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The flagship model, also known as the Phenom II X4 940, debuted at just $270, while today it can be had for the bargain basement price of $190. In terms of performance we found it closely matched the Core 2 Quad Q9650, which was considerably more expensive at $540 then, and even today it is still fetching around $330. This is an impressive feat for AMD, offering the best value in this price range.
Today AMD is releasing two new processors, the Phenom II X4 955 and 945, which are based on the same “Deneb” architecture though with a few notable changes. The most prominent change is that these are AM3 processors, and therefore can be used with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory. AM3 processors are also completely backwards compatible with AM2+ motherboards.
Although it was initially speculated that AMD would increase the L3 cache of these new Phenom processors from 6MB to 8MB, this has not been the case, and the Phenom II X4 955 still carries the same 6MB as its predecessors. The processor is however reaching new heights for AMD in terms of operating frequency, designed to work at 3.2GHz, it's fastest clocked quad-core processor the company has ever released.
Despite these improvements, the Phenom II X4 955 will remain affordable, with a suggested initial retail value of $245. This new processor looks as having the potential to be the ultimate upgrade solution for AMD users, as it can be paired with AM2+ motherboards that were released as far back as 2007.
Based on pricing, the Phenom II X4 955 could be best compared to the Core i7 920 ($290) and Core 2 Quad Q9550 ($270) processors, though it will be a tad cheaper than both. However it's not just the processor cost that needs to be considered here, as the Phenom II X4 955 can be used on both AM2+ and AM3 motherboards. Furthermore, while AMD does expect DDR3 memory to become mainstream in 2010, the Phenom II X4 955 can be paired with ultra cheap DDR2 memory for now, postponing the migration to DDR3 until it makes complete sense financially for consumers.
Motherboard makers have already released BIOS updates enabling their current AM2+ motherboards to support the Phenom II X4 940/920 processors. There is now a new wave of updates adding support for the Phenom II X4 955/945 processors on these older motherboards.
We like to believe this is the perfect upgrade path, as those who invested in a Phenom platform a year ago need only to purchase a newer more powerful processor to get a boost. This also allows those looking to build a new Phenom-based PC to choose from a huge range of mature AM2+ motherboards. The groundbreaking 790GX chipset also supports the Phenom II X4, offering enhanced tuning via its advanced clock calibration feature.
Keep in mind however that although the Phenom II X4 955/945 processors will work on AM2+ motherboards, older processors will not work on the AM3 platform. The AM3 socket has two less pins (938), making it mechanically incompatible with older 940-pin AM2/2+ processors. Besides the pin compatibility issue, the real problem lies within the on-die memory controller of these older processors, which does not support DDR3 memory.
Unlike the LGA1336 (Core i7) socket, the AM3 socket is capable of running either DDR2 or DDR3 memory, but not both on the same motherboard. At least today that sounds like an excellent option to have, given DDR3's pricing compared to DDR2. Like previous AMD processors the Phenom II X4 955/945 processors feature a dual-channel memory controller. The maximum officially supported DDR2 frequency is 1066MHz while DDR3-1333 is also supported.
| Core i7 Test System Specs - Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (LGA1366) - Intel Core i7 940 (LGA1366) - Intel Core i7 920 (LGA1366) - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 182.50 Core 2 Test System Specs - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 182.50 Phenom Test System Specs - ASUS M4A79 Deluxe (AMD 790FX) - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 182.50 |
The new AMD Phenom II X4 955 fairs very well in 3Dmark Vantage when paired with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory, though the DDR3-1333 configuration was faster, delivering 9% more performance when compared to the Phenom II X4 940.
This also put this new AMD processor ahead of the Core 2 Quad Q9650, though only by a 4% margin. Perhaps more impressive was seeing the Phenom II X4 955 running at a mere 3% slower than the Core 2 Core i7 920 in this test.
The previous AMD Phenom II X4 processors fared well in the PCmark Vantage gaming test and the Phenom II X4 955 is no different, though it did fail to outperform the Phenom II X4 940.
While the Phenom II X4 processors were able to beat out the Core 2 Quad Q9650 in this test, the elusive Core i7 920 still remained a problem.
The PCmark Vantage communications test was quite different, the results are all over the place here. The AMD Phenom II X4 955 was faster than the Core i7 940 when using DDR3-1333 memory, but slightly slower with the DDR2-1066 memory.
Once again we found that when paired with DDR3 memory the Phenom II X4 955 was 9% faster than the Phenom II X4 940.
ScienceMark is another test that does not favor the Core i7 processors greatly and as a result the AMD Phenom II X4 955 is only a fraction slower than the Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition. The X4 955 was also 13% faster than the previous AMD flagship, the Phenom II X4 940.
Refference : http://www.techspot.com/review/162-amd-phenom2-x4-955/
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