AMD releases Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor
updated 07:50 pm EDT, Wed August 12, 2009
AMD Phenom II X4 965
AMD on Thursday released its newest 45nm quad-core processor for desktop PCs, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor. The device, codenamed Dragon, features a stock frequency of 3.4 GHz, 8GB cache, plenty of headroom, and high-speed DDR3 memory support. The processor also supports AMD OverDrive 3.0 technology for enhanced performance.
The device boasts record-setting overclocking capabilities and DirectX 11 support for use with the latest games. AMD will demonstrate the processor's overclocking at QuakeCon Thursday. The company plans to show a liquid helium-cooled version running at 7GHz.
AMD says it is developing so-called Smart Profiles for games and other processor-intensive applications. About 20 profiles are currently available, and users can create their own profiles using AMD Overdrive software. The company says it is also working with memory vendors to provide specific memory profiles for each manufacturer of DDR3 modules.
AMD is also releasing a plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro, which it claims can video rendering times by a factor of 7. Plug-ins for other applications are being planned, executives said.
The Dragon also features Cool'n'Quiet 3.0 technology, used to improve efficiency while maintaining a viable computer temperature and keeping the PC quiet. The company says the Black Box uses about 9 watts at idle and about 140 watts under heavy use. The processor is backwards-compatible with the AM II+ platform. The Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor is available from Newegg.com for $245.
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08/13, 10:40am |
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plug in is a good idea
I bought an AMD card once before because it supported this amazing encoding ability.
And sure enough on that exact task where software was available it performed amazingly well....then I found out that it wasn't really using the graphics card at all, it was just checking for the graphics card before it would run.
But no matter, that particular encoder was really good for doing that exact task, however, when I went to do my actual work, none of my software used that encoder, and wasn't any faster at all, which, I guess, is to be expected.
So when I read this now, great, if you are using Adobe Premier Pro, and even then only if that exact plugin will do the task you need, then expect that 7 times performance increase is real.
Otherwise, don't buy this thinking they are going to release something that you can use sometime soon, make sure its really available before you buy.
Even though some amazing speedups can be achieved with clever coding, the reality is, if your software stack hasn't been recoded, then your best bet for performance, is buying the overall fastest hardware.
Thats why I bought a core i7 along with SSD drives...the performance increase was both real, and across the board.
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Joined: Aug 2009
I'm glad
I've always been an AMD fan, I'm glad they launched a competitive processor. Not the best on the market, but now they're not so far behind the intel platforms, with ddr3. And check out the new mainboards, the ones with 790gx and 790fx!