AMD Phenom II X4: 45nm Benchmarked

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Performance Analysis: Core i7 920 and Core 2 Quad 6600

The Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition can compete ably with Intel processors in its price class. The Core 2 Quad Q6600 is about 9% slower on average; a Core i7 920 system offers about 22% better performance.

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BenchmarksCore i7 920 - 2.66 GHzHeader Cell - Column 2 Core 2 Quad Q6600 - 2.40 GHzHeader Cell - Column 4
Crysis10.3%Faster1.0%Slower
Unreal Tournament 37.1%Faster6.9%Slower
World In Conflict43.3%Faster4.2%Slower
Supreme Commander13.0%Faster8.2%Faster
AVG Antivirus9.4%Faster19.1%Slower
Winrar 3.8035.3%Faster17.9%Slower
Winzip 117.8%Faster0.7%Slower
Acrobat 9 Professional13.7%Faster13.7%Faster
Photoshop CS 36.3%Faster4.1%Slower
Itunes6.8%Faster8.1%Slower
Lame MP312.4%Faster7.8%Slower
Studio 127.4%Faster11.5%Slower
DiVX31.9%Faster22.6%Slower
XviD19.5%Faster13.3%Slower
MainConcept H.26428.4%Faster25.6%Slower
Premiere Pro CS3 HDTV42.0%Faster8.1%Slower
Cinema 4D Release 1021.2%Faster17.6%Slower
3D Studio Max 929.0%Faster16.7%Slower
Fritz 1133.9%Faster8.0%Slower
Nero 8 Recode60.5%Faster3.3%Faster
Overall22.0%Faster9.1%Slower
Bert Toepelt
164 Comments Comment from the forums
  • one-shot
    YAY!, The day has come! Haven't read it yet. I am excited to see what it brings!
    Reply
  • firedogevan
    why focus on the q6600... wouldn't the q9550 or 9650 be a more accurate comparison given their respective locations in the product lineup?
    Reply
  • dechy
    Yeah, the price comparison table should of included a Q9550, which costs same as i7 920 but with the lower mobo/ram combo price.

    Ends up being the same price as the AMD bundle, but with a good more performance... there goes the whole "AMD price/performance" aspect of this chip.
    Reply
  • one-shot
    Great review. Maybe some overclocking later? There were some pretty high claims about its overclocking potential. I'll wait for AM3 before I retire my E6750.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    Coming up soon one-shot--I was working on that one =)
    Reply
  • V3NOM
    who cares about performance/watt? PRICE/PERFORMANCE is the big deal
    Reply
  • The Q9xxx series would trump the PhenomII in all the categories listed above. THG, it was downright *criminal* to have not included the Yorkfield chips in your performance per dollar and performance per watt analysis.
    Reply
  • nashville
    hey bert/tom's:
    good write up: thought id comment on i7 watts:
    "we measured the power consumption directly from the 12 volt rail that supplied the CPU", i read somewhere the only i7 core logic gets power from 12v rail, the uncore/cache part somewhere else. if this is true, you going to do another measurements?
    Reply
  • kirvinb
    I'm so happy to see Intel has some competetion. While these new processors are not mind blowing, they offer some decent performance at the price given. I am sure this will lower the price of the q9400 and q9550, which is exactly what I want to see. Maybe even the i7s price will lower and maybe we will be back in the good days..where intel and amd flipped sides of the powerhouse like every 6 months..!! Good Write Up..
    Reply
  • jj463rd
    On the forums someone mentioned "why did they use DDR2-800 RAM when DDR2-1066 would give better performance for the Phenom II".Wouldn't this skew the benchmarks by a little bit (perhaps 2 to 3%)?
    Reply