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AMD's Phenom II 965, 3.4GHz, 140 Watts, $245

Vigile writes "While AMD does not have the muscle to push around the i7, they certainly have the ability to give the older and more common Core 2 Quads a run for their money. With the release of the Phenom II X4 965, AMD further attempts to dethrone the Core 2 Quad as the premier midrange CPU offering. While it may not be a world-beater by any stretch of the imagination, it certainly is catching Intel's attention in the breadbasket of the CPU market. The X4 965 is the fastest clocked processor that AMD has ever produced, much less shipped in mass quantities. While the speed bump is appreciated, the cost in terms of power and heat will make the introduction of the X4 965 problematic for some. Many of us thought that we would never see another 140 watt processor (as the Phenom 9950 was), but unfortunately those days are back. Still, AMD offers a compelling part at a reasonable price, and their motherboard support for this new 140 watt processor is robust."

26 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm running a Q9550 at 3.4 Ghz right now (with the ability to go much higher) and mine only uses 95 watts.

    AMD has a long ways to go to get back in the game. I can't imagine craptacular ideas like purchasing ATI are helping.

    1. Re:FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Intel and AMD release different numbers for their CPU's power consumption. Intel gives an average and AMD gives a maximum. They're not comparible. In real world testing, the X4 965 uses slightly less power at idle and slightly more power at full load than a stock Q9550.

    2. Re:FAIL by A+Friendly+Troll · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Intel and AMD release different numbers for their CPU's power consumption. Intel gives an average and AMD gives a maximum. They're not comparible. In real world testing, the X4 965 uses slightly less power at idle and slightly more power at full load than a stock Q9550.

      Sadly, that is incorrect.

      http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/phenom-ii-x4-965_4.html#sect0

      While idle is comparable (Intel has a slight lead), full load most definitely isn't - 75% extra power consumption (which amounts to over 60W!) for the X4 965 over a Q9550 is far from "slightly more".

    3. Re:FAIL by mdm-adph · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You were running 95 watts at stock (2.83 GHz). You're way, way over that by now!

      --
      It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
    4. Re:FAIL by Nuno+Sa · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sadly, that is incorrect.

      http://techreport.com/articles.x/17402/11

      "Interestingly enough, the systems based on Phenom II quad-cores (including the X4 965) draw quite a bit less power at idle than our Q9550-based test system."

      "That said, the X4 965-based system draws only 15W more than the Q9550-based one. The gap between the Q9550- and X4 965-based systems is thus smaller than the processors' TDP ratings alone suggest. [In full load]"

      "By virtue of its lower system power draw at idle and its ability to finish the rendering task sooner, the Phenom II X4 965 fares better than the Q9550 in our two most important measures of energy efficiency."

    5. Re:FAIL by A+Friendly+Troll · · Score: 4, Informative

      Tech Report tells a different story: ... A story that says that you can't necessarily compare like-for-like when using different motherboards.

      Which is why X-bit Labs did this:

      To get a better idea of the situation, we performed a separate Phenom II X4 965 power consumption test under heavy load when none of the other system components are taken into account. To be more exact, we measured the consumption along the 12 V power line connected directly to the processor voltage regulator on the mainboard. In other words, this measurement method didnt take into account the efficiency of the voltage regulator circuitry. ... and got 84W for the Q9550 and 147.6W for the X4 965. Granted, like they said in the last sentence, this doesn't take VRM efficiency into account, and it might as well be that those on the AMD motherboard were woefully inefficient and the CPU itself uses plenty less watts than measured. Still, this is 75% extra, and the VRMs cannot be the main reason for it.

      They do similar measurements for graphics cards, too, because measuring total system power consumption from the wall can only get you so far.

      I'd personally be more inclined to trust the Ukrainians.

    6. Re:FAIL by evanbd · · Score: 3, Informative

      Generally speaking, CMOS power consumption is the result of charging and discharging gate capacitors. The charge required to fully charge the gate grows with the voltage; charge times frequency is current. Voltage times current is power. So, as you raise the voltage, the current consumption grows linearly, and the power consumption quadratically, at a fixed frequency. Once you reach the frequency limit of the chip without raising the voltage, further frequency increases are normally proportional to voltage. In other words, once you have to start raising the voltage, power consumption tends to rise with the cube of frequency.

  2. My Computer ... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Funny

    .. can now double as still for my homemade vodka

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  3. problematic for some: by nimbius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    read: if you didnt shit in a marble toilet this morning and start the day trying to figure out which of your sedans to drive to the office, you may find this chips introduction "problematic" from a pricing standpoint.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:problematic for some: by PitaBred · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The thing is, it's the value proposition of AMD that's attractive... the motherboards are cheaper, and you can upgrade incrementally with them. You don't have to get a whole new system to upgrade. The AM3 chips fit into the AM2+ sockets, the AM3 chips are compatible with DDR2 RAM as well as DDR3...

  4. Re:This is midrange? by SkankinMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Have you seen Intel's pricing? Can't get a decent solution from them including a motherboard for under 500 whereas I just recently built a full Phenom II computer for about 400 (including hard drive). I'm not convinced that Intel is really interested in mid-ranged computing.

  5. The era of the silicon chip is gone. by For+a+Free+Internet · · Score: 3, Funny

    AMD and Intel are just running on its fumes. Silicon (Si) is inherently limited by its inorganic composition which means it produces lots of heat especially when it is on the Web. All the smart engineers at the secret R&D labs are working on organic computing: solving the paradox of user interface versus wattage by harnessing the power of bacteria to create a new paradigm of information that is multi-dimensional. Instead of "processes" and "treads" and "HTML" we will have gases and sugars dancing to the rhythm of our wildest imaginations. And one more thing... you will not need your eyes any more since the two-dimensional "screen" and "paper" metaphor will be replaced by a revolutionary direct access to pure consciousness. Buy my book.

    --
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  6. Re:This is midrange? by Stenchwarrior · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because it's between this

    And this

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  7. Re:is this for desktop or server ? by Flea+of+Pain · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wait what? This also serves as a penile extension??!!?? I"ll take 3!

    --
    Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
  8. Re:This is midrange? by afidel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because it's between $100 and $500 which is probably the high end for most PC class processors. Intel has the Core2Duo at the low end, the Core2Quad and the low end Core i7 in the midrange and the faster Core i7 at the high end with a few enthusiast offering at the extremely high end (~$1000). That's basically been the market as long as I can remember which dates back to the early 90's.

    --
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  9. Re:More cores? by lukas84 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Beckton, the 8 core / 16 threads Nehalem CPU will be out in Q1 2010.

    http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/opinion/1050976/intel-bunch-fun-cpus-moves-2010

  10. Re:i7 920 130watt - $280, x4 965 140 watt - $245. by beelsebob · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can get an i7 920 for $200, so not only is it faster and lower power, it's also cheeper.

    http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727

  11. Re:Q6600 by PotatoFarmer · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's a long time to not see a jump in speed, what happened to "doubling every 18 months"? We should be around 24ghz by now.

    If you're referring to Moore's law, it's not a doubling of speed every 18 months, it's a doubling of transistor counts. Clock speed has never been part of that equation, no matter what intel's late-1990s marketing department would have you believe.

  12. hard comparison to make by buddyglass · · Score: 3, Interesting
    • AMD Phenom II X4 965 - $249
    • Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 - $219
    • Intel Core i7 920 - $279

    Article shows that performance is roughly equivalent beween the Q9550 and Phenom 965, with the AMD part enjoying a slight advantage if you look at all the benchmarks together. This while costing $30 more and consuming more power.

    Would be interesting to see a comparison of the i7 920 with the Phenom. I'm guessing the 920 would outperform, which is what you'd expect since you're paying $30 more.

  13. Re:i7 920 130watt - $280, x4 965 140 watt - $245. by Hadlock · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, but you have to pay the "i7 tax" for a new $220+ motherboard. Core2Duo/Quads will happily plug into any $50 motherboard you (already) have.

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
  14. 38 C ain't that hot by Kyont · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I recently completed a home-build with this very CPU. Sure, the chip was the single most expensive piece, but with NewEgg combo deals and shipping discounts, I got the entire machine for about $600, including a smashing new case, plenty of RAM and disk space, extra USB ports and two disc burners. That's mid-range in my book.

    I'm sure some of you hardware nerds will smack me down for one reason or another, but as a starting point I just installed the AMD factory CPU cooler it came with. I don't know what wattage it's pulling, but the CPU temperature is holding very steady at about 38 Celcius, and the fans don't even seem to be working very hard for that. It's working great, and at those temperatures, it should do fine for years to come.

    My $0.02 on the very rare occasion of having first-hand experience with the actual hardware in the story.

    --
    You shall see a cow on the roof of a cotton house.
    1. Re:38 C ain't that hot by JumpDrive · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'd mod you up.
      But this is the customer line they are looking for. We currently use 6 computers with Phenom II 940's onboard at this time for data analysis. When comparing these with Intel computers the cost would have been much higher. What we found repeatedly during matrix calculations was that the performance vs cost just wasn't a contest.
      I am really really beginning to wonder how much calculation stress people put on their computer in this mid-range market, because I hear and see all of these benchmarks and people discussing their performance and I just don't see a cost performance comparison. I have talked with other people who do some of the same type of work and they see the same thing.
      We do take some added cautions with air circulation just to make sure that we don't run into issues. We repeatedly have cranked these things for 24 hours straight with cpu's running at 70 to 95% of capacity and actually had one occasion where the systems ran over a weekend (limits weren't set correctly).

    2. Re:38 C ain't that hot by Nuno+Sa · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah. Intel's TDP definition is different from AMD's. AMD reports the maximum wattage the CPU can burn at full load. Intel reports a "typical" number.

      If this was an Intel CPU the number would be something like 90W or 95W for the very same CPU.

      Anyway, everybody knows that. You can't trust vendor's numbers. Just do your own checking with a power meter.

    3. Re:38 C ain't that hot by man_of_mr_e · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I really don't understand why anyone would buy the Phenom.. At $245 it's $46 more expensive than the Core i7 920 and performs significantly worse. The 965 isn't listed there, but 955 is, and it's passmark rating is 3,571 while the i7 920 is rated at 5,440. And that's not even considering the fact that you are using triple channel memory access versus dual channel, etc..

      Granted, you can get AM3 motherboards cheaper than X58 boards, but Intel is coming out with more consumer i7 chipsets very soon.

  15. Re:AMD... by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now if I could only efficiently recirculate air from my 150 sqft office to the rest of the house, I wouldn't need a furnace...

    If you have a furnace (or forced air system) see if you can turn on the fan only. The return(s) in the room should pull the heat out of the office to the other rooms. That is if you have a return in the office, a good system has a return (even a small one) in every room. My house built in the mid 1950's has small returns in every room.

  16. AMD vs Intel by sanosuke001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know I'll be called a fanboy or something but I've been building AMD/ATI systems for the last ten years based solely on the fact that it isn't Intel/nVidia. I'm not going to pay $1000 for the top-of-the-line Intel chip anyway and I'd rather see AMD in business than Intel be the only big player.

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    -SaNo