While we were at CES 2010 we had a chance to sit down with some representatives from AMD and have a little chat. After said chat we where excited to hear that we would be receiving some product for review. A few weeks later and to our surprise we received the AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition. To start with we shocked that we were given their top of the line CPU only to be topped by being given an unlocked black edition. To put it simply we had some fun with this chip. I went and bought a new mother board and video card just to do the tests, thankfully Crucial provided the RAM. Anyways enough talk, let’s take a closer look at what this thing can do:
Product Provided by: AMD
Price: $179.99 (newegg.ca)
Closer Look:
Specifications:

AMD Phenom™ II X4 Processor | ||||||
Model Number |
Frequency |
Total L2 Cache |
L3 Cache |
Packaging |
Thermal Design Power |
CMOS Technology |
965* |
3.4 GHz |
2MB |
6MB |
socket AM3 |
125W |
45nm SOI |
955* |
3.2 GHz |
2MB |
6MB |
socket AM3 |
125W |
45nm SOI |
945 |
3.0 GHz |
2MB |
6MB |
socket AM3 |
95W |
45nm SOI |
925 |
2.8 GHz |
2MB |
6MB |
socket AM3 |
95W |
45nm SOI |
Energy Efficient AMD Phenom™ II X4 Processor Product Model Comparisons
MODEL NUMBER | FREQUENCY | Total L2 Cache |
L3 Cache |
PACKAGING | Thermal Design power | cmos technology |
910e | 2.6GHz | 2MB | 6MB | socket AM3 | 65W | 45nm SOI |
905e | 2.5GHz | 2MB | 6MB | socket AM3 | 65W | 45nm SOI |
900e | 2.4GHz | 2MB | 6MB | socket AM3 | 65W | 45nm SOI |
AMD Phenom™ II X3 Processor
MODEL NUMBER | FREQUENCY | Total L2 Cache |
L3 Cache |
PACKAGING | Thermal Design power | cmos technology |
720* | 2.8GHz | 1.5MB | 6MB | socket AM3 | 95W | 45nm SOI |
710* | 2.6GHz | 1.5MB | 6MB | socket AM3 | 95W | 45nm SOI |
Energy Efficient AMD Phenom™ II X3 Processor Product Model Comparisons
MODEL NUMBER | FREQUENCY | Total L2 Cache | L3 Cache | PACKAGING | Thermal Design power | cmos technology |
705e | 2.5GHz | 1.5MB | 6MB | socket AM3 | 65W | 45nm SOI |
700e | 2.4GHz | 1.5MB | 6MB | socket AM3 | 65W | 45nm SOI |
AMD Phenom™ II X2 Processor
MODEL NUMBER | FREQUENCY | Total L2 Cache | PACKAGING | Thermal Design power | cmos technology |
555* | 3.2GHz | 1MB | socket AM3 | 80W | 45nm SOI |
550* | 3.1GHz | 1MB | socket AM3 | 80W | 45nm SOI |
545* | 3.0GHz | 1MB | socket AM3 | 80W | 45nm SOI |
*Available as Black Edition PIB
AMD64 Technology | Yes |
Simultaneous 32- & 64-bit computing | Yes |
L1 Cache (Instruction + Data) per core | 128KB (64KB + 64KB) |
L2 Cache (512KB per core) | 2MB or 1.5MB or 1MB |
L3 Cache | 6MB (shared L3) |
HyperTransport™ Technology | HyperTransport™ Technology up to 4000MT/s full duplex, or up to 16.0GB/s I/O Bandwidth |
Integrated DDR2 Memory Controller | Yes |
Memory Controller Width | 128-bit |
Type of Memory Supported | Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500(DDR2-1066MHz) and PC3 10600 (DDR3-1333MHz) |
Memory Bandwidth | up to 21 GB/s dual channel memory bandwidth |
Total Processor-to-system Bandwidth (HyperTransport plus memory bandwidth) | up to 37 GB/s |
Process Technology | 45 nanometer, SOI (silicon-on-insulator) Technology |
Packaging | AM3(938-pin) organic micro PGA |
Thermal Design Power | 140W, 125W, 95W, 80W or 65W |
Manufacturing Sites | GLOBALFOUNDRIES Dresden, Germany |
Let’s move on to some testing: