Hank Tolman writes: "In this article, Benchmark Reviews takes a look at the new Athlon-II X3-445 AM3 Triple-Core Processor and compares it's performance to that of the Athlon-II X2-255 and X2-260 processors. All three have similar clock speeds, with the X3-445 and X2-255 at 3.1GHz and the X2-260 at 3.2Ghz. Right now, the X2-255 costs $75 and the X3-440 costs $85. We can probably expect nearly the same price difference between the X2-260 and the X3-445, AMD has set the MSRP for these at $76 and $87, respectively. What we want to see here is if the third core is really worth that extra $11. Also, seeing that the triple-core X3-445 is built on a quad-core die from either the Phenom-II Deneb or the Athlon-II Propus dies, we will explore the possibility of unlocking the potentially undamaged remaining disabled core and L3 cache that could be lurking hidden within this value-priced processor."
