Amd ii x4 850 l3 cache

The Phenom II X4 850 doesn't have L3 cache, it actually is an Athlon II. AMD branded the 850 as a Phenom II because despite the lack of L3 cache, it performed closer to the Phenom II CPUs.

Athlon II X4 uses the Propus die, and Phenom II used Deneb. Towards the end of K10 AMD was clocking the Athlon II(propus die) high enough that despite having no L3 cache, it was faster than the lower clocked Phenom II parts with L3, and thus marketing decided it should be called Phenom II.

Basically they didn't want Athlon II parts out performing Phenom II parts.

The 850 is a Deneb core its a true Phenom II (but the L3 should have been disabled)

The Propus core "fake" Phenom II was the 840

*EDIT*.... some links

850 - Deneb core
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Phenom%20II%20X4%...

840 Propus core
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Phenom%20II%20X4%...

my phenom ii x4 850 has total cache of 8mb the 6mb l3 appeared on cpu-z

must have unlocked somehow