AMD's new Thuban hexa-core CPUs come out swinging with prices that belie their size. And if we've learned anything from years of watching action movies: You never, ever count out the underdog. Such is the case with perennial underdog AMD.

Ars reviews AMD's latest quad-core, the Phenom II, against a barrage of Intel chips and finds that while it "puts AMD back on the map" against today's chips, AMD's got a "long-term problem." [Ars Technica]

I don't care how big of a Dick Tracey you look like using the Phenom SpecialOPS cellphone watch; its adolescent awesomeness goes unspoken.

From AMD's upcoming chip roadmaps we know the Phenom II is due out early next year, and it's AMD's second 45nm chip, but in a recent show and tell session AMD demonstrated the "overhead" built into the chip by overclocking one to a crazy 5GHz. It did take a special CO2 sublimation cooling unit that carries the danger…

AMD's immediate processor plans have been leaked in the form of a PowerPoint slide to Spanish site CHW.net. Dual-core "Brisbane" Athlons at 2.6GHz are due in October, alongside "Toliman" triple-core Phenoms. November sees the single-core "Lima" Athlon chip, obviously destined for low-power devices, since it runs at…

Technically, the trio of new processors from AMD are pretty much the same: they have the same core, and similar feature sets. But while the 9950 Black Edition is a 140W, 2.6GHz overclockable monster (the most power-hungry Phenom AMD has made) the 9350 (2GHz) and 9150 (1.8GHz) are selectively binned and draw just 65W…

Maximum PC has reviewed AMD's tri-core 2.4GHz Phenom X3 8750 CPU. It performs like you'd expect—in between quad and dual cores. Fine, but it's $195. You can pick up AMD's top quad core, the X4 9850 for only $235, or Intel's Q6600 (which mercilessly beat down the X4 9850 in benchmarks) for $224 now, or hell, $200 in a…

Part of AMD's multi-core Phenom blast today is the Phenom X3 8000, "the world's only triple-core x86 processor," which we heard about a few months ago. They're supposed to bargain chips for budget consumers, but they're a nicer bargain for AMD, actually, since it lets them dump bug-plagued quad-core Phenomsby…

The Phenom X4 9850 is at the top of AMD's latest heap of quad-core Phenoms. It's free of the performance-sapping bug that plagued the first batch of Phenoms, and AMD hopes it'll claw back some ground from Intel. Maximum PC stacked it up against two quad-cores from Intel—the mid-rangeish Penryn Core 2 Quad Q9300, as…

Amid rumors of Dell dropping AMD processors, TG Daily has discovered Dell actually plans to release a new line of Optiplex PCs with AMD Tri-Core Phenom processors. They also report Dell plans to feature AMD chips in future consumer products later this year. [TG Daily]

Rather than continue hammering on AMD while they're down, Intel is apparently taking AMD's troubles as a little break of their own, delaying the launch of three 45nm quad-core Core 2 processors (Yorkfields) until Feb. or March, depending on AMD's release schedule for its upcoming tri-core and Phenom processors. This…

AMD has just announced they shall be releasing three new graphics processors. ATI's R680 is the new model grabbing all the attention, thanks to its dual 55nm processor core. AMD were clear in stating the 55nm processors have identical specifications to those used in an earlier model, but the older RV670 GPU contained…

Click to viewWe just got the chance to play around with AMD's newest quad core system, the Phenom RD790 and a pair of ATI HD2900XT graphics processors. There's a whole lot of cooling going on, thanks to John Woo's new game Stranglehold. AMD is still mum on pricing and final specs, though they did reaffirm their desire…