Review: AMD Phenom 9700 quad-core processor
Verdict
Pros: Should give AM2 systems a new lease of life; faster than Athlon X2s in optimised software
Cons: Slower than Intel quad cores; relatively high power usage; first revisions are buggy
Overall: Fine if you plan to upgrade a socket AM2 system, but otherwise buy a faster, cheaper and more energy-efficient Intel chip
After a long wait we’ve finally got our hands on AMD’s first consumer quad-core processor, the Phenom (previously codenamed Agena), and we’ve tested the fastest Phenom 9000 series processor, the 2.4GHz 9700 model.
It has four cores manufactured on a single piece of silicon, rather than Intel’s approach of two dual-core pieces of silicon in one package.
Each core has 512KB of L2 cache, with a shared 2MB L3 cache so data can be shared and processed effectively across the cores.
The Phenom has an integrated memory controller, which can handle DDR2 memory up to 1,066MHz. The independent link between the processor and the rest of the system, Hypertransport, has been updated to revision 3.
It runs at 3.6GHz, which equates to a bandwidth of 14.4Gbytes/sec on a Phenom, compared with 8Gbytes/sec on previous AMD chips. Individual cores have improved branch prediction and 128-bit floating point units to speed up maths-heavy applications.
On the energy consumption side, Phenoms have fully independent frequency controls for each core and dual power plans so you can run the memory controller at a different voltage from the processor.
Phenoms are backwards compatible with AM2 sockets, so in theory you can pop one into an older AM2 motherboard and performance will only drop by 10 per cent in the game Call of Juarez, according to AMD. In practice though, the four AM2 boards we had in our labs weren’t compatible with the Phenom, with the necessary Bios upgrades ‘pending’.
To get the most out of Phenom, you’ll want to plug it into an AM2+ socket that’s attached to AMD’s new 770 and 790 chipsets, which give you Hypertransport 3 and better power control.
Source : PCW.Co.uk
Verdict
Pros: Should give AM2 systems a new lease of life; faster than Athlon X2s in optimised software
Cons: Slower than Intel quad cores; relatively high power usage; first revisions are buggy
Overall: Fine if you plan to upgrade a socket AM2 system, but otherwise buy a faster, cheaper and more energy-efficient Intel chip
After a long wait we’ve finally got our hands on AMD’s first consumer quad-core processor, the Phenom (previously codenamed Agena), and we’ve tested the fastest Phenom 9000 series processor, the 2.4GHz 9700 model.
It has four cores manufactured on a single piece of silicon, rather than Intel’s approach of two dual-core pieces of silicon in one package.
Each core has 512KB of L2 cache, with a shared 2MB L3 cache so data can be shared and processed effectively across the cores.
The Phenom has an integrated memory controller, which can handle DDR2 memory up to 1,066MHz. The independent link between the processor and the rest of the system, Hypertransport, has been updated to revision 3.
It runs at 3.6GHz, which equates to a bandwidth of 14.4Gbytes/sec on a Phenom, compared with 8Gbytes/sec on previous AMD chips. Individual cores have improved branch prediction and 128-bit floating point units to speed up maths-heavy applications.
On the energy consumption side, Phenoms have fully independent frequency controls for each core and dual power plans so you can run the memory controller at a different voltage from the processor.
Phenoms are backwards compatible with AM2 sockets, so in theory you can pop one into an older AM2 motherboard and performance will only drop by 10 per cent in the game Call of Juarez, according to AMD. In practice though, the four AM2 boards we had in our labs weren’t compatible with the Phenom, with the necessary Bios upgrades ‘pending’.
To get the most out of Phenom, you’ll want to plug it into an AM2+ socket that’s attached to AMD’s new 770 and 790 chipsets, which give you Hypertransport 3 and better power control.
Source : PCW.Co.uk
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