AMD's 3.4GHz Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition review roundup: fast, but not Intel fast
By Darren Murph 
posted Aug 13th 2009 12:32AM
posted Aug 13th 2009 12:32AM
Read - HotHardware review
Read - Tom's Hardware review
Read - Anandtech's review
Read - PC Perspective's review
Read - Elite Bastards review
Read - Neoseeker review
Read - Overclocker's Club review
AMD Platform Technology, Codenamed "Dragon" Raises the Performance Bar With the World's Highest Frequency Quad-Core Desktop Processor
- Combined with enhanced hardware and software features, the new AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition delivers a superior visual entertainment experience with unbeatable price/performance-
What: AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced the world's highest clocked quad-core processor for desktop PCs, the AMD PhenomTM II X4 965 Black Edition processor. As an integral part of Dragon platform technology, this new processor features a stock frequency of 3.4 GHz, massive headroom, high-speed DDR3 memory support and AMD OverDriveTM 3.0 technology* to deliver an enthusiast-class performance that fits into value-based budgets.
Why: Since its initial launch in January 2009, Dragon platform technology has provided great performance at a great price. From the only company with unlocked CPUs and backwards compatibility for DDR2 memory, the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor helps customers pay less for more, period. Available for a Suggested System Builder Price of $245, users opting for Intel may be paying more for less or equal performance.
Benefits: With this platform, AMD is combining its fastest processor ever with the massive graphics processing muscle of its most powerful GPUs to enable the following features:
* Record-setting overclocking capabilities
* AMD OverDriveTM 3.0 tuning software
* High-speed DDR3 memory support
* Planned future DirectX® 11 support for the latest games
* AMD Black Edition Memory Profiles for custom experiences
* Cool'n'QuietTM 3.0 technology to enable improved efficiency and help keep your PC running cool and quiet
Just another way for AMD to try and regain any respect lol
"Say what you will about AMD, but don't you dare call it lazy."
Just because someone is running around in circles like a chicken missing a leg doesn't mean their lazy, just useless, though they offer the world quite a bit of amusement nonetheless...
@AltairAntare
what are you talking about? Atleast they are competing with Intel which in turn means lower prices for the consumers of both companies. I'd say they are better than your lazy ass, atleast they're doing more than just bashing a company pointlessly on a blog comment.
They should have priced it lower , they need to do that to get more marketshare....
Marketshare at the loss of profits does not a good business plan make. See Sony and the Playstation 3.
The price should go down in a couple of weeks.
Didn't Sony do the opposite of that with the PS3?
This would be a killer deal at $200
you can get a 940 for under $190 now. i clocked mine up to 3.5GHz without a problem.
really? 920s aren't to hard to find at that price, but last time I checked, 940s still went for over 300.
@Matthew C
yup, its available at 190 at amazon. and frankly, i think its a steal.
Also worth noting: 945 at newegg for $170 right now.
ya, a little expensive
Not if you consider the overall system cost. This CPU can still be operated with DDR2 memory which is about half the price of DDR3. The same is true for Motherboards. Intel i7 motherboards run at least 1/3 higher than a comparable AM2+ board.
all the interesting stuff is coming out of the former ATi
Neo could have been something but it needs more support for vendors
How many of you know that AMD licenses Intel's architecture. That right, AMD is nothing but Intel. And their contract states that AMD can't compete with Intel on so many fronts.
yeah, there's via who competes along too. besides, AMD licenses a few technologies to Intel too. its not a one way street.
AMD licenses x86-64 to Intel.
I believe intel and amd have an agreement to not sue each other based for pilfering each others technology. Not quite a grant of a "license" even though amd was originally just a manufacturer of intel chips.
The agreement did not extend to anti-trust actions.
You really are pretty stupid. Both amd and intel now use the x86-x64 architecture, which was created by AMD. And even when they were using x86 that means absolutely NOTHING. Why the hell would amd go and make a completely NEW architecture that has nothing to do with x86 when thats what pretty much every consumer os runs on?
my phenom ii x2 beats that cuz its unlocked
unclocked? is that like when you leave the matrix?
it means my phenom ii x2 took a trip to be a x4
Just dropping in to say that I don't care about this.
I wouldn't normally bother to say that, but lately every article about things I am interested in is visited by a horde of people complaining that since they're not interested or hostile to the product, the article shouldn't have been run.
So I just wanted to say that here.
You must be a Mac/iPhone fan.
btw - I hate those articles.
@James - what did you expect on a gadget site?
If you want hardcore hardware geeks, you'll find them at anandtech, toms hardware, etc. This is an "oooh shiny" site, which is why this is a little out of place here.
AMD maintains its firm lead against Via. Go AMD!!
lol.
I didn't know AMD is going against Via. ;)
best post yet.
lols.
yeah, but seriously, i'd rather go for a $200 amd940 that'll beat the pants off a intel which is similarly priced.
if you look at pure speed and no VFM/ ROI look no further than intel.
if you look at building an awesome system with some compromise on pure speed, but a great system overall, max bang for the buck, then AMD always ruled.
its a pity that AMd cant come out with some cool ads like intel does. but, thankfully, they do come out with great products!
AMD FTW!
2011 will be an important year for turning AMD around. New architecture, and they will be delving back into the mobile [phones] graphics market again.
But for now looks like they can only compete by making their cpu's as cheap as possible -__-'
OMGZ an extra 200MHz makes so much difference oh shit I just came
Remember when a Pentium II was rated at 233mhz?
Don't be silly, how is a 12 year old supposed to remember that?
Genius.
But how much are the DDR3 boards?
Exactly. I'm surprised no one else brought that up. $20 on the CPU here or there is nothing if the mobo+RAM costs you $100 more....
around $200 for a good AM3/DDR3 board. i will not be making the switch to DDR3 for a long time though. 8GB of DDR2 1066 is fine for now
I spent $330 and picked up a AM3 board, 4GB DDR3 1600, and a phenom II x3 720, which I was lucky enough to unlock a core on and overclock to 4 cores @ 3.6GHz. This was an upgrade to replace the core of my socket 939 system. I am quite happy with the bang for the buck you can find these days. Intel may beat the pants off in brute power, but I was surprised to get all this for that little money. I'm not encoding stuff and redlining my cpu all the time, so I can live without i7 power for now. Just hope AMD can hang in there. With no competition, we'll all be buying $500 intel processors in the future.
I'd rather buy a i7 920 at microcenter for $200 :)
This is just a test Google
For me the real problem with Intel is the frequent CPU socket change. No easy way to upgrade your system but to replace the whole thing. In comparison AMD always keeps its socket compatible to newer CPU's. I'm still running a socket AM2+ motherboard with an AM3 CPU (Phenom II X2 550 at 3.4GHz) and much cheaper DDR2 memory.
DDR3 is cheap now too.. around 90-200$
comparable DDR3 memory is double the price. I can pick up 4GB of DDR2 1066 (5-5-5-18) for under $50 while DDR3 1333 (9-9-9-24) is still $100 or more.
We should all thank AMD for keeping Intel in check. Do you guys really think intel would be charging the low prices they do if AMD wasn't around? AMD gives us serious computing power for under $200. We'll be all prepping up the vaseline to buy an Intel quad core if AMD didn't exist. I'll support them any day of the week.
these are REALLY OC stable, so its arguably not worth reviewing under 3.8GHz
Since this is a Black Edition chip, that means it is unlocked and can be heavily overclocked. I'd like to see how it fares against those other Intel chips then, so long as it's within reason, meaning not so heavily overclocked you need a massive water cooling system to keep it from melting.
i have my 940 up from 3.0GHz to 3.52GHz on air cooling. has been running stable for 3 months now. you could probably run this sucker at 4.0GHz!!
It's too bad, back when the first Athlon came out, they had Intel on the ropes. I remember, anyone who was building a gaming PC (I built my first one around then) was using the athlon.
I had that machine up until very recently, Athlon 900, 256mb DDR, Geforce 2 GT 32mb (!), 40GB ATA 100 HDD, You could play 2 windows of Everquest no problem!. That computer to this day with a fresh install of Windows XP boots up faster then 99% of the laptops with 6 gigs of ram and quad core processors..
It wasn't until the Core 2 Duo came out that intel finally surpassed them again in my mind. However, it seems since then AMD has been struggling to keep up. I had a lot of fond memories of AMD, especially when coupled with Nvidia GPUs and Via motherboards. I dunno, I'm really not sure if the ATI deal was in their best interest.
Well in any case, it's good to see AMD looks to stay positive about their position. If they were to go under, you will see processor innovation and customer choice grind to a screeching halt. Intel will have the mainstream consumer market to itself, and they will slow down product deployment as much as possible to save money. Lack of competition benefits no one, and the fact is, other then on synthetic bench marks, I have yet to see something an Intel CPU could do, that a slightly slower AMD CPU couldn't. I guess if nerd points are what your after then the choice is clear, but I like AMD and their products. I use one of their bastard semperon 3000s in my beyond TV DVR box. It records in MPEG2, and converts to DIVx on the fly while I watch live TV. Has a 20 dollar 128MB Geforce 5300 AGP I had sitting around, attached to a cheapo MSI MB and a Hauppage Win-TV Pci (no onboard decoder)
A celeron would crap it's pants, especially one from that generation trying to do that with that supporting hardware. So don't underestimate AMD, they still have some solid products, especially in the mid range. I would use a budget AMD processor any day of the week over a celeron. I only wish they made an Atom competitor, I would be all over that for the car PC's I build as a hobby.