AMD shrinks TDP on Phenom II X3s and X4s

Launches an Athlon II and dual-core Phenom IIs too. Busy little AMD!

AMD may have anticipated its launch of the energy efficient Phenom II and Athlon II processors by a week or so, if some etailers and disties are to be believed.

According to several US and Europe stockers, the processors are already on pre-order and if you know where to look you can start counting your pennies.

There are 6 new processors, plus 2 Opterons which we've left out due to sheer laziness.

On the shallower end of the price pool you've got the Athlon II X2 (Regor) 250, running at a zippy 3GHz, equipped with 512KB of L2 cache per core and 1MB of L3. The packaging is AM3, in case you're wondering, and we hope that means a DDR3-capable memory controller for upgradability. Power is 65W TDP. Pricing in Europe is a measly €80 (about $140 locally in a straight conversion, though that's only a broad indicator).

The Athlon II is followed closely by the Phenom II X2 (Callisto), and before you scream "pointless", we have to point out that these sport the same 6MB cache present on the Denebs, while keeping with a slightly lower TDP of 80w. These are numbered the 550 and 545, clocked at 3.1GHz and 3GHz respectively. Budget for an extra €10 to €15 over the Athlon II.

Next come the energy efficient processors, four in all: Phenom II X3 700e, X3 705e, X4 900e and X4 905e. Speeds are 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz respectively, and they all share 65W TDP. This should make them great for businesses and even overclockers due to the favourable C2-stepping silicon.

Apart from the lower TDP, these have pretty much the same specs as the current crop of Phenom II X3 and X4 processors. The 700e and 900e are sold solely as OEM parts for integrators, so you shouldn't be able to find them right away at your retailer, but the 705e and 905e are on pre-order here in Europe for €118 and €180 respectively.

With AMD encroaching on 30 per cent of the desktop market, according to the IDC stats, Intel is in for a quick squeeze on its 'S' series quad-cores. Given the specs and pricing we've seen, the 905e is undercutting Intel's low power CPUs by as much as 25 per cent.