Phenom II info leaks out, AMD hints at something

[bedlamite]

About new Phenom prices.
Well, keep in mind what happend with 4850 and 4870.
AMD needs market share and I think they're a bit desperate.
We'll see but I think they will price Phenoms very agressively and that's what I've heard

[Bandwidth]

AMD should have unlocked the PII 920 and PII 925 too

Especially the PII 925, it would probably be able to reach higher clocks than the 940 and 920 cause of the lower heat dissipation.

My guess is another unlocked Phenom II clocked at 3.2GHz would follow a few months after that, maybe around April/May timeframe. But we'll see.

[JumpingJack]

AMD should have unlocked the PII 920 and PII 925 too

Especially the PII 925, it would probably be able to reach higher clocks than the 940 and 920 cause of the lower heat dissipation.

My guess is another unlocked Phenom II clocked at 3.2GHz would follow a few months after that, maybe around April/May timeframe. But we'll see.

Don't get too stingy. Unlocked multipliers, especially on a serial interconnect backbone, at 300 bucks or less is a gift. If AMD has done one thing well over the years is catering to the enthusiast.

Unlocked multies is a gift, and getting them at low prices shows AMD's commitment to the advanced DIYer ... Intel should do a better job of embracing that market segment.

[Shintai]

Don't get too stingy. Unlocked multipliers, especially on a serial interconnect backbone, at 300 bucks or less is a gift. If AMD has done one thing well over the years is catering to the enthusiast.

Unlocked multies is a gift, and getting them at low prices shows AMD's commitment to the advanced DIYer ... Intel should do a better job of embracing that market segment.

If AMD was in the lead it would be 999-1499$ unlocked only.

Its just illusional different when your top CPU is a few 100$.

[JumpingJack]

If AMD was in the lead it would be 999-1499$ unlocked only.

Its just illusional different when your top CPU is a few 100$.

Very good point ... FX60, 62 were unlocked -- and as top dogs at their time were $1K cpus.. AMD produced the unlocked multi at the low price point for this very reason.

I remember when Intel and AMD locked up the multipliers, and there as a huge moan and groan from the enthusiast market. .... rightly so... then they realized it could be made into a selling point... hence, $1K CPUs with unlocked multies.

[Rammsteiner]

If AMD was in the lead it would be 999-1499$ unlocked only.

Its just illusional different when your top CPU is a few 100$.

Your '999$' part is a lot more correct than your '999-1499$' part though. You do however have a point there, but I never saw FX's above 1K really. That's Euro though, but we know how hardware prices were in those times compared to dollar prices. Shops obviously found dollar:euro= 1:1. Intel however goes nuts on certain Extreme Edition prices, even when AMD was the leading one. Then again Intel has different levels of their Extreme Editions (now) as well, you're not forced to pay >=1K to get one

[Lightman]

Regarding Phenom II 2.8GHz AM3 being rated 95W compared to 125W on the AM2+ version it might be caused by yet another revision of 45nm chip. Remember that AM3 part will be rev. C3! AMD might either bring more power savings thanks to revision changes or it simply expects to advance in manufacturing on this node before releasing AM3 SKUs.

[Bandwidth]

Regarding Phenom II 2.8GHz AM3 being rated 95W compared to 125W on the AM2+ version it might be caused by yet another revision of 45nm chip. Remember that AM3 part will be rev. C3! AMD might either bring more power savings thanks to revision changes or it simply expects to advance in manufacturing on this node before releasing AM3 SKUs.

That's what I was thinking too, the PII 925 AM3 could be a newer stepping, and it's the highest clocked AM3 part, so they should unlock it too

[charged3800z24]

That's what I was thinking too, the PII 925 AM3 could be a newer stepping, and it's the highest clocked AM3 part, so they should unlock it too

They might be Hiding the FX realse with AM3...which would be the Unlocked version...It then might be a 125w variant. That's my guess...

[Apokalipse]

Especially the PII 925, it would probably be able to reach higher clocks than the 940 and 920 cause of the lower heat dissipation.

umm, the lower heat dissipation would be because it's clocked lower, and probably less voltage....
They'll be lower binned aswell....
*edit*
disregard that, it didn't register that you were comparing an AM3 chip to an AM2+ chip. Man, I should go to sleep, it's past 5.AM....

If those slides are true, my next CPU is a PII 940 for sure.
But then again, even if they're not quite true, my next CPU would still probably be a PII 940 anyway.

[JumpingJack]

umm, the lower heat dissipation would be because it's clocked lower, and probably less voltage....
They'll be lower binned aswell....

The relationship between frequency and power is P=C*V^2*F, Fmax (max frequency) is related to the quality of the silicon as the inherent variability in each step toward making the CPU will cause subtle differences wafer to wafer or die to die.

As a result, Intel and AMD bin the CPUs based on various voltage, fequency max, and other criteria. But the general power relationship will always hold. If a CPU is not meeting the stability, error rate standards at 3.0 GHz but does at 2.8 GHz, then it bins there... the power naturally will come out lower overall.

Depending on the Vcc and fequency, that total power can fall within a certain power envelop. So TDP ratings are power bins, just like frequency bins ... within the TDP bin different processors will produce different thermals, but to get within that bin they simply need to be at or less a certain power mark (i.e. TDP minus an engineering margin of error).