AMD drops prices on Phenom II models

At the beginning of January, AMD announced three Phenom II microprocessors, quad-core X4 840 and 975 Black Edition, and hexa-core 1065T. Although the launch of these models was extensively covered by hardware news sites, and accompanied by large number of published reviews of new Phenom IIs, none of the processors appeared in the retail up to this moment. Today, these Phenom II models were added to AMD price list. At the same time, AMD dropped prices by %2 - 13% on a number of Phenom II chips. The biggest price cuts were for AMD Phenom II X6 1090T (35$), 1100T ($26) and 1055T ($24) parts.

The least expensive from new models, quad-core Phenom II 840, has the same 3.2 GHz core frequency as the Phenom II 955, but lacks 6 MB level 3 cache. The CPU has identical feature-set as Athlon II 650, that was supposed to launch last December. The Phenom 840 has the lowest price from all current quad-core Phenom IIs, and, at $105, it's a few dollars cheaper than slower Athlon II X4 645.

New flagship quad-core AMD microprocessor, Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition (BE), operates at 3.6 GHz. The CPU features unlocked core multiplier, and can be effortlessly overclocked to achieve even higher clock speeds. The 975 BE comes with $195 price tag, i.e the same as the price of Phenom II X6 1075T CPU, and $20 more expensive than the previous top X4 970 model.

Phenom II X6 processor was launched in OEM systems in December 2010. With 2.9 GHz core frequency, this model fits in the gap between 2.8 GHz 1055T and 3 GHz 1075T. The chip is priced at $185, or right in the middle between 1055T and 1075T prices.

Brief specifications of all affected processors, as well as old and new prices, are listed in the table below:

Model	Cores	Frequency	Old price	New price	Change
Phenom II X4 840	4	3.2 GHz	-	$105	N/A
Phenom II X4 955 BE	4	3.2 GHz	$145	$135	-6.9%
Phenom II X4 965 BE	4	3.4 GHz	$165	$155	-6.1%
Phenom II X4 970 BE	4	3.5 GHz	$185	$175	-5.4%
Phenom II X4 975 BE	4	3.6 GHz	-	$195	N/A
Phenom II X6 1055T	6	2.8 GHz	$199	$175	-12.1%
Phenom II X6 1065T	6	2.9 GHz	-	$185	N/A
Phenom II X6 1075T	6	3 GHz	$199	$195	-2%
Phenom II X6 1090T BE	6	3.2 GHz	$235	$205	-12.8%
Phenom II X6 1100T BE	6	3.3 GHz	$265	$239	-9.8%