Wednesday, February 6th 2013

AMD Rolls Out Athlon II X2 280 Value Dual-Core Processor
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.
64 Comments on AMD Rolls Out Athlon II X2 280 Value Dual-Core Processor
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.
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 )
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...:rolleyes: Might want to think that one through again.
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.
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. Forgot about those, but it should come after the G860 for people who can't afford graphics.
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.