AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core CPU Review

AMD n3

This benchmark was created by AMD to show what their then ultra efficient design CPU’s could really do against the older Intel P4’s. While things have changed in the computer industry this benchmark still stresses efficiency over brute force and it will be interesting to see how the new Phenom K10 architecture stands up against the Intel Core 2 Duo lines.


Lets face it, the n3 benchmark is ancient, but it still has to be a little bit embarrassing for AMD to be beaten at a benchmark solely built and designed to highlight how efficient their processors were in comparison to Intel CPUs! Not only loosing but being smacked around by a (relatively) ancient C2D dual core really adds insult to injury and does underscore how much tweaking the K10 architecture really needs if it is going to be able to go toe to toe with the reigning champ.

MetaBench

Another golden oldie is MetaBench. This benchmark consists of 55 different tests designed to measure performance of the whole system as unit rather than an individual part. These benchmarks consist of both “synthetic” and “practical” and they include Raytrace Rendering, Ogg Vorbis audio encoding/decoding, Blowfish encryption/decryption as well as many others. All options were left at their default levels.


The reason I like Metabench so much is that it can’t multitask for spit and thus the efficiency of a given core (regardless of the number of them) can easily be shown. A processor cannot hide or obscure or obfuscate the issue by using multiple cores to get the job done. When the Phenom goes head to head with even the older C2D dual or even the k8 architecture which it replaced it gets its proverbial head handed to it.