AMD Phenom II X4 940

Ever since the Intel Core processor family has been launched, AMD has been trying hard to keep abreast of the competition.

AMD kept its fingers crossed that the new lineup of Phenom processors would help them grab a larger market share, but the efforts were in vain because of a few glitches in the architecture, and Intel had better performing processors at competitive prices.

This time, AMD is back in action with Phenom II, which is the former Phenom with a couple of tweaks and a leaner design. Now the question is how good Phenom II is and how hard is it going to hit Intel?

Features
Phenom II is built upon the same architecture as that of Phenom, but it’s manufactured using a 45 nm process. Measuring 258 mm2 the die size of Phenom II is 9.5 percent smaller, but yet the transistor count has increased by 68 percent to 758 million.

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This increase in the number of transistors has allowed AMD to triple the size of the L3 cache from 2 MB to 6 MB. However, the size of the L1 and L2 cache remains the same. Apart from these, other major improvements are faster L3 cache and more efficient Cool ‘n’ Quiet.

__STARTQUOTE__Measuring 258 mm2 the die size of Phenom II is 9.5 percent smaller, but yet the transistor count has increased by 68 percent to 758 million.__ENDQUOTE__While Phenom could only run either at full or half speed, Phenom II can run at four speeds ranging from a minimum of 800 MHz to full speed. In addition to this, AMD has moved away from allowing individual cores to switch independently between different speeds because it caused problems with certain multithreaded applications—runs all its cores at the same frequency, just like the Core i7 except that it cannot completely switch off idle cores.
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AMD plans to launch Phenom II in two phases. In the first phase they plan to launch two quad-core variants in AM2+ package, followed by low-voltage and tri-core variants in AM3 package, which will add support for DDR3.

So if you have a motherboard based on AMD 780G, 790 FX/GX or Nvidia GeForce 8200 / 8300 or Nvidia nForce 780a / 750a SLI, you can upgrade to Phenom II after flashing your BIOS with the latest fi rmware. Currently, AM2+ Phenom II processors are available in two quad-core variants—the top-end X4 940 Black Edition clocked at 3.0 GHz and the X4 920 clocked at 2.8 GHz. The upcoming socket AM3 models are the X4 945 Black Edition (3.0 GHz), X4 925 (2.8 GHz), X4 810 (2.6 GHz), X3 720 Black Edition (2.8 GHz) and X3 710 (2.6 GHz).
__STARTQUOTE__While Phenom could only run either at full or half speed, Phenom II can run at four speeds ranging from a minimum of 800 MHz to full speed.__ENDQUOTE__An interesting feature of the AM3 Phenom II processors is that these will be backward compatible with socket AM2+ motherboards due to the reduced pin count (938 pins as compared to 940 pins in AM2+) while maintaining the grid pattern. Hence, socket AM3 Phenom II processors will feature both DDR2 and DDR3 memory controllers. Thus, users will have a broad choice of motherboards (both socket AM2+ and AM3) depending on the type of application.

Performance
We received the Phenom II X4 940 from AMD and tested it on the Asus M4A79 Deluxe (AMD 790 FX) flashed with the latest BIOS. The test rig was loaded with 4 GB of DDR2-1066 memory and GeForce GTX 280 to give the CPU ample headroom to perform.

At Rs 12,500 the X4 940 lies between the Core 2 Quad Q8200 and Q9400 in terms of price. However, the native quad-core design and cache hierarchy resembles that of the Core i7. The X4 940 defeats the Q8200 by a big margin and certainly offers more value for money than the Q9400.

We also overclocked the processor and managed to get it running steadily at 3.7 GHz on air cooling by increasing the multiplier from 15 to 18.5. Water cooling and voltage bump could take it to 4 GHz.

Conclusion
The Phenom II offers excellent value for money, but the Core i7 is the ultimate choice.