AMD is going to launch a new platform later this year, but until the Bulldozer becomes reality, we're still keeping an
eye on the current AM3-range of Phenom processors. AMD has been steadily creeping up the clock speeds of the Phenoms, and
now the pinnacle of the quad core family is the new Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition. Now let's find out if the 980 is just
a boost on the stock clock speed, or if it also offers an improvement on the overclocking front.
Package & Specs
Phenom II X4 980 BE
Athlon II X4 640
Phenom II X4 970 BE
Phenom II X6 1075T
Phenom II X6 1100T BE
Core
Deneb
Propus
Deneb
Thuban
Thuban
Clock speed
3,7 GHz
3 GHz
3,5 GHz
3,2 GHz
3,3 GHz
L2 Cache
2 MB
2 MB
2 MB
3 MB
3 MB
L3 Cache
6 MB
-
6 MB
6 MB
6 MB
TPD (W)
125
95
125
125
125
Just like all the previous AMD-chips we've reviewed, also the Phenom II X4 980 arrived at our doorstep as a tray
model, so there's no cooler included. Instead, we're using a high performance air cooler to test the performance and push
the chip to its limits in overclocking.
Just like the last couple of flag ship quad cores - 965, 970 and 975 - the newcomer shares the same TDP of 125 watts,
but manages to squeeze another 100 MHz from the Deneb core. So far the clock speed boost hasn't affected the price of the
flag ship model too much, so it can be expected the 980 will follow this trend and retail at roughly the same price as
the 975. A new model at the top of the processor family always also drops the prices of the lower end models, which is
good news to anyone updating an AM3 processor.
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