The Phenom II X4 980BE - the swansong of the Phenom II

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This looks like it will be the last Phenom II X4 released:

http://www.techpowerup.com/142432/AM...Processor.html

[nibbler]

staying at 125W is actually quite impressive

[Biscuit]

All of the PIIs quads overclock to pretty much the same speed anyway though right?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

All of the PIIs quads overclock to pretty much the same speed anyway though right?

AFAIK,the Phenom II X4 975BE could hit around 4.2GHZ to 4.3GHZ which is better than the earlier Phenom II X4 processors.

[nibbler]

It's not just overclocked though, it's a better chip as it runs at 3.7ghz at the same power, that's impressive and it means you can get higher speeds at the same voltage.

[DanceswithUnix]

Yep, my C2 stepping 955BE is only stable at stock volts up to 3.4GHz.

[ERU]

I believe AMD needs to keep the chip within the TDP of 125W. Their cooling solution must be up to par and the mobo needs to have proper power delivery.

I can't say for sure but it actually sounds like a pretty big achievement for AMD. You can argue that they are making new SKU's just to sell chips (and that would be a strong argument) but I'd like to take a more positive view and say that 3.5GHz was their limit for 125W TDP at one time (just for example). As the manufacturing process matured, they were able to hit 3.6GHz within 125W and again, further maturation has allowed them to squeeze 3.7GHz out of 125W.

If that is in fact the case then Bulldozer should be a more mature chip than it would have been without those milestones from the Gen before it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Phenom II X2 570 is also being released soon:

http://www.techpowerup.com/142578/AM...I-X2-Part.html

Edit!!

Here are some more details about the card:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2150455

The VRMs are at the front so it means it is compatible with more aftermarket coolers too.

[badass]

staying at 125W is actually quite impressive

I suppose so. In the same way that getting a big block Chevy v8 with 400 BHP to do 15 MPG is impressive. Even though a modern 400 BHP engine will do twice that and have just as much torque.

[Domestic_Ginger]

In the same way that getting a big block Chevy v8 with 400 BHP to do 15 MPG is impressive. Even though a modern 400 BHP engine will do twice that and have just as much torque.

Surely that would require an entirely new chasis to house the beast?

Point taken; two gens behind I would like to see it laid to rest gracefully.

[DanceswithUnix]

The thing is, if upping the frequency of these things made Bulldozer look bad then I'm sure they would just let it die, so this must bode well for BD.

Am actually surprised that the X4 isn't a die harvested X6 with 2 dead cores as that would surely hit the thermals easier thanks to a larger area to get rid of the heat giving more wiggle room to play with voltages.

[Biscuit]

maybe the yeild on their X6s fabs are 100% success

[badass]

maybe the yeild on their X6s fabs are 100% success

That's a nice thought.
The Phenom II X6's are far more impressive TBH. They are more power efficient and the Turbo core really helps lightly threaded workloads.
Here's hoping that Bulldozer actually is really fast in both single and multithreaded applications.
I'm also hoping that Llano gets both a higher IPC and higher clocks.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There also seems to be the 95W 3.3GHZ Phenom II X4 B99 and Phenom II X4 960 processors:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AM...99WFK4DGM.html

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AM...60WFK4DGM.html

The Phenom II X4 B99 is available on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-Phenom-II-...-/270717230443

[Biscuit]

Lower power versions are more interesting IMO