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The Phenom II X4 980BE - the swansong of the Phenom II

seems strange to me tbh. Anyone upgrading an AMD set up will probably be waiting for bulldozer, which is only 3 months away.
Will many people bother with this?
 
Just squeezing out as many sales as possible before the new stuff arrives. They've been renumbering the same chip for donkeys, with tiny increases in clockspeed.
 
Pighardia said:
seems strange to me tbh. Anyone upgrading an AMD set up will probably be waiting for bulldozer, which is only 3 months away.
Will many people bother with this?
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not all the time ;) in my experience, if you keep playing like that, there will allways be the "next chip coming soon"
 
really dont see the point to this, my chip does 4Ghz out of the box at stock volts all for 101.99 haha only an idiot would buy this :p
 
thinking about this, i guess there is a very good point in doing this. seeing that we (people who overclock) are a tiny minority of buyers, a faster stock chip would be very nice to the vast majority of buyers who never touch the settings of their computers but want a really good AMD processor.

for us though, its pretty useless, since we can get that performance increase they are advertising within a matter of seconds
 
Not everyone knows as much about hardware as the users of this forum. They wouldn't have done this unless there was a market for it. Lots of people looking for an upgrade won't know about Bulldozer, will just see a fast quad core that fits their MB, or will buy a fast looking cheapish full system.
 
My chip is maxed at 3.7ghz, 3.8ghz isn't even stable.

Not going to upgrade though, this chip has a lot of life left.

Maybe there will be a "swansong" version of the 6 core chips? Given that I am totally in love with this board, I might well grab one of them if they exist. Will they do an 1110t? Anyone up for a spot of wild speculation? :p

Why does everyone say they're just the same chips with a higher multi? They're the same manufacture process and the same architecture and the same design, but not the same chip. They go through a binning process and are categorised in terms of stability, then clocked and sold as whichever category they fit.

If you bought a brand new 980BE and a brand new 955BE, which do you think would clock higher?
 
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AsLan said:
Not everyone knows as much about hardware as the users of this forum. They wouldn't have done this unless there was a market for it. Lots of people looking for an upgrade won't know about Bulldozer, will just see a fast quad core that fits their MB, or will buy a fast looking cheapish full system.
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Its got nothing to do with knowing what might sell in the next month or three, this new chip will be around for ages to come, as will P2's. Over time yields increase, little tweaks to the process, power comes down slightly, they will sell tonnes of chips before Bulldozer launches and millions after, Dell boxes will have Phenom 2's in for the next year, minimum, maybe 2. Whats better, a £125 3.4Ghz 125W quad core, or a £125 3.6Ghz 125W quad core.

They don't "make" new chips, its not a new design, gradually over time they'll find the first batches can do 3.2Ghz at 125W all of them, and some will do a little lower, so they can sell the top bin at 3.2Ghz @ 125W, they'll test a sample of every batch every couple weeks, and 3 months later, those same chips are all now doing 3.2Ghz at 110W, and they can push to 3.4Ghz at 125W, so they just reclassify the models and the top one goes up slightly. This repeats itself with every chip ever made basically.

Phenom 2 will still outmuscle Llano in CPU terms, and not every Dell gets sold with IGP's so a Llano in a few months won't always be a better choice than a Phenom 2 in midrange gaming rigs and the like.
AMD don't go, Bulldozer then, nothing else gets made ever.

Firstly they are on 32nm the new stuff, which will be maybe, if lucky 10% of their overall capacity to start with. So right now 10% of the output of wafers, but only 2-3% of the capacity for chips (because lower end stuff is MUCH smaller so far more chips per wafer) will be Bulldozer/Llano, by the end of the year that will probably be up to 20-30%, by the end of next year they should be fully at 32nm. Until then Phenom 2 will be in mass production for a good year or more.

RIght now Intel will be selling VASTLY more 45nm chips than 32nm. Sandybridge is new, i7 hexcore stuff is the only other range of 32nm things, i7 quads, i5 750-760 all 45nm and in mass production but that be winding down. i3's are 32nm which are winding up. When they bring out 22nm stuff early next year, it again will be 10% of what they sell. Hell, Intel will release an entire new 32nm octo/hex/quad core LGA 2011 range for desktop and servers only weeks/months before 22nm hits.
 
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Reaper 392 said:
thinking about this, i guess there is a very good point in doing this. seeing that we (people who overclock) are a tiny minority of buyers, a faster stock chip would be very nice to the vast majority of buyers who never touch the settings of their computers but want a really good AMD processor.

for us though, its pretty useless, since we can get that performance increase they are advertising within a matter of seconds
Click to expand...

I agree that most people would like a faster stock chip, but this is a "Black edition".
BEs normally cost more than stock processors don't they?
So why pay more money for a feature (unlocked multiplier) that they will never use?:confused:
 
Tonester007 said:
I agree that most people would like a faster stock chip, but this is a "Black edition".
BEs normally cost more than stock processors don't they?
So why pay more money for a feature (unlocked multiplier) that they will never use?:confused:
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i would agree but in this instance there isnt a comparable phenom II that isnt a black edition. i belive the 3.2ghz 955 is the fastest non-black.

I still wouldnt buy the 980 though, seeing as its still a deneb based core. my money would be on a 3.2ghz 960T zozma as it's based on a thunban (hex core)
 
It goes down to the power point as well:
A stock 965 C3 runs at 125w, but bumping the multiplier to 3800mhz increases the power pull to about 160w - i'm sure that the stock 980 will probably run around 125w like all the others, and probably run cooler than the overclocked chips.

- and now i have read the article, it backs up my answer :P
 
It's a bit late really they needed this chip on the market in 2009 to compete with Intel.

I don't know why anyone would pay for a high end AMD quad now with their 6 cores similarly priced and overclocking quite decently.
 
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