No matter how much one would love AMD, we all must admit Intel is the clear leader of the CPU market, but that doesn't mean things aren't going to change once again. At least on paper, all products look great before the public gets its hand on them, and this time, it's about AMD's new 45nm quad-core processors...

AMD released 65nm processors quite a while after Intel, and that's one of the reasons for analysts to be in doubt when they claim to release 45nm chips this year, apart from the financial problems the company is passing through.

In a recent conference call with financial analysts, AMD claimed the 45nm quad-core processors are already in their testing labs, and they should be shipping before 2009 arrives. Obviously, this is one of the facts that remains to be seen, as well as the performance achieved by these new models, since the Phenom processors are not living up to the expectations...

According to AMD's CFO, Robert Rivet, “We’re trying to ramp as quickly as possible 45 nanometer, starting on Fab 38 and we continue to try to execute as quickly as possible to get new products out there, so we’re making those appropriate investments and as prudently as possible.", and that's exactly what they should do. After the Phenom series plagued with various problems, their 45nm chips should make things straight, or they may even toil the bell for AMD...

 This CPU is a very good choice for the mainstream market users who cannot aford to pay too much for their hardware. The 5000+ Black Edition has its multiplier unlocked and so this means that anyone with some hardware knowledge will definitely try the overclocking capabilities - since it does not require any aditional special cooling system (it handles the processing with the cooler from the retail box). The specs are 2,600GHz, HT2000, L1-128KB x2, L2-512KB x2 and it was built under the  65nm (65W) design which shows why this CPU will not generate so much heat. This CPU is capable of leaving behind other CPUs which have bigger frequencies by default and have bigger prices - and that is possible if the X2 5000+ Black Edition is clocked at 3.3 GHz. The video encoding processing power is truly amasing once that frequency core is achieved, without having to raise either the FSB or the memory frequency, making it a safe choice for any AM2 motherboard. Yes, it is capable to beat the Intel Core 2 Duo E6400in video encoding matches and it does all that at "only" $99.

 A team of computer geeks have set up a PC system equiped with one of the fastest CPUs on the market today - the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 - in order to see the top frequency that can be reached. While the price for such a CPU is around $1300, the benefits are quite obvious when the respective platform will be used for applications which require a very strong processor. The QX9650 was built using the new Yorkfield architecture, which means that it is the first Intel processor to reach the 45nm design process. QX9650 is also the first quad-core processor to sport a 12MB L2 cache while it matches the 3GHz operating frequency of the QX6850. While the 3GHz frequency is rather something "normal" for QX9650, the 45nm building process makes it possible to require 25% less power and to be 26% cooler than QX6850. And that's what made the PC builder team wonder what the frequencies would be this CPU able to reach if overclocked. And, without any water-cooling system they managed to reach 4GHz - and easily too: the CPU was mounted on an ASUS P5E3 Deluxe, with a normal cooler and with the change of 10% in performance increase only! The Bios setting was changed from 9x to 10x CPU multiplier and a change in power consumption - 1.450v. Only on thsese settings did the QX9650 reach the 4GHz but also it was running as hot as QX6850 at 3GHz. The conclusion is that in the case of QX9650, the 4GHz frequency is not a problem and it doesn't require any special cooling.