AMD Headed In the Right Direction

With the newest revision of its (currently) fastest processor, AMD is moving towards greater efficiency for all its CPUs, and undoubtedly trying to reign in the thermal envelope for the upcoming Thuban six-core processors.

The Phenom II X4 965 is now rated at 125W instead of 140W, which will certainly allow its usage in many more motherboards. Since the price is quite low, it makes for a very powerful system on the cheap.

The story about the chip is otherwise the same, as verified in the article in Tech Connect -

Today AMD updated its processor list to include the C3 revision of its Phenom II X4 965 processor. The new X4 965 BE has the same price ($195) and frequency (3.4 GHz) as the older 965 model, it still features 2MB of L2 cache and 6MB of L3 cache, but has a lower TDP – 125W as opposed to 140W.

The ‘C3′ 45nm AM3 quad-core also operates at a lower voltage and thus comes with a higher overclocking potential.

New, 125W TDP 965 (left) and the 140W 965

Photo courtesy of Overclockers Club.

Perhaps this one will be able to let almost every chip on the wafer get to 4 GHz on nothing more than a better heat sink and fan.

§

⌘

⌘