Review-Phenom II X4 980 Processor: AMD’s Fastest Quad Core CPU is Here!

AMD refreshes its high-end CPU lineup with the Phenom II X4 980 BE. This new processor sits right one step above the previous quad core flagship, the Phenom II X4 975 BE. It’s possible that the X4 980 BE will be the last processor to be introduced before AMD’s next-gen CPUs based on newer architectures start appearing. So, is the Phenom II X4 980 BE interesting enough to steal some attention before that happens? Read on!

While preparing its next-gen Llano CPUs, AMD keeps introducing newer processor variants based on existing architectures. Without too much fuss, they quietly released the Phenom II X4 980 BE into the market. AMD seems to have adopted such a low-profile approach in releasing its new processors as of late.
So, what does the Phenom II X4 980 BE have to offer? Its multiplier factor is 0,5 higher than the Phenom II X4 975 BE, bringing X4 980 BE’s clockspeed up by 100 MHz to 3,7 GHz. But that’s where the improvement ends. Everything else between the Phenom II X4 975 and Phenom II X4 980 BE are similar, since both are based on the same “Deneb” architecture.
The “BE” suffix means that the multiplier isn’t locked to a certain, maximum value. You can easily overclock the 980 BE simply by raising the multiplier in the motherboard’s BIOS menu.

The Phenom II X4 980 BE is likely to retail inside one of these boxes. Like the other “BE” series processors from AMD, the box is mostly black in color. There is also the “AMD Phenom II” logo printed on the front side, as if to emphasizing the box’ content.

As for the sample that came to our lab for this review, it’s contained inside a modest, green plastic box, without the stock HSF that you would normally find in retail products. This is normal for review samples from AMD. The, important thing, which is the processor itself, rests well protected inside this small package.

This is how the processor looks like up close. Its name, “AMD Phenom II” is engraved on the integrated heat spreader. The second line contains its official code: “HDZ980FBK4GDM”.

Phenom II X4 980 BE uses the socket AM3 package, with 938 pins that connect it with the motherboard interface.

Installed on an AMD 890GX motherboard, the Phenom II X4 980 BE is ready for the benchmarks. Before moving on to the results, let’s compare its technical specifications with a couple of other processors from AMD.

You might wonder why we compared the Phenom II X4 980 BE with the Phenom II X4 975 BE and Phenom II X6 1055T. Simply put, the Phenom II X4 975 BE is AMD’s previous quad core flagship, while the Phenom II X6 1055T is AMD’s most affordable 6-core processor. Presumably, all three processors would occupy similar price range. It would be interesting to see how the Phenom II X4 980 BE stacks up against the other two CPUs in our test, in both default configuration and when overclocked.