Phenom 2 920 and 940 Benchmarks

[roofus]

don't know. i already have a Foxconn Destroyer board waiting for the p2. it was an impulse buy from work lol. i saw the price and couldn't believe the thing was almost 100 cheaper than my 780i so i didn't see how i could go wrong.

 

[amdfangirl]

A couple of things...

@amdfangirl, Im glad that integrated graphics and underclocked/undervolted CPUs meet your needs. However, you are the minority (read: one person) who frequents this fourm that applies to. Most of us are just like custom car modder/builders, its all about e-peen and top performance. The reasons vary, some to have top level performance for 1/3 the price, others because they are driven to see what their little piece of silicon can do.

EDIT: I forgot my big finish. Just because it is 'unnecessary stuff' to you doesn't mean it has the same designation for everyone else. Some of us enjoy Crysis for more than the visuals (Although being able to turn up the eye candy is nice 😀 )

No, I'm talking about unreasonable purchases like two HD 4870 X2s instead of a HD 4870, which would be able to play the game decently as well or upgrading your computer when it can perfectly handle whatever you throw at it. I don't really have much against overclocking, just the wasteful use of technology equipment.

I'm saying that its ok to upgrade and stuff, but do it in moderation.

 

[roofus]

you mean unreasonable to you...

 

[amdfangirl]

No, just plain unreasonable.

Like why buy an X-Fi soundcard for that extra tiny improvement in sound quality when you motherboard's integrated sound is almost as good.

Here's my rig:

AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 @1GHZ @ 0.8V
Sycthe Ninja Mini * (Stock Heatsink now)
Sapphire PE-AM2RS690MH Motherboard
Corsair 8GB 800Mhz RAM * (4GB now)
Integrated Ati X1250 @ 200mhz
2x Western Digital WD1600AAJS 160GB Hard Drive
1x Seagate 750GB Hard Drive
LG DVD+-RW DL lightscribe DVD drive
Antec Earthwatts EA-380 380W PSU
Samsung SnycMaster 216BW monitor
Winfast DTV 1000S HDTV tuner
Logitech R20 speakers
Apple Keyboard (sliver)
Logitech budget mouse
Wacom Graphire 4 (tablet) (white)
ASUS Vento M2 case (white)
Windows XP Professional 32 Bit
Windows Vista Home (academic) 64 bit *
Fedora 10 64 bit (VM)
Ubuntu 8.04 (VM)

* denotes stuff that is arriving

 

[amdfangirl]

^ Now see me criticise myself (this should be fun)

Scythe Ninja heatsink? Is it that worth it to lower the decibel levels of your machine? (By that little amount?)

Apple Keyboard? Why did you waste all that money on a keyboard?

8GB of DDR2 RAM? The only time you ever use that much is when you run heaps of VMs and Photoshop along with many unclosed applications!

...and etc.

 

[roofus]

looking at your specs i revert to my previous statement. nothing wrong with your system at all so don't take it as a knock (the electric company must hate you). just understand that building top end systems is a hobby to a lot of people. excess and overkill are part of the enjoyment.

 

[amdfangirl]

Yes there is. Its excess stuff I don't 'need'.

(Yes, the electric company hates me, especially with the all the solar panels on my roof, they pay me =P)

What is left to enjoy when the last copper mines are deleted and etc. Well, try to recycle, at least.

*wonders if she should go Amish*

 

[spearhead]

lol roofus your funny. actualy i beleve the electric company should hand us radeon 4870x2's and gtx280 cards out for free dont you think? would be good for there business, yet we would be smart enough to underclock it when it runs in idle to save power dont we hehe i want to add that i like your drawings amd fan girl you have made nice drawings on flickr

 

[spathotan]

I do have to agree with the having two 4870 X2's statement. It really is unreasonable and absurd.

 

[spearhead]

i agree it is.

 

[roofus]

I do have to agree with the having two 4870 X2's statement. It really is unreasonable and absurd.

yes it is. it does make a guy want them doesn't it?

 

[spathotan]

Not me, or anybody else thats sane. Because then youll have to put up another $200 for a matrox triple head box, and another $3000 for three 30" monitors to make them worthwhile. One 4870X2 is good enough for anybody or any realistic usable system.

 

[B-Unit]

Ill agree with that, 2 4870x2 is overkill and wont help in any situation (Unless your a super genius who can weld two large monitors together for ultra-extreme resolution)

Or perhaps the Dell/Alienware wrap around monitor...

EDIT: Heheh, guilty on the 8GB of RAM too, but for $50, how can I say no?

The depressing part is that my habits from when I only had 512MB on a Sempron 2800 wont die, I keep everything closed, so I never come close to using 4GB, much less 8GB...

 

[roofus]

wow that would be sweet.

 

[yipsl]

Not me, or anybody else thats sane. Because then youll have to put up another $200 for a matrox triple head box, and another $3000 for three 30" monitors to make them worthwhile. One 4870X2 is good enough for anybody or any realistic usable system.

Last September, I considered getting a Crossfire board and a 9850BE with a second, now cheaper, 3870x2. I decided against it because CrossfireX drivers aren't that great and I doubt the performance of two last gen dual GPU cards would equal one 4870x2 on the 24" LCD I wanted to get.

Yet, everyone has a budget and there are people who can really afford to buy the kind of setup that's totally unreasonable. Why do they do it? Prestige maybe. If they didn't spend the money on tech, they'd probably be buying artwork or sports cars instead.

My problem with a high end GPU, and I've only one experience of it, is that it gets superseded faster than one might think. Though Tom's best card for the money articles don't recommend upgrading from a 38702 to a 4850 or 4870, the new cards have advantages beyond no Crossfire issues.

My guess is that 8 months after the 4870x2, there will be a new high end dual GPU card from AMD that will beat it while a sub $250 single GPU part will match it with no Crossfire issues. Just when you think Crossfire (or SLI) is mature and a no brainer, you find that your favorite game doesn't support it, or that it doesn't scale well past certain resolutions.

So, I'd add a greater than $400 dual GPU to the "must not buy list" alongside a greater than $400 single GPU Nvidia monstrosity. The high end doesn't stay high very long.

 

[dragonsprayer]

apart from video encoding i dont see the point in i7

this is the kind of statements only noobs make! sorry but you mislead people. There are many factors, price, upgradblity and length of use. Future proofness, if you spending over $1500 go i7 unless your getting a new system asap.

I7 systems are much more response, the memory bandwidth may come into play as apps take advantage of 12Gb of 25k bandwidth. Remember the price of 12gb of 8-8-8 1600 running ram is $300 for 12GB - email me for details.

have you tired one? no? your answer is based on what you read? yes!

I can honestly say that to mainstream buyers like me or even gamers i7 offers no real motivation. I mean come on...i want to be able to zip my 4.5mb folder faster? The people who really use it are usually those who work with rendering and it always help in those who use photo shop or edit websites for a a job. Yes not a hobbie a job. This is only the case if you want the best also because is not essential to have it for a job either. I know i've heard i7 shines in high res and multi set up GPU's but i just cant see may people putting 3 cards on sli or something. At least not me...Still i want it so badly though. Anyone barely has it so i want one but my money grows on trees so it is ok.

i thought that too until i tried one, i mutlitask - game/ie/music/work

not a serious gamer since a serious gamer would not do that! but still the same applies if your spending over $2200 for gaming rig and if you only game on it go i7.

$3000k from me gets 3.8ghz i7, 6GB, 4870x2, 1.5TB raid etc
<this is not an ad> ( do not pm me buy anything though this site i will not answer it)

again, the next " crysis "game engine - i use crysis as an adjective

I will say this my son games systems for us as test before we ship them, the i7 systems he has come in first everytime by more then 50% - everytime and he has only played crysis 2 and only a few week for a few hours. - yes, he is good but the system made him #1

customers who want to be #1 go i7 - i have been putting in killer cards too - not so sure about those - with out the killer he was #1 every set

Why do they use such less memory in these benches? A usual system would have 4GB/ 6GB of RAM. It might make some difference in rendering etc benchmarks and perhaps also in games. Does the speed make that much of a difference ? Should DDR2 1066 2GB be preferred over DDR2 800 4GB?

6GB for $150 is no brainer - remember when using 2 sets of slots you set up latenies. gamers should only have 1 bank of ram

 

[dragonsprayer]

Ok, so there are now a few reviews and benchies of the new Phenom 2 920, 940 (priced aroud £165 +VAT and £260 + VAT respectively) but i cant find any mention of them in here? why not? all too busy with christmas?
Firstly I'm not pro intel or AMD, and I dont have a current top end gaming rig, still choosing parts, and so I'm only interested in pure performance and price.


http://209.85.135.104/translate_c?hl=en&sl=el&tl=en&u=http://www.hwbox.gr/showthread.php%3Ft%3D3189%26garpg%3D22&usg=ALkJrhhAVRywzzzsxF0VpXI8X7JEqSsMWA

There's the link to the review, its translated so its not in perfect english. But as you can see, in GAMING benchmarks (the thing I'm sure most of us here really care about) the Phenom is not being "raped" by the i7's at all as some people have being saying. In fact, when the CPU's are pushed a bit and the res is jumped up to 1680x1050 the phenoms give the i7 a bloody nose. And more importantly, the Core2's aint exactly being brushed aside by their new replacements.

Given the set up cost for an i7 system (£200 mobo, £300 6g RAM tripple channel, and £200 for the 940, £400 for the 940) it begs the question what are hte i7's for, did intel not steal enough technology from AMD to make the i7 surpass its old guard, or did intel just do too good of a job on the Core2's and rush out the i7? I dont know. but what i do know is that tne phenom 2 920 is a bloody good upgrade for anyone with an AM2 mobo. And people building a new rig (without spending stupid amounts of money) now have a real choice. AMD, cheap mobo, cheap RAM, good performance. vs i7, expensive mobo and RAM, and very similar gaming results!

YES, the i7's are miles ahead in most of the synthetic test, but so what?! its like have a car with 500bhp that goes the same speed as a car with 250bhp, it may make more noise, but you're going to get there in the same time. The synthetic test show nothing meaningful, i dont even get why they're still used?! (does anyone? other then intel's PR department) AMD have always done crap in synthetic tests. But just look at the CAD and gaming results, the i7 and phenom 2 go head to head, and AMD even takes the lead in Far Cry 2, GTA 4, crysis warhead, and devil may care 4. SO well done AMD, and consider that thats all using an existing set up, not the custom set up that intel pushed out for the i7's, all the tripple channel crap really doesn't seem worth it, specially as DDR3 is already over priced.

One other thing i'd like to ask is, whats the point in the i7 940? its twice the price of the 920 (literally) but has almost no gain over the 920? as too with the phenom 2 920 and 940, an extra £100 for a 1-2 fps...not worth it in my books.

Anyway, just thought i'd throw my tupence worth in. If you're an intel fanboy, PLEASE dont go bleating at me, i just say what i see. AND YES, the q6600 is still in there holding its own on a mid range set up and only costing £140. (which is also a pain for the i7's)

all in all, i think any decent rig atm with a good AMD phenom 9950 or x2 7750 (mentioned because its new and only £55) or 6000. or an intel with an e8400 or q6600 is not lookin old yet and really isn't being over shadowed by anything that intel or AMD have released recently.

thanks for reading.

to be honest with all the issues amd have we have not built one amd quad core - i have a dual core atholon i have in shuttle i use like a lap top when travel - ya monitor and all can not stand slow azz laptops or big hot ones for $5k


i would like to know how these chips feel compared to q6600 at 3.6 vs qx9650 at 4.2+ vs 3.8-4.3 i7

i think amd has got the bugs out enought for us to try it - we are driven by demand if nobody wants one then we do not build them. when we sold them nobody wanted them and we never built one.

time to give amd a shot

 

[jimmysmitty]

No, just plain unreasonable.

Like why buy an X-Fi soundcard for that extra tiny improvement in sound quality when you motherboard's integrated sound is almost as good.

Here's my rig:

AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 @1GHZ @ 0.8V
Sycthe Ninja Mini * (Stock Heatsink now)
Sapphire PE-AM2RS690MH Motherboard
Corsair 8GB 800Mhz RAM * (4GB now)
Integrated Ati X1250 @ 200mhz
2x Western Digital WD1600AAJS 160GB Hard Drive
1x Seagate 750GB Hard Drive
LG DVD+-RW DL lightscribe DVD drive
Antec Earthwatts EA-380 380W PSU
Samsung SnycMaster 216BW monitor
Winfast DTV 1000S HDTV tuner
Logitech R20 speakers
Apple Keyboard (sliver)
Logitech budget mouse
Wacom Graphire 4 (tablet) (white)
ASUS Vento M2 case (white)
Windows XP Professional 32 Bit
Windows Vista Home (academic) 64 bit *
Fedora 10 64 bit (VM)
Ubuntu 8.04 (VM)

* denotes stuff that is arriving

Hey there is more tothe X-Fi cards than seems. Like the ability to rip music/sound in the highest quality available from anything. If I want a sound I can do that. Plus the difference is more than you may think. When I got my X-Fi for Christmas last year I started hearing stuff in songs I had been listening to for years so clearly it blew me away. The quality in my DVDs (and now Blu Ray since I got a drive for Christmas this year) is much better and makes my 2.1 Creative speakers sound like a full 5.1 experience.

Plus for gaming it helps in a few that can use its power.

That and its pretty.

 

[dragonsprayer]

I've been saying that for a year. (He won't listen now any more than he has in the past.)

In truth the main purpose for these high-end parts is to be given away to reviewers to pump up the reputation for the midrange parts. It is unlikely that Intel makes enough money on the high end chips that actually ARE sold at full price to pay for the ones they give away.

But apparently AMD is going to die if they don't come out with high-end parts they can give to reviewers. (Or perhaps they're smarter than the average forum poster.)

unfortunately the main stream reviewer's (not this site or others like it) the pc mag and max mag etc - are clueless now.

half the stuff i see in the mags is wrong.

high end parts are made for top dollar buyers just like cars or anything else

the 920 is great deal just the q6600 was this is 50% drop from the 560j at $600 in 2004

920 speed is limited cooling in most cases, the multiplier marketing has been greatly curtailed.


bottom line is we just mid level cpu in high end computers - most would not and so called reviewers would laugh who puts a $300 cpu in $5000 computer? me!

 

[jimmysmitty]

I've been saying that for a year. (He won't listen now any more than he has in the past.)

In truth the main purpose for these high-end parts is to be given away to reviewers to pump up the reputation for the midrange parts. It is unlikely that Intel makes enough money on the high end chips that actually ARE sold at full price to pay for the ones they give away.

But apparently AMD is going to die if they don't come out with high-end parts they can give to reviewers. (Or perhaps they're smarter than the average forum poster.)

But as you know, without high enough end parts to compete against Intels high end they cannot set prices high enough to make any money. And while it would seem it wont affect them it will. Intel can then lower their high end parts close to what AMD has their high end at and cut into AMDs sales easily if the parts from AMD don't perform as well.

Then AMD will lower the prices and cut margins even more and make less money until yeilds become enough to make money off of each chip.

That and the less people are spending vibe recently means that even AMD will have a rough time this year. Maybe better since the economy is expected to do better in 2009 but there are still no guarantees.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

What high end parts/chips? And by how much? Is it an EE product? These are things Intel now has to consider when trying to do what you just said

 

[dragonsprayer]

qx 9770 @$1500 was for someone who had money to toss around like a Lehman bros partner last summer

a Qx9650 was the same thing unlocked multiplier at $500 less

while the 965XE has a faster qpi is this worth $700? the unlocked mutiplie does not make differnce unless you got a phase cooler (which i do - stupid waste of money could not sell it know sits like a monument!!)

anyways..........

260 216 vs the 280 - i think 2x 260's is the spot

4870x2 or 2 x 4830 overclocked? bump it 200mhz

again if got cash to burn you take the 965ee and 2 4870 x2's - for us normal peeps 920 at 3.8ghz on air and couple of 260's or 4830 is nice set up for 2 grand

 

[roofus]

well i do see price mentioned as a deterrent often when the i7 is brought up. i think its pure crap myself. the cost of building an i7 system isn't any worse than it ever has been for building a system with high end gear. i have spent as much if not more coin in the past building AMD systems as well so it isn't about a brand.

 

[dragonsprayer]

well i do see price mentioned as a deterrent often when the i7 is brought up. i think its pure crap myself. the cost of building an i7 system isn't any worse than it ever has been for building a system with high end gear. i have spent as much if not more coin in the past building AMD systems as well so it isn't about a brand.

i got tired of printing" i7 is good" and " i7 is worth it" on almost every thread to respond to people,while well informed, have based there opinion on what others have said and have not actually tested an i7 system.

so i changed my avitar saying! lol!

everyone should have a i7 920 overclocked to 4ghz - ok 3.8ghz to 4.2hz

i7 reviews remind me of vista, yes vista was a big pain prior to service pack 1 but for the average user in my case - gamer - vista is great os

i got tired printing that too: defragging, ghosting, GUE, Dx10, ie7, media player 11 are all a great system for the average user much improved over MP10 or MP9 or IE6

then there are a few short comiings: big one is if your not running 2.8-3.4ghz or better system with over 2GB of ram and decent video card

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Normally, Id agree, but since the majority of improvements come outside of gaming seen in i7, it does add more convincing for such a purchase. That doesnt mean I wouldnt own one, but if theres stuff out there thats cheaper for my usage, thats where Im looking, and most likely buying. Overall tho, I think my purchasing habits are closer to average Joes than hardcore enthusiasts, since even for enthusiasts, its not as tho we are left out in the cold with other (P2,Q2D) alternatives