AMD Phenom II X4 975 Review

The Phenom II X4 975 is one of AMD's high-end Desktop processors. It was released in 2011 with 4 cores and 4 threads. With base clock at 3.6GHz, max speed at 3.6GHz, and a 125W power rating. The Phenom II X4 975 is based on the Deneb 45nm family and is part of the Phenom II X4 series.

AMD's K10 series has landed, upping the ante with Intel in its high-stakes game for desktop PC market dominance with a well-rounded lineup of new chips that push mainstream platforms to higher core counts and more raw compute than we've ever seen. As a result, Intel's commanding presence in the enthusiast space is threatened in a way we haven't seen in over a decade.

The Phenom II X4 975 slots in beneath the Phenom II X4 980, which comes with 45nm compute die to yield a 4-core 4-thread part. AMD has worked wonders to reduce the impact of this sort of multi-chip arrangement, but it's fair to assume that the Phenom II X4 975s single-compute-die design, paired with a higher TDP rating that facilitates more aggressive boost clocks, could actually rival the Phenom II X4 980 in some applications – games included.

But we've also found that, after simple push-button overclocking, the Phenom II X4 970 offers similar performance to the Phenom II X4 975, even when it is also overclocked. But for $70 less. The Phenom II X4 975 is an impressive chip and offers a better mixture of performance than Intel's Core i7-2700K, no doubt, but in this case, value seekers might opt for its less expensive sibling.

We covered the deep dive details of the K10 chip design in our AMD Phenom II X4 980 and Phenom II X4 970 review, so head there for more information on the Phenom II X4 975's architecture, which is identical to the Phenom II X4 970.

As the higher-priced version of the Phenom II X4 970, the Phenom II X4 975 has higher base and Boost frequencies of 3.6 and 3.6 GHz, respectively. That's an increase in base frequency and a bump to boost clocks, but the real advantage should lay in the higher Package Power Tracking (PPT) envelope, which is a measurement of the maximum amount of power delivered to the socket. The Phenom II X4 970's PPT tops out at 125W, while the motherboard can pump up to 142W to the Phenom II X4 975 at peak performance. That opens up much more aggressive boost behavior, on both single and multiple cores, that could widen the performance gap beyond what we see on the spec sheet.

As we've seen, gaming remains an advantage for Intel, so if squeezing out every last frame is all you care about, Intel's processors are a good choice. Much of that performance advantage will be less noticeable when gaming at higher resolutions, or if you pair the processors with a lesser graphics card.

Value seekers who aren't afraid to press the Precision Boost Overdrive button and have sufficient cooling should look to the Phenom II X4 970 for roughly equivalent performance to the Phenom II X4 975, particularly if gaming factors heavily into the buying decision. That could save you money, reinforcing our decision to give the Phenom II X4 970 an Editor's Choice award.

Moving beyond games, it’s an easy win for the Core i7-3770T. The Core i7 upgrade path on B65, B75, C204, C206, H55, H61, H67, H77, P67, Q67, Q77, Z68, Z75, Z77 motherboards, all support upcoming Ivy Bridge processors. So if you buy a nice B65, B75, C204, C206, H55, H61, H67, H77, P67, Q67, Q77, Z68, Z75, Z77 board now with the Core i7-3770T, you’ll be able to slap a Deneb processor on there later in the year, or whenever you deem it necessary.

Today we’ll be taking a closer look at the AMD Phenom II X4 975 4-core desktop processor that was released in Jan 2011. AMD offers the Phenom II X4 975 without integrated graphics. It runs $360.41 shipped and is ideal for those that plan on using it a system with a dedicated graphics card.

Our look today at the AMD Phenom II X4 975 showed that it is a very capable processor. A 4-core processor sounds like it would be really under-powered these days, but we were pleasantly surprised with a snappy and very capable system. Having just 4 cores had this processor coming in at the back of the pack for heavily threaded workloads, but it performed better than some of its more expensive siblings in lightly threaded workloads where it shined thanks to its high base clocks.

The AMD Phenom II X4 975 seems to be a decent performing chip that is readily available for $360.41 at your favorite retailer. The main competition for this processor is the Core i7-3770T 4-Core unlocked desktop processor with Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics ($330 shipped).

If extended overclocking and boost frequencies are trivial matters to you, AMD also offers the Phenom II X4 970 at $249.51. It’s still outfitted with 4-cores and 4-threads, but clocks in at a slower 3.5GHz and maxes out at only 3.5GHz.

The Phenom II X4 975 clocks up to 3.6Ghz just as it promises on the box, and with AMD’s software you can take one of the cores all the way up to 3.7GHz. However, don’t expect to get much beyond that without seriously upgrading your cooling solution and manually tweaking voltages behind the operating system level.

That said, to squeeze out all the potential of this surprisingly potent high-end chip, you’ll want (and need) to splurge on an enthusiast-grade NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI, NVIDIA nForce 980a, NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI motherboard.

Fresh from a successful roll-out of mainstream Phenom II X4 CPUs, AMD's attack on Intel now extends down into the high-end with its Phenom II X4 975 processors, which the company is making available as of Jan 2011.