AMD Phenom II 920 & 940 Full Review

[OverClocker_gr]

no man

i meant the progress of the tests i am running

[Macadamia]

Err dude, SpecviewPerf tests 90% on graphics processing power...


Not really a CPU test. But still thanks anyway.

[qurious63ss]

Well why not, I mean games are how much % based on gfx and most people still want to see them on cpu reviews.

[moiraesfate]

Ok seriously come on guys, this has gotten out of hand. Yeah, the i7 is the top of the line, even above the Phenom II but the Phenom II is obviously not meant to compete with the i7 since its not even on the next gen platform, the AM3's haven't been released yet. The Q9550 and the Phenom II are obviously the competitors in this case and the Phenom II looks to be cheaper and will overclock well. Yes, AMD managed to compete again. No, not with the i7 but its obviously not expected to.

Continuing to argue this is rather pointless, don't you think?

Depending on prices, I'll probably change to the Phenom II. Its only smart moneywise and I can't afford to upgrade to the new generation.

[qurious63ss]

Ok seriously come on guys, this has gotten out of hand. Yeah, the i7 is the top of the line, even above the Phenom II but the Phenom II is obviously not meant to compete with the i7 since its not even on the next gen platform, the AM3's haven't been released yet. The Q9550 and the Phenom II are obviously the competitors in this case and the Phenom II looks to be cheaper and will overclock well. Yes, AMD managed to compete again. No, not with the i7 but its obviously not expected to.

Continuing to argue this is rather pointless, don't you think?

Depending on prices, I'll probably change to the Phenom II. Its only smart moneywise and I can't afford to upgrade to the new generation.

Ok that makes no sense you have a Q6600 and a Gigabyte P45 MB that would be an easy drop in upgrade for a Q9550, but instead you say that because of price you would upgrade to a PII??

[moiraesfate]

rofl, I don't have the Q6600 and P45 yet. I've been holding off buying them until the Deneb comes out because I want to see what happens to the prices. The parts in blue are the ones that I actually own atm. The parts in black are ones I don't have yet. Thats just the planned rig. I've been buying one or two parts a month (sometimes a little more depending on deals) for the last few months.

Think I'm going to get the OS on my next paycheck. I found it for $87 on Amazon.

[Jazzman]

Please keep it clean an show some respect

Thanks we need this thread for an open discussion of your work. Hopefully, there will be some technical discussion rather than emotions. Despite who wins a particular test, I want to understand the technical whys - like how a particular cpu design results in competitive/performance advantage. Maybe that's wishful thinking these days.....

[qurious63ss]

Ahh, I see. Then I would suggest that you wait till AM3 comes out because it looks like the first initial Deneb release will have a short lifespan and at least 5% slower. Anyways this is off topic so I'm out.

[moiraesfate]

Like I said qurious, nice idea but I can't afford the new generation because of the astronomical prices of the motherboards and ram. It would cost me about twice the amount.

I'd really like to see some more tests. Like... how high has anyone managed to overclock it? At what voltage? What kind of heat does this thing put out at the highest overclock?

[gallag]

What is up with the AMD emo kids, Stop getting on like you guys are getting constantly bashed for choosing AMD, The only time that happens is when you try to justify using AMD by saying that everyone is paid of by Intel and phenom is actually faster. Some of you guys are like that kid that found fame on utube for saying "leave britney alone". Stop getting on like people are bullying you personally just because they do not agree with you, I think a few of you have a strategy together to try to make it unacceptable to complain aboUt AMD. STOP CRYING.

op, thanks for takeing the time and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

[STEvil]

Getting close to closing it again, clean it up guys.

[Lightman]

Thanks for FIRST review of Phenom II OverClocker_gr!

I have quick question regarding setups.
Are you using energy saving options of AMD and Intel platforms or you disabled them in BIOS?

PS. Can't wait for updates on your website...

[Zucker2k]

now i buy my cpu as a hobby. not just because i want the best. i want the one that gives me the most entertainment. and if this is wrong then so be it. but i am done hearing about all these fanboys and how much they believe amd sucks even if they have proof or not.

send me a pm if anyone finds anything that might concern me outside of the amd section because i am done with this.

No, not you again! I thought you run AMD BECAUSE you get their processors for free; meaning you don't have a choice? Need I quote you? It's hard to keep up with your contradictory statements; in fact you've said many things you don't even know you've said; that's what happens when you feel obligated to respond to every post that isn't agreeing with your point of view. Why do you feel obligated to defend a product whose performance you have no idea about!? At least some of us for a while now, have seen results that we deem credible enough to draw conclusions. You may not like those conclusions, but it is within our rights and there's nothing anybody can do about it.

[Leeghoofd]

Give me a brush Stevil and I'll clean up the thread, so we can stay on topic...

This news section is so stuffed always, mostly half of the posts are biased opinions, trying to defend their brand no matter what, personal flamewars,... really hard to dig good info in this section...

Give the Hwbox dudes the chance to post their final results plz


!!!!!! PLZ ALL STAY ON TOPIC !!!!!!!

[tiro_uspsss]

I know its a lil trivial.. but same model numbers as Ci7? lame.. seriously, is it *that* hard to be a lil diff/original? *sigh* oh well

[YukonTrooper]

Yikes. I hope infractions have been handed out.

C'mon, people! Let's at least give these Greek Santa Clauses a chance to bring us more goodies.

[largon]

Weird that Geizhals.at still doesn't list any Denebs and one finnish price watch does.
Phenom II 920 is listed for as low as 211€ and 940BE at 248€. What's interresting is that Finnish retailers systematically charge more than central european sites listed in Geizhals.at... Expecting 920 will go sub 200€ and 940BE 220-230€ as soon as there's actual availability.

[gosh]

I think that these results are very good. It seems that Phenom II is almost equal to C2Q in applications where C2Q has the best performance (rendering etc). That is a area where not even I would recommend Phenom previously. If the Phenom II is equal here that means it will be a very good buy because if you run more applications the performance of C2Q goes down faster than Phenom, it dosen't scale as good as Phenom. Most users today does practice multitasking.
i7 Seems to have been designed to be good on performance tests, I don't think that Phenom has the same goal. They seem to have designed Phenom II to be very power efficient. Even if that isn't something that XS members think about, it is a important area for others
The inclusive cache which i7 has will always be more power hungry compared to the exclusive cache that Phenom II has.

[OverClocker_gr]

Thanks for FIRST review of Phenom II OverClocker_gr!

I have quick question regarding setups.
Are you using energy saving options of AMD and Intel platforms or you disabled them in BIOS?

PS. Can't wait for updates on your website...

All energy saving options are disabled

[Jochenp]

I think that these results are very good. It seems that Phenom II is almost equal to C2Q in applications where C2Q has the best performance (rendering etc). That is a area where not even I would recommend Phenom previously. If the Phenom II is equal here that means it will be a very good buy because if you run more applications the performance of C2Q goes down faster than Phenom, it dosen't scale as good as Phenom. Most users today does practice multitasking.
i7 Seems to have been designed to be good on performance tests, I don't think that Phenom has the same goal. They seem to have designed Phenom II to be very power efficient. Even if that isn't something that XS members think about, it is a important area for others
The inclusive cache which i7 has will always be more power hungry compared to the exclusive cache that Phenom II has.

Proof for anything you just said? Especially the bolded parts?
"Intel just made the cpu fast on tests, in real life it isn't as good"?

[Shadov]

When I look at some comments I wonder if those people live on the same planet or are just spoiled brats.

Deneb was not meant to be a competitor to i7 and thats clear. Just calculate the price difference of the platform (CPU + MB + RAM). Its huge!

Furthermore looking at the results AMD will offer a sexy cost / performance wise platform, that will last much longer then Intel socket 775. Yet again some people are asking for clock per clock comparisons of two different architectures.

With such requests Intel dosent need any marketing, since as a result people who are less it educated and dont know the real price behind it will think that Intel is still leading across board. Though usually when they consider a purchase they are in the price segments where AMD should have the clear recomendation with their platform.

Look at the GPU market, where ATI HD 4870/4850 didnt perform like GTX280 but captured the hearts of users price/performance wise. Why is the CPU market still so different, ignorant or simply ...?

Just a free thought in a foreign language.

[BenchZowner]

Don't bother Jochenp.
It's going to end up in flaming and none-sense ( I take it you haven't checked gosh's posts on another high page-count thread )

[sundancerx]

Proof for anything you just said? Especially the bolded parts?
"Intel just made the cpu fast on tests, in real life it isn't as good"?

turbo? lol just guessing here. some people are saying its not sustainable over long periods of pc use.

[Jochenp]

When I look at some comments I wonder if those people live on the same planet or are just spoiled brats.

Deneb was not meant to be a competitor to i7 and thats clear. Just calculate the price difference of the platform (CPU + MB + RAM). Its huge!

Furthermore looking at the results AMD will offer a sexy cost / performance wise platform, that will last much longer then Intel socket 775. Yet again some people are asking for clock per clock comparisons of two different architectures.

With such requests Intel dosent need any marketing, since as a result people who are less it educated and dont know the real price behind it will think that Intel is still leading across board. Though usually when they consider a purchase they are in the price segments where AMD should have the clear recomendation with their platform.

Look at the GPU market, where ATI HD 4870/4850 didnt perform like GTX280 but captured the hearts of users price/performance wise. Why is the CPU market still so different, ignorant or simply ...?

Just a free thought in a foreign language.

I think mainly because if you were to buy an entire new computer, the last generation intel cpu (yorkfield) is still faster than the new generation amd cpu.
I am mad at AMD for not being more competitive. They should be shaking the foundations of intel with out-of-this-world performance, yet they have done nothing but releasing last-generation-performing cpu's!

[Shintai]

I think mainly because if you were to buy an entire new computer, the last generation intel cpu (yorkfield) is still faster than the new generation amd cpu.
I am mad at AMD for not being more competitive. They should be shaking the foundations of intel with out-of-this-world performance, yet they have done nothing but released last-generation-performing cpu's!

That would be 2 generations behind now in performance.