AMD Phenom II X4 960T OEM CPU Review

The writer of this article seems convinced that the 960T will eventually come around, in despite of rumors earlier this week. In any case, he managed to unlock the 960T without too much trouble, so let's hope it will be available to end-users in some way ...

In terms of performance, the AMD Phenom II X4 960T is right in-line with the expectation of a CPU that is clocked at 3.0GHz with four cores. Where this CPU really shines is when the end-user unlocks the extra two CPU cores on the die and runs this as a 6-core CPU except in the Sisoft Sandra test which is interesting. The extra cores come into play with multi-threaded apps in most cases and It works with a supported motherboard. The benefit of the AMD platform is that while the CPUs are released older motherboards still are generally compatible. Many AM2+ motherboards are certified to work with the new CPUs meaning that all you have to do to install the new CPU is update the BIOS. As the CPU is not available as of yet online I imagine the 960T will retail below the price of the 1055T making it a great competitor against the Core i5-650 CPU. More cores, more performance at the same price.