AMD's Winter Update: Athlon II X3 455, Phenom II X2 565 and Phenom II X6 1100T
by Anand Lal Shimpi on December 7, 2010 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- AMD
- Phenom II X6
- Athlon II
- Phenom II
Final Words
As a speed bump, today's launch doesn't really change anything. The Athlon II X3 455 continues to be the best buy at under $90, picking up where the 450 left off. Intel hasn't updated the Pentium G6950 since its release nor has it dropped the price of the Core i3 530, leaving AMD with a much better option across the board. If you are lucky enough to get a fourth working core on your X3, well, you can't get better than that.
The Phenom II X6 1100T at $265 is near the sweet spot for price/performance, and I'd say the 1090T at $235 is probably right at it. In many cases you get Lynnfield-like performance and in heavily threaded apps there's no comparison. Single threaded performance is still an Intel advantage, however the gap is narrowing. When the Phenom II X6 launched its price limited it to those users who needed tons of threads, the recent price drops have expanded its appeal.
The Phenom II X2 565 BE is interesting only as a potential triple or quad-core part. Unfortunately it's a risky proposition. Our 565 BE sample only had one functional albeit disabled core, the fourth core was pretty much dead. If you can get a part with four working cores, the 565 BE is a great value. Even with three working cores it's good, but neither of these two outcomes is guaranteed.
I'd say that's the wrapup in order of success. The Athlon II X3 is an easy win, the Phenom II X6 ranges from competitive with Lynnfield to a great value and the Phenom II X2 is a nice chip to tweak but uninspired at stock.
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8steve8 - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
kind of surprised sandy bridge wasn't even mentioned in the conclusions...considering these cpus will only be competing with the westmeres for less than a month before sandy bridge is everywhere...
AMD seems to only be able to compete on price, kind of sad.
It'll likely not change as long as Intel is >18 months ahead in terms of process technology used in fabrication.
Calin - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
This opens the door for another article comparing the Sandy Bridge processors (when they will be available) to the current (for now) offerings. I'm too waiting for the Sandy Bridge launch (but I probably won't buy one)semo - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
Intel is still selling C2Ds. What makes you think SB will be everywhere any time soon? Intel are always slow with their new releases (not easy supplying the whole globe I would think).vol7ron - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
Doesn't the US come first?Einy0 - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
Think again... Almost all tech companies release products in Asia first.SandmanWN - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
Errr "leaked" their first.misfit410 - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
I think there is more to it than just price, Intels issue is how fragmented it's market is right now, I like to start with a cheap build, mid range CPU and know I have upgrade options, if I did an AMD Dual Core right now I know that I can go to a 6 Core later for some great performance when it's economically possible.If I go i3, I have very few upgrade options, need a new motherboard for i5, then If I want to move up from there yet another motherboard for i7..
I personally think this was the worst way to go about covering all areas of the market.
BSMonitor - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
Except if you went Lynnfield right now, you would already be ahead of AMD's fastest 6-core offering. And much cheaper than buying a $100 processor now, with another $200 processor later.And to the other guy, Intel ramps slowly? Uhhh, not really. Core i7 has been around for 2 years now. In its many flavors. The reason Core 2 Duo still sells... It is actually MUCH faster than that Athlon II x3 Anand just tested.
silverblue - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
LOL... no it's not. I really don't know where you got that from.Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link
Intel E7500, still selling on newegg for $125. AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition is currently $99 yet wins 17 out of 26 tests on anand's own bench, and is about 5% faster overall. So for 20% less you get faster performance, plus the opportunity to unlock a free bonus. But you can bet the intel part still sells 5 times more.