http://plaza.fi/muropaketti/artikkelit/tapahtumat/kuvaraportti-phenom-ii-x4-ylikellotusta-nestemaisella-typella

At an official AMD event prior to the launch of their Phenom II CPUs (the 45nm K10 quad-core Deneb), a team of overclockers got a Deneb to boot at 6.28GHz using liquid nitrogen cooling. It could run Crysis at ~6.1GHz and complete 3DMark at ~6.0GHz. According to AMD, the CPUs at these events aren't cherry-picked either.

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My take:

While retail Phenom II chips will likely not reach such high speeds on air cooling, AMD claims that the initial retail chips can hit 4.0GHz on air. Chips will be sold as high as 3.0GHz commercially, but with the vastly improved overclocking potential and some revisions over the Deneb lifecycle, I estimate retail chips will eventually be sold at 3.4GHz.

Unofficial pre-release benchmarks, based on engineering sample Denebs and the already-released server versions, Opterons based on the Shanghai core, a 3.0GHz Deneb can match a 2.83GHz Penryn (45nm Core 2 Duo) in most applications and beat a 3.0GHz Penryn in some. DDR2-supporting (Socket AM2+) chips will go on sale in early January at around $250 for the 3.0GHz unlocked version, and DDR3 (Socket AM3) chips in February. Tri-core, L3-cache-less and Dual-core versions will go on sale later this year.

Good stuff, its great news for anyone building an AMD platform to know they can easily upgrade to some pretty fast chips if they want to on AM2+

Yes; the AM3 chips can also go in Socket AM2/AM2+ as well, so even new chips a year or two from now will still work in current boards. Nehalem, on the other hand...

Theres that, theres also the fact you can get an unlocked multiplier CPU for a reasonable price and overclock the bejesus out of it. I would pick that for a short time at least AMD will hold the mid range and low end price/performance crowns. Thats the reason all the chump boxes I ever posted were AMD AM2+ chipsets. Its so the poor chumps can upgrade if they wish to.

Hmmm. Combine that with the AMD Fusion Beta and.... laughing to the bank.

AMD has some strong mid-end CPUs with the Phenom but Intel's Core i7 is still way stronger even with the Phenom reaching those clocks. Still the Core i7 can OC pretty well too considering.

btw, should i get a Phenom II or the Athlon 7750BE to upgrade my 4600+? Also should I spend the $80 for an AM2+ mopherboard with a DECENT FSB?

Yep. ~4yrs from now when I upgrade again and pass down my current Intel core 2 Duo E8400 to my kids, there will be some awesome hardware out there.

I think the Core i7 is a huge disappointment actually. In games (which is what most people buy high end PCs for), the 3.2GHz Core i7 965 is often beaten by the old 3.2GHz QX9770. Also, HT-disabled performance is often 10%+ higher, with lower power consumption, than HT-enabled. I think the new Phenom will beat the low-end (2.66GHz) Core i7 in a number of games. Even on the server, until QS Nehalem's arrive, Anandtech concludes the Opterons are currently better than Intel's offerings.

If they can get the Phenom II up to 3.4 or 3.6GHz with DDR3 soon, they have a chance at matching a higher Core i7. They won't be the best, but they might be profitable. Beyond that, their roadmap is in a worse state...

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According to reviews, the X2 7750 matches the 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo E5200 at the moment, so would be a huge improvement over the 4400+. However, I would wait for triple-core or quad-core Phenom IIs early (~March) next year with similar power consumption to the dual core but with better performance both single-thread and multi-thread. It'll be worth getting an AM3 board then: they won't be more expensive than an AM2+ by then and DDR3 will be cheaper than now.

This is because the games arent coded to work with the new hardware. Remember Intel isnt using an FSB anymore meaning that data is handled differently. Wait for game updates and new driver updates than things will be different.