When it comes to processors getting all of the specifications for the chip rarely tells you how it performs in the real world, so while that shiny new chip may share the same pedigree as higher priced models you may find the “minor” differences turn out to be major performance killers.

Luckily for the AMD Athlon II X2 250 a bit of missing L3 cache doesn’t appear to hinder its performance much at all, in fact free from the added baggage the dual core chip is able to reach some nifty heights for an inexpensive CPU. bit-tech has a look:

However, the Athlon II X2 250 is much more flexible than its
predecessors because it’s compatible with both Socket AM2+ and Socket
AM3 motherboards. This is great news for such a low price CPU as cheap
good-quality Socket AM3 motherboards have finally begun to appear in
the last few weeks. The only downside in this equation is DDR3 which,
while coming down in price all the time, is currently still a little
more expensive than DDR2. Still, given how much better Socket AM3
motherboards overclock than their Socket AM2+ predecessors – it’s well
worth thinking about using the Athlon II X2 250 with a Socket AM3
motherboard.

Enthusiasts know what they’ll be doing with this chip but its stock 3.0GHz clock speed isn’t too shabby for the non-tweakers either.