Two of the much-lauded AMD Phenoms are now hitting the streets, and earlier today AMD issued a press release that confirmed the 1,000-unit quantity pricing of the processors. Both of them are under the $300 mark, which is good, but unfortunately as the benchmarks begin rolling in the Phenom isn't looking spectacular for AMD.

Clock-for-clock, the Phenom is definitely more powerful than the A64, and certainly boosts AMD's position as a viable contender for a quad-core processor. Unfortunately, pricewise, they aren't competing – Intel's Q6600, which sits in between the Phenom 9500 and Phenom 9600 in terms of price, outperforms them in certain areas.

They have made good on their launch, and variants are due soon, but so far there has not been much fanfare for Phenom. I hope AMD turns this around, as a lot of people were looking to this launch with hope.