Back in December, we covered AMD's plans to introduce a handful of new 65nm Athlon 64 X2 processors at 45W and 65W TDPs, including several chips that would push clockspeeds back towards 3GHz. Those predicted speeds and model numbers were off a bit, but the CPUs themselves have finally materialized. NewEgg is now offering the Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Black Edition at 2.8GHz and a 65W TDP for $89.99. The new 5800+ is also available, although only in an OEM flavor. The 5800+ is based on the same Brisbane core, but runs at 3GHz and carries an 89W TDP. Current price on the 5800+ is $95.99. The new 3GHz chip finally puts AMD's 65nm technology on a nearly even footing with the company's older 90nm parts; the old 6000+ ran at 3GHz, but was rated at 125W TDP.

I'm not sure if AMD intends to make the 5800+ available in a retail package, but both processors are potentially enticing. The closest sub-$100 Intel processor is an $89 Allendale at 2.4GHz and, frankly, I'd prefer a 3GHz Athlon 64 X2 to a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo—clock efficiency counts for quite a bit, but the Athlon X2 is running a full 25 percent faster. If you can afford to spend more money, Intel's E7200 Wolfdale for $119.99 is an extremely enticing bit of hardware, but the 5400+ and 5800+ are both significantly less expensive than that chip. If you're in a position where even $25 makes a difference, these new AMD chips look awfully pretty.

On the platform side of things, there's really no contest. AMD 780G boards are available for $80 from the likes of Sapphire, MSI, and Biostar, with Gigabyte, Asus, and ASRock flavors all hovering between $80-90. Intel integrated performance, on the other hand, is still considerably more expensive. The cheapest G33 board—and G33 only compares to the 780G insomuch as they both are capable of displaying a picture—is $82.99, while an Intel boxed OEM G35 board is $89.99. G35 itself is a pretty miserable competitor to 780G (to be fair, NVIDIA's GF 8300 is quite capable) and, although there are new G43 boards available, they are all at $100+. Given Intel's long history of mediocre video, I'm not personally holding my breath to see G45 break any performance records, much less G43.

Finally, of course, these chips could provide a much-sought upgrade path for anyone still using an older AM2-based Athlon 64 X2. I've personally got no such luck, as AMD isn't making any 3GHz+ Socket 940 Opteron processors. Hopefully a few of you will save some dollars, whereas I'm stuck staring at needing a new system when I choose to move off this beast.