Fest steht, dass AMD nun auch endlich wieder den Anschluss an Intels Dual-Cores gefunden hat. Auch wenn man sich nicht mit den E8000ern messen kann bleiben die anderen Modelle als angestrebte Konkurrenten. Zudem führt AMD stets das Preisargument an und hier steht man klar vor Modellen wie einem E8400.

AMD feiert die Wiedergeburt des Athlon im AM3-Gewand mit 45 nm Strukturgröße, Cool'n'Quiet 3.0, einer 2,0 GHz schnellen HyperTransport-Anbindung und 2 MByte L2-Cache. Das hört sich nach einem ausgewogenen Konzept an und der Athlon II X2 250 liefert auch eine angemessene Leistung in Anbetracht eines Preises von 87 US-Dollar. Sein Stromverbrauch liegt zwar noch nicht ganz auf dem Niveau der 45-nm-CPUs von Intel, kann sich aber dennoch sehen lassen.

Am Ende bleibt festzuhalten, dass der neue AMD Athlon II X2 250 sicherlich keine Bäume ausreißt, das soll er aber auch gar nicht. Er stellt die Erweiterung der Athlons auf K10 Basis dar und dieser Auftritt gelingt allemal. Die Frage, wie sich die K10 Architektur ohne den L3 Cache schlägt, ist beantwortet und das Ergebnis heißt: Nicht schlecht!

AMD Athlon II X2 250 at 3GHz with its recommended retail price around 75€ and AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition at 3.1GHz with its recommended retail price at 95€ should easily take replace Intel Core 2 Duo E5XXX and E8XXX models. Callisto offers similar performance levels at slightly lower price of slimilary clocked Wolfdale, while Regor offers the same compared to E5XXX Core 2 Duo CPUs with 2MB L2 cache. Regor is very good upgrade solution compared to older Windsor and Brisbane dual core CPUs. At same frequencies performance differences are in average around 15-20%, but this performance gains become even larger if you decide to overclock Athlon II at 4GHz.

We also shouldn’t forget the possibility that some Phenom II X2 samples will be able to unlock additional cores. In that case Phenom II X2 Callisto would be one of the Best buys so far.

The AMD Athlon II X2 250 and Phenom II X2 550 are two 45nm dual-core processors that pack a powerful punch for those looking for a mainstream PC.

Both the Phenom II X2 550 & Athlon II 250 seem very capable dual core chips. Intel has had dual core 45nm processors out for a long time but even those have always held a price premium. Hopefully as we see more of AMD's dual core 45nm chips trickle out Intel will step up their game and drop prices. Maybe Intel will will also enable more features on their Pentium Dual-Core chips to match what AMD is offering.

It's been a while since AMD had a true dual core competitor to Intel's Core 2 Duo family, but I think it's safe to say that day has come. Throughout our tests, the AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE was able to keep up and even outpace our Intel E7400. Memory intensive benchmarks and applications, in particular, seem to favor the X2 550.

AMD's filled out its mid-range offerings with a couple of dual-core, 45nm chips based on Phenom architecture. Importantly, if pricing comes in at what we'd expect, then they should do well, but such is the current AMD saturation of dual-, triple- and quad-core models in the sub-£150 space, that you need to determine whether cores matter more than clock-speed, or vice versa.

The 550 Black Edition model is a very impressive processor, it provides great performance for a dual core model thanks to its 3.1GHz clock speed and has all of the features which are present on the triple and quad core models. In addition to this it adds some excellent overclocking potential thanks to the unlocked multipliers.