For our comparison, AMD provided an
unlocked engineering-sample Phenom that
we ran at 2.6GHz and 2.3GHz in Asus’s new
790FX-based M3A32-MVP Deluxe board. We
compared AMD’s CPU to the original Intel
2.66GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU that
we received more than a year ago from Intel.
While it carries the Extreme tag, the QX6700
is identical to the Core 2 Quad Q6700 except
that it’s unlocked. That let us run the chip at
both 2.66GHz and 2.4GHz to simulate the per-
formance of a Core 2 Quad Q6600. The board
used for the Core 2 chip was EVGA’s 680i SLI.
Both machines featured DDR2 RAM clocked at
1,066MHz. Memory timing was manually set on
both platforms and both used 150GB Western
Digital Raptor hard drives and identically
clocked GeForce 8800 GTX cards, as well as
the same drivers. Once we were fi nished with
the Phenom testing, we dropped in an Athlon
64 X2 6400+ for comparison. As we pointedout in the main story, we could not determine if
the performance-crippling TLB patch was pres-
ent in the Asus M3A32-MVP board we used,
but we suspect it was not, so our performance
for the 2.3GHz runs would be higher than that
of a system with the patch applied. For our
test, we did not trot out Intel’s 45nm 3GHz
Core 2 Extreme QX9650 or the company’s new
3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9770. We didn’t
even pull out Intel’s older 3GHz quad-core—
after the 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad beat up the
Phenom, we decided to be merciful. And there
was defi nitely no need to throw in 1,600MHz
FSB chips or DDR3/1600. When one team is
getting pummeled, you don’t grind it further
into the ground. You let it slink off the fi eld with
a modicum of pride intact.THE FINAL VERDICT
After all the trash talking, all the “true quad
core” pimping, the result is a chip that’s slowerthan Intel’s cheapest quad core. And more
expensive to boot!
The sad part is that while Phenom will be
viewed as a big yawner, it’s not really a bad
CPU. In fact, it’s a respectable chip for encod-
ing and most applications. And it’s certainly
damned faster than any Athlon 64.
But in the fi nal tally, if you are into perfor-
mance—and most enthusiasts are—Intel is the
only game in town this season. There’s simply
no comparison. On the other hand, if you’re
vested in AMD and own a Socket AM2 board,
it’s probably worth considering a Phenom, as
it gets you two more cores, bags more per-
formance, and little more hassle than a BIOS
update and a little thermal paste on your hand.
The more troubling issue is the cost to
AMD’s credibility. With its CPUs so far in the
hole, does it have the resources and capability
to make a comeback?Phenom in Action
Best scores are bolded.CLOCK 2.6GHz 2.66GHz 2.3GHz 2.4GHz 3.2GHz
SYNTHETIC GAMING
3DMARK06 OVERALL 11,787 12,219 11,299 11,620 10,687
3DMARK06 CPU 3,886 4,237 3,615 3,837 2,455
3DMARK05 CPU 15,986 15,450 15,244 14,394 15,901
VALVE PARTICLE TEST 72 83 67 79 44
GAMING
FEAR LOW-RES 217 272 202 241 207
QUAKE 4 LOW-RES 160.4 184.1 147.6 163.5 140.4
WORLD IN CONFLICT LOW-RES 111 136 112 141 115
CRYSIS CPU LOW-RES 96.3 131.2 92.3 123.2 98.7
CRYSIS GPU LOW-RES 74.5 97.3 72.2 92.2 76.6
APPLICATIONS
PREMIERE PRO CS3 (MIN:SEC) 19:48 18:43 21:00 19:31 33:25
PHOTOSHOP CS3 (MIN:SEC) 2:47 2:19 2:55 2:28 3:21
PROSHOW PRODUCER (MIN:SEC) 21:11 20:03 22:22 20:39 33:48
CINEBENCH 10 8,362 9,583 7,732 8,699 5,226
ADVANCED OFFICE PASSWORD BREAKER (HRS:MIN:
SEC)7:19:34 5:56:02 7:56:20 6:35:27 11:56:42ENCODING
MAINCONCEPT REFERENCE (MIN:SEC) 32:23 33:48 34:23 36:16 56:04
AUTOGK XVID (MIN:SEC) 13:36 10:38 14:12 11:41 17:20
AUTOGK DIVX 6.8 (MIN:SEC) 12:29 10:07 13:07 10:57 15:05
SYNTHETIC APPLICATIONS
SCIENCEMARK 2.0 1,525.67 1,512.37 1,440.34 1,391.37 1,639.96
VALVE MAP COMPILE TEST (MIN:SEC) 2:52 2:39 3:05 2:53 4:56
PCMARK2005 OVERALL 8,423 9,233 8,340 8,729 7,657
PCM05 CPU 7,659 8,587 7,079 7,738 6,547
PCM05 MEM 4,479 5,825 4,257 5,511 5,244
PCM05 GPU 11,962 12,783 11,886 12,677 11,624
PCM05 HDD 7,788 7,943 7,767 7,813 7,754CPU 2.6GHz Phenom 9900 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.3GHz Phenom 9500 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600 3.2GHz Athlon 64+ BEBENCHMARKS
http://www.maximumpc.com (^) | FEB (^08) | MAXIMUMPC 4
OK, enough about the CPU. Let’s see what story the benchmarks tell