AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core CPU Review

STARS Euler3D

This benchmark is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) benchmark that can be tweaked to use either a single core or X number of cores. Computational fluid dynamics is extremely floating-point intensive and do a great job at showing how powerful a given architecture really is. In this instance we are using the AGARD 445.6 aeroelastic test wing available at Computational AeroServoElasticity (CASE) Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University’s website (the creators of the this benchmark). This benchmark uses the “...standard aeroelastic test case used for validation of unsteady, compressible CFD codes. The CFD grid contains 1.23 million tetrahedral elements and 223 thousand nodes . . . . The benchmark executable advances the Mach 0.50 AGARD flow solution. A benchmark score is reported as a CFD cycle frequency in Hertz.”


CFD really is a great way to push a CPU to its limits. The more horsepower you throw at it, the more it wants! Over the years CFD times have dropped from days to hours and now even to minutes; it really is a wonderful time to be a computer enthusiast. Unfortunately, from these numbers it is not such a great time to be a AMD zealot as the Phenom’s efficiency really is lacking.

ScienceMark 2

The ScienceMark benchmark program attempts to measure real-world performance by focusing specifically on CPU and memory performance without involving the graphics card. This laudable goal is accomplished by using multiple tests, each of which are designed to simulate the a unique type of calculations and memory accesses used in high-performance scientific and engineering computing. These benchmarks include a cryptographic algorithm benchmark, a molecular dynamics test and even a quantum mechanics equations test. All in all it gives the CPU and memory controller quite the work out and unlike most other synthetic benchmarks its results can in no way be swayed by the power (or lack thereof) of your graphics card(s).


Once again AMD is straight at the end of the pack here and it is really unfortunate to see this. That being said, this test does not seem to take buch advantage of all four cores.