AMD rolls out new Phenom microprocessors

thepirateboy · 27-03-2008, 01:06 PM

Quote:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on Wednesday unveiled new microprocessors for the desktop personal computer market, in a move that could sharpen its competitive edge against rival Intel Corp .

Among the chips in AMD's Phenom family of processors is one that has three cores, or electronics brains, compared with the two or four most generally available. AMD said that its Phenom X3 has as much as a 30 percent performance improvement in some instances compared to a dual-core chip operating at the same frequency.

AMD first disclosed plans to make the Phenom X3 in 2007, saying then that it was able to build a three-core chip because the brains are on the same piece of silicon, rather than two or four cores on different pieces of silicon joined together.

The company had a difficult 2007 as its full-year loss swelled to $3.38 billion from a net loss of $166 million in 2006. Partly to blame was a design problem with its Barcelona server chip that AMD said was key to regaining its competitive edge against Intel.

The processors announced on Wednesday are aimed principally at the mainstream PC market, but also include a high-end Phenom Black Edition chip that video gamers can easily speed up themselves, a process known as overclocking, an analyst said.

"AMD is increasingly focused on the mainstream PC market and I think they will be quite competitive there," said analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.

AMD has improved its execution so far in 2008, said Patrick Moorhead, a marketing vice president at AMD, pointing to new graphics chips from ATI, a chipmaker it bought, and a new chipset that he said was receiving strong reviews.

"I think we're on a little bit of a roll here," Moorhead said. "2008 is a much better year for us."

He said the new processors from AMD are particularly well suited to applications like editing and watching high-definition video, multimedia and gaming.

PCs using the processors will be available later this week or next week, Moorhead said, and will be available online by late Wednesday.

AMD

spitfire · 27-03-2008, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thepirateboy

AMD

Low end quad core phenoms are already priced at 8.5k..so I recon..these 3 core procys just might be priced around 4-7k range..making it very sweet deal against intel counterparts..

And anther thing...AMD should phase out X2 right away..and introduce dual cores based on phenom architecture...

with 780g...a dual or triple core phenom can be a killer combination for value/Low-Mid end market !

aritrap · 27-03-2008, 03:58 PM

When will it come to India?
Are u sure it will be around Rs.4-7k. If it is so then it will be a very sweet deal.

Can anyone post the model no and frequency of one of these X3's?

spitfire · 28-03-2008, 03:27 AM

As of now AMD hasnt published the pricing of Triple core processors,its not available in the retail market yet (Only to OEMs right now)..so all we can do is to have some calculated Guess !!!

Since You can have a 2.4ghz x2 for around 4k...so a 2.4 or 2.6ghz phenom dual core (if at all released)just might come for as litle as 4-5k

a triple core for may be another 1k as AMD already said "Expect to pay $10-25 more for each additional core"

desiibond · 28-03-2008, 10:49 AM

yee haa. Looks like AMD is now ready to eat Intel's market share again.

The online reviews really looks promising.

A fully unlocked sub $240 dollar quad core processor is giving 75% performance of Intel's $370 processor Q9450. (without any overclocking)
Go AMD Go. Coupled with AMD 780 chipset, Damn. what a month this is for AMD.

Am gonna finish entire scotch bottle today.

desiibond · 28-03-2008, 12:26 PM

From Anandtech:

Final Words

Now this is more like the AMD we're used to seeing. It's not quite the performance dominating AMD of years past, but it's a competitive AMD. The Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition is, despite its lower performance in many cases, an actual competitor to Intel's Core 2 Quad Q6600 thanks to its price. The value is even more impressive if you happen to have a Socket-AM2 motherboard that can accept a 9850 as a drop in replacement.
AMD does continue to have some weaknesses, mainly when it comes to DivX and gaming performance and neither of these areas are going to get fixed while remaining on an unchanged architecture. That being said, AMD is standing in a much better space right now and is competitive enough that Intel had better be paying attention.
The Core 2 Quad Q6600 is becoming long in the tooth and could stand a quick transition to the Q9300, which Intel appears to have scheduled for next quarter. The $266 price point, while very aggressive, leaves a lot of room for AMD to come and play in the $175 - $250 space. Intel needs cheaper quad core offerings, especially once AMD starts shipping its triple core Phenom in retail.
If you're building a new system, Intel is still the way to go and once 45nm pricing/availability works out the value proposition will only improve. What's changed is that AMD is now a realistic alternative. Just four months ago there was no point in even considering Phenom, but today it is a viable alternative. If AMD could simplify its lineup a bit and squeeze some extra frequency headroom out of its chips, all while keeping its aggressive pricing we may just have a return to competition in the desktop CPU space.
Exciting times are ahead as well. AMD seems very confident in its 45nm transition, which should bring about higher performance and clock frequencies. Around the same time we'll be seeing the very first Nehalem CPUs from Intel, and before we know it it'll be 2009 and time to talk about Bulldozer. I've always said that AMD had a good roadmap, it just needs to be given the chance to execute on it; these new Phenom processors may able to buy AMD the time it needs to do just that.