| AMD Phenom-II X4-840 CPU HDX840WFGMBOX |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Processors | |
| Monday, 03 January 2011 | |
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AMD Phenom-II X4-840 Final ThoughtsIf the Phenom-II X4-840 really releases at an MSRP of only $102 (of which I am skeptical), it will become the fastest quad-core CPU in its price range. It will actually be less expensive than the Athlon-II X4-645, the flagship Athlon-II quad-core processor. This will make it a great buy, and it would be a great move on the part of AMD right in line with the release of the Sandy Bridge platform.
One thing that just bugs me about the Phenom-II X4-840 is its name. I can't complain about the performance, because it's right in line with where the specifications put it. What I am complaining about is AMD calling this processor a Phenom-II CPU. It's not. The Phenom-II X4-840 is clearly a renamed Athlon-II X4-645. AMD said that it was bringing back the Phenom-II X4-800 series moniker with the X4-840. Unfortunately, it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. One thing that I have always appreciated about the incremental upgrades in Athlon-II and Phenom-II CPUs was the transparency in the naming convention. We saw the Athlon-II X4-635 replaced by the X4-640, then the X4-645. The same thing took place up and down the line of Athlon-II and Phenom-II processors; until now. The Phenom-II line has always had an L3 cache. That's what you think of when you buy a Phenom-II processor. Quite honestly, if I were browsing around online, looking for a good deal on a processor, and I hadn't read any reviews of the Phenom-II X4-840, I would be in trouble. I would see the Phenom-II X4-840 for close to $100 and I would automatically think it was a Phenom-II X4-800 series processor, complete with the Deneb die and the 4MB of L3 cache. I just can't help but think it's kind of shady to market this processor as something that it clearly isn't. On another note, if this processor were called the Athlon-II X4-650, I would enthusiastically put my support behind it. The Phenom-II X4-840 specifications fall right in line to make it the new flagship Athlon-II processor and its set to be priced to sell. If the highest level of Athlon-II X4 processors starts selling for $102, I can see a lot of competition coming, even with the release of the Sandy Bridge platform. As the test results showed, the Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge CPU offers superior performance to anything else in our test bed, even the Core i7-920. Set to release at $216, the i5-2500K and other Sandy Bridge CPUs are going to be a menace to AMD CPU prices. With this in mind, I am not too surprised at the price set for the Phenom-II X4-840. It seems like a great place to put it. Now if AMD would just get to it and release a new CPU series. Keep BenchmarkReviews.com bookmarked to learn about what's happening and what's being announced at CES in the next few days.
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Comments
However... the Phenom II 840 is not "a wolf in sheep's clothing", as you say, but more of a sheep in wolf's clothing :-)
It should be called a Athlon II 650, without a doubt. This renaming brings shame to AMD.
No doubt we will see the likes of HP and Acer peddling this Phalse Phenom to the gullible masses.
On a different note I am curious how many people complained when the the i5 was moved from the quad core as it originally released to a dual? Did anyone cry foul then?
The difference in actual results is mostly way below the 12.5% expected by the clock speed alone.
Seems like the only reason for spending the extra money on a "real" Phenom II X4 is to get a Black Edition with better overclocking.
Do not forget the L3 cache is suited for memory intensive tasking.
So just a clockspeed application a faster Athlon will beat a lower clocked Phenom,but whenever memory (Cache) comes in play a slower Phenom will beat an even higher clocked Athlon handsdown.
That's why in certain games the smaller P2X2 560 will beat the Athlon 2X4 645 .