As predicted last month, AMD has launched a slew of new processors, but with very little fanfare. This is not surprising, considering even the fastest one, the Phenom X4 9850, runs at just 2.5GHz. That's not exactly going to put the wind up Intel.

Indeed, our sister title Maximum PC over in the US put the new Phenom up against its clock-for-clock quad-core adversaries from Intel, and the results were not pretty. The Phenom X4 9850's 3DMark06 CPU results, PCMark05 score, and virtually all other benchmarks were still behind Intel's entry-level Core 2 Quad Q6600, which runs at just 2.4GHz. The new Core 2 Quad Q9300 running at the same 2.5GHz clock as the Phenom was even further ahead.

Not as cheap as chips after all

At this point, we'd like to be able to say 'but the AMD processor is much cheaper'. Unfortunately, that isn't true either, despite the prices AMD quoted at launch. Looking at current retail pricing (from www.scan.co.uk), you can pick up the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 for £147.92, where the AMD Phenom X4 9850 is around a tenner dearer at £157.45. The Q6600 has another price drop due in April too. The Core 2 Quad Q9300 is more expensive at £198.56, though.

At least the Phenom X4 9850 is a 'Black Edition', so it has an unlocked multiplier. This will make it easy to overclock without having to fiddle with memory speeds and other variables. But even without this facility, the Q6600 is already a legendary overclocker. Where the 9850 is a 125W part, the Q6600 is 95W, and lower thermal design power (TDP) usually means greater headroom for faster clock speeds.

Indeed, the G0 stepping Q6600 has been found to reach speeds well in excess of 3.3GHz with just air cooling. But we haven't yet seen any reports of a Phenom X4 9850 getting much beyond 3.1GHz. Since the Phenom can't beat the Core 2 even with a 100MHz clock advantage, it's not going to be breaking any benchmarking records for the foreseeable future.

Budget consciousness

So the new Phenoms may be a small step in the right direction for AMD, particularly as the X4 parts are the new B3 stepping, and therefore aren't prone to the infamous Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) bug. But since the fastest, enthusiast-oriented X4 still can't keep up with Intel's entry-level offerings, it's nowhere near enough to put AMD back on track with enthusiasts, or even the mainstream.