AMD's focus on the mainstream echoes to a certain extent its GPU strategy: focus on the bulk of the customers first, then address the smaller high end of the market. Despite an overly controlling stance on overclocking and issues with B2 stepping 6-series chipsets, Intel's Sandy Bridge (Core ix-2xxx) dominates the high end. AMD will make a go for that market later this year with its Bulldozer architecture. It's still too early for an accurate preview of Bulldozer performance, although the time for such a thing is quickly approaching.
Until Bulldozer's unveiling, the Phenom II remains as AMD's high end platform. Today, that very platform gets a little boost.
AMD has released the latest member of the quad core socket AM3 family with the Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition.
AMD looks to be preparing a new top model for the Phenom II family before the launch of the new Bulldozer architecture and AMD FX processor family. Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition use four cores clocked at 3.7 GHz. AMD sets a new clock frequency record for its retail processors.