The Phenom II X6 will work on AM2+ motherboards!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If this is true it would be great:

http://www.3dnews.ru/news/gigabyte_p...mi_socket_am2/

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ver=#anchor_os

[scaryjim]

Hardly a surprise, really - I assume that all 700-series chipsets will be able to support with appropriate BIOS updates. Since it's just going to be an AM3 CPU it'll be pin-compatible with AM2, so I don't see any reason for vendors not to issue BIOS updates to support it on AM2 boards.

What interests me is the Phenom II X4 900T series - apparently cut down from the 6core parts, does this mean there'll be some new potentially-unlockable parts available?

[Pob255]

Another impressive thing there is it's only 125w TDP

The motherboards being able to cope with the power draw and wether or not AMD pull the ddr2 memory controller will be the only real factors which would hold back am2+ support.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Considering that many people were thinking that the new Phenom II processors were going to be DDR3 only this is indeed good news if it is true!

I hope the rumoured Turbo Boost like functionality for the newer Phenom II processors will work with AM2+ motherboards though.

[matty-hodgson]

Another impressive thing there is it's only 125w TDP

Why is that impressive though? That's the same as Intel's 980-X

[kalniel]

What interests me is the Phenom II X4 900T series - apparently cut down from the 6core parts, does this mean there'll be some new potentially-unlockable parts available?

I can't think Asus and family would be making such a deal of ACC support on the new chipsets if it didn't..

[kalniel]

Why is that impressive though? That's the same as Intel's 980-X

That's a 32nm process. This is 45, and their last high ender which was only quad was 140W at first, on the same process.

[jim]

Mmm nice...

If my main rig was an AMD I'd be seriously tempted by this... for no discernible reason

[matty-hodgson]

That's a 32nm process. This is 45, and their last high ender which was only quad was 140W at first, on the same process.

Oh right, I assumed this would be a 32nm as well. 6 Cores inside a processor using the 45nm is good. Especially with a 125w TDP.

The Intel actually has a TDP of 130w after a quick check. Begs the question though, how good is this going to be?

[kalniel]

If only it was skt 939...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Mmm nice...

If my main rig was an AMD I'd be seriously tempted by this... for no discernible reason

You could upgrade your HTPC!

[joel_spencer]

Careful gigabyte did this before and then it was only on certain revisions. To be fair though they did exchange my board for the better one for just the price of postage.

[jim]

You could upgrade your HTPC!

Why have 2 idle cores when you can have 5, that's what I say!

[Terbinator]

Wasn't 6 cores @ 45nm done by Intel anyway with the Xeon (Dunnington - I may be wrong) ?
A positive note for me personally is after getting an AM3 platform up and running I was looking at upgrading from the seemingly locked Sempron so this is good news for me even if it just pushes the old parts down in price !

[kalniel]

Wasn't 6 cores @ 45nm done by Intel anyway with the Xeon (Dunnington - I may be wrong) ?

That's the thing where the cores still communicated over FSB right?

[badass]

That's the thing where the cores still communicated over FSB right?

Nope. Dunnington used the L3 cache for inter core comms. The FSB was just for talking to the memory and the rest of the system.
Still a rubbish bodge though when Nehalem-EX was on its way and still didn't outperform the Quad core opterons where it mattered.
The 6 Core opterons should see a nice healthy performance boost in the server space, but they'll almost certainly lose to Nehalem-EX where it matters. Even with their 12 cores vs Nehalem-EX's 8 cores.