Phenom II X4 955: AMD's Dragon Platform Evolves

Benchmark Results: Productivity

We’re in the process of updating our test suite, so we’ve temporarily lost the AVG anti-virus and Photoshop tests (we’ll be debuting a new anti-virus metric soon, along with incorporating Photoshop CS4).

We do have the latest version of WinZip, though, which is unfortunately still single-threaded and responding almost exclusively to clock speed. The Phenom IIs scale linearly, and even the 2.83 GHz Core 2 Quad is able to outpace the 2.66 GHz Core i7 920.

The newest version of WinRAR, on the other hand, follows after previous iterations and utilizes as many threads as you can throw at it—hence the Core i7’s commanding victory.

More odd is the X3 720s parity with AMD’s X4 940—a CPU that is both 200 MHz faster and one core stronger. Nevertheless, AMD shows very well against Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q9550, besting it by 16 seconds in our 334 MB compression routine.

An upgrade to the latest version of 3ds Max 2009 (in 64-bit trim, no less), also demonstrates solid multi-threaded optimization. That Phenom II X3 720 is painfully slow here—if you’re doing rendering work, make sure you have a quad-core CPU.

The Phenom II X4 955 stands up well to the Core 2 Quad Q9550, beating it by a second. Both Core i7 CPUs turn in the fastest numbers, as we’d expect in a well-threaded test like this one.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
  • inmytaxi
    Why call a 955 $255 plus 790GX mb $110 plus 4 gb ram $41 is $500, when it's actually $410 before shipping and rebates, which about cancel out? And that's just picking off the cheapest at newegg and not price shopping, which might knock it below $400.

    Not to mention the six months on the market the other set up has had to drop in price ...
    Reply
  • lanestew
    Fingers crossed for AMD. Intel needs a competitor!
    Reply
  • inmytaxi
    Of course, even at NewEgg, the i7 is still just a benny more, at $280 for the i7, $84 for 1600 6gb ram and $200 for a MB. What's, $564 before ship and rebates, knock $50 if you get the i7 at microcenter, and another $20 on real cost after nit picking out shipping and rebates ... and settle for 1333 ram ... you're within fifty bucks!!!

    If it wasn't for that Nvidia issue with the i7 ...
    Hell,
    Reply
  • inmytaxi
    Hell, you can knock seventy off the hundred dollar price diff. with an open box motherboard for one thirty instead of twoo hundred.

    Nice processor, but until the price drop comes the only reason to buy it is if you're upgrading. If you're doing a clean sweep it's the i7 all the way.

    Reply
  • gsacks
    inmytaxiHell, you can knock seventy off the hundred dollar price diff. with an open box motherboard for one thirty instead of twoo hundred.Nice processor, but until the price drop comes the only reason to buy it is if you're upgrading. If you're doing a clean sweep it's the i7 all the way.
    Not fair. Don't compare open box prices to new prices. If you want to buy used/refurb/reconditioned/open box, then compare the prices against the same used/refurb/reconditioned/open box equivalent for the other platform. Otherwise, you are fudging your numbers.
    Reply
  • trevorvdw
    "The only standout in this clumsy console port is AMD’s Phenom II X3 720, which lags at both 1680x1050 and 1920x1200. The rest of the processors serve up reasonably close performance, per what we’ve come to expect from Grand Theft Auto 4."

    Yeah that whole less than 10% behind the i7 920 is totally lagging and not close in performance... who writes this drivel?
    Reply
  • for gamers: seriously, get the 720BE and oc it to death. then spend your money on VIDEO CARD(S)... that's what's important here!
    Reply
  • hmph... -1. i said FOR GAMERS. nerd.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    Yup--any of these games will be fine with a 720 BE and more graphics muscle.
    Reply
  • lanestew
    If only those AM3 boards had SLI.....
    Reply