The most prominent change is that these are AM3 processors, and therefore can be used with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory. Today AMD is releasing two new processors, the Phenom II X4 955 and 945, which are based on the same “Deneb” architecture though with a few notable changes. This is an impressive feat for AMD, offering the best value in this price range. In terms of performance we found it closely matched the Core 2 Quad Q9650, which was considerably more expensive at $540 then, and even today it is still fetching around $330. The flagship model, also known as the Phenom II X4 940, debuted at just $270, while today it can be had for the bargain basement price of $190. Although the launch was comprised of just two processors, that's all AMD needed to compete head to head with the Intel Core 2 Quad range. AMD kick started 2009 with guns blazing introducing their latest Phenom II X4 platform on early January.
