AMD Releases New Flagship Processor: Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
Posted 08/13/09 at 08:30:00 AM by Paul Lilly
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AMD today adds to its Phenom processor line with a new flagship part, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. The new chip updates the company's Dragon platform, which combines a Phenom II CPU with an ATI Radeon 4870/4890 graphics card and 790GX-based motherboard.
We're told the silicon in the X4 965 BE is unchanged from the X4 955 BE, so you're essentially looking at a clockspeed bump with a slightly higher TDP. Specifically, the 45nm chip comes clocked at 3.4GHz and contains 6MB of L3 cache, and 8MB of total cache (2MB total L2 per processor). And because it's a 'Black Edition' part, the new CPU is unlocked.
AMD also tells us that its own internal testing has shown the X4 965 BE to be a better overclocker than the previous 955, which isn't always the case when releasing a faster-clocked processor built on the same architecture. We currently have one of these chips in our Lab, so look for our own performance impression in the very near future.
Best of all for the AMD faithful, AMD has set an MSRP of $245 for the 965, the same official MSRP the 955 previously.
Image Credit: AMD
It is kind of funny about
Submitted by workstation_slave on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 9:11am
It is kind of funny about MPC, I come here and buy the magazine every few years to find out the state of PC technology for a build I am contemplating. I've been doing that for many years now. It works.
Since there is always a bit of a time interval between my visits here, I am always struck when I come here and read these forums at how:
A) Things get so much better, B) Things get so much cheaper, and C) How more hardware performance really means less and less because it's already faster than it needs to be. D) How, (like especially now,) when prices are really historically very close between high end and low end the passions really heat up.
Flame wars rarely enlighten and always make at least one of the participants look pretty silly. If you cannot make a comment on another person's post without attacking their character, keep it to yourself. Instead attack the logic of their argument, read your post twice, sleep on it over night and only then click, "post comment."
Core I7
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Sun, 08/16/2009 - 8:45pm
Is the Core I7 975 worth it (being 4x the price of the 965), or should I save the (ungodly) amount of money and get the 965?
Submitted by chemguyca on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 11:02am
AMD didn't get it right the first time with the Phenom-based procs, but the Phenom II is a beast. Six of the seven rigs in my house are Phenom II quads, and the two 955 BE's I have kick the crap out of the lone Intel Q6700 that I have.
Submitted by skhills on Fri, 08/14/2009 - 8:31am
You mean to tell me that your 2 systems running AMD's flagship proc released this year are faster than the one you have with a 3 year old mid-range intel proc!
Stop the press!! I mean, Yawn.
Bad business practices
Submitted by quickone on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 4:42am
AMD must have a pretty screwed up business model in order to not be dominating Intel right now. Their processors are just as good, to the average person they would now know the difference between CPUs, they have a high clock speed, which to most people is one of the only things looked at when comparing CPUs, and they cost a fraction of the price. A similar Intel would be $1,000.
They need to start some advertising and consolidate their processor lines. Intel makes it nice and easy, with the brand, Pentium, core or atom, then the higher the number the 'faster better' ish the CPU. AMD has seemingly 100 processors that are give and take. Especially now when the economy is down AMD should be gaining market share not losing it.
Submitted by mesiah on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 8:54pm
"AMD must have a pretty screwed up business model in order to not be
dominating Intel right now. Their processors are just as good"If you are speaking dollar for dollar, then yes, AMD is competitive. But when it comes to high end, intel has had the ball since core2 and they aren't showing any signs of giving it back any time soon. And no, I am not an intel fan boy. The last two systems I built were both AMD. Although the 965BE is fairly competitive with the i7 920 in most gaming benchmarks, the 920 blows it out of the water in nearly every other test. At the price this cpu is selling for, it would be hard for a non biased individual to not take the i7. Mobile CPUs are another story. AMD just can not compete in that category. Intel CPUs are faster and less power hungry than their AMD counterparts.
As for total market share, AMD is never going to post the numbers Intel does. Not unless they come up with some breakthrough technology that puts them miles ahead of the competition. Intel has a huge advertising budget and a name that most of the 1st world population knows. AMD is known by people who know about computers, but if you approach 10 people on the street and ask them what products AMD is known for, I'll bet at least 7 of them couldn't tell you. At the rate intel is making advances its going to take alot to keep amd going. I don't think they have a really new architecture planned for atleast another year. Thats a whole nother year of intel creaming them with i5s and i7s. I just hope when they do come out with something new, its truely groundbreaking. I don't think the industry can afford to lose AMD as Intels only true competitor.
I agree with you, but my
Submitted by DBsantos77 on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 7:12am
I agree with you, but my view of it is that the customer will end up seeing AMD in some way or form, I know that when I'm interested in buying, price either makes or breaks my decision. The best asset?, that AMD has is that their products are sometimes significantly cheaper then Intel or maybe even Nvidia.
Submitted by sasquatch42 on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 7:07am
intel spends more monet on marketing than AMD spends on R&D prolly
Submitted by Casio84 on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 10:55pm
Yes I just built a 955 rig about a month ago. I'm skeptical that it will actually overclock better, but I guess we will see.
Well, here comes the buyer's remorse
Submitted by Jeffredo on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 10:46pm
Built a new X4 955 rig last week. It figures!
Submitted by MeTo on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 8:35am
My rule # 1 is to always buy one step down from the top to save some money and then you don't feal as bad.
Submitted by wicked72 on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 9:03am
I just bought the 955 YESTERDAY !!!, But if you read the specs its the 965 is the same as 955 with higher clock speed. 3.2GHz vs 3.4GHz and 125W vs 140W Thermal Design Power140W
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