AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 2, 2011 10:42 PM ESTPower Consumption
Power consumption, like performance, isn't surprising here. I noticed I couldn't get Cool'n'Quiet to properly underclock the Phenom II X4 980 BE when idle, resulting in a constant 3.7GHz operating frequency and thus higher than expected idle power numbers. I updated our test platform to the latest public BIOS but I suspect this is something that'll be addressed in a future update.
I also measured power at the ATX12V connector to give you an idea of what actual CPU power consumption is like (excluding the motherboard, PSU loss, etc...):
| Processor | Idle | Load (Cinebench R11.5) |
| Intel Core i7 2600K @ 4.4GHz | 5W | 111W |
| Intel Core i7 2600K (3.4GHz) | 5W | 86W |
| AMD Phenom II X4 975 BE (3.6GHz) | 14W | 96W |
| AMD Phenom II X4 980 BE (3.7GHz) | 35W | 104W |
| AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (3.3GHz) | 20W | 109W |
| Intel Core i5 661 (3.33GHz) | 4W | 33W |
| Intel Core i7 880 (3.06GHz) | 3W | 106W |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
78 Comments
View All Comments
DMisner - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
Part of me hopes BD gets delayed so AMD will release a Phenom II X4 @ 4GHztipoo - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
...But why? It would just look good on paper, BD is where their real performance aspirations are.DMisner - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
for the sheer novelty of it. Thats all.Belard - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
There is no novelty to these issues. Its business. Buy any AMD X4 965+ and OC to 4Ghz.... thats the Novelty part.Having ALL your best products - even those costing almost $300 that is slower than the competitions $200 lower-end CPUs is not fun.
I have a #2 desktop that is rendering videos daily (converting my OLD VHS) - and I'll need to upgrade its mobo/CPU to speed up the process. A NEW CPU will speed things up at lest 4-6x. (Its an OLD AMD X2).
The Intel's use less power, there is that odd-ball combination that allows the GPU of the intel be used to help render video faster.
So yeah, when looking at a $150~200 CPU, its performance that counts - not MHz.
Still, for most people - any $75~100 CPU will DO just fine. Including gaming.
GullLars - Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - link
With a $20-30 aftermarket cooler, you can hit 4GHz while undervolting a x50+ Phenom II. I haven't tried Athlon II's, but i'll be upgrading my father's Athlon X2 7550 to an Athlon II x4 645 and donate my old 1066 CL5 DDR2 sticks to it, so i guess i'll try hitting 4GHz on that too just for fun with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus.My 1090T runs F@H smoothly at 4GHz with stock volt (Noctua NH-D14 cooler).
JonnyDough - Thursday, May 5, 2011 - link
I agree.Considering that the AMD Phenom II X6 1100T is only $54 more and beats the new chip in most benchmarks while using less power under load (using max turbo @ 3.7, same clocks as the new 980 BE) I'd say that this new 4 core is a poor value comparatively.
JumpingJack - Sunday, September 21, 2014 - link
Hindsight is 20/20, it didn't work out quite as people wanted....StrangerGuy - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
I'm sure the PhII is already stuck at 3.8GHz at reasonable voltages and has been this way for a long time.I wonder how AMD feels when the mobile i7-2820QM is just as fast as their 4.2GHz OCed Phenom II X4. Bulldozer single-threaded performance and power consumption has to be at least the same as Nehalem to stand a fighting chance.
khimera2000 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
probably the same way Intel feels about AMD's video cards.Belard - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
You ARE kidding, right?!You can already OC to 4Ghz. And it will STILL be slower than i5-2400 ($190) which runs at 3.1Ghz.
Clock Speed doesn't mean then end-all. Remember the says of AMD64 vs P4? Even at 3~4Ghz, the $1000 P4 Extreme Editions were still SLOWER than AMD's 2.0~2.4Ghz $200~300 CPUs.
The performance wouldn't be so much an issue *IF* that i5-2400 was selling for $400, but its not. Its selling at the same price with a actual performance benefits.
The i3-2100 (I hate these stupid intel model numbers) = $125 and puts it on par with the AMD-PII 955 ($140) - which is an upper end AMD part... going against an intel bottom end Core X CPU.
Bulldozer needs to be OUT NOW. AMD makes great products, but they are late to the party.