Part of AMD’s multi-core Phenom blast today is the Phenom X3 8000, “the world’s only triple-core x86 processor,” which we heard about a few months ago. They’re supposed to bargain chips for budget consumers, but they’re a nicer bargain for AMD, actually, since it lets them dump bug-plagued quad-core Phenomsby disabling a core. But if performance is your top concern, you might want to steer clear of the whole Phenom batch anyway. We’re still waiting for AMD’s 45nm chippies, personally. [Hard OCP, Anandtech]
The Phenom X4 9850 is AMD’s latest quad-core chip. It’s free of the performance-sapping bug that plagued the first batch of Phenoms, and AMD hopes it’ll claw back some ground from Intel. Maximum PC stacked it up against two quad-cores from Intel—the mid-rangeish Penryn Core 2 Quad Q9300, as well as an older Core 2 Q6600. Ouchies for AMD, the Intel pair blew past it.
Amid rumours of Dell dropping AMD processors, TG Daily has discovered Dell actually plans to release a new line of Optiplex PCs with AMD Tri-Core Phenom processors. They also report Dell plans to feature AMD chips in future consumer products later this year. [TG Daily]
We just got the chance to play around with AMD’s newest quad core system, the Phenom RD790 and a pair of ATI HD2900XT graphics processors. There’s a whole lot of cooling going on, thanks to John Woo’s new game Stranglehold. The system managed the Havoc physics engine with ease, jumping into sepia-toned “tequila” time and into a zoom mode that gave a bullet’s eye view of the action. The experience was mesmerizing, right up to the point where one of the bad guys in the game took a bullet in the nuts, and I actually felt his pain. Wanna see?