http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/16382
TechReport has the first reliable review of AMD's new Socket AM3, Phenom II CPUs.
| Model | Clock speed | North bridge/ L3 cache speed |
L3 cache size |
Cores | TDP | Price |
| Phenom II X3 710 | 2.6 GHz | 2.0 GHz | 6MB | 3 | 95W | $125 |
| Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition | 2.8 GHz | 2.0 GHz | 6MB | 3 | 95W | $145 |
| Phenom II X4 805 | 2.5 GHz | 2.0 GHz | 4MB | 4 | 95W | - |
| Phenom II X4 810 | 2.6 GHz | 2.0 GHz | 4MB | 4 | 95W | $175 |
| Phenom II X4 910 | 2.6 GHz | 2.0 GHz | 6MB | 4 | 95W | - |
Their conclusion:
"And, at 2.8GHz, the 720 is fast enough to match up pretty well against the Core 2 Duo E8400 in many applications—including games—that tend to run best with fewer and faster cores. In more widely multithreaded apps where the 720's third core kicks in, the Phenom II X3 almost always outruns the E8400, sometimes dramatically. Oddly enough, the 720's combination of three cores and relatively high clock speeds may be the ideal trade-off for the current state of PC software. Who knew?
Add in the X3 720's fairly tame power consumption, its apparently excellent overclocking proposition, and the fact that—regardless of memory type—the Phenom II has a superior system architecture to the Core 2, and the E8400 starts to look rather weak by comparison. The Phenom II X3 720 is our new favorite among mid-range PC processors. Look for it to secure a place in one of the builds in our upcoming system guide refresh."
So AMD is finally competitive in respectable gaming PCs again. They also managed a stable 3.5GHz overclock with the standard cooler - a 25% increase. At 3.5GHz, it challenged Intel's top quad-core (the Core i7 965) which goes for over $1000.
