Finals Words and conclusion
Finals Words and conclusion
For the conclusion we'll start off where we left at the introduction, will the Phenom II X4 still pack enough punch to compete with Intel's Sandy Bridge processors? The short answer is no. Sandy bridge (after the 2500 series) is more power efficient and packs more per core then the Phenom II X4 can offer. Overclocking wise if you pick up a K model Sandy bridge processor will clock more easy in higher regions as well. Overall and in generic a SB CPU and motherboard are slightly more expensive though.
Now the Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor, or Deneb architecture if you will, performs well, but can't keep up with the competition much longer. AMD will need to hurry up with their Llano and Bulldozer (codenames) desktop processors as they need to show muscle, ever since January 2011 (Sandy bridge release) they started slipping down in terms of progressive performance opposed from the competition and fact remains that AMD's Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor is merely a speedbump, a small incremental performance increase over the last flagship product which was the 975BE, adding another 100 MHz.
Overall the Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor is a fun processor though, you can use it to play your games very decently with, for any desktop usage the processor will be sufficient and if you can live with a rather huge power draw, it does overclock nicely as well.
We have reached a turning point in the processor arena, now more than ever we feel changes are needed. We'll be very interested to see AMD's next generation APU processors, a lot is happening right now in the processor industry for both AMD and Intel's Sandy Bridge. This year and the years to come CPUs are to be merged with low-end GPUs onto the processor die, hopefully offering you even more value for money and better power consumption.
At suggested retail price of 185 USD AMD gives you a processor that clocks in at 3.7 GHz, the processor itself fits fine in a now mainstream segment. But sure, AMD needs better memory bandwidth, some sort of hyper-threading capability, turbo core features and much better per-core performance. 
Money wise, the processors is priced decent enough for what it offers. The Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition is a handsome processor to have inside any modern mid-range PC, it overclocks well and within weeks, we expect sales prices to drop even further and well let's say 165/175 USD would be a really nice price for this processor we feel. As such the Phenom II X4 980 BE comes recommended but barely, now more then ever we feel it's time for an architecture change alright.
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