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Conclusion – AMD’s Phenom 9600 can’t Beat Intel’s Q6600

01:20 - Wednesday 23 January 2008 by Bert Toepelt
Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: phenom, 9600, black, edition
Categories: Hardware

Table of content:
36 – Conclusion – AMD’s Phenom 9600...
  1. 1 – AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition
  2. 2 – B2 Stepping – TLB Bug is Still Around
  3. 3 – B2 Stepping – TLB Bug is Still Around (Cont'd)
  4. 4 – Phenom 9600 Black Edition
  5. 5 – Overclocking – AMD’s OverDrive Badly Supported
  6. 6 – Overclocking – Newer Versions from other Sources?
  7. 7 – Overclocking – AMD OverDrive not yet Mature
  8. 8 – Overclocking – AMD OverDrive not yet Mature (Cont’d.)
  9. 9 – Overlocking by 13.04% - 2.60 GHz
  10. 10 – Overclocking – Hitting the Limit at 2.70 GHz
  11. 11 – Overclocking – Hitting the Limit at 2.70 GHz (Cont’d.)
  12. 12 – Only 12.5% more Performance
  13. 13 – Slower than Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q6600
  14. 14 – Power Consumption – 21 Watts when Idle
  15. 15 – Power Consumption – 150 Watts when Overclocked
  16. 16 – Test Setup
  17. 17 – Software Configuration
  18. 18 – Benchmarks and Settings
  19. 19 – 3D-Games - UT2004, Prey
  20. 20 – 3D-Games - Quake 4, Warhammer
  21. 21 – 3D-Games -Supreme Commander, Serious Sam 2
  22. 22 – 3D-Rendering - Cinema 4D, 3D-Studio Max
  23. 23 – Applications - AVG, WinRAR
  24. 24 – Applications - Photoshop, PDF
  25. 25 – Applications - Deep Fritz
  26. 26 – Audio Encoding - iTunes, Lame
  27. 27 – Synthetic - Sandra CPU
  28. 28 – Synthetic - Sandra Memory
  29. 29 – Synthetic - Sandra Multimedia
  30. 30 – Synthetic - PC-Mark
  31. 31 – Synthetic - 3DMark06
  32. 32 – Video Encoding - Xvid, Pinnacle Studio
  33. 33 – Video Encoding - Premiere, Mainconcept
  34. 34 – Video Encoding - HDTV, DivX
  35. 35 – Video Encoding - CloneDVD
  36. 36 – Conclusion – AMD’s Phenom 9600 can’t Beat Intel’s Q6600

Conclusion – AMD’s Phenom 9600 can’t Beat Intel’s Q6600

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Our review sample of AMD’s Phenom 9600 Black Edition offered overclocking potential of 17%. To achieve this, we had to set the core voltage quite high though, which is not recommendable. We achieved the most sensible overclock at a clock speed increase of 13%, allowing the Phenom 9600 to run stable even at its default core voltage. Like AMD’s first Black Edition model, the Athlon 64 X2 6400+, the overclocking potential is so low that the unlocked multiplier is almost not worthwhile. This calls the entire concept of the Black Edition in general into question. The single exception is the Athlon 64 X2 5000+, which we found to over rather good overclocking potential. You can read a more detailed analysis here.

Even when overclocked, our sample of the AMD Phenom was unable to beat Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q6600

Also, the Phenom’s power consumption is much too high. Our measurements point to a thermal problem in Cool’n’Quiet mode. When the Phenom 9600 Black Edition was overclocked, we measured a thermal dissipation that could only be handled with a very loud air-cooling solution or a water cooler.

For now, AMD’s OverDrive utility is unsuitable for overclocking. It’s “functionality” ranged from the error messaged “No AMD CPU found” to crashing our review system. The values determined in the utility do not correspond to those found in the BIOS. AMD itself does not support the OverDrive tool. The only Black Edition CPU that really benefits from its unlocked multiplier is the old Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition. In the end, we can’t really recommend AMD’s Phenom 9600 Black Edition, since that CPU draws more power than Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q6600 while costing the same, offering less overclocking headroom and thus providing lower performance overall.

The bottom line is that the Phenom 9600 Black Edition offers bad value for money. Based on our benchmark results and the direct comparison with Intel’s Q6600, AMD’s CPU should cost no more than €150, in our opinion.


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Talkback
mi1ez 23/01/2008 03:09
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mi1ez

Oh dear...
This has certainly done them no more favours...

Therlian 23/01/2008 03:31
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Therlian

This is an embarrassment for AMD. It's actually worse that they released the Black Edition of this processor because it shows that even with all the tricks, AMD is currently not even posing as competition for Intel. I don't know what AMD will be able to do to keep going; it seems like no matter what they try they are still way behind Intel.

At least when Intel was beating AMD in performance in the early days of the P2, at least AMD was still a viable option because of their price/performance ratio.

I hope they come up with something though; I don't want Intel to be the only product and raise their prices.

darthpoik 24/01/2008 11:40
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darthpoik

Poor AMD. I liked you a lot but Intel are truly kicking your butts. Hopefully this is just a Rocky feint and they will be back with a vengence soon

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