DailyTech - 3/27/2008 Daily Hardware Reviews -- AMD Phenom X4 9850 Edition

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Hardware 3/27/2008 Daily Hardware Reviews -- AMD Phenom X4 9850 Edition
Gabriel Ikram (Blog) - March 27, 2008 10:01 PM

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54 comment(s) - last by Smiting Eye.. on Apr 10 at 6:37 PM

The TechReport reviews AMD's newest chips (Source: TechReport)

DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Thursday

AMD Phenom X4 9850 Reviews
AnandTech
TechReport
HotHardware
PCPer
LegitReviews
ComputerShopper
AMDZone

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 @ Phoronix

Video
Gigabyte GeForce 9800 GX2 V@ BmR
HIS Radeon HD 3450 Video Card @ OverclockersOnline
NVIDIA 9800 GX2 Quad SLI @ I4U
Foxconn GeForce 9600GT OC @ TweakTown

Motherboard
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe WiFi-AP @ EliteBastards

Memory
Diamond Viper Fin DDR3 PC14400 @ OCC
Patriot Viper Series 2GB DDR3 @ BigBruin

Storage
Corsair Flash Voyager 32 GB @ Guru3d
QNAP TS-109 Pro NAS @ TechGage
Ironkey Personal Secure Flash Drive @ EverythingUSB

Cases
Gigabyte iSolo 210 @ bit-tech
Apevia X-Qboii @ Pro-Clockers

Display
Samsung Syncmaster 943B 19-inch @ PCStats

Networking
Gigabyte AirCruiser N300 802.11n @ Phoronix

Audio
Sennheiser PXC 450 Headphones @ TheTechLounge

PSU
Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W @ HardwareCanucks

CE
ASUS WL-520GU Wireless Router @ ThinkComputers
Hitachi HD1080 Ultravision @ reviewLAB

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Phenom reviews

By eye smite on 3/27/2008 11:55:46 PM , Rating: 1

The new revisions and releases of the phenom look very nice. The TLB bug bashing is getting old, especially when every review says they can't cause the error and haven't heard of anyone having the error. What was all this hype on the bug about, just some way to bash AMD and pump up Intel? Just retarded.

RE: Phenom reviews

By pauldovi on 3/28/2008 12:35:28 AM , Rating: 4

Except the 2.4Ghz Q6600 is faster, uses less heat, and is about the same price as the 2.5Ghz Phenom. We aren't even talking overclocking either. When you overclock the two, say goodbye.

Hell, even the Core 2 Duo's are faster than the Phenoms.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By winterspan on 3/28/2008 3:14:48 AM , Rating: 1

"Hell, even the Core 2 Duo's are faster than the Phenoms"

Oh come on, thats just BS and you know it. a 4-core Phenom will obviously be faster a Core 2 duo clock for clock in a multi-threaded app or benchmark.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By pauldovi on 3/28/2008 3:24:07 AM , Rating: 2

Who cares about benchmarks and how many perfectly scaling multithreaded applications have you heard of?

The only benchmarks that the Phenom was faster than Core 2 Duo was the photo rendering stuff. And with that stuff Intel Quad Core was so much faster than Phenom you would be retarded not to get Intel.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By zpdixon on 3/28/2008 5:10:44 AM , Rating: 5

What annoys me is people like you who are unable to reach logical conclusions. Did you read the reviews ? Do you understand the numbers ? They all show that:

* Phenom 9850 is consistently 10-20% slower than Core 2 Q9300
* However Phenom 9850 is also 10-20% cheaper than Core 2 Q9300

The same observation can be made about 9750 vs. Q6600.

Therefore both AMD and Intel are valid and good options when deciding what to buy. Their quad-core processors offer the same perf/price ratio. If you have X dollars to spend, you will get the same perf whether you buy AMD or Intel.

How can you fail to realize this ?

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RE: Phenom reviews

By robinthakur on 3/28/08, Rating: 0

By robinthakur on 3/28/2008 6:20:25 AM , Rating: 0

I used to own a socket 939 Opteron rig, and when they moved to Am2 and then the Intel core came out I moved to Q6600 and haven't looked back since. To suggest the Phenom to people as a viable option these days smacks of desperation and what planet are you on? For the Phenom to start selling, it would have to be much better than the Core, and its simply not.

The sad fact of the matter is that if you release a processor family very late, as a soft paper launch only, 10-20% slower than competing solutions (albeit realistically cheaper), and where even enthusiasts don't want them, you've failed. Since the Core came out AMD's been on the ropes in my opinion, and there's nothing in the Phenom launch which makes me go Wow or impresses me. They shouldn't even have released the Phenom, its utterly pointless and a big waste of distribution and marketing costs. Changing their sockets has also alientated their userbase also unlike Intel which has settled down...

Intel obviously feels its a bit weak as competition too as they haven't released any important products since the Q6600 which must now be the processor of choice. Expect AMD to shrink until they release a CPU or a GPU which impresses.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By eye smite on 3/28/2008 7:41:18 AM , Rating: 3

Wow, you're just not up to date either are you. In Scaling, the older AM2 opterons still pull higher numbers than xeon. With Phenom having a large L3 TLB cache it burries the xeons and will fry it in virtualization too. All at speeds over 1ghz slower. I'm certain that many companies are just waiting for the quad opterons to hit shelves and Xeon is not a viable selection for those companies. It's just a real shame that we're back to the old "speed beats everything" campaign from intel again and everyone is buying into it, just like with netburst. It really is a shame too, cause intel finally made a product worth buying since the P3, and even so, it's still not all the hype everyone here makes it out to be.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By System48 on 3/28/2008 8:42:49 AM , Rating: 2

That's what Nehalem is for, it will be the final nail in AMD's offerings in the server area. Most people will agree that the only advantage AMD has in the server market is memory bandwidth, with Intel finally moving to an IMC that advantage will disappear. The advantage you speak off only exit in 4S+ servers, in 2S servers the memory performance advantage of the Opteron is only evident depending on what you have running and even then the lead is much smaller now (find a review comparing the Xeon 5400 series to the Opteron 2300 series).

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RE: Phenom reviews

By Smiting Eye on 4/10/2008 6:28:00 PM , Rating: 2

I'm not sure it matters how small you think the lead is. HP just released a range of servers yesterday with the quad opterons and set new records in benchmark scores that intel can't touch.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By leexgx on 3/28/2008 6:33:41 PM , Rating: 2

the socket issue for amd is just for DDR1 and DDR2 thats all when DDR3 comes out (AM3) it has to be an new socket to support DDR3 and thats not an problem

Intel are not out of the woods on this one, ever time thay make an new cpu you need an New chip set, be that the motherboard same thing will happen when thay get the next chip around

do agree amds CPU are little behind (1 yr and 4 months) and thay run more like P4 CPUs (hot) and video is allso an lackluster realy 8800 GTX (that i own from 2-3 months it was out) beats the X2 in most tests and the GX2 just walks over it even more

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RE: Phenom reviews

By Smiting Eye on 4/10/2008 6:32:09 PM , Rating: 2

I suppose if you have to have the best graphics card, you would go with nvidia. I suppose if you wanted the fastest desktop cpu, you'd go with Intel. Fortunately though, there are a majority of us that don't suffer from peenis envy.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By xsilver on 3/28/2008 8:30:44 AM , Rating: 1

good point, but I think the crux of it can be summed up in one word.

OVERCLOCKING

most people who use intel now see a box that says 2.6ghz but people read 3.5ghz.
Amd needs the ability to be read in the same light before the scales REALLY tip back

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RE: Phenom reviews

By just4U on 3/28/2008 2:39:48 PM , Rating: 2

Your wrong about the overclocking part. Don't assume. 99% of the worlds computer users .... wait for it ....

DO NOT OVERCLOCK.

Most here are enthusiasts. While some may not have their systems Overclocked 24/7 they do dabble in it and do know where Intel Cpu's really do shine (currently) but for the rest of the world that means absolutely nothing.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By xsilver on 3/28/2008 9:16:08 PM , Rating: 3

yes but you see thats where the genius of it lies.

even though the majority do not overclock. The enthusiasts do and they have a lot of influence. They overclock and hence use core 2. Their friends whom some may overclock then see that they too should use core 2. Then your local noob working at best buy who knows nothing hears of this and recommends core 2. Then your grandma who doesnt even know anything about computers remembers the intel ad and goes core 2 when buying her first computer.
See where I'm going with this?
To go AMD right now, you then have to be knowledgeable enough to know that dollar for dollar, they are of equal performance. BUT also NOT knowledgeable enough to overclock; How many of these people are left?
They arent losing the performance war, they are losing the marketing war.

Back in the AMD XP days, AMD might not have had the performance crown but they had the overclocking crown, therefore the same effect above worked in AMD's favour, now however it does not.

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RE: Phenom reviews

By pauldovi on 3/28/08, Rating: 0

RE: Phenom reviews

By zpdixon on 3/28/2008 1:04:52 PM , Rating: 5

Sigh... Apparently you need to be shown the numbers to understand.

* 9750: $215 (OEM)
* Q6600: $250 (newegg) or $266 (OEM)

The Phenom is respectively 14% and 20% cheaper than these prices, which confirm what I said (10-20% cheaper). Add to this the fact that AMD mobos are usually cheaper than Intel mobos and this shows you that my "10-20% cheaper" statement is actually very conservative.

I find it unsurprising that none of your posts contain numbers or other evidence .

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RE: Phenom reviews

By plonk420 on 3/28/2008 8:08:23 AM , Rating: 2

i'm sure at least HALF of us have a reason to choose AMD and are aware of its shortcomings. so you "best be on your way" with your C2Q trolling on to another thread...

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RE: Phenom reviews

By pauldovi on 3/28/2008 8:22:58 PM , Rating: 1

Why are you pricing the Q6600 against the Phenom 9750? The Q6600 is faster than the Phenom 9850.

Q6600 - $235

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

I currently see no price for the Phenom 9850. However, their 1k OEM prices is $235 according to Anandtech.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...

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