Phenom II X4 965 reviews

Anandtech has reviewed the Phenom II X4 965, the 3.4GHz top chip from AMD. Price is in line with the previous Black Editon model, the X4 965.

There's not much to see, idle power consumption is good, comparable to the lower clocked Core i7 920 and performance is good in games. Load power consumption is of 140W. Ouch.

Good news is the subsequent price drops in all of AMD's lineup, with the Phenom II X3 720 now at $119, the pointless X4 810 gone and the X4 955 priced at $195. Most of the other chips have also gone down in cost and with AMD AM2+ motherboards cheaper than Core i7 equivalents, the Phenom II is still the best budget minded platform around.

Now, where's that mostly pointless, but oh so cool, "Istanbul" based Phenom II X6? Speed bumps can only last this long, 3.6GHz can be possible but 3.8GHz will be pushing the envelope.