<p><font size="2">Die size hasn&rsquo;t changed, clock speeds barely went up, and performance per clock also remained static. But what&rsquo;s this?</font></p> <p><font size="2">Ah yes, AMD is improving its 45nm manufacturing process and today we have the latest incarnation of AMD&rsquo;s 45nm silicon. </font></p> <p><font size="2">The first versions of AMD&rsquo;s 45nm Phenom II couldn&rsquo;t really go much higher than the final 65nm Phenom without increasing voltage. By comparison, Intel&rsquo;s Core i7 920 could go from 2.66GHz all the way up to 3.80GHz without so much as a single extra millivolt in our tests.</font></p> <p><font size="2">This new Phenom II however can also hit 3.80GHz without increasing the core voltage. At least that&rsquo;s what one of our samples did in our testing. Whether it&rsquo;s 3.8GHz or 3.6GHz, the fact of the matter is that AMD&rsquo;s 45nm process is improving and that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s behind todays introduction of the Phenom II X4 </font><font size="2">955</font><font size="2">. Architecturally the Phenom II hasn't changed; if you're curious about what makes these things tick, please look at </font><font size="2">our original article</font><font size="2"> on the CPU.<br /> Clocked at 3.2GHz with a 2.0GHz un-core (or North Bridge) frequency, the 955 isn&rsquo;t that much different from the 940 in terms of clock speed.&nbsp;</font></p> <p><font size="2">This is a Socket-AM3 part, meaning it can work in both DDR2 based Socket-AM2+ motherboards and DDR3 based Socket-AM3 motherboards. There&rsquo;s a huge compatibility caveat about AM2+ support but I&rsquo;ll address that shortly. The Phenom II X4 955 is also a Black Edition part, meaning it has an unlocked clock multiplier for easy overclocking.</font></p> <p><font size="2">Along with the 955 there&rsquo;s also a 945 being introduced today. The 945 is identical to the 940 in core clock speed but has a 2.0GHz un-core and is also AM3 compatible.</font></p> <p><font size="2">The prices are pretty attractive; the 955 will sell for </font><font size="2">$245</font><font size="2"> (and it already has been) and the 945 will go for $225. That pits the 955 against Intel&rsquo;s Core 2 Duo Q9550 ($266) and the Core i7-920 ($284), the latter having a much higher motherboard cost of course.</font></p> <p><font size="2">And you know how I love spoiling surprises so here you have it. Unless you&rsquo;re running applications that are very well optimized for Intel&rsquo;s architectures, the Phenom II X4 955 is faster than the Core 2 Quad Q9550. Compared to the Core i7-920, it loses hands down although the chip does come close in some games.</font></p> <p><font size="2">Sorry, I&rsquo;m not much of a tease :) Now for the rest of the article.</font></p> <p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><font size="2"><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3551">Read more...</a><br /> </font></p>