| AMD Phenom-II X4-840 CPU HDX840WFGMBOX |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Processors | |
| Monday, 03 January 2011 | |
|
Page 1 of 13
AMD Phenom-II X4-840 Propus Processor Review
The New Year is starting off well for the computer hardware industry. Intel is releasing the long-awaited Sandy Bridge platform and AMD is filling in more of the Phenom-II and Athlon-II series. The two AMD CPUs set for release in early January 2011 are the Phenom-II X4-840 and the Phenom-II X4-975BE. The Phenom-II X4-840 HDX840WFGMBOX is the latest budget quad-core processor released by AMD. Set for release at an MSRP of only $102, the Phenom-II X4-840 could be a very affordable quad-core processor that brings a high level of performance to your computer without breaking the bank. In this article, Benchmark Reviews will help you decide if you want to spend some of your holiday cash on the new Phenom-II X4-840 CPU.
The Phenom-II X4-840 is a little bit of a mystery. While is carries the Phenom-II brand name, it doesn't quite match up in specifications to the rest of the Phenom-II line. According to the information released by AMD, the Phenom-II X4-840 is built on the Propus die. This means that, unlike the rest of the Phenom-II line, the X4-840 doesn't have an L3 cache. As we have discovered with the Athlon-II X4 series, missing out on the L3 cache doesn't necessarily mean that you will miss out on the level of performance necessary to play your favorite games or maintain a high level of productivity.
Without all that L3 cache, though, and being built on the Propus die, the Phenom-II X4-840 seems like it would be more appropriately named an Athlon-II X4 CPU. Specifically, with its 3.2Ghz clock speed, it falls right in line after the Athlon-II X4-645 at 3.1Ghz. As far as I can tell from the specifications, the Phenom-II X4-840 should be the Athlon-II X4-650, except that the price matches up more with a Phenom-II X2 dual-core chip. Regardless of the name, Benchmark Reviews has tested the Phenom-II X4-840 against a long line of Athlon-II and Phenom-II processors, as well as some Intel processors, including one of the new Sandy Bridge CPUs. After a look at the performance, we will be able to better speculate on exactly where the falls in a performance line-up. Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Product Name: Phenom-II X4-840 Model Number: HDX840WFGMBOX Price as Tested: $109.99 at Newegg Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by AMD, Inc.
|
|
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 .