AMD's latest quad-core Phenom CPU ups its game

Intel may still hold bragging rights for having the fastest desktop processors on the market, but Advanced Micro Devices Inc. believes its newest chips' value for money will prove more popular in these tough economic times.

AMD, which holds the No. 2 position among chipmakers, launched its latest quad-core Phenom II X4 Black Edition CPU, the 965, on Thursday.

The 965 is rated at 3.4 GHz, up from its prior fastest, the 3.2GHz 955.

By clock speed, that gives the 965 the edge against Intel's fastest quad-core desktop CPU today, the Core i7 975 Extreme Edition, which operates at 3.33GHz.

But seasoned buyers have long realized that comparing the clock speed of two CPUs with different architectures means little. AMD even blew up that myth earlier this decade when it marketed its lower-clocked Athlon and Sempron CPUs as offering the same performance as its ostensibly-faster Pentium 4 counterparts.

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