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Conclusion
With its 3.4GHz clock speed, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition establishes a new level of performance for AMD. In our game benchmarks, the 965 CPU ran 3-4% faster than AMD’s previous flagship processor, the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition. That margin opened up to 5-6% in our media encoding and rendering tests.
The 965’s closest competitor in terms of price is probably Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q9550, which currently sells for $220 on Newegg (the Q9650 sells for $320). In head-to-head performance testing, the two CPUs are pretty competitive with each other. The Phenom II 965 outruns the Q9550 in games like Lost Planet and Crysis, but the Q9550 pulled ahead in our testing with ARMA II and Far Cry 2. Our media encoding and rendering tests tend to favor the Core 2 Quad though, with only Cinebench giving the performance nod to AMD Phenom II.
If we had to purchase a new CPU in this price bracket though, we’d point you in an entirely different direction and recommend the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition. Sure, it’s 200MHz slower than the 965, but it’s based on the exact same silicon and can easily be OC’ed to speeds of 3.4GHz and well beyond. We actually managed to OC our 955 CPU sample slightly further than our 965 chip.
The best part is that the 955 sells for $200 right now, making it a bargain considering the overall performance it delivers and its unlocked clock multiplier. You could then take the money you saved and get a better GPU, which is going to have a bigger impact on your gaming performance anyway.
In all honesty though, if you can wait another month or so, that may be an even better option than the Phenom II 955. With the introduction of Lynnfield, the CPU landscape could be vastly different than it is today. Rumor has it that Intel plans to offer 3 Lynnfield SKUs at launch next month, with two of them selling for less than $300. At the very least, that could put pressure on Intel to lower their prices for high-end Core 2 CPUs like the Q9550 and Q9650, which in turn could force AMD to further trim Phenom II prices.
We just have to wait and see where all the chips stack up against each other in terms of performance and price.
If you simply can’t wait until September to upgrade your CPU, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition is a solid performer and shouldn’t disappoint most gamers. Just don’t complain if it’s selling for $200 a month from now.
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Preview Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is a standalone expansion pack and follow-up to developer Stardock's previous game in the series, subtitled War of Magic. That 4X strategy game was highly-anticipated and slated to compete with games such as Sid Meier's Civilization V for your turn-based strategy play-time, but was released in an incredibly broken and unfinished state that it never fully recovered from. Lead designer Brad Wardell apologized profusely to fans and set out with his team to go back to the drawing board and try again.
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ANNO 2070 Review
The year is 2070. The majority of life on Earth was devastated when global sea levels surged after the melting of the polar ice caps. Swaths of previously habitable land are now deep underwater, and sovereign nations are a relic of the past. But there is still hope...
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Hear that? It's the sound of the largest computer chip manufacturer in the world churning out new processors to power your gaming rig. This week, Intel is launching their next generation of Core CPUs, code-named Ivy Bridge. Like last year's Sandy Bridge chips, they're low-power, quad-core powerhouses that also feature integrated graphics processors. Want to find out more? Maybe check out a whole bunch of performance benchmarks on both the CPU and graphics sides of things? Well you can, in today's review!
Intel Z77 Chipset & DZ77GA-70K Motherboard Overview
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Mass Effect 3 PC Review
This latest release from EA/BioWare is the final entry in their trilogy of sci-fi action RPGs, putting you in a dire situation: rally the troops to save Earth at all costs. There was a lot of hype surrounding the final act of what has been a vast and highly-customizable story-telling experience, and the reception among many hardcore fans has been less than stellar. Even people that haven't played the game have probably heard about all the nerd rage going on over Mass Effect 3's ending...
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Overclocked Performance
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