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AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition is fastest Phenom part ever

AMD announced today its highest performance quad core processor to date. The new CPU is called the AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition. Along with the new Black Edition processor AMD also unveiled the Phenom X4 9350e and Phenom X4 9150e processors.

The high-end Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition is a quad-core processor with an unlocked multiplier running stock at 2.6GHz. The 9950 Black Edition carries a retail price of $235 and consumes no more than 140 watts.

The AMD Phenom X4 9350e runs at 2.0GHz and will retail for $195. The new AMD X4 9150e processor runs at 1.8 GHz and will retail for $175. Both of these CPUs consume no more than 65 watts of power under full load according to AMD.

AMD says that these three processors are perfect for systems that delivering the performance of four computing cores to small systems where power demands and heat buildup could be an issue. It remains to be seen how the Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition stacks up against high-end parts from Intel performance wise, however, price for the parts is certainly competitive.

All three of the processors have L1 cache size of 64K per core, L2 cache size is 512KB per core and L3 cache is 2MB shared. The processors AM2+ compatible like the other Phenom parts and all three new processors are built on 65nm process.

Gamers looking for a moderately price gaming system could pair the new 9950 Black Edition with the recently announced AMD Radeon 4850.

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Equivalent.
By excelsium on 7/1/2008 3:10:03 PM , Rating: 2
A supposedly high-end chip for $235 but which part from Intel matches it's level of performance?




RE: Equivalent.
By JasonMick (blog) on 7/1/2008 3:16:52 PM , Rating: 4
From early benchmarks, the Q6600 trades leads with it so:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

For $194.99, the Intel is still a bit better deal, but $30 is not a huge difference for individual buyers and the chip stably overclocks nicely with stock heatsinks to 3.1 GHz in samples.

I wouldn't call it quite competitive, but its a better effort from AMD at least, and should hold them over till the next round.


RE: Equivalent.
By homerdog on 7/1/2008 3:48:43 PM , Rating: 2
I wouldn't call it quite competitive at all. The Q6600 is clearly better at stock (equal performance, lower power consumption, cheaper), but it absolutely eats the 9950's lunch if you take overclocking into account.


RE: Equivalent.
By DeepBlue1975 on 7/1/08, Rating: -1
RE: Equivalent.
By daftrok on 7/1/2008 4:52:49 PM , Rating: 1
In other words, AMD really needs to pick up the pace for introducing a 45nm chipset. Intel already has 45 nm chips out in the market and are in the works for a 32 nm. Its a race against time and AMD has been one step behind for the past three years.


RE: Equivalent.
By Locutus465 on 7/1/2008 5:03:52 PM , Rating: 1
I don't know that AMD will ever be able to keep up with Intel as far as manufacturing processes go, so while yes they need the newer process online sooner rather than later they also need to look into what they can do with their core to make give it longer legs on a particular process. I think that one thing they can do is go Intel and widen the core up some more.


RE: Equivalent.
By kilkennycat on 7/2/2008 3:09:28 AM , Rating: 2
About to go two steps behind when Intel ships Nehalem its true 2nd-gen 45nm Processor. Likely to be at the same time or less than 3 months after AMD releases its first-gen 45nm processor. Public demos of Nehalem abound, with motherboard designs already complete. No sign of any public demos of the 45nm version of Phenom.


RE: Equivalent.
By DeepBlue1975 on 7/1/08, Rating: -1
RE: Equivalent.
By just4U on 7/1/2008 8:35:12 PM , Rating: 3
You forgot to mention that Amd has some pretty nice chipsets on the market right now which are also key selling points for their platform. It's not all doom and gloom after all and those Phenom chips are accually fairly decent just not quite at where some of us want them to be yet.


RE: Equivalent.
By ImSpartacus on 7/1/08, Rating: -1
RE: Equivalent.
By MonkeyPaw on 7/1/2008 11:13:13 PM , Rating: 3
I bought a 790X board recently. Why? Because it was only $55 (got a good deal). With my X2 4000+ OCed to 2.8ghz, I had plenty of performance for just over $100. Add $55 for 2GB DDR2, and I'm still well under $200 for a quad-ready, XF-capable board, dual core CPU, and fast DDR2. That leaves plenty of reserves for a quality graphics card--the biggest difference-maker for the gaming PC. Down the road, I can bump up to a quad if I want to (hopefully a 45nm K10.5), but there's no rush. I can also add a second 3870 (and they are getting cheaper by the day). Not bad for $55, I think.

quote:
The other problem I have with Phenoms is that they are only quads and tri's. I want a higher clocked dual like Intel's E8400. The tri's kind of fill that, but not very well.


I've heard that there's still a dual-core variant of K10 on the way. It will be L3-less, and I want to say it's due this year. However, there have also been rumors of its demise. That would be a shame, since I think the Puma platform would like the extra IPC (as would I).


RE: Equivalent.
By ImSpartacus on 7/2/2008 10:12:40 AM , Rating: 2
You already had a CPU so it was the most logical thing to do.

Most people won't be able to snag a $55 790x. I personally could only find one 790x motherboard under $100 (which is still a decent deal).

I'm not really seeing how 100 + 55 + 55 > 200, but I assume you omitted the CPU price since you already owned it.

As I said before, Phenoms are excellent budget quad cores, the Q6600 can't compete with their price, but I don't see the widespread need for cheap quads yet. When that need increases to mainstream then AMD will be a good position, but just not now.


RE: Equivalent.
By MonkeyPaw on 7/2/2008 6:47:36 PM , Rating: 2
Well, ~$55 for the board, ~$55 for the CPU, ~$55 for the RAM. That's about $165. The 4000+ was a Christmas gift, but it's still a cheap option today. Sure, you might have to pay more for the board, but even at ~$100, you're still very close to $200 total. Ironically enough, newegg is selling an open box 790x for $55.99 as I type this.


RE: Equivalent.
By DeepBlue1975 on 7/2/2008 11:47:05 AM , Rating: 2
There are always exceptions which justify buying a chip that's not that cheap for the performance it offers.

If you have an x2 setup with a phenom x4 capable motherboard, there's no point for you to ditch all that and get an Intel system, wasting a lot of money just for a a mild increase in performance when comparing the highest end phenom with a q6600. The cost/benefit ratio of doing that would be too damn low to justify unless you need the extra performance. I personally wouldn't, and in fact I didn't.

In my case I jumped from a single core athlon 64 3200+ s939 + ddr1 memory for a q6600 + 775 + ddr2 (I usually keep my computers for 2-3 years before upgrading, including the video card, don't feel the need to upgrade everytime something new comes to market).

The s939 platform was in no way compatible with a phenom and so for me the best (and almost also the cheapest) move was to get an Intel setup, because I would have had to ditch it all if I intended to go the phenom path anyway.
And that's valid for anyone who has no upgrade path from his current platform and wants the best bang for his buck.


RE: Equivalent.
By just4U on 7/2/2008 4:03:23 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
But who in their right mind would get an AMD chipset if they had to run a Phenom on it?


Just depends on what your doing.. If you take overclocking out of the equation then those Phenoms look pretty attractive. X3's are excellent and priced in and around the 7200. (slightly more for the higher clocked versions) Pair that up with Amd's chipset and you have the makings of a spyder platform which is not to shabby for stock gaming machines. Or move over to the 780G and you've got quite the HTPC build.

As to their dual core Phenoms .. well The 4600 - 5200 is priced at the same price points as the Pentium 2xxx lineup and beat the hell out of them at stock speeds. No need to have a X2 Phenom in that catagory "yet" Especially when you factor in the price AMD would have to sell them at to stay competitive.


RE: Equivalent.
By FaceMaster on 7/1/08, Rating: -1
RE: Equivalent.
By DeepBlue1975 on 7/1/2008 8:20:42 PM , Rating: 2
Don't waste your time, mate.

If the time comes when AMD's CPUs get faster than Intel's, you'll be called an AMD fanboy by Intel's fanboys.

And if nowadays you have a c2d based chip from Intel because you know it beats anything AMD can offer today and not even being really more expensive, you'll get to be called an Intel fanboy by AMD's fanboys.

There are too many out there who get married to a brand and doesn't pay enough attention to the actual product he's putting his money on.


RE: Equivalent.
By Flunk on 7/1/2008 10:17:02 PM , Rating: 3
Very true, a competitive AMD/Intel relationship is really what we need and luckily most of us realize that. The fanboys are a very small but unfortunately extremely vocal minority.

The very fact that we are comparing a brand new chip to one that was released more than a year ago seems quite strange doesn't it?