AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0 GHz Socket AM3 Processor Review

Enter the socket AM3, AMD Athlon II X2 250 microprocessor - a new 3.0GHz mainstream dual-core chip based on the Phenom 'Deneb' architecture, but crucially stripped of all L3 cache. Like all the chips emerging from AMD's stables this year, the Athlon II X2 250 is manufactured on the 45nm SOI process at Global Foundries Fab-1 in Germany. The chip has a modest 65W TDP, and looking over specs we find a transistor count of 234 Million, 256KB of L1 and 2MB of L2 cache. Of course, the Athlon II has no L3 cache.