Conclusions
AMD showed up to the party, but they brought light beer instead of champagne. That’s not entirely bad though, as some people prefer light beer (though I still question why). That AMD is able to at least poke their head into the party is probably the most important part of this entire exercise. The Phenom II is a big upgrade from the previous Phenom parts, in terms of both IPC and the ability to clock to higher speeds.Enthusiasts who lean towards AMD will have another toy to play with, and one they should have a good time hanging out with. The price is certainly right, and the base performance competes well with similarly priced Intel parts. We also have a good selection of motherboards that should appeal to the budget enthusiast, as well as higher end products that offer features comparable to high end Intel based boards for significantly less money.
It is my sample, and you can’t have it. The Phenom II X4 940 has proven to be an apt performer, and certainly it appears to be worth the money that AMD is charging for it.
For the first 45 nm product out of the gates, AMD has at least executed on time and in a fairly efficient manner. I have not heard any rumors of major issues with the new design (eg. No TLB type errata), and the initial products are coming out at an aggressive clockspeed and thermal envelope. The ability to achieve high overclocks on air and other methods is another big plus, and certainly that will attract some business.
On the business side, AMD finally has a product in the $200+ range which can compete with Intel. While AMD will not ascend the performance thrown this round, they at least have competitive parts which are made more attractive by the motherboard and chipset ecosystem that AMD has. While Intel certainly has a larger selection and more partners, the quality and featureset of the integrated parts supporting AMD processors is a big step above that of the Intel integrated parts. Certainly most users buying a $200+ processor will invest in a standalone video card, but that will not always be the case once OEMs start adopting the new Phenom II processors. With both NVIDIA and AMD providing robust integrated graphics solutions, invariably the HPs of the world will release a the Phenom II X4 940 at a rock bottom price with integrated video.
AMD has a lot to be proud of with their transition to 45 nm and a new design, but they still have a long road to travel before they can compete more fully with Intel. The years of the Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 are long over, and the reign of the Nehalem has just begun. While the Phenom II will keep AMD afloat another year, they had better be working on something big to at least match Nehalem in the next 12 months.
The X3 will also be making a return to sockets everywhere later this spring, but my best guess would be that the Phenom II X3 will be a AM3 release. Which is not bad, because AM3 chips can still reside in AM2+ sockets.
The Phenom II X4 940 will likely be a short lived part at the apex of AMD’s product line, as we expect to see AM3 based processors hitting the market within the next two months. These will feature DDR-3 support as well as the slightly faster HT/memory controller speed. The 940 runs its HT/memory/L3 at 1.8 GHz and the AM3 parts are expected to run at 2.0 to 2.2 GHz. This should give a small performance boost to those AM3 parts, as well as the extra bandwidth that DDR-3 1333 memory provides. For users that do own a current AM2+ board, the Phenom II will be a drop in replacement, and the ability to reach 3.4 to 3.5 GHz with relative ease will persuade some users to stick with AM2+ a little longer.
Still, enthusiasts will still be looking towards Intel for most of their needs, but at least there is a much more palatable option than what was previously available with the Phenom 9950 and other Black Edition models. Once AM3 hits and we get to see what performance advantages that bring, then we will have a better idea how the rest of the year will pan out for AMD. While I do not expect a miracle from AM3, it will hopefully offer enough additional surprises to make it a much more interesting option when considering a DDR-3 based platform.
