PC Perspective reports AMD's Phenom II has enough headroom built into it that 5GHz - 6GHz speeds are attainable using a little extreme cooling like dry ice or LN2. How do they know this? They went straight to the source and watched as AMD put on a little demonstration showing the Phenom II running at clock speeds up to 6GHz!

The original Barcelona is a 65 nm part and really the first of its architecture. Since its release and the subsequent shuffling around of design teams, AMD has refocused their energy on delivering a design that would not only have a better per clock performance than the older part, but allow the design to scale in clockspeed on AMD's new 45 nm process. So far what we have seen shows that AMD has done very well. While the 3.0 GHz Phenom II will likely not perform anywhere near that of the new 3.2 GHz Intel i7, it will show very well against the older Intel Core 2 quads. Not only that, but we will see how AMD scales clockspeed in the future, as well as how they handle DDR-3 support early next year. With AMD's constant process improvement program, and tweaks to the Phenom II design that we typically see in the manufacturing stage, AMD could theoretically have a 3.4 to 3.6 GHz processor at moderate TDP levels (think 125 watts) that would more adequately perform against the mighty i7 within the next 8 months.

The big question is if AMD wants to pursue a clockspeed battle with Intel. I believe that AMD is holding their cards close to their chest in this case, and by not releasing a Phenom II faster than 3.0 GHz, they are not provoking Intel into a costly clockspeed battle. But when Intel releases faster parts next year, we can bet that AMD will have an answer for it at every step. I do not believe that AMD wants to get back the performance crown at this time, namely because they do not have a design that is head and shoulders above what Intel currently has. So they are content to be 2nd best, and keep Intel in sight in terms of performance and features. This way they can continue to carve a niche out for themselves and offer products that may appeal to enthusiasts, home entertainment, and gaming consumers. All the while keeping their manufacturing costs reasonable by not engaging in a clockspeed battle with Intel, which would only result in lower ASPs for both companies (something that AMD can not afford to do).

So AMD is pushing the "headroom" feature, which will appeal to enthusiasts and gamers. But they are also keeping TDP down as much as possible to attract regular desktop users as well as those who are interested in cool and quiet systems (underclockers, HTPC segment). Getting 5 GHz out of a processor which features 700 million transistors + is no small feat, even when using dry ice. Enthusiasts have already taken the i7 to 5.7 GHz+ on LN, and it will be interesting to see what these folks will be able to do with the Phenom II when it arrives.