AMD Athlon II X3 architecture

AMD Athlon II X3 architecture

What you'll notice with the new Athlon II X3 processors is that the architecture (based of the X4 Propus core) shows a lot of similarities to Phenom II, and of course that was the building block for this new, somewhat cheaper design of processor. The biggest change is that 6MB Level 3 cache being cut away, giving the Phenom II its extra bite.

But let's walk through the Athlon II X3 architecture for a moment. Recently AMD made a move to their 45nm node to manufacture the newer model processors. Much like Phenom II, the Rana core that makes the Athlon II X3 is now based on a 45nm node. If you look at this from a distance it pretty much means that they were able to make this processor smaller compared to the last generation products. The die-size of this processor is measuring 169 mm².

A smaller fab size means advantages, often to be found in lower voltages and higher clock frequencies. The fastest Athlon II X3, the 435, will run at 2.9 GHz at a full 2.0 GHz HT 3.0 speed. It is the processor we are testing today, the Athlon II X4 435 which is running at a 2900 MHz clock frequency (14.5 x 200 MHz). Voltage ranges are 0.925 to 1.425V. This processor generation has a slightly increased maximum peak wattage of 95 Watts (TDP). Being an AM3 package, the processor is both motherboard Socket AM2+ and AM3 compatible.

The big differenceThis Athlon II X4 parts are based on AMD's 45nm Silicon on Insulator process technology and has a total of 2MB L2 cache; 512KB per core for the X4 and 1.5 MB L2 cache for the Athlon II X3 processors.

As stated, a big change in Phenom II architecture was a large increase in L3 cache. Phenom II can address 6MB L3 cache shared among the cores as a buffer, so it can exchange data in-between the four logical cores. And it's exactly that part that has been stripped away from the Athlon II X4 and X3.

• L1 Cache (Instruction + Data): 128KB x3 (64KB + 64KB for each core)
• L2 Cache: 512KB x3 (triple-core)
• L3 Cache: 6MB Shared L3

L3 is where a lot of magic happens and is the reason for Phenom II's success. How much of an effect will this have on overall performance? Well, quite a bit really but that's what we'll find out in our benchmark session.

AMD Athlon II X3 die - similar to the Athlon II X4