When Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) first introduced the Phenom II line of processors, we were still stuck in the days of the AM2+ socket. The processor that the Phenom II launched with was the AMD Phenom II X4 940 back in 2009. The Phenom II X4 940 is a quad core processor that cruised along at 3.0GHz and proved to be a very capable processor. Here we are though, a little more than two years later looking at the latest variation of the original Phenom II X4 940, the AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition. It's been over two since the original AMD Phenom II X4 processor was released using the 'Deneb' core architecture and believe it or not the core architecture remains exactly the same. The clock frequency has increased from 3.0GHz to 3.7GHz over the past two years though and that is good news for those that don't overclock. If you overclock your processor then you are likely going to yawn right about now as we were able to hit 3.8GHz on the AMD Phenom II X4 940 processor way back in 2008 when we overclocked the first Phenom II X4 that we laid our hands on. There are a couple of serious differences between the two processors. We will touch on those difference in a bit though. Though I'm betting your familiar with them already, at least some of them.