I’m going through the 20 pages of the article at Anandtech now, but the headline is it AMD are back in the game. I’m sure the usual tech sites will all have their version too. Here’s a couple to get started with. I don’t think my lunch break is long enough…
Anandtech: “AMD Phenom II X4 940 & 920: A True Return to Competition”
XBitLabs: “Sometimes They Come Back: AMD Launching Phenom II X4”
my brain hurts!!
good review though and good to see AMD starting to deliver again 
Its a step forward but only upto the performance level of the Core Due/Quad architecture
Its certainly no answer yet to I7 but maybe now they have that stepping stone to be on track to reducing the gap and getting back to being the AMD of old now that the ATI side is on track and the foundry company is in place.
It does look good pricewise compared to the i7 chip. 
i7 (on low end) is cheap! It’s only the mobo that goes with it that kills it.
Finished reading up on Anandtech… as others have said, not a bad catch up. Still lagging a bit “per clock” but at least they’re up there on clock now!
Regardless, it can only push the lower quad prices down 
Got to play with one at an AMD show last week for VARS. It was right up there with Intel on many fronts (i7 no). The price points was where it’s at. Pairing with ATI and ATI/AMD Chipset and add in Spider, and ATI it just fits. Intel should have bought NV, and they would have a serious answer, and drive the market. The things I see are ATI/AMD together will start late this year making a lower cost solution so cheap, Intel and i7 can have the top…AMD/ATI will take the bottom 80% and they can have the top 20%…wait that’s not right low end selling more then high end…Price points are the point! Systems that can run better then basic games around 700$ US is the point, and the answer is the plan AMD has in road map!
The Phenom II’s are a great improvement over the Phenoms but they can’t touch an i7 in crunching. If you look at the crunching performance only the i7 is actually more efficient. The Phenom II overall is MUCH more efficient than the any previous AMD chips.
If you are not going to crunch with it (if you are playing games, etc…) the Phenom II is probably a better choice. The motherboard and RAM combo’s (AMD 940 vs i7 920) are within $150.00 American.
I believe AMD has always been the best overall value and I’m glad we have choices.
Does anyone on the SETI team have a Phenom II?
not yet :devil:
DT.
I’m thinking about putting a Shuttle together with a Phenom II but I kinda want to wait for the DDR3 versions.
having a shop around and the motherboard choice is what is holding me back as well, I like the thought of being able to use my existing DD2, especially as DDR3 is so expensive.
I think I might give it a few weeks, you always pay a premium when you take on new tech first
DT.
unless your going I7 i’d forget DDR3
Got DDR3 in my Intel rig and tbh I run it slower and tighter in the settings.
Might as well just have a decent DDR2
Just my view
[QUOTE=DoubleTop;432581]having a shop around and the motherboard choice is what is holding me back as well, I like the thought of being able to use my existing DD2, especially as DDR3 is so expensive.
I think I might give it a few weeks, you always pay a premium when you take on new tech first
DT.[/QUOTE]
Agreed.
[QUOTE=PMM;432585]unless your going I7 i’d forget DDR3
Got DDR3 in my Intel rig and tbh I run it slower and tighter in the settings.
Might as well just have a decent DDR2
Just my view :)[/QUOTE]
Does your Intel rig have an on-chip memory controller? The Phenom II does (as with the i7). You probably can’t compare your Intel rig to the Phenom II with DDR2/DDR3 because the platforms are so different.
I have noticed though that on many systems the DDR2 actually runs better.
It’s probably more like what DT said. I want the latest tech and the DDR2 is not the latest. That’s the only thing keeping me from a Phenom II right now. Well, that and motherboard selection.
here we go, price wars time - Intel dropped prices to compete with AMD.
AMD responded by dropping prices even more! I’m surprised Gibbo hasn’t been across yet, so I’ll post the links here
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 920 2.8GHz Socket AM2 - Retail
Price: £139.99 +VAT (£160.99 Inc. VAT)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz Socket AM2 - Retail
Price: £161.99 +VAT (£186.29 Inc. VAT)
Now at that price a return to AMD is looking a lot more likely for a lot of home machines. I wonder how long it will take to filter through to the machine builders like Dell HP etc etc
DT.
It was bound to happen soon, what with the credit crunch and sales slowing down. Better to ship a lot of units at a lower price than none at all. Makes life better for us poor penniless souls though 
I may have to throw a 940 in a nice Shuttle box and play around a bit. They’re supposed to OC pretty well.
My i7 doesn’t overclock as well as most of the review sites say, but I just threw a Thermaltake SpinQ on it this morning and it’s happy as a clam at 3.56GHz. About 63 deg C with all 8 cores at 100%. I could probably get 3.8GHz at full load with a bit better air cooling or lower ambient temps.
Look for a few more stomps in the next couple of weeks.:wiggle::wiggle::wiggle:
63 C , isnt that alot ? and 8 cores ? i thought there was only quds = 4 cores :S… maybe im not up to date :L
The CPU is rated at 100C so 63C is beautiful considering the overclocking and ambient temps.
You are correct about it being 4 physical cores, but it is 8 virtual CPUs because the cores are each hyper-thread enabled. In order to load the CPU fully you must run 8 WU’s at a time or turn off HT and run 4.