Phenom II X4 3.6GHz and RV740 This Year?

Over the weekend, there was quite a lot of buzz about an AMD Phenom II X4 processor clocking at 3.6 GHz by the end of the year as well as the possibility that the ATI RV740 will be used in the upcoming Radeon HD 4730 and HD 4750 SKUs.

ZoomAccording to German website News-AMD, AMD plans to release the 45 nm Phenom II X4 chipsets, clocking up to 3.6 GHz, in Q2 of this year. However, the site quickly went offline due to "incorrect interpretation," with a newer version of the original article going up yesterday. Based on information stemming from recently "leaked" AMD roadmap slides highlighting the release of the Phenom II X4 950 (4 x 3.1 GHz) in Q2 2009, the site speculates that the 3.6GHz version will see a release before the end of the decade. The theory utilizes a model number roadmap using increments of ten (because apparently no one could agree on increments of 5). As a result, the AMD Phenom II X4 960 clocks at 4 x 3.2 GHz, the AMD Phenom II X4 970 clocks in at 4 x 3.3 GHz and so on.

If all goes according to plan, the upcoming Phenom II X4 950 will support DDR3 1333 MHz memory, 4 GHz HyperTransport interface speed, and Socket AM3. Supposedly, the chip will also have a 125W thermal envelope and 8 MB total cache, however TechReport speculates that the cache splits into 6MB of L3 and 512KB of L2 per core. Currently AMD's fastest processor is the Phenom II X4 940, clocking in at 3.0 GHz with 8 MB total cache. AMD is said to top that processor as well with the release of the Phenom II X4 945, a Socket AM3 version of the 940.

Additionally, TechPowerUp reports that AMD is on course to release the first GPU built on the 40 nm silicon process, the RV740, catering to the sub-$150 market. According to the site, the GPU will come packed with 640 stream processors and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. There's also speculation that the RV740 may be implemented in two SKUs: the Radeon HD 4730 and the Radeon HD 4750, stemming from a thorough inspection of the information files packed with the just-released ATI Catalyst v9.1 drivers. It's assumed that the RV740 will make its debut at CeBIT held in Hannover, Germany on March 3-8, however AMD has not released anything official regarding the GPU.