AMD has today made another push to close the gap somewhat against Intel's Core 2 series of processors with a new top-end Phenom II model dubbed the Phenom II X4 965.

AMD has managed to squeeze 3.4GHz out of the Deneb cored chip whilst the memory controller, HT link and L3 cache remain at 2 GHz. Due to the 200MHz increase over the previous top-end X4 955, the TDP has been raised to 140 watts (up 15 watts), but this is still acceptable for the desktop realm.

While it still might not be enough to rival the grace of Core 2 in the performance stakes, it's once again the price that will attract most buyers. AMD has said that it will list at just 245 U.S. Dollars, which is the same price point the 955 Black Edition sat at previously.

With the nda lifted on the new 965 today, there's a bunch of coverage all around the web showing off its performance characteristics which you can get to via the horde of links below :-

- PC Perspective
- Hot Hardware
- Neoseeker
- Overclockers Club
- Legit Reviews
- Tech Report
- XBit Labs
- Benchmark Reviews
- Techspot
- Techwarelabs
- i4u
- Driver Heaven
- Technic3D

Due to our initial test sample 965 coming to us damaged, there's been a delay in getting our review online, but testing is almost complete and we will be able to publish our results and thoughts within the next few hours, so stay tuned!