AMD extends Dragon family with new Phenom II CPUs

AMD has added five new processor models to its Phenom II family.

Three of these feature AMD's unique triple-core design, while the others are quad-core. All of them are manufactured using AMD's 45nm process, will fit inside either AM2+ or AM3 sockets and thus can be used with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory.

Customers could therefore purchase the newer CPUs without having to upgrade their existing motherboards.

The quad-core parts are the 2.6GHz Phenom II X4 910, backed by 6MB of Level 3 cache, while the X4 Phenom II X4 810 has the same 2.6GHz frequency though with only 4MB of Level 3 cache. The X4 805 has the same amount of cache but clocks in at 2.5GHz.

Clock speeds for the triple-core X3 720 and 710 processors is 2.8GHz and 2.6GHz, both with 6MB of Level 3 cache.

UK pricing has not been announced as yet and is touting its competitiveness to Intel's equivalent chips with what it claims is superior energy efficiency.

AMD recently lowered the price of its processors just two weeks after launching the Phenom II range, in response to Intel's price reductions.

Benny Har-Even is a twenty-year stalwart of technology journalism who is passionate about all areas of the industry, but telecoms and mobile and home entertainment are among his chief interests. He has written for many of the leading tech publications in the UK, such as PC Pro and Wired, and previously held the position of technology editor at ITPro before regularly contributing as a freelancer.

Known affectionately as a ‘geek’ to his friends, his passion has seen him land opportunities to speak about technology on BBC television broadcasts, as well as a number of speaking engagements at industry events.