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AMD Phenom processor family performance

Published January 23, 2008
By Steven Walton

Benchmarks: System Specs & CINEBENCH R10

Hardware
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz) LGA775
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.40GHz) LGA775
- AMD Phenom 9900 (2.60GHz) AM2+
- AMD Phenom 9700 (2.40GHz) AM2+
- AMD Phenom 9600 (2.30GHz) AM2+
- AMD Phenom 9500 (2.20GHz) AM2+
- AMD Athlon64 X2 5200+ (2.60GHz) AM2

- x2 1024MB Corsair XMS PC3-10600 CAS7 Modules
- x2 1024MB Corsair XMS PC2-6400 CAS4 Modules

- ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe (AMD 790FX)
- ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (Intel X38)

- OCZ GameXStream (700 watt)

- Seagate 500GB 7200RPM (Serial ATA II)

- ASUS GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB)

Software
- Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)
- Nvidia Forceware (169.28)
- Intel System Drivers (8.4.0)

The CINEBENCH multi-CPU rendering test shows a 27% increase in performance between the Phenom 9500 and 9900 processors in favor of the latter. The OpenGL rendering test also shows an 18% performance margin favoring the Phenom 9900 when compared to the 9500. Given that the Phenom 9900 is clocked exactly 18% higher than the 9500, this makes sense.

The CINEBENCH OpenGL test appears to favor processors with a higher clock frequency rather than multiple cores, as the 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo E8400 dominated this test with a 34% advantage over the Phenom 9900. However the multi-CPU rendering saw the E8400 lose to the Phenom 9900 by a 31% performance margin. In terms of multi-CPU rendering performance the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 sat between the Phenom 9700 and 9900 processors, meaning a 2.5GHz Phenom would match the 2.4GHz Q6600 in this test.