Phenom II X2 Processor

AMD has had along rivalry with Intel and they have done pretty good at it. They really took Intel by surprise when they released the AMD Athlon 64 processors that outdid their Intel counterparts in almost every category. That was probably AMD's brightest moment. Unfortunately, since the release of the Athlon 64 processors, Intel has been churning out better processors than AMD and the latter has found it a struggle just trying to keep up. They really got Intel's attention so to speak.

In the dual-core department, Intel's Core2Duo's have been reigning supreme with AMD Athlon X2s following from behind. The same goes in the quad-core department. Recently though, AMD decided to get back at Intel by releasing the new Phenom II X2 processors that are based on their Phenom quad-core processors and are actually quad-core processors that have had two of their cores disabled. They are also Black Edition processors that simply mean that they can be over-clocked because they have unlocked multipliers. Question is, is it any good? Can it actually compete with Intel's Core2Duo line of processors?

Both of the questions can be answered with a resounding yes. Finally, AMD has gotten something right and are on the right track to reclaiming the top spot from Intel but only in the dual-core category for now. In tests, the Intel Core2Duo processors gave a good fight and are still ahead of the AMD Phenom II X2 processors but by the smallest of margins and if you add the fact that the Phenom II X2 processors cost around $60 cheaper ten it's really a no brainer.

Aside from the price issue, there are other departments that the Phenom II X2 processors have excelled. When over-clocked, the Phenom II X2 processors stayed cool which was somewhat of a surprise basing on AMD's previous heat problems. Also, an AMD rig is more power efficient as compared to an Intel rig by a full 65W at load. AMD has scored big with this new offering that does well for enthusiasts who are on a tight budget, something that AMD has long been known for. Only time will tell when they can start giving the other Intel processors a run for their money.