If right now Intel is the sole leader on the high-end market, at least on the mainstream arena AMD is nicely catching up. Depending on the kind of programs you run, you will better off picking an AMD solution.

For example, in gaming, Phenom II 555 X2 was the best CPU, easily beating CPUs that are 25% more expensive. This happens because of the higher clock rate of this CPU, combined with the presence of an L3 memory cache – keep in mind that most games don't use more than two CPU cores. But of course where the amount of CPU cores matter (3D rendering and video editing), it is better to pick a quad-core CPU.

So if you have around USD 100 to spend on a CPU, our recommendation is the new Phenom II X2 555, unless you really need a quad-core machine. In this case Athlon II X4 620 is the perfect pick, since it costs the same and will provide you the extra performance needed.

But if you have USD 25 more to spend on a CPU, the new Athlon II X4 635 is definitely our recommendation, especially if you work with video editing and/or 3D rendering. It only lost to Core 2 Duo E7500 on Photoshop CS4, on all other programs it was either faster or achieved the same performance level. For the regular user that wants a fast machine and won't run professional video editing or 3D rendering programs, we think Phenom II X2 555 provides a better cost/benefit ratio though.

By the way. Pay attention that this time we tested all CPUs using Windows 7, so some results may be different from our previous reviews.