AMD announces socket AM3 Phenom II processors

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 9th February 2009
Comments (11) Stumble
AMD announces socket AM3 Phenom II processors

AMD launches five new AM3 CPUs today, supporting both DDR3 and DDR2.

AMD has this morning announced five new additions to its Phenom II processor family, which all feature support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory.

We were expecting to publish a full review of the new processors today, but this weekend's move into our new headquarters in London has delayed things somewhat after a few teething problems during our testing.

There are three new quad-core and a pair of triple-core processors that have been introduced today, all of which are using the new 45nm SOI fabrication process. Of the three quad-core chips, two are clocked at 2.6GHz - the Phenom II X4 910 and 810 - and a third, the Phenom II X4 805, runs at 2.5GHz.

Lower down the range, the two triple-core processors, the Phenom II X3 720 and 710, will come clocked at 2.8GHz and 2.6GHz respectively. Both feature 1.5MB of L2 cache and a full 6MB of L3 and the model 720 processor is also a Black Edition, which means its multiplier is unlocked.

All of the processors announced today support DDR2 memory at up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) and DDR3 at up to PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) speeds. There is a catch though - if you're running four DIMMs (to use, say, 8GB of RAM), the supported speeds drop to PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066), effectively nullifying the advantage of DDR3. To be honest, (and we've still yet to finish testing) things are not looking that wonderful for AMD, with DDR3 at 1,333MHz at CAS-7 sometimes affording a negligible performance benefit. AMD itself states "five percent" to us, but this is only in particular applications.

Without expressly confirming with bit-tech, AMD in not so many words has incinuated that it will require a whole new core revision before four DDR3 DIMMs are supported at full speed, so it maybe worth waiting to upgrade. It's unfortunate, because the latest batch of AM3 motherboards, like the Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P we used for testing, seem very good.

The 910 and 810 processors are fundamentally the same and the only difference appears to be in cache size - the 900 series Phenom IIs feature 6MB of shared L3 cache, while on the 800 series this is reduced to 4MB. The cache reduction shouldn't have much of an impact on performance - we'll have a detailed performance breakdown on this soon - but it should save you a bit of cash if you want to upgrade.

Pricing for the 910 and 805 hasn't been confirmed yet - it's not on AMD's official price list - but the 810, 720 and 710 are priced at $175, $145 and $125 respectively when purchased in 1,000 unit quantities. Since the Phenom II X4 920 is listed at $195, that means we can expect the 910 to fit in around the $185 price point but it's OEM only and not a boxed model.

We'll reserve our final judgements until our review, but for now you can share your thoughts on AMD's transition to DDR3 memory in the forums.
Quote TomH 9th February 2009, 13:08
It's useful if you are buying now, and heart-set on using DDR3 for future compatibility (obviously you can run your 1600MHz DIMMs at a slower speed for now) but aside from that, I'd have thought AMD are more-than-likely keen to a) catch up with Intel, b) drive up adoption of DDR3 (and subsequently the price down) and c) avoid locking customers into a memory standard that will eventually become phased-out (however few of them that applies to.)

It's a good thing really, but the performance isn't the benefit sadly. :(
Quote roshan 9th February 2009, 14:24
AMD really in need of a major core redesign to compete with core i7.DDR 3- 1333 i am sure has not got more juice than DDR2- 1066 because of the latency.
Quote ssj12 9th February 2009, 17:00
i hope this means that the Athlon X2 7750BE will drop in price =D
Quote talladega 9th February 2009, 19:57
are these AM3 processors the ones that overclock like crazy?
Quote HourBeforeDawn 9th February 2009, 20:58
So far results are promising on a DDR2 setup the AM3 is performing nearly as well as the i7 using dd3, so I suspect that when the DDR3 mobo come out we should see equal performance or to sum degree better performance, as it is in gaming the AM3 are doing the same or better then the i7 in high resolutions so ya this is looking good.
Quote Yourcomputer 9th February 2009, 21:57
Quote:
Originally Posted by HourBeforeDawn
So far results are promising on a DDR2 setup the AM3 is performing nearly as well as the i7 using dd3, so I suspect that when the DDR3 mobo come out we should see equal performance or to sum degree better performance, as it is in gaming the AM3 are doing the same or better then the i7 in high resolutions so ya this is looking good.

Sources? I'm really doubting AM3 will bring AMD close to i7. Memory bandwidth really isn't AMD's problem.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 10th February 2009, 02:38
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yourcomputer
Quote:
Originally Posted by HourBeforeDawn
So far results are promising on a DDR2 setup the AM3 is performing nearly as well as the i7 using dd3, so I suspect that when the DDR3 mobo come out we should see equal performance or to sum degree better performance, as it is in gaming the AM3 are doing the same or better then the i7 in high resolutions so ya this is looking good.

Sources? I'm really doubting AM3 will bring AMD close to i7. Memory bandwidth really isn't AMD's problem.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenomii_720_810_am3/
Quote Gh0stDrag0n 10th February 2009, 07:51
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenomii_720_810_am3/

Don't you think it is a little odd that the "overclockers club" did not overclock the Intel processors?
Quote Gremlin 10th February 2009, 07:52
Any idea on when we will (or might) get the article or how long its been delayed for?
Quote talladega 10th February 2009, 17:18
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gh0stDrag0n
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenomii_720_810_am3/

Don't you think it is a little odd that the "overclockers club" did not overclock the Intel processors?
They weren't reviewing the Intel processors. Only the AMD ones. Besides, Intel still whooped them.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 11th February 2009, 00:30
but not by to much and when it comes to pricing alone where its practically half that of an Intel build for an AMD build in terms of CPU, Memory, and Mobo, that little bit more from the Intel side for that large of an expense isnt really worth it unless your doing hardcore OCing.
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