AMD Phenom X4 620 and Phenom X3 420

[Botan]

Quad-core processors from the technical perspective, little by little more interesting. Many customers in the mainstream market yet but have been deterred by the price. This AMD will officially change to the present day. Therefore, the manufacturer sent the young offshoot of this year was very successful acting Phenom-II processors into the race, calling these derivatives "Athlon". The complete name of the CPU, the AMD introduces today is "AMD Athlon X4 620". This new model at 2.6 GHz and (in contrast to the Phenom II) with no L3 cache, we will look at the following sites closer to. At a price of just € 85 from four cores penetrate into price, in which so many seeds have been spotted in a processor before. Succeed in the new processor, moreover, to deliver a good performance, it is true that in the end the whole package? "Core" has been the new edition of the Phenom in the form of the Phenom II earlier this year for a processor without L3 cache, and so the cheaper option. The "X4" represents four cores, because there are already well known models of the Athlon X2, X3 variants with three cores are coming soon. The numeral "II" represents the new generation of AMD processors at the beginning of 2009 was introduced. This refers primarily to the 45-nm production, which has ironed out many small weaknesses of the last 65-nm manufacturing.

[Recko]

Basis for the new quad-core Athlon is officially the "Propus. Behind this lies a new code name, the, without reliance on the L3 cache. AMD, it is possible for some time very skillfully and efficiently, with as "little" a maximum effort to present models can be. Virtually all desktop processors this year based on only three different manufacturing masks. First and foremost is the "Deneb" mask, which is identical to that of the 'Shanghai' server processors. From this quad-core mask there is currently the most branch in the trade. There is for a complete series of the flagship Phenom X4 900, but also the variations with the model numbers 800, 700 and 500 come from her. The second mask is already available for the dual-core processors, codenamed "Regor" and most likely way for the new Sempron, the core must again do without a thought.

[Shutdown]

The third and today formally presented to the mask would be the most important Deneb. Finally, for this will not only four-core processors are drawn, the three Kerner "Rana" and low-power versions with a TDP of 45 watts can be expected. What makes the Propus (and already at the Regor manufacturing mask) is that chip area and number of transistors is significantly lower due to complete lack of L3 cache and the effective yield of a wafer is much higher than the Phenom II This is in addition to the customers (lower prices and lower power consumption) and the cost of AMD to the best.

[Mentos]

In theory, everything is really clear. But the theoretical data are only one part of the show in our hands, the Phenom X4 620, he can. Already in the BIOS, we had to find with dismay that the new Athlon expects of II with four cores at only 2.6 GHz 1.375 volts. But, unfortunately, also brought several BIOS updates do not change, the tension seems to really be mounted AMD covered. On paper, the Phenom X4 620 at 1.375 volts would then number 2 in terms of high-voltage factory default, only the 800 MHz higher clocked AMD's flagship Phenom X4 965 Black Edition outbid - this takes 1.4 volts. The day before the end of the NDA, the press provided details of the new Phenom X4 speak of a working range of voltage that should be 0.952 to 1.425 Volts. Given this high stress and not just low TDP of 95 watts specified in advance, it seems questionable whether it is something with the expected power consumption is low.

[Gefry]

The fact that AMD wants to do something with the power / must also still show the proposed models of the Athlon X4, which were not officially presented today. For a version with a TDP of 45 watts, the voltage at barely 1.3 x start voltage. This should be selected very strongly by the manufacturer, especially as the same clock speed goes down significantly again. The section undervolting in our test already shows that this is very possible. With over 20 percent less power we could run the processor at the same rhythm, which of course has dramatically positive effects. Parallel to Today's Athlon X4 620, we also simulate the coming model with three cores with identical clock of 2.6 GHz. This is simply about the BIOS, where you can select already offer as many active cores of the processor is for.