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AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
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Overview
While the higher power consumption is a slight concern, the X4 955 proves that AMD is back in the performance game and ready to play hard ball. Bring on the next generation.
The good
- Great performance
- Good value proposition
- Unlocked multiplier
The bad
- Multimedia performance suffers compared to Intel
AMD has been targeting mainstream computing for a while now.
Its combination of good performance for affordable price has seen it claw back into the graphics market with its most recent generation of cards, and now it looks positioned to do the same with the CPU side of the business. While it doesn't intend to challenge Intel's top performing Core i7 CPUs for now, AMD's latest, the Phenom X4 955 Black Edition (BE), launches a broadside across the bow of Intel's mainstream quad-core processors — in particular the Core 2 Q9550.
Black boxed bliss (Credit: AMD)
Based on AMD's AM3 socket, the 955 is a quad-core, 45nm process CPU running at 3.2GHz, as a result of a 16x multiplier on top of a 200MHz bus. It has 6MB shared L3 cache, along with 64+64KB data + instruction L1 and 512KB L2 cache per core. Being a flagship chip, it's quite a power sucker, at 125W TDP. Being a Black Edition chip, it's also multiplier unlocked — and this combined with the split plane voltage introduced on AM2+ should mean some fairly decent DIY speed increases.
Moving to 938-pin AM3 means a few things; firstly DDR3 support, and secondly the 128-bit integrated memory controller has had its Hypertransport link bumped from 1.8GHz on AM2+ to a healthy 2.0GHz. The processor should be backwards compatible with AM2+ boards, but be warned you'll only be able to use DDR2 on these, and your vendor will need to have released a BIOS update to support the CPU.
Test configuration
We've compared the Phenom II X4 955 BE against its price match competitor from the Intel camp — the Core 2 Q9550. Let's take a closer look at the CPUs on test.
| AMD Phenom II X4 955 | Intel Core 2 Q9550 | |
|---|---|---|
| Clock Speed | 3.2GHz | 2.833GHz |
| Multiplier | 16 | 8.5 |
| Multiplier unlocked | Yes | No |
| Bus speed | 200MHz | 333MHz |
| Memory controller link | 2000MHz | 1333MHz |
| L1 cache | 64+64KB data + instruction per core | 32+32KB data + instruction per core |
| L2 cache | 512KB per core | 6MB per dual-core |
| L3 cache | 6MB shared | N/A |
| Socket | AM3, AM2+ | LGA775 |
| Memory supported | DDR3/DDR2 | DDR3/DDR2 |
| Process | 45nm | 45nm |
| Supported instructions | MMX, SSE/2/3/4a | MMX, SSE/2/3/4.1 |
| Vendor specific instructions | AMD64, Extended 3DNow!, Cool'n'quiet, NX bit, AMD-V | Intel 64, iAMT2, EIST, XD bit, TXT, Intel VT |
| TDP | 125W | 95W |
Intel's been outperforming AMD for clock ever since the introduction of the Core architecture, while AMD has hit back on the price platform. AMD's jump to 45nm is finally seeing it claw back some market share, and it's not so much this generation as next generation where we're likely to see some interesting things happen. Let's take a look at the test benches that put the grill on both the Intel and AMD sides.
| Platform one | Platform two | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE | Intel Core 2 Q9550 |
| Heatsink | Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 | Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 |
| RAM | 2x Corsair 2048MB XMS3-1600, 11-11-11-30-41-1T | 2x 2048MB Corsair XMS2-1066, 5-5-5-15-22-2T |
| Motherboard | Asus M4A79T | MSI P7N Diamond |
| Graphics card | Asus 8600GT Silent (Driver 186.18) | Asus 8600GT Silent (Driver 186.18) |
| OS drive | Intel X25-E 32GB | Intel X25-E 32GB |
| Storage drive | Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB | Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB |
| Optical drive | Asus DRW-22B1ST | Asus DRW-22B1ST |
| Operating system | Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit | Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit |
Note that the Core 2 Q9550 is running with DDR2 compared to the Phenom II X4 955 BE's DDR3 — and although the P7N Diamond is certified for DDR2-1333, it will not run higher, and despite loosening the timings the RAM would not run faster than 1066MHz on this board. As such, we've opted to provide benchmark scores on the Phenom II platform for both the stock 1600MHz DDR3 and downclocked to 1066MHz.
Performance
WPrime 2.00 32M
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1600MHz)
11.700s
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1066MHz)
11.714s
Intel Core 2 Q9550
13.649s
WPrime 2.00 1024M
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1600MHz)
367.115s
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1066MHz)
371.536s
Intel Core 2 Q9550
430.794s
VirtualDubMod Xvid conversion
1GB raw AVI to Xvid 1200Kbps, single pass
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
1GB raw AVI to Xvid 1200Kbps, single pass
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Intel Core 2 Q9550
1m17s
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1600MHz)
1m28s
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1066MHz)
1m28s
iTunes 8.2.1 conversion test
Set of 19 AAC files, converted to iTunes Plus AAC quality
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Set of 19 AAC files, converted to iTunes Plus AAC quality
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Intel Core 2 Q9550
2m18s
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1600MHz)
2m26s
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1066MHz)
2m39s
WinRAR 3.90b3 64-bit
Maximum compression, solid archive, 1GB raw AVI
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Maximum compression, solid archive, 1GB raw AVI
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Intel Core 2 Q9550
4m55s
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1600MHz)
5m04s
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1066MHz)
5m20s
Cinebench R10 xCPU
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1600MHz)
13370CB
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1066MHz)
12746CB
Intel Core 2 Q9550
12229CB
Euler3D STARS
10 steps, four threads
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
10 steps, four threads
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1600MHz)
2.303Hz
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1066MHz)
2.278Hz
Intel Core 2 Q9550
1.875Hz
Crysis Warhead — Cargo Demo
800x600, DX10, low quality, no filtering, no AA
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
800x600, DX10, low quality, no filtering, no AA
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Intel Core 2 Q9550
Max: 73fps
Avg: 56fps
Min: 43fps
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1600MHz)
Max: 73fps
Avg: 54fps
Min: 40fps
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (DDR3-1066MHz)
Max: 73fps
Avg: 54fps
Min: 39fps
For the most part, the X4 955 is on top, performance-wise. The Q9550, though, dominates in the iTunes and VirtualDubMod tests, indicating it handles multimedia better, and also makes a significant dent on the WinRAR test. Crysis Warhead proves that after a certain point, you really need a bigger GPU to squeeze out higher scores, the differences between the two CPUs being close to insignificant. While Core i7 is definitely a performance leap on top of these, it also attracts a healthy price premium on both the CPU and the motherboard fronts.
Value
You can pick up an X4 955 on the street now for around AU$350, while recent price drops have brought the Q9550 down to a competitive AU$339. But, of course, it's never just about the CPU, it's total platform cost.
An AM3 board will set you back around AU$150 for an entry-level board, to AU$350 for a performance board. A socket 775 DDR2 board will cost you from AU$120 up to AU$400, while getting one with DDR3 will tally from AU$200 through to AU$350 (all prices excluding the ludicrously expensive top tier boards). Memory-wise, 4GB DDR2-1066 will cost around AU$150, 4GB DDR3-1333 will hit your wallet for about the same.
All up? About six sheets to the wind. In which case it defaults to pure performance, and here the Phenom II X4 955 has it, unless you do masses of multimedia conversion. Its unlocked multiplier should lend it to some juicy overclocking too, potentially overcoming any deficit. While the higher power consumption is a slight concern, the X4 955 proves that AMD is back in the performance game and ready to play hard ball. Bring on the next generation.
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