Introduced with the rest of the 2008 Phenom line-up, the AMD Phenom X4 9750 brought with it the first step up in clock speed the series had seen. With the last top-of-the-line 9600 set at only 2.3GHz, this step was considered AMD's number one obstacle to become competitive against Intel's offerings. Sadly, hurtling this obstacle came at a price of energy efficiency and thermal output. With a TDP of 125W, the 9750 has a difficult time of keeping up with even Intel's budget quad core, the 6600, itself with a TDP of only 90W in comparison.
