AMD Phenom X4 Aims for the Stars

[Chris Gohlke]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/20..._9550_b3_cpus/1

"Without considering overclocking, AMD has improved the Phenom B3s and made quite a positive impact. The improved memory performance and corrected silicon is absolutely a step in the right direction, and what the Phenoms should have been launched as six months ago. OK, so what's done is done, and at least even AMD's fastest CPU is still affordable; hell, even the enthusiast Black Edition is consumer friendly – Intel could learn a thing or two rather than sitting in a swill of arrogance, screwing “enthusiast” for every penny they have with its Extreme Edition processors. However, we feel AMD has put too much weight on the quad-core side of things – true, there are now tri-cores to bridge the gap that Intel hasn't filled yet, but most people will still be content with a dual-core processor and as we've shown, you don't need quad-cores for Crysis and World in Conflict. That's not to say quad core processors like the Q6600 G0 or Phenom X4 9850 are bad purchases – in fact, they're great buys as there is headroom for enthusiasts in both chips."

These processors look to provide quite the bang for the buck.  If you are looking for a value and performance oriented upgrade, bit-tech gets to the nitty-gritty of these processors with a huge 15 page review.

[Chris Gohlke]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/20..._9550_b3_cpus/1

"Without considering overclocking, AMD has improved the Phenom B3s and made quite a positive impact. The improved memory performance and corrected silicon is absolutely a step in the right direction, and what the Phenoms should have been launched as six months ago. OK, so what's done is done, and at least even AMD's fastest CPU is still affordable; hell, even the enthusiast Black Edition is consumer friendly – Intel could learn a thing or two rather than sitting in a swill of arrogance, screwing “enthusiast” for every penny they have with its Extreme Edition processors. However, we feel AMD has put too much weight on the quad-core side of things – true, there are now tri-cores to bridge the gap that Intel hasn't filled yet, but most people will still be content with a dual-core processor and as we've shown, you don't need quad-cores for Crysis and World in Conflict. That's not to say quad core processors like the Q6600 G0 or Phenom X4 9850 are bad purchases – in fact, they're great buys as there is headroom for enthusiasts in both chips."

These processors look to provide quite the bang for the buck.  If you are looking for a value and performance oriented upgrade, bit-tech gets to the nitty-gritty of these processors with a huge 15 page review.