AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition CPU-Processor

ScienceMark 2.0:

Science Mark 2.0 ran at 4.01GHz.

The ScienceMark score of 2289 is just slightly higher then the AMD 975 result of 2206. This is a result that should be expected, but since our AMD 980 was running at 4.01GHz already and on a different motherboard and different RAM than the AMD 975 rig, the comparison is a little warped.

Conclusions:

The AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition is listed at being 100MHz faster than the AMD Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition from the factory, but with our latest BIOS and benchmark rig setup, we saw a minimum of 4.01GHz with the BIOS set to AUTO. We ran all the benchmarks we could and a few games and the processor held up great, which is great with a 400MHz by default increase. Only when we tried to push the processor even further (though not much) did the operating system become unstable (anything over 4.36GHZ).  Considering the drop in price of that the 975 will definitely have with this release you cant go wrong with either the 980 or the 975.

In the end the 980 is not a game changer but definitely shows the headroom that the Deneb core has and breaking 4GHz on air without voltage or memory tweaks is no small achievement.  This would be a wonderful processor equally suited for the power hungry overclockers as well as the casual gamer and office user. With Llano looming around the corner we can expect to see outlets dropping prices on AM3 CPU’s to clear the shelves for incoming inventory. This makes for the perfect opportunity for cheap upgrades for the value conscious.

The 980 proves to be an excellent performer in many categories and even more so when you consider its a sub $200 part and a Phenom II. All things considered the 980 is well deserving of our Approved Hardware Award.

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