Posted 09/18/09 at 04:30:16 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

We're finishing up an issue of the magazine this week, but still found some time to talk about tech news on the podcast. Topics of discussion include the new Windows 7 commercials featuring Maximum PC, Microsoft's anticipated Zune HD debut, and AMD's $99 Athlon II X4 CPU. Will gives the scoop on the ATI's new Eyefinity videocard technology, which he saw running on an aircraft carrier. This week also features a fruitful listener question and answer segment, which includes one of the episode's many Nixon references. Gordon goes off on Bay Area traffic, and talks about his new phone purchase (no, not an iPhone). 

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by.

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Posted 09/16/09 at 10:00:00 AM by Gordon Mah Ung

Even the Intel fanboys have to hand it to AMD once in a while. After Intel deftly dropped a Core i5 anvil on Phenom II’s head, AMD did a quick drop to floor and now fires back slo-mo style with its own chip: a $99 quad core.

Dubbed the Athlon II X4 620, this 2.6GHz quad core isn’t just leftover parts swept off the factory floor, either. The Athlon II X4 is based on the familiar K10 microarchitecture in the Phenom and Phenom II, but it’s actually a newer, smaller die. In fact, the new chip has less than half the transistors of a Phenom II X4 processor. Much of the shrinkage comes at the expense of cache. While the Phenom II packs 6MB of L3, the budget Athlon II X4 features none.

The TDP of the new Athlon II X4 chips (there are two, but only one is sub $100) is also considerably lower than the top-end Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition chip at 95 watts versus 140 watts. Other than the TDP and lack of L3 cache, the CPUs are essentially the same as their Phenom predecessors.

Read on for our full analysis, review, and benchmarks!

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