Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s second largest maker of x86 central processing units (CPUs), unveiled this week its new quad-core AMD Phenom X4 microprocessors that lack the well-known TLB erratum and also boast higher clock-speed compared to predecessors, thus, providing higher performance and efficiency.

“These new AMD Phenom X4 processors unlock even greater visual computing performance to showcase the unparalleled scalability of the AMD enthusiast platform,” said Mario Rivas, executive vice president of computing solutions group at AMD.

As expected, AMD unveiled AMD Phenom processors 9550 (2.20GHz), 9650 (2.30GHz,), 9750 (2.40GHz) and 9850 Black Edition (2.50GHz) which feature 2MB of level two cache (512KB per core) as well as 2MB of level-three cache. All the chips utilize B3 stepping of the core that lacks TLB erratum present on B2 stepping central processing units. All the new microprocessors have 95W thermal design power (TDP), except model 9850 Black Edition and certain versions of model 9750, which have TDP of 125W.

Earlier AMD could only offer quad-core microprocessors for desktops at 2.20GHz and 2.30GHz clock-speeds, which substantially limited the company’s ability to successfully compete against Intel’s quad-core chips on the market. But while, according to performance benchmarks by X-bit labs, performance-wise AMD Phenom X4 chips are not as fast as Intel Core 2 Quad, price-wise the new chips by AMD are truly competitive.

“The most important thing is that AMD have adjusted their price policy in a very smart way. Namely, the official price for AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition processor is set at $235, which is less than what the cheapest quad-core Intel processor is currently selling for. AMD Phenom X4 9750 will be offered for $215, while the youngest model – Phenom X4 9550 – is priced at $195,” said Ilya Gavrichenkov, CPU and platform analyst at X-bit labs.

The new chips from AMD are available commercially now.