April 23, 2009 at 1:25pm
They claim this thing is basically faster than other processors in this range? For a very similar price you can get the Q9550.....which beats this is in just about every test that matters.
Since you guys haven't benchmarked it yet, and Firingsquad has, I'll post their link here for anybody interested.
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_phenom_2_x4_955_review/page6.asp
sasquatch42
April 23, 2009 at 3:13pm
the Ph2 955 actually beats the C2Q Q9550 in many tests
and some of them do matter, like Crysis
schmitty6633
April 23, 2009 at 1:44pm
Or you could get the Corei7_920 for $10 more than the Q9550, it outpreformes the Phenom by about twice and the q9550 buy a little for $10 more! Corei7 is an amzing value!
Price Sources: Newegg
sasquatch42
April 23, 2009 at 3:10pm
factor in the price of the mobo and that extra stick of DDR3 and the Q9550 and Ph2 955 seem very cheap
schmitty6633
April 23, 2009 at 4:10pm
Of course it's cheap. That's because it cant come anywhere close to Imtel!
sasquatch42
April 24, 2009 at 11:52am
so the Q9550 can't come close to Intel?
Intel makes the Q9550 if you didn't know that
schmitty6633
April 23, 2009 at 1:03pm
Ugh, another Amd chip that is so far behind from Intel. I mean for $250 you could pick up a Corei7 for another $50 and get TWICE the performance. Amd really needs to clean up thir act or they will lose in the long run.
UPDATE: Only another $30. Chears for Corei7
DMI PC Repair
April 23, 2009 at 5:48am
Now noobs all over the world can oc without knowing a damn thing thanks AMD. I will use your processor for another year. Or til Intel makes something I can afford.
toohightocomply
April 23, 2009 at 12:22am
Overclocking 101 with the AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor
1.45V on air at 4ghz is very reasonable for any part, very nice.
Keith E. Whisman
April 22, 2009 at 10:31pm
Yawn another lowly Phenom. Man I wish AMD would get it's act together and compete with Intel. What are they afraid of?
Quit making these crappy parts and make something outrageous so you can blow Intel out of the water. If Intel has a quad core CPU with HT enabled then AMD needs to release an Eight Core Processor that doesn't need HT. Just pull out all the stops. Quit trying to make a processor thats made cheaply and just build a super high end CPU.
If AMD plans on living a year or more longer they need to get their act together.
danode
June 07, 2009 at 6:57am
In the Past AMD had killed intel this is the first time intel has been back on top
Do you forget back when all intell chips was reading graphics and AMD came out and said hu! why read it let the video card do that thus came the k5 chip... Read up AMD has never been crap they have been allways up on top ............just not this time ..
StormEffect
April 23, 2009 at 12:05pm
Ad hominin attacks are pointless and immature, but you are an idiot.
Tell me, who is going to pay for this 8-core, power guzzling monstrosity? Outrageous = Unstable = Nobody buys.
What are they AFRAID OF? Going bankrupt, that's what. They already discovered with the 4870 that building a piece of hardware for the mainstream and scaling it up later is much more cost-effective than building a massive piece of hardware and ATTEMPTING to scale it down later. Why do you think Nvidia was never able to release any mainstream GPUs based on the GTX 280/260 core?
Just build a super high end CPU? What are you, 8 years old?
Why don't you go do it, you wuss.
Keith E. Whisman
April 23, 2009 at 12:42pm
For one thing A power user would buy a bad ass processor. A person that lives at MaximumPC.com and reads MaximumPC Magazine to discover just what is the fastest ultra hardware available.
I'm 37years old and since you have taken it upon yourself to make personal attacks it would seem that you are the 8year old. So go away and climb a tree.
And I'm standing by my belief that AMD will only survive if they can retake the performance crown from Intel. I would truely love to build another high end computer with an AMD processor in it. But I can't because they can't compete performance wise with Intel. The only reason why they can't compete is themselves. They are holding themselves back because they are locked into this minimalist mindset and it's not working.
Why design a CPU that is only a little faster than the previous CPU? Why not take a look at what Intel has and design something that is way more powerful and way faster so that they can at least be on par with Intel by the time that new powerful CPU is released?
unixfool
April 24, 2009 at 11:14am
What's the best selling car in the U.S.? It isn't a Corvette. It isn't a 300C. More than likely, its a Camry or Accord or something akin to that.
Power is NOT everything. Not everyone subscribes to MaxPC and not everyone is interested in spending insane amounts of money for a set of parts that are almost immediately obsolete the minute they are mass-produced.
There is middle ground...not with the power enthusiast, but with the rest of the world. I love power, but I won't spend money just because I want the latest/greatest technology. People did that with home purchases and look where they're at now... They went broke because of the Joneses next door.
So, if you can afford it, go ahead and get it. If not, at least you can still compromise.
Me? I went AMD and still don't have an issue with running the latest games and such. I chose to ignore the i7 after I saw how expensive all the supporting parts were. I'm still happy. Ignorance is bliss.
QUINTIX256
April 23, 2009 at 2:00pm
...holding themselves back. They currently cannot afford to have the R&D man-hours to "out engineer" intel, and they never needed to.
They lived a long time without a "performance crown", and when they do have one, it is out of ingenuity rather than effort.
Maximum PC can mean getting the maximum for your money, not just getting the maximum at any price. If there is one thing AMD consistantly offered it is bang for the buck.
I usually ignore your comments because of long-winded, nearly unreadable nonsense like this:
"Why not take a look at what Intel has and design something that is way more powerful and way faster so that they can at least be on par with Intel by the time that new powerful CPU is released?"
To answer your question, something "way more powerful" doesn't simply come out the blue from either intel or amd.
StormEffect hit it right on the nail:
"Just build a super high end CPU? What are you, 8 years old? Why don't you go do it, you wuss."
You can have your recession. I'm not participating.
Keith E. Whisman
April 23, 2009 at 4:50pm
I don't mind other peoples differing oppinions. What pisses me off is when people make personal attacks so fuck off people. If your going to post your oppinion do so but don't attack other people. Like you I get pissed off.
It makes me think that I'm talking to a bunch of snot nosed punks when I get personal attacks.
StormEffect
April 26, 2009 at 12:15pm
I am sorry for being a total dick (I was definitely being a dick), but I can't stand it when people just say, "DO IT BETTER!" If they could do it better, don't you think they would?
Keith E. Whisman
April 26, 2009 at 11:26pm
What I'm getting at is that I'm afraid that AMD isn't going to last very much longer and I'm hoping that they will produce a CPU that everyone will want. A processor that you just can't live without. When AMD released the Athlon 64 it was the CPU to have. It really drove AMD way above Intel and bought AMD a handfull of years they wasted by building processors that were only a little faster while Intel went on to building Processors that were just plain Awesome. By Intel taking the performance crown AMD pretty much started losing lots and lots of money as their market share dwindled. You see performance is important. It's the only thing that I believe that can save AMD. They have to pull out the stops and make a bad ass processor that will make them a real competitor again.
I want AMD to stick around. I want them to succeed. I just don't think they are going to with Phenom and it makes me sad.
Stry8993
April 22, 2009 at 10:03pm
Going to have to pick one of these up. May go with the Dragon, or whats after it, with the next build. Looks interesting though.
bullnettle59
April 23, 2009 at 7:03am
Asus M2A-VM,, Raptor 150,Caviar 200,,AMD 5600+, 4GB Kingston Hyper X PC2-6400, Gigabyte 8600GT 512, CM Extreme 500W, Antec 300 case
That makes me want to make the jump.
I root for AMD to make it and hopefully this will be their return to competitiveness
schmitty6633
April 23, 2009 at 2:06pm
Nope, not at all. For $30 more you can pick up a Corei7_920 which is faster by a long shot! :)
unixfool
April 24, 2009 at 11:16am
You can only run an i7 on a mobo that supports i7...they aren't cheap AT ALL. RAM for those mobos aren't cheap either. You can't run a system on the i7 alone.
dnd45
May 07, 2009 at 1:53pm
I live 15 minutes from Micro Center, who have had the i7-920 available for $230 for several months now.
Browsing their ads, the cheapest i7-920 6GB build is only about $60 more than the cheapest Phenom II 940/AM3 mobo/4GB DDR3 build. BUT, with the AM3 mobo you can use onboard graphics, whereas you must budget a video card for the Core i7.
A lot depends on your actual needs and how much a particular build is stressing your budget. For example: I need a new rig now. I don't game and I don't care about overclocking. I'm sole support of a family of four, so I don't have money to throw away for bragging rights. I keep Folding@Home running but it is a charitable matter for me, not a competitive one. I'm getting deeper into my photographic hobby and I like film, so I need to upgrade my scanner and get a quality monitor to replace my cheap-a**, color-shifted, 6-bits-interpolated-to-8-bits, 19" TN panel. I'll need to spring for CS4, since Photoshop Elements and GIMP only work at 8-bit color depth, which is murder for black-and-white images.
This is my actual case (I can sympathize with the retiree who posted previously), and my actual plan for tomorrow is to pick up a Phenom II X3 710, Biostar TA790GX128M AM2+ mobo, 4GB DDR2 1066, and a BFG 550W PSU. That's $320. I'd have to add another $60 to chase a slight increment of performance going to an AM3 mobo and DDR3 RAM. I think I'll put that into a new HDD, instead. As money allows, I'll upgrade the scanner and monitor. I'll plug in a graphics card last, and switch my Folding client to the GPU version.
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