Wednesday, August 27th 2008

AMD Brings in New Desktop CPUs, Cuts Prices

Aug 27th, 2008 03:33 Discuss (73 Comments)

AMD has added weight to its CPU lineup by bringing in new CPUs and cutting prices for some older ones. New CPUs aside, the price cuts by AMD are rather dramatic to say the least. To begin with, it's known that the Phenom X4 9950 has a rated TDP of 140W, and that only a chosen few motherboards support it, perhaps leading to cold market response. AMD has revised the processor with a lower rated TDP of 125W. This isn't new, AMD did the same with the 125W B3 stepping model X4 9750 months ago, releasing a revised 95W B3 part. What's more, the Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition could sport a surprising price of US $186. Perhaps it's AMD paving the way for its 45nm parts. At its new TDP and price the X4 9950 is a much better buy.

The Phenom X3 8750 would sell for $139, making it very competitive with Intel's offerings at that price-band. Additionally, AMD added new dual-core processors based on the Brisbane core, the Athlon X2 6500 Black Edition priced at $105 and an Athlon X2 5050e 45W low-power part at $90.

Changes to the prices of existing processors are as followed.

For the Phenom X4 series:

The 140W Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition gets price parity with its cooler twin, cut from $235 to $186
The Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition slips further down from $194 to $180
The Phenom X4 9750 gets much needed respite from an illogical price of $215 to $170
The Phenom X4 9650 moves from being priced at $195 to $156

For the Phenom X3 series:

Phenom X3 8750 from $175 to a new low $134
Phenom X3 8650 from $145 to $123

Some Athlon X2 parts get double-digit prices:

Athlon X2 6000+ from $112 to $95
Athlon X2 5600+ from $102 to $88
Athlon X2 5400+ from $87 to $78
Athlon X2 5200+ from $76 to $68

Hexus.net spoke with Raj Suman, Euro product marketing director at distributor Avnet, to get confirmation of approximate street pricing.

Source: Hexus.net

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73 Comments on AMD Brings in New Desktop CPUs, Cuts Prices

#51

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

a design that runs your ram speed over or underclocked? sounds like a crap design then, blue.

#52

Wile E

Power User

Musselsa design that runs your ram speed over or underclocked? sounds like a crap design then, blue.

It will never run your ram overclocked at stock settings. The ram divider is a function of cpu speed, and the dividers are only whole numbers. AMD sets it up so you don't exceed the recommended JEDEC specs on the ram, as letting it go above rated spec could cause problems with some ram.

So if your ram's SPP is 800 Mhz DDR, but your CPU speed is 2300MHz, 2300/any whole number ≠ 400Mhz(actual speed). The closest divider without the ram going over it's rated 800Mhz would be 6, giving you 766Mhz DDR ram.

So the overall limitation is the fact that the ram dividers only come in whole numbers and the mem speed is linked with cpu speed. From what was said above, I guess Phenom must have gone to either dividers that allow fractions, or they went unlinked on the mem controller.

#53

Ju1i@~

xfireMy 4200 has a 10.5 multiplier(200*10.5) so will 800 Mhz be uberclocked on mine?
I read something in about this in a magzine but I didn't quite understand it.

I have a 4200+ too but its multi is 11 giving 2.2 GHz. max core speed. Cool&Quiet is enabled in my system. The multiplier decreases to 5 when idle, enabling 200 MHz. memory speed but generally it's 9 while on the net giving 360 MHz actual speed. I see 399 MHz rarely. Also, the FSB/DRAM divider changes according to the CPU speed. You can have a look at the "Timings" section under CPU-Z memory tab.

#54

Ju1i@~

blueskynisMore info: www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20080827150154_One_New_Dual_Core_AMD_Athlon_X2_K10_Processor_Is_Planned_for_September_Launch_Say_Sources.html

It's the first desktop CPU featuring L3 cache, isn't it?

#55

xfire

Ju1i@~I have a 4200+ too but its multi is 11 giving 2.2 GHz. max core speed. Cool&Quiet is enabled in my system. The multiplier decreases to 5 when idle, enabling 200 MHz. memory speed but generally it's 9 while on the net giving 360 MHz actual speed. I see 399 MHz rarely. Also, the FSB/DRAM divider changes according to the CPU speed. You can have a look at the "Timings" section under CPU-Z memory tab.

Which motherboard is that?
At the present I have ddr667Mhz but I'll be getting ddr800mhz soon.
On mine its a 10.5 multi.
Is yours a brisbane?
edit:
Is mine running at 300Mhz?:eek:

#56

Ju1i@~

Yes, a Brisbane. Mobo is Asus M2A-MX featuring AMD 690V and SB600 chipsets identical to yours.

edit:
It seems 300x2=600. But it often changes depending on the workload if C&Q is enabled.

#57

xfire

Could you tell me how to get it to 667 Mhz.

#58

Ju1i@~

I don't know how to do it exactly, I heard about this issue yesterday. Another user "Wile E" advised me to change the multiplier to an even number or overclock the system a bit to match the expected memory speed. There isn't a setting about core multipliers in my BIOS but I can change the FSB. In your case if you increase FSB to 222MHz you'll get 666 MHz mem speed and 2330 MHz. CPU speed. But this seems risky.

#59

Wile E

Power User

Ju1i@~I don't know how to do it exactly, I heard about this issue yesterday. Another user "Wile E" advised me to change the multiplier to an even number or overclock the system a bit to match the expected memory speed. There isn't a setting about core multipliers in my BIOS but I can change the FSB. In your case if you increase FSB to 222MHz you'll get 666 MHz mem speed and 2330 MHz. CPU speed. But this looks risky.

Nah, the 4000+ should do that clock speed on stock volts. Both of mine did.

#60

Ju1i@~

Wile ENah, the 4000+ should do that clock speed on stock volts. Both of mine did.

Yes, I think it'll probably do. I overclocked mine to 218 MHz FSB and it is running quite well.

#61

blueskynis

Ju1i@~It's the first desktop CPU featuring L3 cache, isn't it?

Yes, it will have 2MB L3, according to the article.

#62

Ju1i@~

xfireCould you tell me how to get it to 667 Mhz.

There is also an option in BIOS to change DRAM timings manually. If you set it to 333 MHz rather than Auto, that can help.

#63

xfire

I ran mine at 250x9 and the temp went up 10 degrees more on load(from 30 to 40 C)
I do have the ram clock option, will check that.Thanks.
A new version of dual core optimizer has been realesed.

#64

Andy_007

Ju1i@~Yes, I think it'll probably do. I overclocked mine to 218 MHz FSB and it is running quite well.

Im sure you can clock much higher than that, my 4200+ does 3ghz stock voltage and 3.25ghz 1.45V .

#65

xfire

Mem set gives a better picture

#66

Ju1i@~

Andy_007Im sure you can clock much higher than that, my 4200+ does 3ghz stock voltage and 3.25ghz 1.45V .

It is said Athlon X2 processors can't be overclocked much, so it is better to buy the fastest one you can afford. But this one is different. 3.25 GHz is nearly %150 of the standart speed.

#67

blueskynis

No one mentions: When can we expect this price drop to happen?

#68

Kei

Ju1i@~It's the first desktop CPU featuring L3 cache, isn't it?

Do you mean the first Dual core cpu with L3 cache? The Phenom's (all of them) have had L3 cache from the beginning.

K

#69

Kei

blueskynisNo one mentions: When can we expect this price drop to happen?

Go to newegg as they're already implenting a price drop on some of the cpus. I'm not sure when all of them are going to be effective, but right now they list the 9950BE AND 9850BE for $179...yea that's right, the same price. Free 3 day shipping as well. Sweet sweet sweet deal indeed.

K

#70

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

KeiDo you mean the first Dual core cpu with L3 cache? The Phenom's (all of them) have had L3 cache from the beginning.

K

first AMD dual core... intel had L3 cache on the P4 EE gallatin cores.

#71

Kei

Thanks, I forgot about that part of the world for a second. :laugh:

K

#72

Andy_007

Ju1i@~It is said Athlon X2 processors can't be overclocked much, so it is better to buy the fastest one you can afford. But this one is different. 3.25 GHz is nearly %150 of the standart speed.

X2's can overclock quite well, not aswell as Intel though. Most Brisbanes will do 3ghz quite easily, I actually find that AMD's higher end CPU's dont overclock aswell as the cheap ones, as long as you have a MB that will do high FSB.

#73

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

Andy_007X2's can overclock quite well, not aswell as Intel though. Most Brisbanes will do 3ghz quite easily, I actually find that AMD's higher end CPU's dont overclock aswell as the cheap ones, as long as you have a MB that will do high FSB.

that is any given CPU, because they are practically overclocked, ran at maximum Stable Clocks.

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AMD Brings in New Desktop CPUs, Cuts Prices

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