Thursday, August 13th 2009
AMD Raises the Performance Bar With Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
AMD today announced the world's highest clocked quad-core processor for desktop PCs, the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor. As an integral part of Dragon platform technology, this new processor features a stock frequency of 3.4 GHz, massive headroom, high-speed DDR3 memory support and AMD OverDrive 3.0 technology to deliver an enthusiast-class performance that fits into value-based budgets.
Since its initial launch in January 2009, Dragon platform technology has provided great performance at a great price. From the only company with unlocked CPUs and backwards compatibility for DDR2 memory, the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor helps customers pay less for more, period. Available for a Suggested System Builder Price of $245, users opting for Intel may be paying more for less or equal performance.With this platform, AMD is combining its fastest processor ever with the massive graphics processing muscle of its most powerful GPUs to enable the following features:
Since its initial launch in January 2009, Dragon platform technology has provided great performance at a great price. From the only company with unlocked CPUs and backwards compatibility for DDR2 memory, the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor helps customers pay less for more, period. Available for a Suggested System Builder Price of $245, users opting for Intel may be paying more for less or equal performance.With this platform, AMD is combining its fastest processor ever with the massive graphics processing muscle of its most powerful GPUs to enable the following features:
- Record-setting overclocking capabilities
- AMD OverDrive 3.0 tuning software
- High-speed DDR3 memory support
- Planned future DirectX 11 support for the latest games
- AMD Black Edition Memory Profiles for custom experiences
- Cool'n'Quiet 3.0 technology to enable improved efficiency and help keep your PC running cool and quiet
151 Comments on AMD Raises the Performance Bar With Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
"What you see above is how much it would cost you per framerate (increase) with a Core i7 system over a Phenom II system. The higher the number above, the worse it is because the more you will be paying for performance increase. What is being shown, for example in Left 4 Dead, is that it will cost you $26.88 extra per frame to buy a Core i7 system for gaming.
So if you get 5 fps higher in Left 4 Dead, that just cost you almost $135. Would you pay $135 for 5 fps? Can you see the difference between 114 and 119 fps? And where the two systems are even more closely matched, the case becomes worse for the Intel setup. Since the results for Crysis: Warhead are tied in single GPU configuration, this means you are paying $215 for absolutely no gaming performance increase whatsoever. That is probably very sobering for the Intel fanboys in the house right about now.
Now consider this: for a current difference of $215, you can purchase a second Radeon 4890 to go with a Crossfire setup in a Phenom II system. From a gaming perspective, the Core i7 system simply cannot compete with this."
Not saying im the expert, just a knowledgeable consumer, I have been reading reviews now for 8 years, (yea im a young'n) this is the first time I have seen a "dollar per frame" in the way they did it, I have seen price/performance, but not layed out like this, the last paragraph really hits home for me, becuase my gaming appetite can be sustained for less money, then sweeeeeeeet! And my girlfriend doesnt care if I have 4 more fps than the other guy :) but we all have our priorities and desires on how to spend our money :)
As far as number crunching is concerned I am aware that a 920 will beat out AMD's offerings, however, when I set to compress a blu-ray movies or what have you, the longer it takes, the more time I get to make a snack or look out the window at the pretty blue birds, if my pc did it too fast I would never get time to leave the room :P
When the processors perform the same clock for clock, then you can make that argument. However, until then, performance per watt is what matters not clock cycle per watt.
yes i7 outperform all Phenom ii,but i7 pricing is killing me.
so if the 920 is drastically outpreforming the 965 why dose the 965 score better fps in most games?
I really don't see the point of using gaming tests to compare cpus. Just doesn't make much sense to me.
Personally, I'm waiting to upgrade for 6 cores or more. I want a multithreading monster.
These clock speed bumps from AMD are getting old. It's like watching Intel in the P4 days. Quit just upping clocks already, and innovate somehow. Give us an 8 core cpu or something like that.
In sheer processor power, the i7 920 beats out my Q9650 at 3.9Ghz in many benchmarks.
I wish they would release a chip that can break 4Ghz easily. If AMD is gonna play the clockspeed game they better release a chip that can clock higher than an i5 or they're screwed.