Testing:
The Testing Rig:
- Asus Crossfire III Formula
- AMD Phenom 995 (3.2GHz)
- 8GB Corsair DDR3-1333
- 2x Western Digital Raptor 150GH (Raid-0)
- Lite-On Bluray Burner
- Ultra X4 850w
Sisoft Sandra:
Using the Sisoft Sandra software we used several of the CPU benchmarks to test the performance of the processor. The built-in testing results are dead on and we decided to use these to compare our testing results versus those of Intel. You can see that the first result on each of the tests is the AMD Phenom II 955 Over clocked to 3.75GHz, followed by AMD Phenom 965 and 955. We are comparing these results against the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Q9650.
Processor Arithmetic: Benchmarks the ALU and FPU processor units.
As you can see about the results of the AMD Phenom II 955 are very similar to that of the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550. But when you give the AMD Phenom a 25% OC (to 3.75GHz) you can see the results sky rocket.
Processor Multi-Media: Benchmarks the SIMD (MMX/SSEx) processor units.
Just like the Arithmetic tests, the Phenom 955 and Q9550 are neck and neck in performance. While the over clocked shows a nice boost in performance.
Processor Cryptography: Benchmarks the Cryptographic performance.
On the Cryptography side of things, you can see that the AMD Phenom 955 / 965 have a significant improvement in performance over the Intel Q9550 / QX9650.
Overall on all three tests, you can see that the AMD Phenom 955 and Intel Q9550 were neck and neck in performance. But the big difference between the two of them is the price, and that is the Intel costing a bit over $100 more than the AMD Phenoms.
The Q9550 can be purchased at Microcenter for $169.99, all day, every day. It’s not a sale price. This makes the Phenom II 955 not so remarkable, especially given the power envelopes of both processors.
As expected out come the fan boys!