More on the AMD Phenom II X4 980

While the X4 980 is not a huge jump over the X4 975, it is significant as it seems to be the last speed bump we will ever see from the Phenom II family.  From here on forward, we will see another Athlon II bump in the mainstream and budget market, but in the performance desktop realm it is all going to be Bulldozer for the next several years.

Note the 2010 week 41 date.

The processor itself is clocked at 3.7 GHz, which matches the Turbo Mode of the Phenom II X6 1100T.  It is a 125 watt TDP part, and it fits in current AM3 motherboards, as well as AM3+ parts in the near future.  The memory controller, Hypertransport controller, and L3 cache still run at the rather anemic 2 GHz that it has sat at seemingly forever (since Phenom I days).  Unfortunately for the architecture, the L3 cache eats up a lot of power, and clocking a memory controller up to 3.7 GHz while retaining standard JDEC speeds is a headache all its own.

AMD, and now GLOBALFOUNDRIES, have pursued a fabrication strategy of continual improvement in their process technology.  This has allowed AMD to keep up (mostly) with Intel without spending billions at once for a single, significant node jump.  This likely has been complicated by the actual spinning off of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and certainly when we look at the timeline between Intel’s first 32 nm part, and AMD’s, it seems that GF is much farther behind than expected.  Still, improvements have been made, and we are now seeing a Phenom II clocked at 3.7 GHz at standard TDPs being delivered in mass quantities.  When I first reviewed the X4 940 BE two years ago, it would barely go over 3.8 GHz on a lot of extra voltage and aggressive cooling.  Now we see the X4 980 sitting fat and happy at 3.7 GHz with standard voltages and cooling.

In terms of performance what can we expect?  Well, I guess that is the purpose of this review.  Do not expect miracles.  This processor will compete against older generation i5-7×0 and i7-8×0 series processors, as well as the latest Sandy Bridge processors.  In most workloads, the higher end Phenom II X6 1090T and 1100T processors compete well against the i7 920 and i7 860+ processors.  The new Sandy Bridge processors are essentially in a league of their own.

Dusty but trusty.

The Phenom II X4 980 will retail around $195, and it should be available immediately.  This of course will push down the previous processor price points.  The X4 975 will be $175, the X4 970 goes to $155, and the X4 965 will be at the bargain basement price of $135.  I am guessing that the days of the X4 955 are limited.  Hear those helicopters again?

Test Setup

I used the standard test benches for both AMD and Intel processors that I have on hand at this time.  I still do not have any Sandy Bridge based samples, and instead have used the i7-860 processor from Intel.  The i5-760 is very close in performance to the i7-860, and it sits around $210 US.  The Phenom II X4 980 BE is expected to retail around $195 US.  The Phenom II X6 1090T is at $199, while the 1100T is around $220.

AMD HD 5870 Reference Video Card
MSI 890FXA-GD65 Motherboard (AMD)
Asus P55 Motherboard
OCZ Platinum 2 x 2GB DDR-3 1600 @ 1333 8.8.8.24 latencies
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6G Hard Drive
Lite-On DVD-R/RW
Corsair TX750W Power Supply
Windows 7 Ultimate, SP1
AMD Catalyst 11.4 Drivers

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