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AMD's New Year CPUs: Athlon II X4 635, Athlon II X3 440, Athlon II X2 255, & Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Tested January 25, 2010 Brandon Sandman Bell |
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Summary: Ready to pull the trigger on a new budget CPU? If so, you'll be glad you waited, as today AMD's providing a free 100MHz speed bump on their latest dual, triple, and quad-core Athlon II CPUs. But that's not all. For the tweakers out there that love to OC, AMD's brought back the Phenom II X2. The 555 Black Edition is AMD's fastest dual-core yet, and it's based on AMD's new C3 Rev. See how the new CPUs OC and perform in today's article!
 AMD’s New Year CPUs: Athlon II X4 635, Athlon II X3 440, Athlon II X2 255, & Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Tested | Page:: ( 1 / 8 ) |
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For the performance-minded gamer or OC’er on a budget, Callisto comes back from the dead with the introduction of the Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition. The 555 runs at 3.2GHz, 100MHz faster than the discontinued 550, with two cores and 6MB of L3 cache. Best part of all is that it’s based on AMD’s new C3 revision, this is the stepping that allowed us to crank the Phenom II X4 965 beyond 4GHz when OC’ing. And of course, as a Black Edition CPU, the 555 ships with an unlocked clock multiplier. Price is just $99.
Want more than two cores? Great. AMD’s bumped Propus up to 2.9GHz with the Athlon II X4 635. The chip lacks an L3 cache, relying on 2MB of L2 instead, and is priced at $119.
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If $100+ is too much for you to spend, but you run apps that are multi-threaded, two cores just aren’t enough. In this case, AMD now offers their three-core Athlon II X3 440. This is a 3.0GHz CPU that’s based on AMD’s Rana core. The 440 is priced at $84.
The most affordable CPU AMD is launching today is the Athlon II X2 255. The 255 is a 3.1GHz processor with two processing cores and 2MB of L2 cache. It’s priced at $74.
Here are the speeds and feeds of all the CPUs AMD is launching today in a nice, handy chart:
| AMD's Q1'2010 CPU Refresh | |||||
| Phenom II X4 910e | Phenom II X2 555 BE | Athlon II X4 635 | Athlon II X3 440 | Athlon II X2 255 | |
| Clock Speed | 2.6GHz | 3.2GHz | 2.9GHz | 3.0GHz | 3.1GHz |
| L1 Cache Size | 64KB instruction+64KB data per core (512KB per CPU) | 64KB instruction+64KB data per core (512KB per CPU) | 64KB instruction+64KB data per core (512KB per CPU) | 64KB instruction+64KB data per core (512KB per CPU) | 64KB instruction+64KB data per core (512KB per CPU) |
| L2 Cache Size | 512KB per core (2MB total per CPU) | 512KB per core (2MB total per CPU) | 512KB per core (2MB total per CPU) | 512KB per core (2MB total per CPU) | 1MB per core (2MB total per CPU) |
| L3 Cache Size | 6MB (shared) | 6MB (shared) | None | None | None |
| Memory Controller | Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller | Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller | Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller | Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller | Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller |
| Memory Controller Speed | 2.0GHz | 2.0GHz | 2.0GHz | 2.0GHz | 2.0GHz |
| Memory Types Supported | DDR2-1066MHz and PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHz | DDR2-1066MHz and PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHz | DDR2-1066MHz and PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHz | DDR2-1066MHz and PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHz | DDR2-1066MHz and PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHz |
| HyperTransport 3.0 Link | One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2) | One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2) | One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2) | One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2) | One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2) |
| Total Processor Bandwidth | 33.1 GB/s | 33.1 GB/s | 33.1 GB/s | 33.1 GB/s | 33.1 GB/s |
| Packaging | Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array | Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array | Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array | Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array | Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array |
| Nominal Voltage | 0.85-1.25V | 0.875-1.40V | 0.875-1.425V | 0.85-1.425V | 0.85-1.425V |
| Max TDP | 65W | 80W | 95W | 95W | 65W |
| Price | $169 | $99 | $119 | $84 | $74 |
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Notes
100MHz speed bumps across the board for all of the CPUs AMD is launching today. And as an added bonus, AMD isn’t charging a premium for these CPUs – list prices are pretty much in line with AMD’s existing prices. So you’re paying the same amount of money, but getting an extra 100MHz.
Honestly we were most surprised by the re-emergence of the Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition, as AMD discontinued its predecessor, the X2 550, as well as its triple-core cousin, the Phenom II X3 720 last fall.
The beauty of these CPUs is that they’re based on the same core AMD uses in their flagship Phenom II X4 965 CPU. As a result, the 555’s got a large L3 cache, enhancing its performance, and some enthusiasts have been lucky enough to reactivate the two cores AMD disables at the factory on these chips.
The arrival of faster Athlon II CPUs means you can pick up existing CPUs on the cheap. For instance, the Athlon II X4 630 drops in price to just $99 as a result of today’s CPU introductions.
| Overclocking | Page:: ( 2 / 8 ) |
With its use of AMD’s new C3 Revision, we were most eager to see how far we could OC our Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition processor. In general, processors using this new revision OC a little further than processors based on AMD’s older C2 Revision. We managed to hit 4066MHz with our Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition last year.
The 555 was another OC’ing champ. At stock voltage, we managed to hit 3958MHz. That’s higher than the max speed we could get with Deneb CPUs exactly one year ago, and this is with no voltage adjustment!
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With this in mind, we thought we’d have tons of headroom for OC’ing, perhaps break through 4.2GHz, but unfortunately this didn’t happen. We couldn’t get the CPU to run 100% stable beyond 4080MHz. While we could boot Windows and run many apps at speeds right at 4.2GHz, we couldn’t get everything to run with 100% stability until we bumped the clock speed down to 4080MHz.
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The other chip we were eager to OC was the Athlon II X4 635. Unfortunately though, our particular sample wasn’t an eager OC’er. We only managed to get the chip to run at 3393MHz at stock CPU voltage, an improvement of just 15%. We then cranked the voltage up, but could only get the chip to run at 3567MHz before stability became an issue. We tried higher clock speeds and voltages, but the CPU just didn’t want to cooperate.
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Of the three Athlon II X4 Propus CPUs we’ve tested in the last four months, this chip was definitely the worst OC’er.
How did its triple-core cousin fare? Not bad. At its rather high stock voltage of 1.42V, we topped out at 3570MHz. With more voltage, we managed to squeeze another 150MHz out of the processor before stability became an issue.
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We obtained the weirdest OC’ing results with the Athlon II X2 255 though. At the default voltage of our particular CPU sample (1.344V), we got the processor to run at a surprising 3705MHz. However, no matter what we tried, we couldn’t get the CPU to run at speeds any higher than 3795MHz, and even that required 1.525V. The CPU just didn’t want to go any further.
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| System Setup | Page:: ( 3 / 8 ) |
Intel Pentium E6300
ASUS P5E3 Premium
4GB (2x2GB) OCZ Platinum @ DDR3-1066 Speeds
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
Catalyst 9.12
AMD Athlon II X4 635
AMD Athlon II X3 440
AMD Athlon II X2 255
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition
2TB Seagate Barracuda XT
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Benchmarks
Resident Evil 5
Crysis
Far Cry 2
3DMark Vantage
Cinebench 10
WinRAR 3.9
LAME MT
DivX 7
VirtualDub 1.9.8
| Media Encoding/Rendering Benchmarks | Page:: ( 4 / 8 ) |
Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
| Far Cry 2 | Page:: ( 5 / 8 ) |
Far Cry 2 – Direct3D
| Crysis | Page:: ( 6 / 8 ) |
Crysis – Direct3D
| World In Conflict | Page:: ( 7 / 8 ) |
World In Conflict – Direct3D
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 8 / 8 ) |
Intel’s strength is their mid and high-end lineup of CPUs: Core i7 800 and 900 series, Core i5-700 series. These are the CPUs that are really driving home Intel’s lead over rival AMD.
Intel’s latest Clarkdale CPUs are in a bit of a weird position in the sense that they’re intended for use in budget PCs with integrated graphics, which traditionally rely on value CPUs, yet most of them aren’t priced in the traditional value CPU range. The Core i5-661 we reviewed earlier this month sells for $205 on Newegg right now. Even Intel’s Core i3-530 is a $125 part. It’s going to be tough for someone like a Dell or HP to squeeze that CPU into a $300 PC and still turn a decent profit. Instead they’re going to drop in a Celeron or Pentium, and we all know how badly these CPUs perform. Our $80 Pentium E6300 routinely got beat by the Athlon II X3 440, which is comparably priced. If it weren’t for the strength of the Intel brand, these chips wouldn’t stand a chance against AMD’s offerings.
Which brings us to AMD’s strong suit: budget processors. AMD owns the sub-$120 CPU space. All of it. Here AMD’s CPUs offer a wider variety of features, with two, three, and four core options, all with various levels of cache, clock speeds, and price points. They also perform better too.
Intel could compete here if they really wanted, but it’s pretty clear by now that they just choose not to. After all, they’ve got a 65% CPU margin to protect now don’t they?
Today’s CPU introductions from AMD don’t really change this: a 100MHz speed bump just isn’t big enough to really boost performance significantly. We do appreciate the fact that AMD’s giving us this 100MHz speed bump for free though, and also bringing back the Phenom II X2 for those gamers and tweakers who don’t want to step down to Athlon II, which lacks an L3 cache.
The bottom line is that AMD didn’t need to do this, but we’ll take it anyway. Think of it as a 1-month late Christmas present from AMD.