AMD Phenom II X4 Processor

When it comes to desktop processors the Advance Micro Device (AMD) Phenom series of processors has not been too phenomenal when it comes to performance or efficiency, but AMD hopes to turn that around in the months to come. AMD recently invited some key members of the press down to their Austin, Texas headquarters to take a look at Phenom II.

As far as specifications go, the upcoming Phenoms will be available with clocks speeds of 2.8GHz and 3.0GHz, for the 920 and 940 models, respectively. Both models will provide a 2MB L2 cache and a 6MB L3 cache, compared with Intel's 8MB cache across its entire Core i7 lineup. Price-wise, these two Phenom CPUs are expected to become available for approximately USD 471.9 and USD 532.4, although these prices are yet to be confirmed by the company itself, upon the official release.

If AMD wanted to get some viral marketing going by showing off Phenom II X4 overclocking it seems that they have hit the nail on the head. Phenom II X4 scales much better than the original Phenom X4 processors, which is obvious as they showed overclocking on several different systems with numerous processors. AMD also said that these weren't totally cherry picked samples and that these results are about average from what they are seeing with early samples. If that proves true on retail samples it will make for an interesting part! Reaching 3.2GHz on a current Phenom X4 is a great overclock, but reaching nearly 4GHz on Phenom II X4 is an awesome overclock.