Test notes
Please note that we've included a "Phenom ES 2.6GHz" processor in the results on the following pages. This is an engineering sample chip clocked at 2.6GHz with a 2GHz north bridge that AMD supplied to us back when the Phenom first launched. No real Phenom product is yet shipping at this speed, but we've included it for comparison's sake, nonetheless.

Also, we have included performance results for a couple of very high-end systems, including a dual Xeon X5365 system and a Skulltrail dual Core 2 Extreme QX9775 rig. With eight cores and price tags in the many thousands of dollars, such systems aren't direct competitors for any Phenom AMD currently offers. If their presence annoys you, hold up two fingers to the screen to block out the bars representing them while reading the performance graphs.

Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least three times, and the results were averaged.

Our test systems were configured like so:

Processor Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
Core 2 Extreme QX6800 2.93GHz		 Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3.00GHz		 Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHz Dual Xeon X5365 3.00GHz Dual Core 2 Extreme QX9775 3.2GHz Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8GHz
Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz
Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2GHz		 Dual Athlon 64 FX-74 3.0GHz Phenom 9500 2.2GHz
Phenom 9600 2.3GHz		 Phenom engineering sample (ES) 2.6GHz
Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3.00GHz Phenom X4 9750 2.4GHz
Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition 2.5GHz
Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz
Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz
System bus 1066MHz (266MHz quad-pumped) 1333MHz (333MHz quad-pumped) 1600MHz (400MHz quad-pumped) 1333MHz (333MHz quad-pumped) 1600MHz (400MHz quad-pumped) 1GHz HyperTransport 1GHz HyperTransport 1GHz HyperTransport 1GHz HyperTransport
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6 Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6 Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Intel S5000VXN Intel D5400XS Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Asus L1N64-SLI WS MSI K9A2 Platinum Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe
BIOS revision F1 F1 F6b S5000.86B.06.00.0076.
0409200070751		 XS54010J.86A.0780.
2008.0110.1956		 1201 0505 VP.0B7 (No patch)
V1.2B1 (TLB patch)		 0307
F4 V1.3
F5c
North bridge P35 Express MCH P35 Express MCH X38 Express MCH 5000X MCH 5400 MCH nForce 590 SLI SPP nForce 680a SLI 790FX 790FX
South bridge ICH9R ICH9R ICH9R 6231ESB ICH 6321ESB ICH nForce 590 SLI MCP nForce 680a SLI SB600 SB600
Chipset drivers INF Update 8.3.0.1013
Intel Matrix Storage Manager 7.5		 INF Update 8.3.0.1013
Intel Matrix Storage Manager 7.5		 INF Update 8.3.0.1013
Intel Matrix Storage Manager 7.5		 INF Update 8.3.0.1013
Intel Matrix Storage Manager 7.5		 INF Update 8.5.0.1009
Intel Matrix Storage Manager 7.8		 ForceWare 15.01 ForceWare 15.01 - -
Memory size 4GB (4 DIMMs) 4GB (4 DIMMs) 4GB (4 DIMMs) 4GB (4 DIMMs) 4GB (2 DIMMs) 4GB (4 DIMMs) 4GB (4 DIMMs) 4GB (4 DIMMs) 4GB (4 DIMMs)
Memory type Corsair TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX
DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz		 Corsair TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX
DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz		 Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz		 Samsung ECC DDR2-667
FB-DIMM at 667MHz		 Micron ECC DDR2-800 FB-DIMM at 800MHz Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500
DDR2 SDRAM at ~800MHz		 Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
DDR2 SDRAM at ~ 800MHz		 Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz		 Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
CAS latency (CL) 8 8 4 5 5 4 4 4 4
RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) 8 9 4 5 5 4 4 4 4
RAS precharge (tRP) 8 9 4 5 5 4 4 4 4
Cycle time (tRAS) 20 24 18 15 18 18 18 18 18
Audio Integrated ICH9R/ALC889A
with Realtek 6.0.1.5449 drivers		 Integrated ICH9R/ALC889A
with Realtek 6.0.1.5449 drivers		 Integrated ICH9R/ALC889A
with Realtek 6.0.1.5449 drivers		 Integrated 6321ESB/ALC260
with Realtek 6.0.1.5449 drivers		 Integrated 6321ESB/STAC9274D5
with SigmaTel 6.10.5511.0 drivers		 Integrated nForce 590 MCP/AD1988B
with Soundmax 6.10.2.6100 drivers		 Integrated nForce 680a SLI/AD1988B
with Soundmax 6.10.2.6100 drivers		 Integrated SB600/ALC888
with Realtek 6.0.1.5532 drivers		 Integrated SB600/AD1988B
with Soundmax 6.10.2.6180 drivers
Hard drive WD Caviar SE16 320GB SATA
Graphics GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB PCIe with ForceWare 163.11 and 163.71 drivers
OS Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Edition
OS updates KB940105, KB929777 (nForce/790FX systems only), KB938194, KB938979

Please note that testing was conducted in two stages. Non-gaming apps and Supreme Commander were tested with Vista patches KB940105 and KB929777 (nForce systems only) and ForceWare 163.11 drivers. The other games were tested with the additional Vista patches KB938194 and KB938979 and ForceWare 163.71 drivers.

Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing. Their products and support are far and away superior to generic, no-name memory.

Our single-socket test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. The dual-socket systems were powered by PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR power supplies. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.

Also, the folks at NCIXUS.com hooked us up with a nice deal on the WD Caviar SE16 drives used in our test rigs. NCIX now sells to U.S. customers, so check them out.

The test systems' Windows desktops were set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

The tests and methods we employ are usually publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.