Testing Methodology
To put the Phenom II to the test, AMD outfitted us with a complete “Dragon” platform including a Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition processor and an MSI DKA790GX motherboard. We also have a couple of B3 revision Phenoms that we’ll be using to check for efficiency improvements and even an Athlon X2 for good measure.
Icrontic has unfortunately never received any support from Intel since our founding in 2000, so our selection of Intel chips for comparison is somewhat limited. We do have an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 that we’ll be using for comparison at both its default frequency and overclocked to equal the frequency of the Phenom II X4 940. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have an equally priced 45nm Intel quad core for testing, but the Q6600 in these two configurations should give us a good indication of how Phenom II compares to the Core 2 architecture.
Although not really in the same price range, we were able to arrange to have some controlled Intel Core i7 920 benchmarks run by our friend Khaos to have Phenom II compared to Intel’s latest and greatest.
AMD Testing Configuration
- AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition (3.0GHz) – Multiplier reduced to 14X to simulate an X4 920.
- AMD Phenom 9350e (2.0GHz)
- AMD Phenom X3 8750 (2.4GHz)
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition (2.6GHz)
- Noctua NH-U12P Heatsink with Noctua NF-P1 Fan
- MSI DKA790GX Platinum Motherboard (AMD 790GX Chipset)
- 2x1024MB Corsair XMS2 PC2-8500 Memory
- Western Digital 320GB SATA2 Hard Drive (WD3200AAKS, 7200RPM)
- HIS AMD Radeon HD4850 512MB GDDR3 Video Card
- Corsair TX750 Power Supply
- Pioneer Optical Drive
Stay tuned for a closer look at the MSI DKA790GX in a follow-up “Dragon Platform” review.
Intel Testing Configuration
- Intel Q6600 Quad Core Processor (2.4GHz)
- 2x1024MB Corsair XMS2 PC2-8500 Memory
- Western Digital 320GB SATA2 Hard Drive (WD3200AAKS, 7200RPM)
- HIS AMD Radeon HD4850 512MB GDDR3 Video Card
- Corsair TX750 Power Supply
- Pioneer Optical Drive
The system memory is run at 1066MHz on both the Phenom and Intel Core2 processors. Timings are set to 5-5-5-15-2T via the EPP SPD profile in the dual channel kit. The X2 processor cannot run 1066MHz memory natively, so the memory is set to 800MHz, with the same timings. Due to the nature of the IMC on the X2 processors, the memory frequency runs slightly lower than 800MHz. After conducting some preliminary testing, leaving the Phenom memory controllers ‘unganged’ for dual 64bit operation seemed to yield the best results in a variety of benchmarks.
OS/Driver Configuration:
We’ve taken the full step to Windows Vista for processor and graphics card testing due to DX10 availability. Vista does pose some challenges for benchmark sessions as some of its features can create inconsistencies between testing runs. Although some reviewers prefer to ‘train’ their systems to make the most of features like SuperFetch, we have disabled these features to ensure a higher degree of predictability. Other ‘scheduled’ or unnecessary background tasks have also been disabled (as listed below).
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit), Service Pack 1
OS Disabled Features: “SuperFetch”, “Windows Search” service, Defender, Sidebar, Scheduled Defrag, System Restore and UAC.
OS Performance Features Enabled: “High Performance” PM setting enabled (except for power consumption testing)
Intel Chipset Drivers: Intel INF 9.0.0.1008
ATI/AMD Graphics Drivers: ATI Catalyst Version 8.12 Drivers
Benchmark/Applications:
The following benchmarks and revisions were used for testing:
PCMark Vantage – Version 1.00
3DMark Vantage – Version 1.01
3DMark 2006 – Version 1.01
Cinebench 64-bit – Release 10
Crysis – Version 1.2
X264 Benchmark – Version 2.0 (results posted from x264.exe v0.59.819M)
World in Conflict Demo – Version 1.0.0.0 (b1080)
Sisoft Sandra 2009 – SP2 (build 15.72)
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