AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Review

Written by Dimitar Dinchev a.k.a. Veseliq

Wednesday, 06 May 2009

 

Page 3 - Test Setup and Testing Methods

For the purpose of the review we choose components that adequately match the platform we're testing. Tests of AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition were ran at its default frequency of 3.2GHz (200x16) with 2x2GB 1600MHz 7-7-7-20 DDR3 memory. We also compared it to the Intel Q9550 Quad Core + 2x1GB DDR3 1333MHz @ 333x8.5, Core i7 920 (20x133) + 3x1GB DDR3 1333MHz. Of course we did not forget to include an older Phenom 9850 X4 with the same 2x2GB DDR2 5-5-5-18 as Phenom II X4 810 and Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition.

Tests were now concluded with an AMD ATI HD 4890 1GB DDR5 video card, so respectively in all other tests in which video cards are involved you'll see a direct comparison between AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition, Intel Core i7 920 and Intel Core 2 E8500, which were available to us at the present time. Other processors were tested with other video cards which, essentially makes any comparison inadequate.

Common components

• Hard drive 1: Western Digital Velocity Raptor 10 000rpm 150GB
• Hard drive 2: Seagate Barracuda 9 7200rpm 300GB
• Optical drive: ASUS DVD+/-RW 24x Ligthscribe SATA
• PSU: Cooler Master Real Power 1000W
• Cooler: Noctua NH-C12P
• Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
• Monitor: Belinea o.display 4_24" LCD 1920x1200

Configuration 1: AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz

• Motherboard: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe (790FX chipset)
• Video card: Sapphire HD 4890 1GB DDR5
• Memory: 2x2GB Corsair XMS 3 1600MHz (7-7-7-20)

Configuration 2: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (133x200

• Motherboard: Intel DX58SO X58 BULK
• Video card: Sapphire HD 4890 1GB DDR5
• memory: 3x1GB GeIL EVOONE 1333MHz (7-7-7-20)

Configuration 3: Intel Q9550 2.83GHz

• Motherboard: ASUS P5K3 Deluxe (Intel P35 Chipset)
• Memory: 2x1GB A-Data DDR3 Extreme Edition 1333MHz

Configuration 4: AMD Phenom II 940 3GHz

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790GP DS4H (AMD 790GX Chipset)
• Memory: 2x2GB Corsair Dominator 800MHz (5-5-5-18)

Configuration 5: AMD Phenom II 810 2.6GHz

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790GP DS4H (AMD 790GX Chipset)
• Memory: 2x2GB Corsair Dominator 800MHz (5-5-5-18)

Configuration 6: AMD Phenom 9850 X4 Deneb 65nm @ default 200x12.5 (2.5GHz); DDR2 2x2GB 800MHz 5-5-5-18

• Video card: Sapphire HD 4870 X2 2GB
• Processor: AMD Phenom 9850 X4 65nm
• Memory: 2x2GB Corsair Dominator 800MHz (5-5-5-18)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790GP DS4H (AMD 790GX Chipset)

Configuration 7: Intel E8500 3.13GHz

• Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E WiFi (Intel P35 Chipset)
• Video card: Sapphire HD 4890 1GB DDR5
• Memory: 2x2GB Corsair Dominator 800MHz (5-5-5-18)

Tests were conducted under Windows Vista x64, since this is the only modern OS capable of handling all the capabilities of the platform and running 4 or more GB of memory with no problem.

Here is the list of tests:

• Cinebench 10
• WPrime (32MB & 1024MB)
• SuperPI (32MB)
• Everest Ultimate (memory copy, read, write & latency)
• SiSoft Sandra Lite XII.SP2c (memory bandwidth & memory latency)
• DivX & x264 video encoding
• Paint.NET image operations
• WinRAR & 7-zip
• 3DMark Vantage
• Crysis Warhead
• World in Conflict
• Tom Clancy: H.A.W.K.
• BattleForge
• Stormrise

The tests included in the review are of various types - from purely synthetic, single & multi thread, to fully functional as compression of video files, image processing, WinRAR & 7-Zip compression and even a wide array of games - after all the processor is not intended for the mass of common users. No, it is aiming for the hearts of the hardcore gamers and hardware enthusiasts. Well, time to see the results.