# AMD Rolls Out Athlon II X2 280 Value Dual-Core Processor



## btarunr (Feb 6, 2013)

It's not retirement time for AMD's 45 nm "Regor" silicon just yet, with the company announcing the Athlon II X2 280 value dual-core processor. Built in the socket AM3 package (compatible with AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+ motherboards), and based on the company's K10.5 micro-architecture, the chip features two x86-64 cores clocked at 3.60 GHz, 1 MB of L2 cache per core (2 MB total), an instruction set that includes SSE3 and SSE4A, and a dual-channel integrated memory controller that supports both DDR2 and DDR3 memory types. The chip can take advantage of HyperTransport 3.0 interface, with a maximum data-rate of 4.0 GT/s. It features a rated TDP of 65W, and is designed for entry-level desktops. It is priced at US $49.99.





*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## hellrazor (Feb 6, 2013)

Shit, I could almost buy that.


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## AlienIsGOD (Feb 6, 2013)

i had my old x2 240 o/c ed to 3.5 with ease so im sure these will have good temps @ 3.6ghz


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## RCoon (Feb 6, 2013)

Awesome price for a no-shit CPU. Bog standard cheap ass dual core, decent tdp as well. I can see these selling in environments like schools who are on tight budgets and still need to phase out their old pent 4's, of which I know there are many! Hell id buy one for the media streaming pc for my parents, but I already have a spare 8350 for that


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 6, 2013)

Not bad price wise, but then again would you rather an AMD A4 APU or this Athlon II?


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## Frick (Feb 6, 2013)

They have a lot of old chips or what? Very interesting release.


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## dj-electric (Feb 6, 2013)

Lemme be rude and say this CPU should be priced at 39$


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## blibba (Feb 6, 2013)

Bargain if it unlocks to a Phenom X4.



FreedomEclipse said:


> Not bad price wise, but then again would you rather an AMD A4 APU or this Athlon II?



This every time. I've GPUs better than the one in the A4 wasting space in my house


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## Fourstaff (Feb 6, 2013)

Sandy Bridge Celeron G550 at £35, it has serious competition at the budget end. Also, why not produce 1 module Piledriver for the budget crowd?


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## RCoon (Feb 6, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> Sandy Bridge Celeron G550 at £35, it has serious competition at the budget end. Also, why not produce 1 module Piledriver for the budget crowd?



so they can sell their athlon stock I guess. No sense in manufacturing or cutting down new chips when they can just sell what old ones they have left!


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## Fourstaff (Feb 6, 2013)

RCoon said:


> so they can sell their athlon stock I guess. No sense in manufacturing or cutting down new chips when they can just sell what old ones they have left!



That is a lot of old stock they have, you would have thought that they will start winding down the Athlon II fabs after starting Piledriver.


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## Melvis (Feb 6, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Not bad price wise, but then again would you rather an AMD A4 APU or this Athlon II?



Id personally go for the Athlon  over the APU. Ive tested the Older Athlon 3.2 vs the APU and the Athlon eats it for breakfast. Only good thing is the GPU with the APU.

For a budget gaming rig this would be a good choice.


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## AlienIsGOD (Feb 6, 2013)

blibba said:


> Bargain if it unlocks to a Phenom X4.



AFAIK all X2's based on the Regor core are native dual cores.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon_II


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## Frick (Feb 6, 2013)

AlienIsGOD said:


> AFAIK all X2's based on the Regor core are native dual cores.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon_II



IIRC none of the dual cores could be unlocked. Some single core Semprons could be unlocked to two cores (iirc), tons of X3's could be unlocked to either just four cores or four cores + level 3 cache.


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## blibba (Feb 6, 2013)

Frick said:


> IIRC none of the dual cores could be unlocked. Some single core Semprons could be unlocked to two cores (iirc), tons of X3's could be unlocked to either just four cores or four cores + level 3 cache.



It was definitely possible to unlock Phenom II X2s, in fact I've never known anyone try this and fail.


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 6, 2013)

Some of the athlon II chips could be unlocked to an Opteron with unlocked multi for higher clocking.


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## RCoon (Feb 6, 2013)

blibba said:


> It was definitely possible to unlock Phenom II X2s, in fact I've never known anyone try this and fail.



pretty much app phenom II x2's were quad core unlockable, my friend had several before going Intel i5 and every single one unlocked. They're just quad cores that failed tests anyway.


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## Norton (Feb 6, 2013)

RCoon said:


> pretty much app phenom II x2's were quad core unlockable, my friend had several before going Intel i5 and every single one unlocked. They're just quad cores that failed tests anyway.



Some PII X2's were locked down quads that worked 100% fine and were justed locked to X2 to hit market demand/price points. A lot of 555's were like that- mine ran perfectly as a quad (overclocked to 3.6 as an X4 w/o a voltage bump )

Wondering if these may be X4 Athlons that are locked down for the same reason (i.e. price points/demand). AMD sometimes gets a little loose with their core naming so I would not be surprised at all if this is the case...


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 6, 2013)

I have a older Phenom II X3 720 that unlocks to a quad on stock voltage and it does quite nicely for gaming and everyday use.


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 6, 2013)

it is cool how for less than $300 you can build an entire PC that will do everything you want but high end graphics.


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## ChristTheGreat (Feb 6, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> Sandy Bridge Celeron G550 at £35, it has serious competition at the budget end. Also, why not produce 1 module Piledriver for the budget crowd?



Yup, this is good competition, as the Celeron is faster than a X2 250 3ghz.

The difference? the celeron is less power hungry and has a Graphics Inside.

That x2 280 is quite nice, but I think this is a bit late, no?


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 6, 2013)

ChristTheGreat said:


> Yup, this is good competition, as the Celeron is faster than a X2 250 3ghz.
> 
> The difference? the celeron is less power hungry and has a Graphics Inside.
> 
> That x2 280 is quite nice, but I think this is a bit late, no?



well it is an AMD product...


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## GSquadron (Feb 6, 2013)

Weird, I got my cpu for around 73$ 2-3 years ago


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## Frick (Feb 6, 2013)

blibba said:


> It was definitely possible to unlock Phenom II X2s, in fact I've never known anyone try this and fail.





RCoon said:


> pretty much app phenom II x2's were quad core unlockable, my friend had several before going Intel i5 and every single one unlocked. They're just quad cores that failed tests anyway.



Ahh thanks. Evidentily I didn't remember correctly.


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## drdeathx (Feb 6, 2013)

blibba said:


> Bargain if it unlocks to a Phenom X4.
> 
> 
> 
> This every time. I've GPUs better than the one in the A4 wasting space in my house



It is not  a PII....


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## Casecutter (Feb 6, 2013)

This for $50, then Egg's got a MSI 880GMS-E41 AM3+ 880G HDMI Micro-ATX for $30 -AR$15, and 4Gb of 1333 (PC3 10666) say $25. So, just breaking $105 provides a great base for any home use build... you got to like that. 

Although, the AMD A4-5300 $55, a FM2 (D2) mobo are like $50-60, your still it right in there.  Then my gut compels me to go with 1866 (PC3 14900), and them I'd get a case of "the might as wells" going the 8Gb option which is judicious, so that's $50-55. That's work to like $160'ish, which is still nice.  However seat-of-the-pants you won’t feel much, other than a little better 3D graphics prowess from the HD 7480D while being a little more frugal to the wall socket.

A-typical little quandary... but it’s really based on getting that 880G for a great price of $30. Say it's $45; the $40 difference ($120 vs. $160) for the new technology, efficient, APU with a bump in graphics, and _mo-better_ memory is the elegant purchase. 

This might be a case of a little too late, I feel the parade has passed by for this, unless you got parts lying around and just need a CPU.


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## TheGuruStud (Feb 6, 2013)

Easy Rhino said:


> well it is an AMD product...



 Bingo, execution is their problem, not the products as the haters proclaim.


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## Domokun (Feb 6, 2013)

No way I'd consider this at $50 when the Intel Celeron G1610 is being sold at $42.


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## BrooksyX (Feb 6, 2013)

Agreed, I used to be a huge AMD fanboy but right now I don't see why anyone would buy this chip over a sandy/ivybridge cpu in the same price range.


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## TheGuruStud (Feb 6, 2013)

BrooksyX said:


> Agreed, I used to be a huge AMD fanb.  but right now I don't see why anyone would buy this chip over a sandy/ivybridge cpu in the same price range.



Phenom X2s on eBay for 50 bucks. Unlock, OC (or undervolt) and enjoy  
I stuck one in my server. I would have used the 4100 if Microcenter had the combo sooner.


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## cdawall (Feb 6, 2013)

Frick said:


> IIRC none of the dual cores could be unlocked. Some single core Semprons could be unlocked to two cores (iirc), tons of X3's could be unlocked to either just four cores or four cores + level 3 cache.



There are a handful of the Athlon II X2's that would unlock I had one. Just depended on the core you got. If you were buying from MC or frys you could have them look for the correct steppings.


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## BrooksyX (Feb 6, 2013)

TheGuruStud said:


> Phenom X2s on eBay for 50 bucks. Unlock, OC (or undervolt) and enjoy
> I stuck one in my server. I would have used the 4100 if Microcenter had the combo sooner.



But how is that relevant to the cpu this thread is about...


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## antuk15 (Feb 6, 2013)

TheGuruStud said:


> Phenom X2s on eBay for 50 bucks. Unlock, OC (or undervolt) and enjoy
> I stuck one in my server. I would have used the 4100 if Microcenter had the combo sooner.



And yet would still not offer any higher gaming performance then a 1155 Pentium


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## cdawall (Feb 6, 2013)

antuk15 said:


> And yet would still not offer any higher gaming performance then a 1155 Pentium



Your point being what? There is a heck of a lot more upgradability buying an AM3+ platform than a dead socket intel chip.

Oh and try running some multithreaded apps on the 1155 pentium over the FX chip and watch which starts to shine.


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## TheGuruStud (Feb 6, 2013)

cdawall said:


> Your point being what? There is a heck of a lot more upgradability buying an AM3+ platform than a dead socket intel chip.
> 
> Oh and try running some multithreaded apps on the 1155 pentium over the FX chip and watch which starts to shine.



He's full of it. BF3 would die on that CPU.



BrooksyX said:


> But how is that relevant to the cpu this thread is about...



Price. It's a great option as a low cost chip.


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## BrooksyX (Feb 6, 2013)

TheGuruStud said:


> Price. It's a great option as a low cost chip.



Again how does comparing a used phenom x2 from ebay have anything to do with me comparing this chip to an same priced intel chip?

Yeah thats great that you can buy a used phenom x2 on ebay for $50 but I still fail to see how that is relevant to my comment. 

I'm comparing a *NEW* AMD chip to a *NEW* Intel chip.


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## Fourstaff (Feb 6, 2013)

cdawall said:


> Your point being what? There is a heck of a lot more upgradability buying an AM3+ platform than a dead socket intel chip.
> 
> Oh and try running some multithreaded apps on the 1155 pentium over the FX chip and watch which starts to shine.



Currently we have 8350 for AM3+, and 3770K for 1155. We might/might not get Steamroller on AM3+, or we might get Steamroller but not compatible with some of the current boards. What we can say for certainty is that 3770K is better than 8350 in almost all metric, which doesn't really say much about AM3+'s upgrability (unless you count the possibility of Steamroller). 

Multithreaded apps are still currently the small minority, 1155 is usually better for most consumer tasks.


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## antuk15 (Feb 6, 2013)

cdawall said:


> Your point being what? There is a heck of a lot more upgradability buying an AM3+ platform than a dead socket intel chip.
> 
> Oh and try running some multithreaded apps on the 1155 pentium over the FX chip and watch which starts to shine.



:shadedshu

1. So there's no upgradability going from a Pentium to a 3770k?

2. 1155 might be 'dead' but it'll still be years before AMD offers comparable gaming performance.

3. Oh and now we're comparing a Penitum to an FX now are we? Why don't we compare the FX to a socket 2011 CPU while we're at it


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## Fourstaff (Feb 6, 2013)

antuk15 said:


> 3. Oh and now we're comparing a Penitum to an FX now are we? Why don't we compare the FX to a socket 2011 CPU while we're at it



He is probably comparing the G860 against whatever AMD has got to offer (I guess 5400K will be the best competition price wise), G860 comes ahead in most non specific tasks other than those which strongly require multithreads.


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## TheGuruStud (Feb 6, 2013)

BrooksyX said:


> Again how does comparing a used phenom x2 from ebay have anything to do with me comparing this chip to an same priced intel chip?
> 
> Yeah thats great that you can buy a used phenom x2 on ebay for $50 but I still fail to see how that is relevant to my comment.
> 
> I'm comparing a *NEW* AMD chip to a *NEW* Intel chip.



There's no pleasing you or the other guy that might as well start trolling.

What does new matter? Do CPUs all of the sudden start dying? They are the same generation, anyway...  Pick a used intel CPU, then, and compare... Point is that the price isn't good. Pentium's price sucks, too, imo.


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## BrooksyX (Feb 6, 2013)

TheGuruStud said:


> There's no pleasing you or the other guy that might as well start trolling.
> 
> What does new matter? Do CPUs all of the sudden start dying? They are the same generation, anyway...  Pick a used intel CPU, then, and compare... Point is that the price isn't good. Pentium's price sucks, too, imo.



You are cracking me up man. I dont think you are understanding what I am trying to tell you.
Oh well I tried


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## symmetrical (Feb 6, 2013)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> Lemme be rude and say this CPU should be priced at 39$



And if it was $39, you would probably say "Lemme be rude and say this CPU should be priced at $29"


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## suraswami (Feb 7, 2013)

I would definitely buy one if I decide to sell my perfect working X2 4800 AM2 from my media center, which is still fast for what PC is intended for.

oh wait I have a PII 555 that unlocks to X4 and works fine @ 3.8 perfect all day sleeping in my closet, a X2 240e sleeping.

hmm if MC sells this as a combo I might get one just for kicks!


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## sergionography (Feb 7, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> Currently we have 8350 for AM3+, and 3770K for 1155. We might/might not get Steamroller on AM3+, or we might get Steamroller but not compatible with some of the current boards. What we can say for certainty is that 3770K is better than 8350 in almost all metric, which doesn't really say much about AM3+'s upgrability (unless you count the possibility of Steamroller).
> 
> Multithreaded apps are still currently the small minority, 1155 is usually better for most consumer tasks.



that is so not true, its ridiculous how everyone keeps saying that now adays. many games are becoming multithread friendly, and while most apps/games still use 3-4 cores to their full potential, no one wants a computer that will be pretty much be throttled playing a game or running an app even if the app does the job quicker or the game runs higher fps, the more cores that are idle the more headroom you have for more stuff in the background(keywords here multitask vs multithread). anyone here has their computer with skype open? a gazillion tabs on the browser open 24/7? steam for some people? the java update thingies? the anti virus updating? daemon tools with a bunch of games mounted? and not to mention the many ghetto key gens that keep running in the background from downloading all the torrents XD?(while most of these fill up the ram or chock the hard drive, some can easily use up a core or 2), not everyone is computer savvy enough to know how to keep their windows clean(me on the other hand im lazy to do so, and im sure im not the only one ), my point is when comparing the same price range amd almost always has the better computational capability when you keep in mind that most people wanna MULTITASK, not MULTITHREAD(this is for the engineers to worry about, and for the enthusiasts like people here in this forum to care about).
and trust me when more apps are to start using 8 cores, i will like to see 12-16 cores standard from amd for extra multitasking leg room

and before anyone jumps into the amd is more power hungry arguement remember that most benchmarks measure maximum power meaning when every gflop on that cpu  is being stressed, and in real scenarios thats hardly the case, and when an 8350 is running at 100% taking advantage of all the cores then trust me its very much competitive with a 3770k(see linux reviews for evidence on that), a fair comparision would be to run a certain app and measure how much each cpu consumes, and in such situations amds gap in power consumption is much smaller(4 piledriver cores vs 4 intel cores, even tho the intels are faster no doubt)


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## TRWOV (Feb 7, 2013)

At $50 I wouldn't say this is a value proposition considering that the A4-5300 sells for $60 or so and a Celeron G555 will eat it for breakfast at $55. Put it at $30 and we may talk.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Feb 7, 2013)

blibba said:


> It was definitely possible to unlock Phenom II X2s, in fact I've never known anyone try this and fail.



Well Hello!
I'm running a Ph II x2 560 that unlocked but I also have a PH II x2 555 that did not...

Now you know someone that tried and failed.

Oh yeah This is an awesome CPU for $25...oh wait its $50...well as long as you can find a mobo for $10 or free its all good.


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## a_ump (Feb 7, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> At $50 I wouldn't say this is a value proposition considering that the A4-5300 sells for $60 or so and a *Celeron G555* will eat it for breakfast at $55. Put it at $30 and we may talk.



That. On newegg i keep a budget build updated about once every month or two with the celeron G540 being my cpu gem for budgets; according to xbitlab's benchmarks, a celeron G540 pretty much smokes an athlon II 250. I know the 280 is 600mhz faster but i can't see that making up for 20-40 fps difference between the 2 in games, and since the celeron G540 is the same price($49.99) its not exactly a tough call.


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## jihadjoe (Feb 7, 2013)

Gotta keep those old 45nm fabs rolling I guess, and they probably don't want to produce Phenom IIs as those might embarrass their shiny new FX chips in gaming.


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## Fourstaff (Feb 7, 2013)

sergionography said:


> most people wanna MULTITASK, not MULTITHREAD



Even with multitask in mind alongside running multithreaded programs both of them are still pretty similar at any price point below the 3570K/8350 boundary. AMD can pull even  (and in a lot of cases beat Intel) with overclock, but ordinary folks don't do that. At $50 price range the Athlon II architecture shows its age, and struggles against the similarly priced Sandy Bridge processors. At about $100 it will be AMD for overclocking folks, before swinging back to Intel at the 3570K price point (minority who needs 8threads aside)>


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## cdawall (Feb 7, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> Even with multitask in mind alongside running multithreaded programs both of them are still pretty similar at any price point below the 3570K/8350 boundary. AMD can pull even  (and in a lot of cases beat Intel) with overclock, but ordinary folks don't do that. At $50 price range the Athlon II architecture shows its age, and struggles against the similarly priced Sandy Bridge processors. At about $100 it will be AMD for overclocking folks, before swinging back to Intel at the 3570K price point (minority who needs 8threads aside)>



You would be surprised how many people would see an improvement with the fx chips. Video encoding with a proper encoder, transcoding while playing the game you are recording,  new games that use all 8 threads, etc. 

Also remember piledriver is at the heart of Sony's console. Do you not think the coding is going to bleed over with the port industry we call gaming? 

AMD has a superior product for certain scenarios with the data as it sits now and the trends of current products utilizing more and more threads it would be stupid to think a 3570k will outperform an FX 8350 6-18 months down the road. Most people don't rebuild their pc's annually, AMD represents a better long term purchase as things sit now. Period end of story.


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## Aquinus (Feb 7, 2013)

drdeathx said:


> It is not  a PII....



This. Nor will it ever be. You don't unlock these kinds of things. Sometimes I think people want everything to be unlockable but the truth it, AMD and Intel want you to invest more in a faster processor, not unlock it for everything that they make money on. So why would they add an easy switch to change it unless it was cheaper to produce the same silicon for both (which I seriously doubt.)


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## Fourstaff (Feb 7, 2013)

cdawall said:


> You would be surprised how many people would see an improvement with the fx chips. Video encoding with a proper encoder, transcoding while playing the game you are recording,  new games that use all 8 threads, etc.



Most of the people I know don't really encode and transcode while playing games, yours might be different. At any rate you wouldn't do that if you are running low end processors while playing games. 

I don't know about the advantage of 8 cores over 4, in 2 years time, but what I know is that we had this discussion when Phenom II x6 was released and it turned out that the extra 2 cores were not really useful compared to better 4 cores for most people. So given the current trend, I tend to recommend better 4 cores over 8 cores. You can call me shortsighted, but when I do need 8 cores I will go for 3770(K) rather than 8350 due to my set of circumstances.


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## Frick (Feb 7, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> Most of the people I know don't really encode and transcode while playing games, yours might be different. At any rate you wouldn't do that if you are running low end processors.
> 
> I don't know about the advantage of 8 cores over 4, in 2 years time, but what I know is that we had this discussion when Phenom II x6 was released and it turned out that the extra 2 cores were not really useful compared to better 4 cores for most people. So given the current trend, I tend to recommend better 4 cores over 8 cores. You can call me shortsighted, but when I do need 8 cores I will go for 3770(K) rather than 8350 due to my set of circumstances.



The thing is most programs don't need all those cores, so I totally agree with you there. Multithreading is coming more and more though, especially in the mobile space, but you're right that most people don't need it anyway.


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## jagd (Feb 7, 2013)

Factory capacity ; phenom/thuban /regor  chips are 45nm piledriver is 32 nm .  AMD  had to stop 45nm production line ( until they updated to 32nm ) and use 32nm product line for 1core /2thread piledriver  than .
We will see piledriver/steamroller 1module/2thread cpus eventually in production when fab process updated or high end moved to lower process  (28-22 nm )



Fourstaff said:


> Also, why not produce 1 module Piledriver for the budget crowd?


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## xvi (Feb 7, 2013)

blibba said:


> It was definitely possible to unlock Phenom II X2s, in fact I've never known anyone try this and fail.



My Phenom II X2 550 BE did not unlock. I remember the unlock success rate being decently good, but not great.


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## cdawall (Feb 8, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> Most of the people I know don't really encode and transcode while playing games, yours might be different. At any rate you wouldn't do that if you are running low end processors while playing games.



Youtube is full of video game videos obviously someone is transcoding/encoding while playing games. 



Fourstaff said:


> I don't know about the advantage of 8 cores over 4, in 2 years time, but what I know is that we had this discussion when Phenom II x6 was released and it turned out that the extra 2 cores were not really useful compared to better 4 cores for most people. So given the current trend, I tend to recommend better 4 cores over 8 cores. You can call me shortsighted, but when I do need 8 cores I will go for 3770(K) rather than 8350 due to my set of circumstances.



I do see you as being short sighted. Honestly in applications that take advantage of the 8 cores the 3770K doesn't normally do any better than the 3570K. All hyperthreading can do is keep the pipes loaded down, if they are already loaded down it does nothing but hurt.

This is also a forum about pushing the bleeding edge we are not "most people." Most people don't need more than a dual core like the one listed in this thread. There are no games it cannot handle and no internet browser it cannot run. My tablet and phone both have four cores if you think things are not getting more multithreaded... Might want to think that one through again.


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## Fourstaff (Feb 8, 2013)

cdawall said:


> Youtube is full of video game videos obviously someone is transcoding/encoding while playing games.



And to do that you need a very powerful PC, not a cheap dual core. See the streamers thread in the clubhouse forums. 



cdawall said:


> My tablet and phone both have four cores if you think things are not getting more multithreaded... Might want to think that one through again.



I will re-evaluate my position in a years time, don't worry. For the past few years since the first gen i7 came out it has always been "strong single core performance after 2 threads, get the faster of the two if equal". It has become "strong single core performance after 4 threads", which is where the FX 4xxx chips becomes very potent in my eyes, while the FX6xxx "has no aim", the 8320 is cheap enough to completely skip the 6 cores. Given the average casual workload (ie not much demands like streaming etc.), my current rule of thumb it will be G540, G860, FX4300/ i3 3225 for those who doesn't need external graphics, then 3570K. For those who needs much more horsepower there is the 8320 right after 4300, and then 8350 for those willing to pay more. Those looking for upgrading will be considered case by case. Feel free to comment on my "go to" processor list, and explain why other choices (if  you think so) is superior


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## Aquinus (Feb 8, 2013)

cdawall said:


> Youtube is full of video game videos obviously someone is transcoding/encoding while playing games.



It doesn't mean that they have drives with fast I/O storing uncompressed video and doing it after the fact. On the fly encoding is the hardest on the CPU even for a quad core because you have to encode it in real time and still be able to process the game.

Doing this well in HD on a dual-core might be a stretch though. There are cases where even my 3820 struggles a little bit with it. There is a big difference recording 24p video and 60p video at 1080p though.


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## GoFigureItOut (Feb 8, 2013)

Could a Celeron G550 or G540 be used for a hackintosh build? I've the feeling the CPU does not have enough power for that OS.


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## cdawall (Feb 8, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> And to do that you need a very powerful PC, not a cheap dual core. See the streamers thread in the clubhouse forums.



Never said the dual core in this thread could handle it. That being said it would outperform a hyperthreaded single core hands down. As for the streamers as I said earlier the FX series performs very well at that better than any of the current more budget minded Intel performance chips available (3570K, 3770K and 3820).



Fourstaff said:


> I will re-evaluate my position in a years time, don't worry. For the past few years since the first gen i7 came out it has always been "strong single core performance after 2 threads, get the faster of the two if equal". It has become "strong single core performance after 4 threads", which is where the FX 4xxx chips becomes very potent in my eyes, while the FX6xxx "has no aim", the 8320 is cheap enough to completely skip the 6 cores. Given the average casual workload (ie not much demands like streaming etc.), my current rule of thumb it will be G540, G860, FX4300/ i3 3225 for those who doesn't need external graphics, then 3570K. For those who needs much more horsepower there is the 8320 right after 4300, and then 8350 for those willing to pay more. Those looking for upgrading will be considered case by case. Feel free to comment on my "go to" processor list, and explain why other choices (if  you think so) is superior



Only thing I would toss in would be an APU depending on budget and need for better video. Other than that I have no issues with your list.



GoFigureItOut said:


> Could a Celeron G550 or G540 be used for a hackintosh build? I've the feeling the CPU does not have enough power for that OS.



Umm...they do lets just leave it at that.


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## Fourstaff (Feb 8, 2013)

cdawall said:


> Never said the dual core in this thread could handle it. That being said it would outperform a hyperthreaded single core hands down. As for the streamers as I said earlier the FX series performs very well at that better than any of the current more budget minded Intel performance chips available (3570K, 3770K and 3820).



Yeah I was assuming that we are focusing on cheap ass stuff, opps 

There is no denying that FX is quite decently priced for streamers but from my experiences streamers are the minority which require special attention rather than the majority. 



cdawall said:


> Only thing I would toss in would be an APU depending on budget and need for better video. Other than that I have no issues with your list.



Forgot about those, but it should come after the G860 for people who can't afford graphics.


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## tokyoduong (Feb 8, 2013)

My X3 720 did unlock but had to run it at 2.1 ghz to be stable 

I had a toss up between 3570k and 8350 black also. In the end, i ended up going intel simply because of better single thread performance(something i can use now!) and micro center had a bundle deal 3570k+asrock z77 extreme4 for ~220. Also power difference, I only had a Corsair CX430 to work with at that time. 
Now i got a Corsair HX650 and my pc sounds like a bird cage.


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## Ravenas (Feb 9, 2013)

btarunr said:


> * (compatible with AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+ motherboards)*



That is unbelieveable. I love AMD.


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## soryuuha (Feb 13, 2013)

im using old AM2 socket with Athlon 4400+...can I buy this and replace my old 4400+?


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 13, 2013)

soryuuha said:


> im using old AM2 socket with Athlon 4400+...can I buy this and replace my old 4400+?



depends if that motherboard will support the CPU, and if the board maker has launched a bios update for it.


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