AMD Athlon II X4 620: Budget Quad Core Processor

Are you in a search for a budget Quad Core Processor? Then your search ends here. AMD Athlon II X4 620 is here to your rescue. This is the first Quad Core Processor which is under 100 $. AMD is truly listening to budget conscious customers. But does it really perform well, is it worth buying, lets do a short review.

So now lets take a look at Athlon II X4 620’s technical specifications:

Codename: Propus

Cores: Quad (4 cores)

Series: Athlon II X4

Operating Frequency: 2.6 GHz

Hyper Transport: 4000 MHz

L2 Cache: 4 x 512 KB

Manufacturing Technology: 45 nm

Virtualization Support: Yes

64 bit: Yes

Thermal design Power: 95 W

Socket: AM3

By looking at the specifications, you must have noted that it does not have L3 cache. The lack of L3 cache shows the main difference between the Athlon II and Phenom II processors.Also the clock speeds are less in Athlon II processors.

Athlon II X4 620 has four cores, each having 512 KB L2 cache. It supports 64 bit Operating system. So you can install your 64 bit OS on this without thinking. If you are thinking to insert this in an AM2+ motherboard then BIOS upgrade is necessary. But if you are buying a new motherboard better buy a new AM3 motherboard in which you can insert DDR3 RAM. But just take a note here that there are motherboards in the market which even support DDR2 RAM. So refrain from buying DDR2 RAM based boards if you are buying this processor.

Pricing: This processor is really a great VFM (Value for Money). Yes, its priced $99 on newegg and I think in this price range, its a deal breaker. AMD fans rejoice here. If you are in India, you can find this processor for Rs 5000. Now lets see its Pros & Cons.

Pros:

• Quad Core
• Virtualization & 64 bit computing support
• Low power consumption, compared to other Quad core processors

Cons:

• No L3 Cache

Conclusion:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 is not a speed breaker. It performs well with applications optimized for multi core architecture. So it certainly performs well, but don’t expect wonders with this processor. If you compare a Core 2 Duo with some high clock speeds, then that is certainly a better choice, as for now many applications are optimized for Dual Core architecture and not multi core architecture. Mostly Games are not optimized for multi core architecture, so they fail to utilize all four cores of this processor. Afterall, what can you expect from a $ 100 processor, but I am saying this, expect more :) So if your budget is very limited, then buy this, without thinking twice, you won’t regret.