{"id":4778,"date":"2009-11-06T12:29:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-06T10:29:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T22:00:00","slug":"amd-phenom-ii-965-black-edition-reviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/4778-amd-phenom-ii-965-black-edition-reviewed","title":{"rendered":"AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition reviewed"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMD has released its new top of the range quad core CPU, the Phenom II 965 BE. The 965BE replaces the 955BE as AMD’s top performing chip, and it does so by bumping the clock speed up 200MHz.<\/p>\n

The 965 BE uses the same 2MB L2 cache and 6MB L3 cache as all Phenom II quad core CPUs. Apart from the clock speed increase, the chip also has a higher Thermal Design Power (TDP) rating than the 955, and for the first time since the Phenom 9950, there is an AMD CPU using 140W.<\/p>\n

While many enthusiasts will be quick to point out that the additional 200MHz on the core clock will yield no noticeable improvements over the 955 BE, the elevator pitch is that it brings this additional performance at no extra cost.<\/p>\n

The US price of the 965BE is $245 (R1,900), which is the same as what the 955BE sells for.  Locally, the 965BE can be found for around R2,300, effectively replacing the 955BE which sold for the same price.<\/p>\n

This means that the 965BE replaces the 955BE, bringing additional performance at no extra cost. This is great news for AMD fans (excluding those who recently invested in the 955BE). The biggest problem then for AMD does not exist internally, but rather with the recent release of Intel’s budget powerhouse; the i5 750.<\/p>\n

The unfortunate reality for AMD is that the i5 750 has proven to be faster than the 965 BE in most games and applications, and is cheaper to boot. The same retailers<\/a> that are selling the 965BE for R2,285 are selling the i5 750 for R1,879, making it a better option for new system builders.<\/p>\n

The fact that Intel is offering a better product at a lower price does not make the 965 BE a bad CPU. In fact, the 965 performs admirably and will provide a solid backbone for any gaming rig.<\/p>\n

Coupled with a decent graphics card, the 965BE delivers high-end gaming performance that is difficult to fault. In tandem with a HD 5870 and 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, our 965BE based system comfortably delivers 60fps+ in almost all games with maximum details enabled.<\/p>\n

The unlocked CPU multiplier makes for a solid overclocking processor, and those wanting to squeeze extra performance should have no trouble hitting 3.8GHz on air cooling. Incidentally, this was the average stable overclocking frequency possible with the 955BE.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that the 965BE is a more than adequate gaming CPU. It is also a welcome, although fairly inconsequential improvement over the 955BE. The fact that it brings this performance boost at no added cost however is something that most enthusiasts will appreciate.<\/p>\n

While overclockers will see no improvement from the 965BE, and out of the box the 200MHz increase will make no significant difference to performance, it is still nice to see AMD updating a product without ripping off consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

955BE gets a free performance boost<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}