AMD Athlon II X2 250 and Phenom II X2 550 Processors Performance Overclocking Unlocking core Secrets Review

Athlon is Back!! Long Live Athlon II X2

What doesn't look right with this picture?

Could it be?  Did AMD really inject the old Athlon series with new life?!?!  Damn right they did!

With the new processor series come new marketing logos, so here are the fancy new logos for each respective series. These will be used on retail boxes and for promotional ads, so get used to seeing them for some time.

Today, AMD is announcing not one, but two new exciting 45nm dual-cores! First, they are introducing the first-ever Athlon II processor. AMD figured the 65nm Brisbane core has served its purpose and unleashed the new 45nm Regor bases cores to power the Athlon II series. The processor AMD released to launch the AMD Athlon II series is the AMD Athlon II X2 250, which is rated at 3GHz with 2MB of L2 cache.

The next processor is the first dual-core 45nm Phenom II processor known as the Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition. This processor is based off the Callisto core and is rated at 3.1GHz with 2MB of L2 cache and 6MB of shared L3 cache. The Phenom II X2 550 is the flagship AMD Phenom II X2 processor and as a result it will be an unlocked "Black Edition" making it a ideal for enthusiasts wanting a dual-core processor. AMD has informed us that both of these processors will be high-volume CPUs that they can pump out to their partners just in time for the "ready-for-Windows 7" sales rush system builders are expecting later this year.

Taking a closer look at the Athlon II X2 250 processor with CPU-Z 1.52 you can see the details on this 3GHz, 45nm native dual-core die that comes in at a cool 65W max TDP. This new dual-core processor has a 1MB of L2 cache per core, but has no L3 cache. The Athlon II series will AMD's first processor with hardware C1E (a low-power state). Moving this power state out of the BIOS and into the CPU microcode will enable AMD to ensure more consistent power management implementation across platforms. This is good news as systems will be more energy efficient as a result of this change. This processor sports the fancy new Socket AM3 938-pin micro-PGA package so it will work in all Socket AM3 and AM2 motherboards with both DDR2/DDR3 memory solutions. The AMD Athlon II X2 250 will be released at the $87 price point, which is spot on for a 3GHz dual-core processor.

If you want a little more clock frequency and a larger cache the AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition processor might be the better choice for you. At 3.1GHz with a full 6MB of L3 cache this 80W TDP processor should be a better choice for enthusiasts and gamers. Being an unlocked chip (can raise and lower the multiplier) the Phenom II X2 550 should be a decent overclocker as long as the large cache plays nice. Just like the Athlon II X2 250, this processor is designed for socket AM3 motherboards and, more specifically, AMD's Dragon platform. At $102 the Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition is another strong 45nm desktop processor that AMD has now made available to consumers.

CPU Name	Cores	Clock	L2/L3 Cache	HT Bus	Socket	TDP	Price
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE	4	3.2GHz	2+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	125W	$245
AMD Phenom II X4 945	4	3.0GHz	2+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	125W	$225
AMD Phenom II X4 940	4	3.0GHz	2+6MB	3600MHz	AM2+	125W	$189
AMD Phenom II X4 920	4	2.8GHz	2+6MB	3600MHz	AM2+	125W	$171
AMD Phenom II X4 810	4	2.6GHz	2+4MB	4000MHz	AM3	95W	$187
AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE	3	2.8GHz	1.5+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	95W	$139
AMD Phenom II X3 710	3	2.6GHz	1.5+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	95W	$119
AMD Phenom II X2 550	2	3.1GHz	1+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	80W	$102
AMD Athlon II X2 250	2	3.0GHz	2MB	4000MHz	AM3	65W	$87

The AMD Phenom II and Athlon II product stack is starting to looking strong as usual with prices starting out at $87 and rising up to $245. AMD clearly has budget friendly processors that have great features and clock frequencies. AMD is stocking vendors now with the new dual-core processors and expects processor availability approximately one week from today. AMD wanted to announce these new processors during Computex, so that is why there is a slight paper launch to this announcement. Let's take a look at how the AMD Phenom II X2 550 and Athlon II X2 250 do against 27 other processors.

The Test System

Before we look at the numbers, here is a brief glance at the test system that was used. 

AMD Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model
Processor	All AM2 and AM2+ CPUs
Motherboard	MSI DKA790GX Platinum
Memory	Mushkin PC2-8500
Video Card	EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Hard Drive	Western Digital RaptorX 150GB
Cooling	XIGMATEK HDT-S1283
Power Supply	Cooler Master UCP-1100W
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit

All testing was done on a fresh install of Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. All benchmarks were completed on the desktop with no other software programs running. All of the modules were run in dual channel mode with a 120mm fan placed on top of them to keep them cool except for the Core i7 system that was run in triple channel. The EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB used NVIDIA ForceWare 169.28 video card drivers. The LGA 775 test system used the ASUS P5E3 motherboard using BIOS version 1404 and the LGA 1366 test system used the ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard with BIOS v8004. The AMD Phenom testing was done on the MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard with BIOS v1.5b5 installed along with ATI system driver version 8.50.

Memory Settings:

• Core i7 920, 940, 965 - 1600MHz @ 8-8-8-24 (DDR3)
• QX9775 - 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (FB-DIMM)
• QX9770 - 1600MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• Q9550 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• Q9400 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• Q9300 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• Q8200 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• QX6850 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• Q6600 - 1066MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• E8500 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• E7200 - 1066MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• E6750 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
• Phenom II 955 - 1066MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
• Phenom II 940 - 1066MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
• Phenom II 920 - 1066MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
• Phenom II 550 - 1066Mhz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
• Phenom X4 9950 - 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12 (DDR2)
• Phenom X4 9850 - 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
• Phenom X4 9600 - 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
• Phenom X4 9350e - 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12 (DDR2)
• Phenom X3 8750 - 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
• Athlon II X2 250 - 1066MHz @ 5-5-5-15
• Athlon 64 X2 5000+ - 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12 (DDR2)

Here is the Intel LGA 1366 Test platform:

Intel Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model
Processor	See Above
Motherboard	ASUS P6T Deluxe
Memory	6GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz
Video Card	EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Hard Drive	Western Digital RaptorX 150GB
Cooling	Thermaltake BigWater 760i
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000W
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit

Here is the Intel LGA 775 Test platform:

Intel Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model
Processor	See Above
Motherboard	ASUS P5E3 Deluxe
Memory	4GB Corsair DDR3 1800C7
Video Card	EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Hard Drive	Western Digital RaptorX 150GB
Cooling	Corsair Nautilus 500
Power Supply	PC Power and Cooling 1KW
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit

Here is the Intel Skulltrail Test platform:

Skulltrail Test Platform Component Brand/Model Processor 2x Intel Core 2 QX9775 Motherboard Intel D5400XS  Memory 4GB Micron 800MHz FB-DIMM Video Card EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 Hard Drive Western Digital RaptorX 150GB Cooling Zalman AT Fan/Heatsink Power Supply PC Power and Cooling 1KW Operating System Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Sandra 2009 Memory Bandwidth Sisoft; Sandra 2009: Results: Sandra 2009 SP2 showed that the AMD Phenom II X2 550 and the Athlon II X2 250 have roughly the same memory bandwidth (10,875 MB/s) when running 1066MHz memory.  Photodex ProShow Gold 3.2 Benchmark Results: Photodex Proshow software showed that just 15 seconds stood between the Athlon II X2 250 and the Phenom II X2 550. Cinebench R10 Results: Running Cinebench R10 in 64-bit mode showed a significant improvement in performance on all of the processors and the results were in-line with what we expected from running Cinebench R9.5!  The Phenom II X2 550 was again faster than the Athlon II X2 250. POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 25 Benchmark Results: Looking at POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 25, the benchmark showed the Phenom II X2 550 was 3 seconds quicker than the Athlon II X2 250.  Results: POV-Ray Real-Time Raytracing showed the Phenom II X2 550 and Athlon II 250 were close to the same level of performance.  Futuremark 3DMark06 Benchmark Results: The 3DMark 2006 CPU test showed just a 100 point difference between the Phenom II X2 550 processor and Athlon II X2 250 processor, but the performance gap grew to nearly 700 points in the overall test results. World in Conflict Benchmark Results with a GeForce GTX 295 Graphics Card: World In Conflict showed a 10-12 average FPS difference between the Athlon II X2 250 and the Phenom II X2 550 processors at both 1280x1024 and 1920x1200 resolutions. The AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition was clearly in the lead and rightly so as it has a faster clock frequency and more physical cores. Crysis Warhead   Benchmark Results with a GeForce GTX 295 Graphics Card: Crysis Warhead is tough on video cards with the image quality settings cranked up to high as you can see in the charts above, but the CPU in the system clearly plays an important role as well. The higher the resolution the more GPU limited the system comes, so the performance between the processors is not as great. The AMD Athlon II X2 250 and Phenom II X2 550 are close in performance, but the Phenom II X2 Black Edition takes the lead with the extra 100MHz clock frequncy and 6MB of L3 cache.  Power Consumption Results: The power supply that we have dedicated to just our CPU testing systems recently failed and is no longer in production. Since we had to the change power supply all the power consumption results of the processors will have to be re-tested. For the time being we ran power consumption tests on some of the AMD Phenom II processors to see how the two new comers do. The AMD Athlon II X2 250 uses the least amount of power, which makes sense as it is a dual-core part with just 2MB of L2 cache. The Phenom II X2 550 and Phenom II X3 720 both consume roughly the same amount of power and both do contain 6MB of L3 cache. Expecting the AMD Phenom II X2 550 to consume less power than the triple-core Phenom X3 720 we contacted AMD and showed them this chart. They responded by saying this: "You likely have a very cool-running X3 in your hands.  Remember, we spec the max spec... but CPUs can run under that max spec... so there can be variation.  So if you got one of the hotter running X2s that got closer to it's max TDP and a very cool-running X3, you could easily explain the numbers you're seeing." AMD PR Overclocking AMD Athlon II X2 250 and Phenom II X2 550 Overclocking greatly varies due to what hardware is being used and who is doing the overclocking. Always remember that no two pieces of hardware will perform the same, so our results will differ from what you might be able to get. With stock BIOS settings, the Athlon II X2 250 processor runs with a 200MHz bus speed and an x15.0 multiplier that is used to reach the final core clock of 3.0GHz. Since the AMD Athlon II X2 250 is multiplier locked the only thing that can be down to overclock the processor is to raise the bus speed (base clock) till the processor becomes unstable. By raising the CPU Core Voltage to 1.46V and increasing the bus speed to 264MHz from 200MHz, we were able to reach an impressive 3.96GHz. Not bad for a system that was running XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 heat sink (air cooling). This is an overclock of 961MHz, which is impressive for an $87 processor. Moving on to the AMD Phenom II X2 550 we found that with the stock BIOS settings, the processor runs with a 200MHz bus speed and an x15.5 multiplier that is used to reach the final core clock of 3.1GHz. This processor is multiplier unlocked, so when overclocking you can raise both the multiplier and the bus speed to help 'fine tune' the overclock. We increased the multiplier from x15.5 all the way up to x19 and then increased the bus speed from 200MHz to 215MHz with little effort. This was enough to break the 4GHz mark as the overall clock frequency was 4.09Ghz, which is great. This is an overclock of 985MHz, which is roughly what we saw on the Athlon II X2 250 processor. It seems both of these processors love to be overclocked at we were able to get nearly 1GHz overclocks with air cooling! Not bad for $87 and $102 processors if you ask us.  Unlocking AMD Athlon II X2 250 Unfortunately the Athlon II X2 Regors are true dual cores, meaning that they don't have two locked cores, unlike the Athlon II X3, Phenom II X2 and Phenom II X3.  Unlocking AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition is a Unlocked multiplier processor. The  Phenom II X2 550 has two disabled / faulty core or the third & fourth core. When you unlock the 3rd & 4th core "successfully", it turns your Phenom II X2 550 to Phenom II X4 B50. After unlocking you can verify in CPU-Z, under specification tab it will show AMD Phenom II X4 B50 Processor as against AMD Phenom II X3 720 Processor. Then your cpuz look like this, Conclusion   Let's price together an example core platform to show how much an AMD Athlon II X2 250 would cost with a motherboard and DDR3 memory kit: $87 AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz dual-core Processor $85 Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P Motherboard $59 Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit The cost adds up to just $231, which isn't that bad considering more expensive DDR3 memory is being used. If you wanted to use an AMD Socket AM2+ motherboard and a 4GB DDR2 1066Mhz memory kit, you could easily bring the cost of this core platform down to under $200.  System builders around the world are going to love the price point of this platform and how robust it really is. With great dual-core performance numbers, plenty of motherboards around, and solid overclocking results, there isn't a reason these shouldn't sell great. The AMD Athlon II X2 250 and AMD Phenom II X2 550 are clock-for-clock slower than the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500, but keep in mind that the E8500 still retails for $189 on the market today. You can easily build a core system for less than that if you really looked around. The AMD Athlon II X2 250 and Phenom II X2 550 are two 45nm dual-core processors that pack a powerful punch for those looking for a mainstream PC.    FEEDBACK / NEED HELP I am waiting for your feedback in helping me to improve my Blog. For feedback comment Below. Thanks for reading my Blog. Q/A If you need any help about AMD Processors, Graphics cards overclocking, unlocking, maintenance, improving gaming performance write feedback, i reply you as soon as possible. Tags: Phenom II  X2 550 vs Athlon II x2 250 vs Athlon x2 7750 vs Athlon x2 5000+ vs Athlon x2 5050e vs Phenom II X4 955 vs Phenom II  X3 720 6.0ghz vs AMD Phenom II X4 810 vs Phenom II  X4 940 vs Phenom II  X4 920 vs Phenom X4 9950 vs Phenom X4 9850 vs Phenom X4 9600 vs Phenom X4 9350e vs Phenom X3 8750 2.7 ghz vs Phenom X3 8750 2.9 ghz vs Intel Core i7 965 3.99 ghz vs Intel Core i7 940 vs Intel Core i7 920 vs 2x Intel qx9775 vs Intel core 2 quad q9300 3.5 ghz vs Intel core 2 quad q9550 vs Intel core 2 quad q8200 3.3 ghz vs Intel core 2 quad q6600 vs Intel qx9770 vs Intel qx6850 vs Intel core 2 duo e8500 3.16 ghz vs Intel core 2 duo e7200 3.16 ghz vs Intel core 2 duo e7200 2.5 ghz vs Intel core 2 duo e6750, comparison, microarchitechture, multicore, Instruction sets sse3 sse4a, desktop, northbrigde hypertransport, power management, Gaming Overclocking benchmarks score rating unlocking core.