The Phenom™ II X4 955 Black Edition and the Dragon technology platform refresh is enjoying a positive reception from review press this week. Credit for that goes to a solid product at an attractive price. Additionally, the new AMD OverDrive 3.0 Beta, with the accompanying Black Edition Memory Profiles (B.E.M.P.) and Smart Profiles, expands the performance-tuning sandbox for Those Who Know (TWKs).

While these reviews often point out that AMD Phenom II X4 955 does not challenge Core i7 at the highest end of the desktop market, there is a clear pattern of praise for AMD’s tremendous value. The introductory heading in bold italic at the beginning of many bullets is my own encapsulation.

AnandTech:  “AMD’s Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition”

·         Value:  “The prices are pretty attractive; the 955 will sell for $245 (and it already has been) and the 945 will go for $225. That pits the 955 against Intel’s Core 2 Duo Q9550 ($266) and the Core i7-920 ($284), the latter having a much higher motherboard cost of course.”

·         X4 955 beats Q9550:  “Unless you’re running applications that are very well optimized for Intel’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.”

·         DDR3’s time has come and charts uplift over DDR2.

·         AMD has platform longevity:  “From a longevity standpoint, the AM3 platform is much wiser to invest in than LGA-775. Intel has already shown all of its cards there, and there aren’t going to be any faster Core 2 Quads – just cheaper ones. By the end of this year Intel will begin transitioning to LGA-1156 and 775 will start fading away. By contrast, AMD’s Socket-AM3 is going to be the flagship for the company for all of 2009 and it’ll continue to live on into 2010. If you’re choosing between Socket-AM3 and LGA-775, AMD has made that choice very easy – Phenom II is the way to go if you’re concerned about a long term upgrade path, not to mention that the chips are generally cheaper than their Intel equivalents.”

Tom’s Hardware:  “Phenom II X4 955: AMD’s Dragon Platform Evolves” 

·         Dragon Platform refresh:  “Now AMD is fully on the platform bandwagon and we think the decision is a good one. In fact, the company is thumping its platform drum so hard that it’s difficult to believe it ever wanted anything different…This update nudges us up 200 MHz with a flagship running at 3.2 GHz. It gives us the option of adopting DDR3 memory and a Socket AM3 interface. It’s available alongside ATI’s new Radeon HD 4890 graphics card. And it includes a new processor-in-box reference cooling solution, which is just a tad smaller than its predecessor.”

·         Value & overclocking with AOD 3.0:  “At the end of the day, this comes down to price for most folks. If a Phenom II X4 955 plus 790FX/GX-based motherboard plus 4 GB DDR3-1333 memory kit are the upper end of your budget (let’s call that about $500), you won’t go wrong here.”

Tech Report:  “AMD’s Phenom II X4 955 processor …Black Edition”

·         Compatibility & Black Edition:  “Since this is a Socket AM3 processor, it’s compatible with both Socket AM3 motherboards that support DDR3 memory and Socket AM2+ motherboards that use DDR2 memory. And since this is a new flagship for AMD, the 955 is a “Black Edition” processor with all of the privileges that title bestows—pretty much just “easy overclocking via an unlocked multiplier,” but hey, that’s not a bad perk.”

·         Price / Performance:  “The firm has made a commitment to remain competitive with Intel on price and performance, and the 955’s $245 price tag would appear to position it against the Core 2 Quad Q9550, a 2.83GHz chip with four cores and 12MB (or, more precisely, 2 x 6MB) of L2 cache. Intel’s current price list has the Q9550 at $266, so the Phenom II X4 955 undercuts it a little bit, in fact.”

·         X4 955 and Q9550 are basically equal…:  “The performance contest between the Phenom II X4 955 and the Core 2 Quad 9550 is crazy close, and even the X4 955’s one apparent weakness, a higher power/thermal rating, turned out to be a non-issue in our testing.”

·         … so AMD gets the nod on platform value:  “AMD knew what it had in this CPU: practically a mirror image of the Core 2 Quad Q9550. They’ve done two smart things, as a result. They’ve priced the chip right and have given it an unlocked multiplier to simplify overclocking. Add to those things the fact that Socket AM3 seems to have a better upgrade path than LGA775, and the Phenom II X4 955 looks to be the smarter choice for most consumers, should they be choosing between these two products.”

·         Phenom II X3 720 still popular:  “Strictly on value, one might wish to step down to one of our favorite Phenom II processors, the X3 720. Gamers, especially, don’t need four cores. If you do value multithreaded performance, the Core i7-920 could be an interesting possibility. But somewhere in between, the Phenom II X4 955 could make a whole lot of sense.”

Hot Hardware:  “AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Processor”

·         Phenom II X3 720 still popular:  “AMD has released some mighty interesting processors as of late. The inexpensive tri-core Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition generated quite a bit of buzz upon its release, due to its excellent value and overclockability. And it didn’t hurt that a few weeks later news broke showing that some 720 BE processors could be modded into quad-cores with a simple BIOS tweak. The Phenom II 720 Black Edition was clearly a strong product in AMD’s mainstream CPU line-up. The new Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and X4 945, however, take things up a notch at the high-end of AMD’s product stack, and like the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, they do so without breaking the bank.”

·         Available & attractive platform:  “The Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and the X4 945 will be available immediately for $245 and $225, respectively (the 955 BE has already popped up on NewEgg). Pair one of these processors with an enthusiast-class 790FX or GX-based socket AM3 motherboard and 4GB of DDR3-1333 memory and you’ve got the makings of a powerful desktop platform for about $450. That’s not exactly cheap, but considering the performance and overclockability of the platform, it certainly represents a good value. Yes, Intel’s similarly clocked Core 2 Quads and Core i7 processors still maintain a performance advantage, but there is no denying that AMD’s Dragon platform is an attractive option that has only been enhanced by the introduction of these new CPUs.”

·         Award: “Hot Hardware Approved”

FiringSquad:  “AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Performance Preview”

·         AMD OverDrive 3.0:  “Of all the overclocking utilities that have been released from manufacturers over the years, AMD’s Overdrive suite is by far our favorite utility for CPU overclocking. With Overdrive 3.0, the best just got better, as AMD is adding Smart Profiles and Black Edition Memory profiles to Overdrive 3.0’s repertoire of features.”

·         Smart Profiles (AOD3):  “With so many games that are only dual-threaded on the market, Smart Profiles provides a nice option for enthusiasts looking to squeeze every ounce of performance out of their Phenom II processor.”

·         Good price, good value:  “Considering that the Q9400 sells for about $220, and the Q9550 for $270, AMD’s $225 price tag for the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition is actually a very good value. That $225 buys you an AMD processor that’s quite competitive with the Q9550 in performance, with the two trading wins depending on the application, but the AMD processor sells for nearly $50 less and sports an unlocked clock multiplier. Those are two very important pluses for hardware enthusiasts in this economy in our opinion.”

·         AMD is competitive: “This is definitely the most competitive AMD has been with Intel since Core 2’s arrival in the summer of 2006.”

PC Perspective:  “AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor Review – AM3 gets serious”

·         AMD’s timing right on DDR3:  “With AMD being more of the “value choice” it would have certainly hurt them to try to push the AM3 platform with memory prices so high.  So while the AM3 rollout was a slow affair, in hindsight it does seem as though AMD timed it about right.”

·         Motherboard support and OC headroom draw enthusiasts: “AM3 motherboard support is now reaching the tipping stage, and we are seeing a variety of boards from multiple manufacturers that encompass prices from $109 to $199.  I am certain that there will soon be $99 boards, as well as more “boutique” style offerings above $200.  While AM3 is still not a value proposition as compared to AM2+ boards and DDR-2 memory, the ability of AMD to deliver a processor which can stand toe to toe with what Intel has at this particular price point is a good thing.  Add onto that a good measure of overclocking ability, and suddenly there is a rebirth of enthusiast interest in AMD parts.”

·         Great 45nm execution:  “The real unsung hero of this story is AMD’s 45 nm process.  In the history of AMD, I do not remember a process that has come out as mature and performant as this one has.  If we consider that the 65 nm Phenom was a 450 million transistor part that ran at a max speed of 2.6 GHz, and pulled 140 watts (for the first generation of 2.6 GHz parts), it is pretty amazing what AMD has done.”

·         Solid CPU / good choice:  “Make no mistake, AMD has another solid part on their hands.  The Phenom II X4 955 performs up to expectations, it does not consume all that much more power than previous versions, and the updates to the clock speeds and DDR-3 memory make it a much more interesting part.  Now that we actually have a larger selection of AM3 motherboards from $109 to $199, consumers have some very good choices in where they want to put their money.”

·         Easy overclocking:  “AMD continues to move forward with new product launches, and it is nice to see that they have now fully fleshed out their AM3 offerings.  The two new processors dropped on the market today will allow users to have a greater selection of products to choose from.  With better cooling I likely would have been able to hit 4 GHz, and certainly the 3.8 GHz I was able to achieve is outstanding compared to how little work I had to do to get there.”

PC World:  “Tested: AMD Launches New Flagship Phenom II CPU”

·         Dragon Platform:  “Though AMD has trailed Intel in CPU performance at the absolute top end of town, it’s continued to deliver an affordable and largely competitive computing platform that includes CPU, motherboard, and GPU. The current incarnation of this unified offering is dubbed Dragon, and the new CPUs top off a full refresh since its introduction at CES in January. New ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics boards hit earlier this month, Socket AM3 motherboards are rolling out, and AMD’s long-awaited OverDrive 3.0 overclocking software is expected to make its appearance at today’s launch, albeit in beta form.”

·         AMD OverDrive 3.0:  “My tests of the pre-release OverDrive 3.0 software revealed a veritable tweaker’s paradise. You can tweak processor, HyperTransport, and memory speed and voltages with unmatched granularity, or simply move a slider in novice mode.”

·         Dragon brings value and tuning:  “It looks like the Dragon refresh should compete well against the similarly priced Intel setups, especially when overclocked. That said, it’s not in the same league as top Core i7 960 setups, but it’s also far cheaper. In a mid-level power system Dragon provides a lot of bang for your buck — especially if you like to twiddle clock and voltage settings.”

Computer Shopper:  “AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition”

·         Editor’s Rating: “8.2 / 10″

·         Dragon hits the intended mark:  “With this chip, AMD takes aim at Intel’s similarly priced Core 2 Quad 9550, rather than the company’s high-end Core i7 processors. The Phenom II, with its associated Dragon platform (which combines a Phenom II processor with a 7-series chipset and Radeon graphics) are designed to be competitive in today’s midrange-CPU market. To this end, this chip succeeds.”

·         Unlocked and compatible:  “The Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition may not feature a large speed bump over the previous high-end Phenom II chip, but it adds support for Socket AM3 and DDR3 RAM (both of which the initial Phenom II X4 940 lacked), while maintaining compatibility with DDR2 memory on Socket AM2+ motherboards. Like all Black Edition processors, the CPU multiplier is unlocked, simplifying the overclocking process.”

·         AMD OverDrive 3.0:  “AMD is continuing to court the enthusiast market by providing superb support for overclocking its CPUs. (The company does temper that support with a clear caveat that damage from overclocking isn’t covered by warranty.) AMD’s updated OverDrive 3.0 utility offers extensive control over speeds and voltages, like earlier versions, but it also adds a number of features to simplify the overclocking process. The first, Black Edition Memory Profiles, lets you automatically set optimal performance for supported DDR3 memory modules. Another, AMD Smart Profiles, can adjust settings on the fly for specific applications and games; for example, if a game only takes advantage of two of the Phenom II’s four processor cores, AMD OverDrive can boost the speed of two cores, while reducing the performance of the two unneeded cores. The initial release of OverDrive 3.0 includes 20 Smart Profiles, focusing on games and benchmarking applications; you can also create your own.”

·         AMD better value:  “When balancing value and performance, however, the Phenom II X4, coupled with an AMD 740-chipset-based motherboard and a Radeon graphics card, offers performance that’s very competitive with Intel’s Core 2 Quad series, often at a lower overall system price. As a bonus, AMD’s excellent utility bundle makes the Phenom II X4 an attractive choice for those who like to tweak to maximize performance.”

BenchmarkReviews:  “AMD Phenom II X4 955BE”

·         AMD is back:  “With the launch of the Phenom II and Dragon platform, however, AMD has made a dramatic comeback.”

·         Black Edition and AMD OverDrive 3.0:  “As this is a Black Edition processor, overclocking via AMD’s OverDrive 3.0 utility was easy. Given time restraints, I wasn’t able to push the Phenom II X4 955 to its limits. However, by upping a few voltages and increasing the multipliers, I was able to achieve a decent overclock in only a matter of minutes. The end result was 2800 MHz for the northbridge (MC + L3 Cache), 2600 MHz for the HyperTransport bus, and 3800 MHz for all four cores. The increased core speed has obvious benefits, but the northbridge itself is an important factor as well. As you’ll see in the benchmark sections to follow, when paired with high-end DDR3-1600, the overclocked memory controller leads to some serious bandwidth.”

·         Price / performance:  “Once again, it looks like AMD is the price/performance leader.”

·         AMD alone provides full platform with high-end GPU: “One other thing AMD has going for them is their ability to offer a complete desktop solution, including high-end discrete graphics. No other manufacturer can make this claim. (Although I’m sure they’re working hard at it!) For the time being, however, AMD’s Dragon Platform is one of a kind and with this refresh it’s gotten even better. The newly released Radeon HD 4890 and 790 series AM3 DDR3 motherboards are a perfect complement to the Phenom II family. Add to that great software support and you’ve got a very good system on your hands without having to break the bank.”

·         Award: “Golden Tachometer”

Bjorn3D:  “AMD Phenom 2 X4 955 BE”

·         Dragon platform attractive:  “The higher performance and overclockability of the new Phenom 2 X4 lineup, combined with lower upgrade costs than the competition, makes the Dragon platform an attractive choice in these economic hard times. Economically speaking, the times may be hard but AMD has shown you can produce an affordable platform with out sacrificing performance. This move not only allows users to enjoy a high end platform but shows that AMD cares about the end user by keeping the prices down. Kudos AMD!”

·         “The Phenom 2 X4 955 BE offers great performance at a good price. You can use your existing AM2+ board and DDR2 ram then upgrade to AM3 and DDR3, making it an even better choice in economic hard times.”

·         Phenom II recommended on value:  “The Phenom 2 X4 955 isn’t going to unseat the Core i7 CPU’s from their lofty throne but they rival them in some aspects. If we had to go out of pocket for a new rig at this point we’d heavily consider an X4 955. Not only is the CPU less expensive, the motherboards, on average, run about $100 (USD) less. You can snag a mid range AMD board with a SB750 and it’ll clock the unlocked multiplier X4 955 BE just as well as a deluxe board. The Asus M4A78T-E we use isn’t even a high end board and we easily hit 4 GHz.”

·         Easy overclocking:  “Speaking of overclocking, the Phenom 2 X4 955 BE overclocked insanely easy. We hit 3.8 GHz in about 15 minutes stable. Getting to 4 GHz took us about an hour, mainly by walking up the voltage on the CPU slowly. The Phenom 2 lineup is an overclocking champion and loves extreme cooling like Dry Ice and LN2, making it a good choice for air, water, and exotic cooling enthusiasts.”

·         More praise for platform value:  “We like the easy upgrade path on the Phenom 2 lineup and the price performance punch it offers. Dollar for dollar, we don’t think you’ll find a better platform out there than the Phenom 2 lineup and if you have a few bucks to spare, treat yourself to the Phenom 2 X4 955 BE with it’s unlocked multiplier and overclocking headroom. We love it.”

·         Award: “Golden Bear Award”

eWeek Channel:  “AMD Launches 3.2GHz Version of Phenom II CPU”

·         AM2+ compatibility demonstrated:  “We took a very straightforward approach to testing the 955; we simply yanked out the 940 in our AMD test system (see “AMD Guns for Intel’s Nehalem with the Phenom II”)  and replaced it with the 955.  Our test system uses an ASUS M3A78-T motherboard, which required an update to the latest BIOS to support the 955. The M3A78-T is an old standby and was developed during the days of AM2+ sockets.”

·         AMD OverDrive 3.0:  “Using the newest version of AMD’s Overdrive utility, we were able to experiment with different clock speeds on the 955 and found that, with our test system, we were able to run the 955 at 3.8GHz reliably. That increased our Passmark score to 1,146.5 and our CPUmark score to 4,846.4, a worthwhile increase.”

·         Value of compatibility:  “System builders should expect no surprises from the Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition, which in this case is a good thing. The CPU will quickly drop into current Phenom II configurations, making the transition to a faster CPU very simple, while cutting costs by a few dollars.”

CRN / Everything Channel:  “AMD Refreshes The Dragon”

·         AMD OverDrive 3.0:  “OverDrive has historically been an easy way for novices and enthusiasts alike to overclock AMD processors. With version 3.0, the company has added new features that also make it easier to fine tune some settings. With another acronym, BEMP (Black Edition Memory Profiles), AMD has worked with memory manufacturers to create a database of specifications for certain high-frequency DDR3 modules. When using a motherboard with a BIOS that supports it, OverDrive 3.0 can use BEMP to look up frequency and latency settings and automatically set the parameters within the BIOS… Other new additions to OverDrive are Smart Profiles, which allow users to create (or use preconfigured) profiles that set parameters on a per-application basis. One good example of this is with games that are only dual threaded. With Smart Profiles, it is now possible to devote more processing speed to those two cores while reducing speed to the cores that are underutilized.”

·         AMD a better buy:  “Admittedly, the X4 955 is still no match for Intel’s current high-end CPU, the Core i7-965 Extreme, but its benchmarking scores come a lot closer than we would have expected. Considering the Core i7 Extreme is priced near $1,000, AMD’s latest processors are a great value at $225 and $245 for the X4 945 and Black Edition X4 955, respectively.”

·         CPU and AOD3 are powerful:  “Overall, the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition, along with OverDrive 3.0, is a powerful and stable processor at a very reasonable price. Reviewers were pleasantly surprised at the performance we saw and look forward to what the competition between the two CPU powerhouses brings next.”

DesktopReview:  “AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Review”

·         Compatibility / Upgradability:  “One major difference between AMD’s and Intel’s most recent CPU efforts is the issue of backwards compatibility.  Due to the major structural changes on Intel’s side, such as moving the memory controller on-die, the newest processors can’t be used in any prior board. They also require new memory.  AMD saw an opportunity here and brought out their AM3 processors, giving them the ability to lock into AM2+ chipsets.  This way, users looking for a little extra oomph can drop in a new CPU and not necessarily be forced to buy an entire new system.  The PII X4 955 is no exception, and can be put in many older motherboards, needing only a BIOS update. Once they’ve bought the processor, users can buy a new AM3 motherboard and DDR3 RAM at a later time, hopefully taking advantage of a lower price tag.”

Hi Tech Legion:  “AMD Phenom II 955 X4 BE and Dragon Platform Refresh Review”

·         Dragon has AMD back in the game:  “At a price of under $800.00 for an entire system, the Phenom II 955 X4 Black Edition and the refreshed Dragon Platform has brought AMD back in the game for mainstream users and will also hand the enthusiast a plethora of overclocking options to play with. There is also the reverse compatibility factor. You don’t have to upgrade everything to take advantage of what the Dragon Platform has to offer.”

NeoSeeker:  “AMD Phenom II X4 955 Review”

·         Award:  “Editor’s Choice”

AMDZone:  “Phenom II X4 955″

·         Award:  “Editor’s Choice”

Extreme Overclocking:  “AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE & 945 AM3 Processors”

·         Award:  “HIGHLY RECOMMENDED”

John Taylor is Director, Global Platform & Product Communications at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.