AMD Phenom II disappearing?

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Hello all,

I know that AMD are phasing the Phenom II's out of the market as they want everyone to buy the new processing units (Bulldozer and the Llano's) but I have to confess at my surprise at how quickly they are reducing their stocks.

Retailers are almost always very limited for ANY Phenom II's products.

Which is a bit annoying for me as I was hoping to upgrade to a Phenom II relatively soon for a relatively good price as I have a AM3 socket compatible motherboard to swap out my AMD 240 X2 processor. I wouldn't have predicted that when I brought my components in 2010 that the Phenom II line would have been drastically cut down...

So, anyone actually know which online supplier would be best to go to, in order to actually purchase a range of AMD processors? At the moment, Amazon.co.uk seems to be the best bet in terms of choice and availability. However the prices are so variable due to reducing supply and increased demand.

Quite vexing
 
Hmm. I've noticed it hard to find too. There's only two decent Australian sites that stock them, one of which I am buying from for my new rig (Phenom II X6 1045T Black Edition). PCCaseGear, the leading AU online computer store (the newegg equivilent), dosn't even stock them. Just the Bulldozer and Llano chips (and one Athlon II X2).

I'm disappointed. I always trusted the Phenom II's, they were one of the best performing chips for the price, now with the Bulldozer chips not performing as well, AMD is really putting a dent in their CPU side of things.
 
I have some people I have kept in touch with in China and they tell me that there are still quite a lot of those processors in that country.

Oh this is just annoying.

I was keen to buy the Phenom II 900 series processors about now, as they are good value and do overclock quite well. Now with the reduced stock, the price difference between the 900 series and the 1000 series are pretty much identitcal... Might as well go for the 6 core instead of the 4 core if its only an extra 10-20 quid into it.
 
Ebuyer.com have a few phenom IIs but they have been running out quick and theres only like a 960T and a few 1080Ts left now.
 
Hm.

Not very impressive then. One wonders what is really going on with that company though.

However I am also wondering if I am expecting the pace of development to be slower, rather than faster!

It is just frustrating that nothing is actually needed with faster cores and more cores (yet) as software aren't really using that in terms of everyday usage, unless you're gaming (which I do, mildly) so its a bit of a kick in the nadgers when a company is EoL'ing CPUs that you would actually like to have to keep on top of computing progress for the motherboard and cost effectiviness.
 
I still see the occasional Phenom II on sale, but most of the time, I see it in sale one day then it's gone the next.
 
Well, we have seen AMD and Intel move hand in hand for as long as I can remember. You know that both companies have platforms that we are yet to hear about. They are already developing and testing the "next best thing". With Intel launching their new 2011 chips, AMD is now under the gun to pass up, or at least keep up with Intel.

I do appreciate that Intel recognizes the enthusiast and provides a product for them, but their core product is business line solutions. There are still plenty of 1155 socket chips out there. Not a lot in the line of upgrades from their early release 965 EE chip, with really the 980x being the only contender at 6-cores but not worth the price of the upgrade path is you are currently running a 965EE like myself. So now I wait until my motherboard, ram, and CPU become antiquated to justify another leap along the upgrade path. What Intel did do was not get my business today. Had they continued developing 1155 chips, I would have upgraded my chip a couple weeks ago, but as it sits, I would need to upgrade my whole core rig to make it worth while. It's odd that AMD seems to be taking the "High road or no road" approach with their Phenom II phasing unless they were running into production issues. There are still folks that will need replacements and upgrades down the road, but if you are in the same boat as I, it seems that AMD and Intel are both hedging their bets that you will be upgrading your entire rig to keep up with the times. I would be curious where these companies make their most money. I also realize that technology is moving so fast (Moore's Law) that if you keep on developing on yesterdays technology, you will be left behind. Look at the new 6 core Sandy BridgeE at 2.27 billion transistors vs. the quadcore i7 at a humble 731 million transistor count. Technology is still moving very fast although they anticipate things to be slowing down a bit now which is good for my pocket book. :-)
 
Hope this dosn't turn into an Intel vs AMD debate. That's not the point of this thread.

What you said about moving hand and hand, Pako, is exactly right. For example, you see fewer AMD Phenom II's, due to the new FX chips. Likewise, you see very few new Core2Duo chips, due to the core i3, i5, and i7 chips (no matter the socket size).
 
Yeah, which I understand and Pako is quite right about it all.

It is mainly just that the speed of the reduction of the processors has taken me by surprise as this would only really lead to higher prices for the current Phenom II processors (as it would do anyway).

I was just hoping that I could make the motherboard last a while longer by replacing my current 240 X2 chip for an 955/970/980 or 1055 chip down the line. I am still able to replace them now, just don't actually know whether its possible to do that six months or a year down the line at a reasonable cost.

My current motherboard accepts AM3 processor slots, but don't think it can accept AM3+ (so it rules out Bulldozer).
 
Yea, it seems like both the Phenom and Athlon line are done, according to this:
http://www.nordichardware.com/news/...pping-phenom-ii-and-athlon-ii-processors.html

There are Phenons still available, but just not hte popular sones. You might be able to score sometihng like a 970 or a 1090T. Consider yourself really lucky if you get a 1100T, 980 or a 955. In fact, I just checked Newegg right now. No more Phenom II X6's are available, not even the OEM. The Phenom II X3s are gone too. Better act quick!

Go get yourself a 960T Zosma and unlock it.
 
A used one?

You kinda feel safer with a new one as there's the whole thing of whether the product has been packaged correctly or not.
 
I've been checking some pricing for the 955 BE, 960T, 1055T models.

955 BE are often more expensive than the 960T.... even though 955 is the older model. The 1055T is almost (but not quite) at the 100 quid mark.

I'm guessing if the 960T is around 90 quid, get it?

If the 955 is about 110-120 quid, that's the normal price. But if it is at 100 quid or less, get it?

1055T, get that if that's the same price as any of the four cores... Even though its clocked slower (2.8Ghz instead of 3Ghz and 3.2Ghz) Although I suspect with an additional 2 cores, it shouldn't make a blind bit of a difference that its clocked slower.

Would actually be ideal to know whether to go for one or the other at a particular price point. There's a 960T at 90 quid at aria.co.uk (Clicky, clicky) which seems quite reasonable.

But what about the a 1055T, a proper 6 core? If that's around 110 quid, it kinda is only 20 quid more to get a definite two extra core, rather than risking a 960T for an unlocked two extra core that probably won't work and can't be overclocked if unlocked.

Yeah, due to this rather annoying problem, I kinda have to purchase the CPU now, rather than risk it later and not actually have a processor to upgrade to at a reasonable price!

Unless of course, AMD was going to be very kind and do a new processor for an AM3 board (gigabyte 770-C45) in the future....

Doesn't quite help that I'm already at a tight spot with finances. Oh well, it'll make my life a bit more interesting anyhow.

So, anyone have any ideas or pointers or advice for best price point for the processors?
 
Submerged
1055T, get that if that's the same price as any of the four cores... Even though its clocked slower (2.8Ghz instead of 3Ghz and 3.2Ghz) Although I suspect with an additional 2 cores, it shouldn't make a blind bit of a difference that its clocked slower.
Click to expand...

It will since most applications don't need 6 cores, though not much.
 
With regards to the 960T, I wouldn't be getting it to unlock the deactivated cores, just to upgrade the current processor (AMD X2 240).

Although a 955 BE is supposedly an overclocking beast.

I do know that software is slowly moving toward taking advantage of dual, quads and hex cores. But that'll be quite a while yet.

Currently the X2 240 is clocked at a steady 3.2 Ghz (from 2.8Ghz). The quads start at that and I'm assuming the quads can be clocked to about 3.4-3.6 relatively easily.

I'm just basically looking for a good balance of price and performance, really.
 
Be careful when trying to unlock deactivated cores. Sometimes the cores are actually defective, so they cannot be unlocked. Personally I'd suggest investing the money in the 6 core to future proof yourself.
 
What makes it perfect?

Yeah, the 960T will only be brought if the other twos are far out of my current price range (around about the 95-100 quid mark). The really annoying thing was, two years ago I was on the market to buy the chips. I found an 955 for about 95-100 quid in Shenzhen. Good quality and everything. I'm really kicking myself for not actually getting the goddamn CPU then, as its now 2012 and its kinda indicated that the price was a steal then.
 
It's just nice. The quality of the OEM cpu cooler is nice, the speed of it is nice. As you said, it overclocks like a beast, though honestly I have not yet overclocked my friends. But the option is definitely there.
 
Hm.

955 BE has an unlocked multiplier. So that's why it's pretty easy to overclock it and get around 3.8-4Ghz clock speeds.

The 1055T is able to be clocked to about 3.8Ghz as well, although it is not as easy as the 955 BE.

Strangely, the 955 and the 1055T are roughly the same price everywhere I've looked, so if that is the case then I would go for the 1055T as they're kinda the same and the 1055T should be slightly newer technology than the 955 BE.

Would this make sense to everyone?

Btw, I do have an aftermarket CPU heatsink.
 
Excellent. Also it's the 6 core variant, so you won't run into the chance of hitting defective cores if you want to unlock them. Most games and programs won't use more than 2 - 3 cores at most, but having 6 is a good future proofer for other more advanced games and stuff down the road.
 

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