Hardware AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Review

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2009/08/17/amd-phenom-ii-x4-965-black-edition-review/1

AMD has launched its fastest desktop CPU ever, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. With an improved manufacturing process making it more tolerant of high voltages, is this the most overclockable Phenom ever?

 

All I can say is "Ouch."

 

Same old AMD

Nuff said!

 

I'm going for the X4 905e instead.

 

funny that, i seem to remember people saying the same about intel not so long ago.......

this does have a whiff of deperation to it though, 7ghz under LN2? i'll believe that when i see it

 

I thought your conclusion was a little harsh. This CPU is competitive in performance and in price. Power consumption isn't great but it's far from terrible. Remember Prescott? *shudders*

BTW try overclocking with 32bit windows. I think you can break 4GHz, just try it.

 

I just think after enough random good/bad batches they just decided to release this.

That said, at least the other PII X4s will be cheaper.

 

Well, considering the PII 940 was over £200 at launch, i don't think they are that bad value. I agree that the TDP is a bit crazy though.

 

Your being a bit harsh on this one, especially about the 140w issue, theres an in depth review on another site that shows the chip never comes anywhere near using the 140w....unless your running an Intel Burn Test 24/7....

http://www.lostcircuits.com/mambo//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=42

Its just AMD being overly cautious, in the same way you can easily undervolt these CPU's and run them at stock speed without any adverse effects as regards perfromance.

 

Just as comparison, Prescott's quoted TDP was 84-89W (depending on the exact model). I'm guessing Intel and AMD both measure differently, so it's not an apples to apples comparison.
I'm sure it's about time for AMD to take a big step forward and overtake Intel for a few years again, but not with this generation by the looks of things.

 

I like how power consumption has been addressed as a huge problem over the last couple of years, but I just don't think the give/take 20 Watts should make such a huge difference in the overall score.

About the overclocking, yes, the Phenoms clock like no tomorrow, they just require some LN2/Liquid Helium to do so. Extremely they scale nicely - the more you cool, the more you get, but for an average consumer they're ofc worse clockers than C2D/Core i7's.

 

good review,
spotted a typo in the last page:
Crysis[/url

 

Damn those subs... is fixed, thanks!

 

i7-920 for $30 more...wonder which one i should go for.../sarcasm

 

This is the first time that I read a CPU review completely versus skimming and looking at the test results images and well I spotted A LOT of typos and grammar errors and hell I suck at English but could clearly make them out so ya might want to run through your review one more time and fix those

now to the review it self I think the conclusion was uncalled for, considering the price to performance I would say its not to shabby, ya its a bit power hungry but well thats kinda a mute point considering whoever is running this cpu anyways is probably running some pretty power hungry graphics card(s) so I dont think that's much of a concern and if you were building a low power system then ya I doubt this would be your CPU of choice as for temps well again anyone running this CPU most likely will be running an aftermarket cooler or water cooling setup. Overall I say not to bad for what you pay.

However I do agree with your overall score of 6 out of 10, maybe possibly a 7 out of 10 at most.

 

A. I can get a core i-7 920 locally for $199 USD.
B. What was the 920 in the review overclocked to?

Thanks for the review.

 

nah...conclusion was well founded. who in their right mind would buy this chip? no one.

edit:
let me rephrase...
why would anyone buy this over the 955? why would anyone buy this over the i7 920?

where can you get an i7 for that? please please tell me...

 

I personally saw several of these chips hitting 7 GHz this weekend. AMD's claims are not BS. I will admin this was done under liquid helium. However, multiple chips were able to do this consistently.

 

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727
They won't ship them though. Pprice is only for local pick up only though so that they can try to sell you other things to go with the CPU.

 

well of course there is a catch lol...will they actually let you out of the door with just the cpu?

hey, they have a location in dallas...can you vouch for them?