I was wondering if AMD is working on faster, and improved versions of the Phenom II X4 processor. Such as a P2 X4 975, or 985? I'm guessing 3.6 and 3.8 stock clocks?

I definitely have my eyes set on building a Phenom 2 X4 AMD desktop when I have the money soon. As well as a Radeon HD 5000 series GPU. I've never bothered with overclocking, because it can be very risky, and it can damage or break your computer if you do not know what you are doing.

I was hoping that stock versions of the P2 X4 versions with very high clock speeds will be released in the future. To help people such as myself, whom have absolutely no idea how to overclock.

I heard AMD is making a 32nm Six-core "Istanbul" version of the Phenom 2. Is that any true?

There are rumors of a new Phenom III line (C3 Stepping) but whether that includes higher stock clocks is anyone's guess.  One thing that IS for sure is in either Q1 or Q2 of 2010, you'll be able to pick up a Phenom II X6.  If there is a new Phenom stepping LINE, it won't be here until at least Q3 2010 when the Mobile Phenoms come around.

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AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.6GHz, ASUS EAH4890 1GB OC, ASUS M4A78T-E, 4GB 1333MHz Kingston DDR3, 500W PSU, Antec Nine Hundred Case, Windows 7 7600 Professional.

Edited: 11/09/2009 at 11:50 AM by KillerHurdz

I agree. 3.4ghz is plenty to not have to worry about a bottleneck. There will be an x6 version PII, but for the price it will be compared to the performance gains, the 955 will most likely remain the best buy. As for new versions, expect lower wattage existing Phenoms, such as the 95w 955 which exists already.

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ASUS Crosshair Formula III
Phenom II X3 720BE @ ~3.43ghz
HT Link & CPU/NB Frequency @ ~2500mhz
8GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600 @ 1664 7-7-7-16 1T 43.5ns avg latency
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 OC 800/1150 (stock voltage)
SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM
Vista x64 SP2

There is a 125W 965 with C3 stepping out (in reviews, but not quite yet in e-tailers from my regular sites) that seems to be OCing to 4.0 GHz relatively easily on air cooling.  While you don't overclock, the ability to do so more easily could bode well for faster stock clock releases of the Phenom II in the near future.  (Go to http://www.amdzone.com if you'd like to read more about the new release and testing results - they link to a number of reviews).

Also, the 6-core Thuban will probably have a lower stock clock to balance out thermal and power considerations for 50% more cores, at least in the early releases.  The good thing is that they are slated to be socket AM3, so if you build a quad-core Phenom II system, you could drop in one if they ever fit your needs and wants.  But until more software and games take advantage of more threads, those extra cores will probably not be of benefit for most users.

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My Setup: 
Biostar TA790GX XE
Phenom II 720 @ 3.4 GHz (stock voltage) or 3.2 GHz w/Auto ACC ;) (stock voltage)
4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-1066 (5-5-5-15, 2x2GB)
Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)  XP Mode is so cool
Sapphire HD4670 512MB (GPU 800MHz/Mem 938 MHz) 
24" Samsung 2443BWX (1920x1200 max resolution)

I left Intel in '08 because their socket path sucks. 

What is a "B3 stepping?"

A new revision, and pardon me, I meant to say C3 in my post...

You can use software like CPU-Z to see your CPU's stepping.  Phenom II is C2.

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AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.6GHz, ASUS EAH4890 1GB OC, ASUS M4A78T-E, 4GB 1333MHz Kingston DDR3, 500W PSU, Antec Nine Hundred Case, Windows 7 7600 Professional.

Will the Phenom 3 be an entirely new processor and microarchitecture all together? Or just a Phenom 2 with more cores?

It COULD be one of many ideas... A new stepping could bring a WHOLE line of more energy efficient Phenom IIs (at 45nm), or a similar architecture at 32nm or Thuban X6 could be what they call the next gen Phenom.

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AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.6GHz, ASUS EAH4890 1GB OC, ASUS M4A78T-E, 4GB 1333MHz Kingston DDR3, 500W PSU, Antec Nine Hundred Case, Windows 7 7600 Professional.

The way it is looking is that AMD will not be on 32nm till at least this time next year and so Phenom III will be 32nm, all X6's should be Phenom II 45nm

-------------------------
ASUS Crosshair Formula III
Phenom II X3 720BE @ ~3.43ghz
HT Link & CPU/NB Frequency @ ~2500mhz
8GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600 @ 1664 7-7-7-16 1T 43.5ns avg latency
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 OC 800/1150 (stock voltage)
SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM
Vista x64 SP2

And hopefully another new stepping, cos six cores in that little package will get very hot very fast. AMD need to find a way to increase IPC because Thuban is set to have low clock speeds to keep it cool.

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Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H BIOS rev. F6, AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE, 8GB G.Skill PC6400 CL4, HIS HD4890 1GB, 2 x Seagate 160GB HDD in RAID 0, LG CH08LS10 BD ROM Combi Drive, Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP2, Corsair TX850W PSU, OCZ Gladiator Max Cooler, Dell S2309W 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz

Yes which is why they're moving to 32nm later in 2010

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AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.6GHz, ASUS EAH4890 1GB OC, ASUS M4A78T-E, 4GB 1333MHz Kingston DDR3, 500W PSU, Antec Nine Hundred Case, Windows 7 7600 Professional.

Well that's one solution, the other solution is to use the more expensive materials which are in the Opteron's, which I image AMD will do at first and MSRP the x6's starting at around $400

-------------------------
ASUS Crosshair Formula III
Phenom II X3 720BE @ ~3.43ghz
HT Link & CPU/NB Frequency @ ~2500mhz
8GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600 @ 1664 7-7-7-16 1T 43.5ns avg latency
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 OC 800/1150 (stock voltage)
SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM
Vista x64 SP2

Don't AMD hold their Financial Analyst Day sometime around this time of year? We'll see a new(er) roadmap then I hope.

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Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H BIOS rev. F6, AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE, 8GB G.Skill PC6400 CL4, HIS HD4890 1GB, 2 x Seagate 160GB HDD in RAID 0, LG CH08LS10 BD ROM Combi Drive, Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP2, Corsair TX850W PSU, OCZ Gladiator Max Cooler, Dell S2309W 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz

I wish they would put more work into their quads before they go fiddling around with 6 cores. Current applications can't even properly use 4 cores much less 6...what AMD needs to do is crank out a quad to compete harder with the i7 while running more energy and thermally efficiently. If they would make a processor that can reliably crack 4ghz, double the L2 cache and slap on another 2mb L3 cache, as well as crank up the HT and NB speeds to 2500mhz, AMD could put the heat on Intel, but they don't. Now I'm sure they have their reasons, most of them are most likely from some whining idiot on the board who complains that no one would buy it because they would be so expensive...and they don't have the guts to fire him. If AMD put out a 4ghz quad core processor with 128kb L1 cache/core, 1MB L2 cache/core, and 8MB shared L3 with an HT link with a retail of $300, people would jump on it...hell, people already jump on the $900 Intels....

-------------------------
ASUS Crosshair Formula III
Phenom II X3 720BE @ ~3.43ghz
HT Link & CPU/NB Frequency @ ~2500mhz
8GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600 @ 1664 7-7-7-16 1T 43.5ns avg latency
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 OC 800/1150 (stock voltage)
SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM
Vista x64 SP2

Also true, but AMD seems to be ok with themselves in terms of what they've got in the enthusiest market right now.  I agree with you that they should be concidering perfecting their quads instead of just adding 2 more cores.  Honestly I'd say it's more of a niche market to be selling X6s right now rather than expensive quads.

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AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.6GHz, ASUS EAH4890 1GB OC, ASUS M4A78T-E, 4GB 1333MHz Kingston DDR3, 500W PSU, Antec Nine Hundred Case, Windows 7 7600 Professional.

Especially considering how well the really expensive i7 setups are selling compared to the cheaper AMD's.

Previous message should have read "HT link at 2500mhz, same with the NB speed.

-------------------------
ASUS Crosshair Formula III
Phenom II X3 720BE @ ~3.43ghz
HT Link & CPU/NB Frequency @ ~2500mhz
8GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600 @ 1664 7-7-7-16 1T 43.5ns avg latency
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 OC 800/1150 (stock voltage)
SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM
Vista x64 SP2

Yeah I don't understand why AMD haven't used bigger caches on their chips. They signed a licencing deal with Z-RAM a few years ago, and Z-RAM uses a single transistor which would allow larger amounts of memory being used. Where is it? There are rumours that they will use T-RAM too, but not until 32 and 22 nm parts come along.

 

HT 3.0 has been superseded by HT 3.1 which allows clock speeds of up to 2600MHz and data rates of up 51.2 GB/s over HT3.0's 41.6 GB/s. Will AMD be using this at any point?

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Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H BIOS rev. F6, AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE, 8GB G.Skill PC6400 CL4, HIS HD4890 1GB, 2 x Seagate 160GB HDD in RAID 0, LG CH08LS10 BD ROM Combi Drive, Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP2, Corsair TX850W PSU, OCZ Gladiator Max Cooler, Dell S2309W 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz