AMD enthusiasts should mark February 9th as a red-letter day. Five new processors have been unleashed by the ailing but effective CPU company, and they look like a serious value. If you’re looking to upgrade your box right now, these new processors are pretty much the only reasonable option. Plus, you can upgrade now with your DDR2 setup, and then move to a new DDR3 setup in six months and keep the processor, since it’ll be compatible with both.
These Socket-AM3 processors will be compatible with the Dragon (Socket-AM2+) motherboards, or you can buy a DDR3-compatible motherboard and just wait for the price to come down. The selection for a consumer looking to bump his setup is really nice. Unfortunately performance isn’t exactly blowing anybody away. They’re competitive at their price points, but if you absolutely need the speediest, Intel still owns the top of the charts. At a price, of course, and AMD’s processors have been good enough that Intel has dropped the price significantly on their lineup, a move quickly matched by AMD.
The full review over at AnandTech will answer all your more technical questions, but the bottom line is these are the best value out there right now if you’re willing to go along with the stepped upgrade program and aren’t expecting knockout performance out of the box. I hear they’re pretty sweet overclockers, though.
[images courtesy of AnandTech]