AMD launches 140W and 65W four-core processors

With the arrival of the Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition, for the first time AMD's quad-core processor family of desktop CPUs reaches the 2.6GHz mark – albeit at the cost of a relatively high power consumption figure of 140W Thermal Design Power (TDP) under full load. At the same time, AMD is introducing its highly power-efficient four-core processors, which the manufacturer says will make do with less than half this power consumption, at 65W TDP. The Phenom X4 9350e operates at speeds of up to 2 GHz, and the Phenom X4 9150e at up to 1.8 GHz. AMD says the Phenom X4 9950 provides around 17 per cent more performance than the Phenom X4 9350e.

All three new processor versions come with revised B3 stepping. The Phenom X4 9150e replaces the Phenom X4 9100e with B2 stepping, which has not yet appeared in the official AMD price list and is not listed in this Phenom overview, although it is mentioned on the Product Information web page. Some German on-line sales companies are already offering the Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition, but are not yet able to deliver.

The Black Edition processors from AMD have no restriction on the multiplier, which determines the effective clock speed of the CPU relative to the 200MHz base clock speed of the HyperTransport 3.0 link – the successor to the front side bus. This means that you can set a higher clock speed by over-clocking the CPU using AMD Overdrive or Nvidia System Tools, or on some motherboards, via a convenient Windows screen. Beware, however, that AMD's product warranty does not cover damage from over-clocking.

Because of its high consumption, the 140W four-core is only suitable for use with motherboards that have a sufficiently powerful core voltage converter. AMD maintains a list of such motherboards on its website. Some cheaper micro-ATX motherboards can have problems even with the 125W Phenom – the 125W version of the 9750, or the 9850 Black Edition. AMD is now supplying a 95W version (HD9750WCJ4BGH/HD9750WCGHBOX) of the Phenom X4 9750 (OPN HD9750XAJ4BGH/HD9750XAGHBOX) that was initially available only as a 125W device. Interestingly, the 95W variant tolerates 70  degrees C, or 9 degrees more, allowing the possibility of quieter cooling.

AMD has now confirmed the prices of its new processors. Because there is no change in the prices of the processors that have already been shipping, the company's pricing structure is now somewhat illogical.

(trk)