Manufacturer: Price: $ US Author: Steve Date: 11/25/2009

[ Conclusion ]

The Phenom II X4 results were quite different to those recorded when testing with the Core i7 processors, though this was not necessarily a bad thing. When operating at lower clock speeds, the Phenom II X4 did not fair all that well, as we saw a sharp decline in performance. However when clocked at 3.0GHz and beyond, the Phenom II X4 really picked up the pace, and in many cases was able to outclass the Core i7. In games such as Wolfenstein, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X, BattleForge and Far Cry 2 the Phenom II X4 processors were actually faster when clocked up near 4GHz! This is quite amazing as out of the 9 games tested, the Phenom II X4 series was faster than the Core i7’s in 5 of them. Although the margins were very limited, the Phenom II X4 was found to be faster, and had it just managed to match the Core i7 series with the Radeon HD 5970, we would have been impressed. While the Phenom II X4 matched the Core i7 in Crysis Warhead, the only games where it failed was Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts, Left 4 Dead 2 and Batman Arkham Asylum. The Phenom II X4 was noticeably slower in these games, making the Core i7 the better choice here. Still, for the most part we found the Phenom II X4 to be every bit as good as the Core i7 processors when gaming with the new Radeon HD 5970. Having said that, we recommend that AMD users looking at buying this powerful graphics card make sure that they have a Phenom II X4 processor that is clocked at 3.0GHz or greater. Most Phenom II X4 processors are capable of overclocking to 3.0GHz and beyond, while the more high-end options, such as the Phenom II X4 955 and 965 processors, come clocked at 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz respectively. While we hardly expect there will be many users trying to pair a $600 US graphics card, such as the Radeon HD 5970, with a budget processor, it is nice to see that the sub-$200 US processors are up to the task. The Intel Core i7 920 proved to be more than powerful enough at $280 US, while the AMD Phenom II X4 955 will work just as well at $165 US, giving users plenty of great options. Reviewed By Steven Walton

<- Previous Page Table of Contents Core i7 Scaling Test System Specs Core i7: Batman Arkham Asylum Core i7: Wolfenstein Core i7: Left 4 Dead 2 Core i7: Call of Duty: MW2 Core i7: Company of Heroes Core i7: Crysis Warhead Core i7: Far Cry 2 Core i7: BattleForge Core i7: Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X Conclusion Phenom II X4 Scaling Test System Specs Phenom II X4: Batman Arkham Asylum Phenom II X4: Wolfenstein Phenom II X4: Left 4 Dead 2 Phenom II X4: Call of Duty: MW2 Phenom II X4: Company of Heroes Phenom II X4: Crysis Warhead Phenom II X4: Far Cry 2 Phenom II X4: BattleForge Phenom II X4: Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X >>> Conclusion <<<

ProX	Posted on: 02/16/2010 03:58 AM Very nice review but I want to see more CPU's tested

bob smith

Posted on: 02/16/2010 07:43 AM thank you for doing all this testing, this article is awesome, please test more processors, and then can you test a mid level GPU like the a single Radeon-HD-5770, mid-level geeks like myself are not sure where the bottlenecks happen in gaming systems, thank you, thank you, i would send money to you through paypal for you to do the 5770 tests, i hate bottlenecks

YouKnowWho

Posted on: 02/16/2010 09:36 AM This is perfect for working out what kind of processor is needed to get the most out of the Radeon HD 5970 using playable settings.

Steve Posts: 76 Joined: 2010-02-08

Posted on: 02/16/2010 09:57 AM bob smith I will be releasing a new series of CPU scaling articles next week which I will be testing with a huge range of CPU’s. As for testing with lower end cards I am afraid there is no point as any CPU will do. That said you might want to check out older CPU scaling articles which use what are now considered to be slower graphics cards.

bob smith

Posted on: 02/28/2010 05:13 AM "bob smith I will be releasing a new series of CPU scaling articles next week which I will be testing with a huge range of CPU’s." -Steve Administrator, Posted on: 02/16/2010 09:57 AM Where are they? those articles will be great because i will be able to match GPU to CPU for gaming performance. from the last article you did I learned I could buy ATI/AMD and still have performance as good as Nvida/Intel. I know i don't need a core i7 for gaming because of your last article, your new articles will help mid-level gamers, like me, pick a CPU that matches their CPU so no bottlenecks will happen. please test a mid-level GPU like ATI5770 or 5850 or 5870 with same processors so we can see which processor makes sense for mid-level gaming. please, please

Steve Posts: 76 Joined: 2010-02-08

Posted on: 02/28/2010 09:47 PM Yes they are still coming, all the testing has been done. They were delayed because of the new Radeon HD 5830 graphics card and a few new games such as StarCraft II. I will have the first part online soon. As for testing a graphics card such as the 5770 as I said it is pointless any dual-core processor will do!

demonkevy666

Posted on: 03/22/2010 02:14 AM could include NB speeds for both cpu's in cpu-z next time? and more AA & AF settings too

Nnaedoziem

Posted on: 08/01/2010 05:33 AM Why didnt you guys test this at 1920x1080 for most of us commoners with 1080p monitors so we can see if there is a CPU bottleneck? I have a Phenom II 720 that i unlocked the 4th core on and am stable at 3.6ghz and I avg 42 fps in Crysis no matter what the resolution is. This is not true for me in some games. So i am curious to see if there is indeed a bottleneck or if i have a defective 5970

Vadoom

Posted on: 08/04/2010 12:24 PM @ Nnaedoziem - ummmm as I understand it the point of this article was to take the fastest single graphics card available at the time, test it using the most demanding quality settings which includes the resolution and then down clock the processor to a point where it starts to have an impact on performance. Reducing the resolution defeats the point of this test. If the CPU presents a bottleneck at 2560x1600 you can be sure as hell that it will do it at lower more commonly used resolutions. But perhaps I have missed the point?!?!?!

Nnaedoziem

Posted on: 08/08/2010 01:49 AM @ Vadoom See when the game's resolution is set that high, the CPU doesnt come into the equation much. I have seen reviews of PHenomm II 965, andtech's review where the compared to the i7 and the i7 at 1920x1080 clearly outperforms the Phenom II in all the games it was tested except for a few where there was a tie. Moreover, mosrt people don't have 2500x1600 monitor so we are the ones that are stuck with 1920x1080 and are the ones that exprience the CPU factor, making this test a bit irrelevant to our case. I personally and some other people i know with Phenom II and 5970 get beat in the games you listed in this test. WHen someone sees this result, someone not aware, they will believe a Phenom II actualy performs similary to an i7 which it doesnt

ProX

Posted on: 08/08/2010 10:35 PM @ Nnaedoziem - That's the thing though when playing these games using the highest possible quality settings at the highest resolution with what was at the time the worlds fastest single graphics card there is little to no difference between the Phenom II X4 and Core i7. If you lower the resolution the frames per second are only going to increase and yes they will tip in favor of the Core i7. Legion Hardware has produced about half a dozen other similar articles that already proved this. What they are showing here is that gamers need not worry to much if their Phenom II X4 is limiting their Radeon HD or GeForce GTX whatever for example as its NOT.