Athlon II X3 435: AMD's Three-Core, 2.9 GHz, $87 Triple-Threat

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Today AMD introduces what might turn out to be the ideal budget CPU, with three cores for multi-threading, a relatively high 2.9 GHz clock speed, and an impressive sub-$90 price tag. How does it stand up to the rest of the company's Athlon and Phenom IIs?

Application Benchmarks: 2D And 3D Graphics Processing

Let's begin with 2d graphics using Photoshop CS4:

Unlike older versions of Photoshop, our custom CS4 benchmark centers on threaded filters, and thus sees significant benefit from multi-core CPUs. The Athlon II X4 620 takes the opportunity to show off what its four cores can do, but the Athlon II X3 435 squeaks out a win when overclocked. As we're starting to come to expect, there is very little performance difference between the stock Athlon II X3 435 and Phenom II X3 720.

We've seen 3ds Max demonstrate excellent threading optimization since we've been using it. Even when overclocked to 3.77 GHz, the new Athlon II X3 435 barely bests the Athlon II X4 620, which benefits from four cores of compute power.

Don Woligroski
85 Comments Comment from the forums
  • wintermint
    AMD CPUs been appealing to budget builders lately :)
    Reply
  • invlem
    I think my HTPC just found its new processor, been running a 5200+ for the last while
    Reply
  • ominous prime
    AMD is really thriving in the budget sector, I wonder how the i3's will affect the market. I hope AMD can get back to head to head with Intel on the high end though.
    Reply
  • rdawise
    Smart move by AMD by attacking the budget crowd (especially around the holiday season). I am surprised how well this thing did against the X2 550! Seems like a good candidate for a budget gaming/multipurpose build. Any release dates available (for NewEgg)?
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    this is awesome but (and its a big one) i kinda wanted to see something that pwns intels core i7 in everything. Kind of like what they are doing in the graphics department but total domination. How long will i wait!!!
    Reply
  • lemonade4
    http://media.bestofmicro.com/O/H/227681/original/Athlon%20II%20X3%20CPU-Z%20Stock.jpg

    2 cores 2 threads?
    Reply
  • JonathanDeane
    3 cores at almost 3Ghz for this cheap? Hmmm not a huge AMD fan but this is plenty of CPU for most people. I would snap one up if I was building a system right now.
    Reply
  • DokkRokken
    That's one impressive little chip! Pair this with a 770 chipset and you'd have the basis for a cheap and cheerful gaming PC!
    Reply
  • cleeve
    lemonade4http://media.bestofmicro.com/O/H/2 0Stock.jpg2 cores 2 threads?
    Aha! Thanks for catching that. After I had done the testing I was playing around with disabling CPU cores in the OS, and I forgot to turn them back on to take the screenshot. Fixed!
    Reply
  • sonofliberty08
    did the disable core of Athlon II X3 435 can be unlock ?
    Reply