AMD To Crank Up Phenom II Clock-Speeds Upto 3.50 GHz, Planning New Models

[btarunr]

Beating its chest on the "massive headroom" (read: clock speed increment potential) its newest line of processors, the Phenom II have, it was about time the company utilized the said headroom to carve out new SKUs. With the AM2+ exclusive Phenom II X4 940 already showing impressive overclocking potential, while shipping with a clock speed of 3.00 GHz, the company is planning to increase stock clock speeds in increments of 100 MHz (0.5x multiplier) with a string of SKUs post Phenom II X4 950. This according to the insider sources a German website called AMD News caught up with.

All the upcoming processors will be built on the AM3 package, making them compatible with DDR3 and DDR2 memory standards. With the Phenom II X4 950 being clocked at 3.10 GHz, succeeding SKUs take 100 MHz steps, starting from a Phenom II X4 960 at 3.20 GHz to a Phenom II X4 990 at 3.50 GHz. Despite the high clock speeds, the chips will continue to maintain rated TDPs of 125W. At some point within the succession, AMD will crank up the HyperTransport interconnect speed from 1,800 MHz to 2,000 MHz. The launch-schedule for these processors will be spread throughout 2009.

The models in the new series consist of:

• Phenom II X4 950 (3.10 GHz, 15.5 x 200)
• Phenom II X4 960 (3.20 GHz, 16 x 200)
• Phenom II X4 970 (3.30 GHz, 16.5 x 200)
• Phenom II X4 980 (3.40 GHz, 17 x 200)
• Phenom II X4 990 (3.50 GHz, 17.5 x 200)

Source: News-AMD.de

[tcorbyn]

NICE! Would be great if AMD could put out somthing to compete with Core i7!

[Jakl]

WOW... Fricken amazing AMD ! I cant wait! It will probably be released in Summer

[KieranD]

so if im right lets hope i am

if you get an am3 cpu and you put it in a am2+ board you can use ddr2, swap the chip to a am3 board and you can use ddr3

am2+ cpus are am2+ board only

im right in thinking that dual ram boards arnt that good

[Jakl]

Originally Posted by KieranD

im right in thinking that dual ram boards arnt that good

Yea its better to stick either DDR2 or DDR3 ... less complications

[ASharp]

That's right Kieran. AM3 chips have both DDR2 and DDR3 memory controllers so they'll work on both AM2+ and AM3 boards. AM2+ chips only have the DDR2 controllers so they'll only work on the AM2+ boards. That and I think the AM3 socket has one less pin so you won't be able to fit an AM2+ processor in the slot anyway.

In any case, this is awesome news for AMD! I wonder how much headroom the 3.5GHz chips will have seeing as how they're already clocked so high. Hope these new chips will overclock even higher...maybe even 4.5-5GHz on air? C'mon AMD!

[Crystal]

I don't buy it. The same website posted this on 19.01.2009.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by Crystal

I don't buy it. The same website posted this on 19.01.2009.

The current news is a sort of an update of the same thing, cross-checked with two sources, according to them. There won't be chips touching ~4 GHz this year, they made up that "C4 stepping" part back then.

[Weer]

Originally Posted by btarunr

The current news is a sort of an update of the same thing, cross-checked with two sources, according to them. There won't be chips touching ~4 GHz this year, they made up that "C4 stepping" part back then.

And yet now we believe them?

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by Weer

And yet now we believe them?

Yes and no. Yes, that source has been cited by many websites, no it's only borderline plausible and builds on the logic of conservative increments over the 950, an SKU that is verified to be true.

[Salsoolo]

are those black edition ?

Just a ploy to sell pricier processors and make profits like Intel does by raising the multiplier by 0.5 and sell it for $50 more.

[btarunr]

That's pretty institutional The Core 2 Duo 8500 sells for $188, the E8600 with a mere 0.5x multiplier increment (= 167 MHz) sells for ~$270.

[Mega-Japan]

With the difference that AMD isn't as stupid at pricing as Intel is.

I highly doubt they will all be Black Edition, perhaps 1 or 2 of them and that's it. Of course, I could be wrong.

And if AMD doesn't go stupid on the pricing, I might as well get that 990, as long as they don't wait until Christmas to release.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by Mega-Japan

With the difference that AMD isn't as stupid at pricing as Intel is.

It was. A lot of us tend to forget that AMD did sell processors at ~$1000+, basically the same pricing you call stupid, when its Athlon64 /X2/FX line worked. Now it just can't afford to charge premiums, hence black editions at $230, etc.

[KieranD]

i think ill be getting a one of the new coming AM2+ boards and pair it with an AM3 seems good to me

no point getting DDR3 just now when i can swap everything ditch the mobo and cpu

[r9]

This can be taken in two ways.
One yey AMD moving forward they can`t beat i7 MHz vs MHz but they can clock higher to match overall performance.
Other way all the great one CPU that are going to come from AMD fab are going to be tested and separated, better overclocking ones are going to have different sticker and would cost more that is not to great.

[spearman914]

Any idea on price ,3.5GHz stock is dam good.

[Error 404]

This, I really hope, will bring down the current price of AMD PII CPUs; my next rig will probably have one in it, or maybe even the architecture after PII, because Australia is too hot to overclock!

[Polarman]

Phenom III anyone ?

[KBD]

let the Mhz wars begin!

recently Intel announced e8700 clocked at 3.5 and now AMD is moving to highrer clocks on Phenom 2 which does make sense since these CPUs have great overclocking potential. In regards to how well they will overclock, who knows? But i would think that the higher clocked versions like the 980 and 990 will be cherry-picked and will overclock better and will carry the Black Edition tag. That has been AMD strategy since the launch of Phenom, all their flagship chips were BEs so its very likely that the 990 (and may be the 980) will be as well.

[spearman914]

Originally Posted by KBD

let the Mhz wars begin!

recently Intel announced e8700 clocked at 3.5 and now AMD is moving to highrer clocks on Phenom 2 which does make sense since these CPUs have great overclocking potential. In regards to how well they will overclock, who knows? But i would think that the higher clocked versions like the 980 and 990 will be cherry-picked and will overclock better and will carry the Black Edition tag. That has been AMD strategy since the launch of Phenom, all their flagship chips were BEs so its very likely that the 990 (and may be the 980) will be as well.

Stock clocks don't worry me much, what's important is the overclock ability and the price/performancce ratio.

[techie81]

I'm in for a Phenom II 990 3.5GHz chip!

[KBD]

Originally Posted by spearman914

Stock clocks don't worry me much, what's important is the overclock ability and the price/performancce ratio.

you get no argument there from me


I'm hoping the 990 & 980 will do at least 4.5 on air and over 5 on water. That would really be awesome.

[phanbuey]

and they said ddr2 was dead. Its interesting that these are keeping the same TDP... From reviews ive gathered that the current phenoms suck too much power bc leakage when pushed to 3.5Ghz+...

I wonder if the 940 BE will get the core upgrade as well since it might undermine the sales of the other chips if it does.