AMD aims at overclockers with new chip

The new Phenom II X4 955 is a Nehalem-beater... or so we're told.

AMD launches its Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition chip today - its fastest ever quad-core processor - and is hyping the overclocking potential of the beastie.

The firm has managed to pump the 3.2-GHz part up to 6.5GHz using liquid nitrogen and expects spods to be doing the same thing in their basement bedrooms real soon.

The chip extends the power of AMD's Dragon platform and is launched today, St George's Day. You'd think AMD might be aware that St George is supposed to have slayed the dragon.

Some benchmarks show the $US245 X4 955 outperforming Intel's Core 920 i7, which is nominally more expensive, but we'll be getting to the bottom of those claims later today. AMD reckons it's easier to upgrade its chips than those of 'the competition' - a benefit of the Dragon platform.

A company spokesman said, "The competition has made a hard stop on with its new products where you pretty much have to upgrade everything to use the processor."

"With this line you can upgrade to DDR3 when you like, so you don't lose out on the cost of DDR2 memory," he concluded.

Power management features also have been upgraded and AMD claims that the processor draws 40 per cent less power during intensive use, as compared with the Phenom X4 955, and half the power when idling.