AMD II boosts Phenom II, Athlon II lines

Twos up, prices down

Chipper underdog AMD has added a bunch of new processors to its Phenom II and AMD Athlon II desktop product lines. The firm is pushing a price-to-performance metric which, it hopes, will deflect a bit of the spotlight away from Intels' 32nm Core Blimey chips introduced earlier this month.

All the chips will be available to OEMs at less than $100 each, except fof the new Phenom II X4 910e which will cost $169 when bought in volume.

The new processor offerings include AMD's fastest dual-core desktop processor to date in the shape of the 3.2 GHz Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition. A quick wibble showed this processor on sale to consumers in the UK for less than £80.

AMD is aiming the chips at mainstream consumers with the processors, "from gamers to social media devotees", the firm said. The firm emphasised the reduced power consumption of the chips, says they are designed to exploit the multi-tasking features of Windows 7. 

CPU Name              TDP       Frequency   1Ku Price* 

Athlon II X2 255       65W      3.1 GHz        $74
Athlon II X3 440       95W      3.0 GHz        $84
Athlon II X4 635       95W      2.9 GHz        $119
Phenom II X2 555     80W      3.2 GHz        $99  
Phenom II X4 910e   65W      2.6 GHz        $169

*per unit price on an order of 1,000