May 6 2011 review by techreport

With four cores clocked at 3.7GHz, 6MB of L3 cache, and a 125W TDP rating, the X4 980 is a direct successor to the Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition, save that the X4 980 follows the blueprint by adding 100MHz.

Even among AMD's own CPU offerings, the X4 980's value proposition looks rather raw next to the Phenom II X6 1075T. The six-core 1075T has the same 125W TDP as the X4 980 and, thanks to the Turbo Core feature that the X4 980 lacks, the 1075T's peak clock speed is 3.5GHz.

Overclocking:

the Phenom II X4 980 happily overclocked by 500MHz, to 4.2GHz, at 1.5V-only a tenth of a volt above stock.

If you're bound and determined to buy an AMD processor and are looking for a good value compared to the Intel incumbent, we'd suggest looking at the Phenom II X4 840. Yes, the Core i3-2100 is faster in our overall performance index, but the X4 840 has four true cores to the i3-2100's two, so the Phenom is quicker in many widely multithreaded applications