AMD Phenom X4 9950 & 9350e

ATI has been on a roll lately starting with the Radeon 3870 last year, the 780G earlier this year, Puma, and the Radeon 4850 and 4870 which swept the rug out from under Nvidia and beat them handily in price and performance as well as adding on extra features. The question remains though for AMD's CPU division, when will they start flourishing as they did not so long ago now. Can the Intel goliath be toppled again? I can tell you now with the two new processors AMD is releasing today they aren't going to knock Intel off the top but are three new processors they are releasing today to add to the line: the Phenom X4 9950, 9350e, and 9150e.    Model CPU  Freq. MC & HT(x2)  Freq. Max  TDP Core  Count Price X4 9950 Black Edition 2.6GHz 2.0GHz 140W 4 $235 X4 9350e 2.0GHz 1.8GHz 65W 4 $195 X4 9150e 1.8GHz 1.8GHz 65W 4 $175 With the release of the 9950 Black Edition AMD steps up from the 9850 100MHz to 2.6GHz from 2.5GHz but also increases the max TDP to 140W. The Phenom 9950 Black Edition takes over the $235 pricing the 9850 had which will be reduced to $207 starting July 7th, a helpful heads up from AMD. These will still be 9850 Black Editions for a while in the channel but they will move towards normal edition eventually but should be able to get a 9850 Black Edition for a steal in a week.   The other new processors being released are the low wattage quad core processors, the X4 9350e and 9150e which have a max TDP of 65w. Previously 95 was the lowest TDP for Phenoms and it still is for even Intel's lowest clock speed quad core processors giving AMD a 30W advantage here. This could be a boon for HTPCs, file servers, or other computers that are run 24/7. Other than that though there aren't too many changes to AMD's lineup. We should see some price cuts officially updated some time today on AMD's website but that's about it. So let's move on. NEW AMD Phenom X4 processors TECH SPECS: Processor Model / Frequency: X4 9950 / 2.6GHz Processor Model / Frequency:  X4 9350e / 2.0GHz Processor Model / Frequency:  X4 9150e / 1.8GHz L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512 KB total L1 per processor) L2 Cache Sizes:    512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor) L3 Cache Size:   2MB (shared) Packaging:  Socket AM2+ 940-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA) Fab location:  AMD's Fab 36 wafer fabrication facilities in Dresden, Germany Process Technology:   65-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology Approximate Transistor count: ~ 450 million Approximate Die Size:      285 mm2 Memory Controller Type:   Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller * Types of Memory Supported:   Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) Memory Controller Speed:       X4 9950: up to 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management X4 9350e: up to 1.8GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management X4 9150e: up to 1.6GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management HyperTransport 3.0 Specification:  X4 9950: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2) X4 9350e: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 3.6GHz full duplex (1.8GHz x2) X4 9150e: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 3.2GHz full duplex (1.6GHz x2) Total Processor Bandwidth: X4 9950: Up to 33.1 GB/s bandwidth X4 9350e: Up to 31.5 GB/s bandwidth X4 9150e: Up to 29.9 GB/s bandwidth Max Ambient Case Temp:  X4 9950: 61o Celsius X4 9350e: 70o Celsius X4 9150e: 70o Celsius Nominal Voltage:   X4 9950: 1.05-1.30 Volts X4 9350e: 1.05-1.125 Volts X4 9150e: 1.05-1.15 Volts Max TDP:      X4 9950: 140 Watts X4 9350e: 65 Watts X4 9150e: 65 Watts *Note: configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes                           We used Asus' Crosshair II Formula 780a motherboard for overclocking using the Zero Therm NV120. Not adjusting the voltage we were able to hit 3GHz stable, a new high for Phenoms, but adjusting the voltage to 1.425v we were able to hit 3.2GHz stable and reach 3.3GHz though it blue screened in 3DMark. This was a 600MHz stable overclock, the best yet for AMD's Phenom.   Trying to overclock the low wattage 9350e didn't fair as well moving only from 2GHz to 2.34GHz despite increasing the voltage heavily.   Here's our current test system.   Mother Board Asus Crosshair II Formula CPU Various Video Card Asus 9600 GT Top Memory Corsair XMS Dominator 2GB Hard Drive Western Digital Raptor Case Tsunami Thermaltake Display Samsung 20" LCD Westinghouse W4207     Our test OS was Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 with nForce driver revisions 175.19 and chipset driver revision of 18.11. V-sync was disabled for graphic tests.   For our games testing we used lower graphic settings in order to stress the processor and relieve the graphics card from being the bottleneck.     Unsurprisingly the 9950 isn't too far from the 9850 in Crysis. The Intel Q9300 comes out on top here.     UT3 shows the 9950 as a great competitor with the more expensive Intel Q9300.   Not too many shocks here in 3DMark 2006 but the 9950 does over 100 points more than the 9850.     Let's move onto to more benchmarks.       Same trends with Cinebench 10.   Again with Pov-RAY AMD just can't compete with the 9300 though it is $40 more expensive.   Good scores here overall from AMD.     Valve's benchmarks give us very similar results. Update: We re-ran some tests using Cinebench 10 as the benchmark with a Radeon HD 4870 for power consumption. Finally let's look at power consumption.   Phenom 9350e Phenom 9950 BE Idle 195 225 Load 213 275 The Phenom 9350e has excellent power ratings for a quad core just barely hitting 200W on the 780a. We didn't have time to test on a 780G but it should be much lower load consumption at around 150W so for home theater PCs or other low power machines the combination of the 780G and 9350e or 9150e is unbeatable. For a 140W TDP for the 9950 it also doesn't draw too much more power.         Pricing: AMD has released official pricing, but what we see now on the net is a bit high.  The Phenom X4 9950 initially comes in at $235 taking over the spot from the 9850.  In a week however pricing will drop to about $205.   With the Core 2 Quad Q9300 at $270 that looks like favorable pricing.  With this move the 9850 will become a non Black Edition part, but AMD expects it to continue as a Black Edition for some time until later this year. The 9150E and 9350E are priced at $175 and $195 respectively.  You pay the premium for the lower power consumption here.  Currently we have found these CPUs below. Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition Buy.com $300.99 free shipping Phenom X4 9150 PC Nation $223.48 free shipping We were not able to dig up pricing on the 9350, but as of right now things are at first availability costs, and should come down soon. Conclusion: This is a much needed booster shot to the Phenom line which doesn't solve AMD's overall problem with performance but provides great value and excellent power consumption levels. Thanks to ATI's amazing chipset in the 780G with already very low power requirements and that of the Phenom X4 9150e or 9350e you have one heck of an HTPC machine with low power consumption and heat. This is very alluring and AMD is clearly on top currently with Intel and Nvidia when it comes to IGP. The 9950 is a good boost if a small one but does yield easily the best Phenom overclock we've seen yet going all the way up to 3.2GHz stable, beating the 9850BE overclock by 300MHz so it definitely is a great chip too. The problem is it isn't good enough, and although a good deal at $235 compared to the Q9300 $275 or so AMD needs to come back strong with the next architecture. There is already talk of 45nm falling behind and that is already a fairly large blunder. Intel will probably charge a fortune for Nehalem but AMD wins a clear winner with their next new architecture, enough at least to match Intel's bottom line parts. ATI is doing great so far with their mid-range target strategy, which actually isn't that mid-range since it clobbers the GTX 260. Intel is a much larger competitor than Nvidia but hopefully some of that magic can rub off.   Phenom 9350e Score: 95% Phenom 9950 Score: 91%     '); //-->

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Tags: corei7 ddr2 hd4850 hd4870 htpc hypertransport nehalem nforce overclocking phenom puma radeon socket-am2 tdp vista