AMD Athlon-II X4-645 Propus Processor Review

According to the August Steam Hardware Survey, more than half of gamers use a dual-core processor in their systems. While quad-core processing is on the rise, it still represents only about a quarter of gamers. Still, that's quite the increase since last year when more gamers still used single-core than quad-core processors. Undoubtedly AMD has had something to do with this increasing trend. The Athlon-II quad-core processors have made gaming with four cores more affordable than ever. With the increasing number of games and other applications that can fully utilize multiple processing threads, quad-cores have become more important for computer users to be able to reach higher levels of productivity.

With each new release of an Athlon-II processor, AMD reasserts its control on the entry-level market by providing another great quality CPU at a very affordable price. The release of the Athlon-II X4-645 ADX645WFK42GM quad-core processor is no different. At 3.1GHz, the X4-645 becomes the fastest Athlon-II quad-core processor on the market. Similar to previous Athlon-II X4 series release, the release of the X4-645 will also push the price of its predecessor, the X4-640 to under $100, making quad-core processing at 3.0GHz an affordable option for many users. Benchmark Reviews as been there for the release of many of the most recent Athlon-II and Phenom-II processors and we wouldn't miss the chance to bring you the test results on the latest Athlon-II quad-core release. In this article, Benchmark Reviews has prepared an in-depth look as the Athlon-II X4-645 ADX645WFK42GM quad-core processor and compares it to a wide-variety of other processors on the market.

At Benchmark Reviews, we have also found the Athlon-II series of processors to be great at overclocking. This is something very nice for computer enthusiasts looking to pull every last MHz out of their systems. With relatively recent restrictions by both AMD and Intel on the way we overclock, it's good to see that not all of our options have been stripped from us. Many motherboard manufactures have begun putting new features into their BIOS that allow for easy increases in bus speed and core CPU voltage. Since only special (and therefore usually more expensive) processors such as AMD's Black Edition CPUs or Intel's Extreme Edition CPUs come with unlocked multipliers, the ability to increase the bus speed is one of the few ways left to push a processor to its limits.

The Athlon-II series, including the Athlon-II X4-645 we are looking at in this article, doesn't have any Black Edition processors. Still, the increasing yields and release of continuously higher clocked versions of older Athlon-II processors has made for some Athlon-II CPUs that can withstand the strain of overclocking better than ever.

The Athlon-II X4-645 is a descendant of AMD's most affordable line of quad-core processors, directly following the 3.0GHz Athlon-II X4-640 and becoming the fastest Athlon-II quad-core available at 3.1GHz. The 100MHz increase in bus speed is really the only new feature of the Athlon-II X4-645, which represents about a 3% increase in clock speed over its predecessor. In the past, we have been able to overclock Athlon-II processors to anywhere between 3.7GHz and over 4.0GHz stably on air cooling alone. We have obviously looked forward to testing the new Athlon-II X4-645 and hope that it will not disappoint, not only in the overclocking arena, but also in regular performance. The X4-640 was able to outperform many of its rival CPUs at similar and sometimes even higher price points without increasing the clock speed at all. Surely the X4-645 will provide similar performance capabilities.

With the August Steam Hardware Survey showing us that less than 6% of gamers are using DX11 compatible systems, we are taking this opportunity to bring you a review focused at discovering the performance increase, if any, of upgrading just one piece of equipment, your CPU. Many of the review articles I read make me feel as though the performance they offer are just too far out of reach because it will require nearly a complete system overhaul in order to see the increased levels of performance with the new equipment. The Athlon-II X4-645 is compatible with both the AM2+ and AM3 motherboards, making it DDR2 and DDR3 compliant. Using a high-end DX10 video card in this review can help show the performance increase available for those of us who may need to upgrade just one piece at a time.

The Athlon-II X4-645 ADX645WFK42GM in this review will be tested against its predecessor, the X4-640, as well as two other Athlon-II processors, the X2-260 and the X3-445. This will give us a good overview of the scaling of dual, triple, and quad-core members of the Athlon-II family. Furthermore, a Phenom-II dual core processor will be tested along with Athlon-II CPUs to see what difference, if any, the existence of an L3 cache brings to the table. Results from recent tests of a couple of Intel Core i5 processors, the 655K and the 680, will be included to show performance across the platforms available. Finally, a Core i7-920 will round out our review, giving us a view of the relative high-end of quad core processing.

Let's move in and take a look at some of the features and specifications of the Athlon-II X4-645 ADX645WFK42GM AM3 quad-core processor.

Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices
Product Name: Athlon-II X4-645
Model Number: ADX645WFGMBOX (Retail) ADX645WFK42GM (OEM)
Price As Tested: $125.99 at NewEgg

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Advanced Micro Devices.

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