<p><span class="content"><font size="2">How does AMD respond to Lynnfield? Is it by drastically cutting prices on Phenom II? Nope. By introducing the world&rsquo;s first quad-core processor to debut at $99. Now that&rsquo;s cool.<br /> </font><span class="content"><font size="2">It&rsquo;s called the Athlon II X4 and its existence shouldn&rsquo;t be any surprise. AMD quietly announced it along with the Athlon II X2 line.&nbsp;<br /> </font><span class="content"><br /> <font size="2">Today we get two models: the Athlon II X4 630 and the Athlon II X4 620, priced at $122 and $99 respectively. The only difference between the two is clock speed; the 630 runs at 2.8GHz while the 620 runs at 2.6GHz. These are both AM3 chips meaning they'll work in AM3 motherboards with DDR3 memory or AM2+ boards with DDR2 memory.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3638">Read more...</a></font></span></span></span></p>

<span class="content"><font size="2">Intel is on the verge of transitioning to 32nm. We'll see the first parts this year. What do you do with your 45nm fabs when you start moving volume away from them? Make really cheap quad-core Nehalems of course.<br /> </font><span class="content"><font size="2">I'm talking $196. I'm talking faster than AMD's entire lineup. I'm talking about arguably the best processor of 2009. I'm talking about Lynnfield.<br /> </font><span class="content"><br /> <font size="2">I spent much of the past year harping on AMD selling Nehalem-sized Phenom IIs for less than Intel sold Nehalems. With Lynnfield, Intel actually made Nehalem even bigger all while driving prices down. Like I said, what do you do when you're still making boatloads of money in a recession and are about to start emptying your 45nm fabs? </font> <p><font size="2">I should clear things up before we progress much further. Lynnfield is the codename for mainstream 45nm quad-core Nehalem, while Bloomfield refers to the first Nehalem launched at the end of 2008.<br /> </font><span class="content"><font size="2">Despite being cheaper, Lynnfield is larger than Bloomfield. The larger die is due to one major addition: an on-die PCIe controller.<br /> <br /> </font><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634"><font size="2">Read more...</font></a></span></p> </span></span></span>

<div id="intelliTxt"><span class="content"> <p><font size="2">The Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition impressed us when it launched earlier this week. Well, just about everything but the long-winded naming scheme and a slight concern about its power consumption under load conditions impressed us. Of course, the last minute change from a 125W TDP rating to a 140W TDP rating had us scratching our heads and those of the motherboard suppliers who will see a few less products certified for this processor. </font></p> <p><font size="2">That said, our first retail processor arrived in the labs yesterday. Of course, our first inclination was to test its overclocking capabilities and it reached the same 4.025GHz core speed the review sample managed on similar voltages. We did not expect any real miracles as the Phenom II tends to run out of steam around 4GHz when utilizing a 64-bit operating system. This particular chip did manage to hit 4.3GHz on 1.510V under Windows 7 x86, so it&rsquo;s a keeper. </font></p> <p><font size="2">Our initial curiosity of the way, we decided to take a quick look at whether undervolting this gem of a processor could reduce its carbon footprint. After all, a stock 1.40V core voltage setting is a bit high for our tastes although an idle rate of 1.00V with Cool-n-Quiet (CnQ) enabled produced excellent results in earlier testing.&nbsp; Of course, undervolting is not new and all current processors can handle a certain reduction in voltages.&nbsp; We wanted to see just how low our first retail 965 BE could go before becoming unstable.&nbsp; Our best 955 BE retail CPU hit 1.220V at a lower stock core speed of 3.2GHz and we thought this would be an attainable voltage target but at 3.4GHz considering the yield and process improvements made by AMD over the past few months.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3621">Read more...</a></font></p> </span></div>