Say what you want about Microsoft and its Windows operating system but the PC industry is adjusting according to its launch dates and general activity. In two days Microsoft will launch the anticipated Windows 7 operating system and it's up to each hardware manufacturer to ride the waves caused by it. AMD is one of these and today it has launched an armada of budget processors that will lure consumers to upgrade.
With prices ranging from $60 up to $140 AMD has managed to squeeze out no less than eight new models for the Athlon II family. The processors sport two, three or four cores and clock frequencies between 2.2GHz and 2.9GHz. Six of the processors are marked as Energy Efficient with only 45W TDP.
| Model |
Clock frequency |
L2 cache |
TDP |
Price |
| Athlon II X4 605e |
2,3GHz |
2,0MB |
45 W |
~$140 |
| Athlon II X4 600e |
2,2GHz |
2,0MB |
45 W |
~$130 |
| Athlon II X3 405e |
2,3GHz |
1,5MB |
45 W |
~$100 |
| Athlon II X3 400e |
2,2GHz |
1,5MB |
45 W |
~$95 |
| Athlon II X2 240e |
2,8GHz |
2,0MB |
45 W |
~$80 |
| Athlon II X2 235e |
2,7GHz |
2,0MB |
45 W |
~$70 |
AMD has also released the first triple-core Athlon II processors and the new duo consists of Athlon II X3 435 and X3 425. The processors use the core architecture as the Athlon II X4 CPUs but with one core disabled. This results in a total L2 cache of 1.5MB and 95W TDP. Clock frequencies are set to 2.9GHz and 2.7GHz.
| Model |
Clock frequency |
L2 cache |
TDP |
Price |
| Athlon II X3 435 |
2,9GHz |
1,5MB |
95 W |
~$85 |
| Athlon II X3 425 |
2,7GHz |
1,5MB |
95 W |
~$75 |
AMD releases 8 new Athlon processors
Noctua
