The Brisbane core has been with us for quite a while now, powering the majority of new AMD builds and now it is finally time to retire.  New on the stage is the 3GHz Athlon II X2 250, the 3.1 GHz Phenom II X2 550 (Black Edition), and last but not least is the Phenom II X4 905E.  Not only are we seeing new chip designs; we are also seeing a new manufacturer, as this is our introduction to chips fabbed my Global Foundries.  To get the bad news out of the way, when Josh tested it against the 3.16GHz E8500, the Intel chip still maintained a performance lead. On the flip side is a lot of good news.  When AMD first introduced dual cores, the performance was unimpressive especially once we saw what Intel managed by gluing a pair of cores together.  This go around we are seeing a solid chip that seems to have a lot of potential to improve as it matures.  It is also worth pointing out that the Intel chip will set you back about $190, whereas the AMD chips will be around $100 when they are released.

Check out the performance numbers in the full review.


“The introduction of these two parts, and their significantly lowered TDP, shows that AMD is still actively addressing the very significant dual core market. While the Phenom II X2 is the undeniable powerhouse in this release, the Athlon II X2 is a significant entry for AMD. At 65 watts it competes well against the Core 2 Duo E5x00, E6x00, and E7x00 series of parts from Intel, and its performance is right in line with the competition. At $87 it is also quite a bit cheaper than its performance counterparts from Intel.”

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