AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE & Athlon II X4 635 & X3 440 Processors

Product Summary & Final Conclusions:

These new Phenom II and Athlon II processors are certainly a welcome addition to AMD's product lineup. As AMD continues to price their processors aggressively against their competition, the consumers really come out as the winners, getting more bang for their buck. I would say that approximately two-thirds of AMD's processors are priced at $120 or less, even their flagship Phenom II X4 965 BE is only $190. Right now in the sub-$100 processor price range Intel really can't compete (but they really don't have to sweat too much since they currently dominate the top-end market). The closest priced Intel processor that I would consider a threat to AMD would be the Core i3 530, priced at about $125. It's still a little on the high side, if Intel dropped the price to $99 then things would really heat up.

If you skipped over the pages of benchmarks, let me break it down in real simple terms. The Athlon II processors are great for general desktop type apps where usually the only thing that matters is raw megahertz. The Phenom II processors are great for gamers and power users, the L3 cache (a whopping 6MB) can really give a boost in performance under various situations.

Another huge plus for AMD's current processors is that they are backwards compatible in most previous generation AM2+ and even some older AM2 motherboards. So if you have an older system that you want to freshen up and get some more performance out of, you can drop in one of these new CPUs for $100 or less and extend the life of your system.

AMD really made a groundbreaking achievement when they announced the Athlon II X4 620 for $99, being the worlds first quad-core for under $100. I think the 630 will continue to be a top-seller as it moves to the $99 price slot. For only $20 more, one could purchase the brand new Athlon II X4 635 which is 100 MHz faster, but once you get in that price range it gets very tempting to jump up to a Phenom II.

The X3 triple-core processors never cease to amaze me. I love seeing benchmarks where all the dual core chips are grouped together, above them is a group of triple core, and above those are a group of quad core. Often the increase in performance is greater going from a dual to a triple core, than it is going from a triple to a quad core. We reviewed the new Athlon II X3 440 priced at $84, which it is a great chip for that price and fits nicely with the rest of the Athlon II processor lineup. However, for enthusiasts and gamers it is tough not to want to upgrade to a Phenom II X2 555 BE or Phenom II X3 720 BE for a little more.

The Phenom II X2 555 BE is without a doubt also an awesome buy at $99 (replacing the 550 BE at that price point). Many enthusiasts and gamers have raved about their 550 BE's, now they can get something a little faster and guaranteed C3 stepping for the same price. For a little more dough, it's so tempting to step up to the X3 720 BE and get that extra CPU core, but really it all boils down to what your budget it. The performance of the X2 555 BE is more than sufficient for any typical gamer (especially when overclocked), and instead of spending more on a CPU that money can be better spent upgrading the video card.