AMD Phenom 2 X4 970 Black Edition 3.5GHz Socket AM3

Overview

Reviews

The AMD Phenom 2 X4 970 Black Edition is clocked at 3.50GHz with 8MB of cache, dual-channel DDR2/DDR3 memory support and AM3/AM2+ motherboard compatibility.

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 8 expert reviews

Excellent:

2
Good:

5
Average:

1
Bad:

0

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Last revision on August 15, 2014

Reviewers Liked

Nearly 700MHz overclock on air cooler
Affordable
Works in current AM2and AM3 motherboards
Very high clocked Quad Core
Lots of computing power in multithreaded applications
Compatibility with older chipsets, AM2 socket, and DDR2 memory

Reviewers Didn't Like

Lacking memory performance
High power consumption under load
High end cooler and power supply needed to overclock
Unlocked multiplier adds little practical value
Not the best choice for hardcore gamers
Only a slight speed bump over its predecessor
Doesn’t approach performance of Intel’s pricier top-end CPU's

Expert reviews and ratings

A mid-range quad core that does what's asked of it well. Notably, it's at ease in...

By DigitalVersus on January 03, 2011

By now, we were hoping to able to get our hands on AMD's new Bulldozer archtecture processors, but there's still no sign of them, so instead we back with the familiar Phenom II theme. Give it up for the new AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition.Based on...

By TechRadar on November 17, 2010

Frankly anyone who knows what's what in the tech world knows the story with Intel and AMDs desktop CPUs at the moment. AMD's chips can generally compete at a given price point at stock speeds but fall way behind when any of the overclocking sauce is...

By Bit-tech.net on October 14, 2010

AMD's newest flagship quad-core Phenom II, the 970 Black Edition, comes out swinging and performs on par with previous models. A jump from 3.4GHz to 3.5GHz may not seem like much, but when paired up with a decent motherboard, the 970's unlocked...

By bjorn3d.com on September 21, 2010

Costs more than previous models but doesn't deliver a proportionate performance boost...

By PC Pro on September 20, 2010

AMD did not do anything new or extraordinary with their Phenom II X4 970 BE processor. But it didn't do anything bad with it either. Even though it is AMD's highest clocked processor ever to come out to the consumer retail market, the more important...

By techPowerUp! on September 20, 2010

AMD’s new high-end quad-core CPU fares well against its slightly pricier competition, even if it isn’t anywhere close to competing with Intel’s best....

By Computer Shopper on September 01, 2010

Benchmarking 86 CPUs takes a while. After long last, though, we have 51 models from AMD and 35 from Intel tested in our current suite. If you want to know how your processor sizes up to its competition, you'll find plenty of comparison data inside! 86...

By Tom's Hardware on December 23, 2012

Finally, a moment anticipated by many: test results of Intel's new LGA1155 platform are available. This resembles the situation with LGA1156, because the new processors will be rolled out in several steps. Today we'll get to know the details of...

By iXBT Labs on January 04, 2011

Our previous review was dedicated to the Core i7-800 LGA1156 series. The conclusion was that those solutions, as well as the Core i7-900 LGA1366 series, can offer enough computing power for most tasks you may need accomplished. At least four cores and...

By iXBT Labs on December 22, 2010

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