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AMD Phenom II X4 940 & 920: A True Return to Competition
AMD Phenom II X4 940 & 920: A True Return to Competition
Date: January 8th, 2009
Topic: CPU & Chipset
Manufacturer: AMD
Author: Anand Lal Shimpi
Buy the AMD HDZ940XCGIBOX Phenom II 940 Black
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FarCry 2

Far Cry 2 - 1680 x 1050 - Playback (Action Scene) - Medium Quality

FarCry 2 is an interesting game because it makes real use of more than two cores, which propels Core i7 to the top of the charts. FarCry 2 also ends up being very favorable to Intel architectures.

Crysis Warhead

Crysis Warhead - 1680 x 1050 - Mainstream Quality (Physics on Enthusiast) - assault bench

Gaming Summary

Gaming performance was traditionally a weak point of Phenom. AMD often argued that Phenom's gaming performance was good enough, but with a better alternative at the same price point there was no reason to settle. With Phenom II, thanks to higher clock speeds and more cache, AMD now has a competitive gaming CPU. The Phenom II X4 940 and Core 2 Quad Q9400 are nearly identical in performance; AMD could not have positioned or priced this CPU any better. The Q9550 is a bit faster but, at least for now, it comes with a higher price tag as well. The Phenom II X4 920 is also right where it needs to be: between the Q8200 and the Q9300.

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91 Comments - Last by Walkeer, 117 days ago
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Bravo by Kromis, 397 days ago
*Stands up and applause*

Reply
RE: Bravo by wowo, 291 days ago
how x264?

x264 benchmark is 819,very old.

now is 1139.Improved a lot

please ues new x264,more scores will be Changed.



Reply
. by san1s, 397 days ago
still slower than core 2?


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Food for thought! by slayerized, 397 days ago
AMD has indeed made some notable improvements with Phenom II and their 45nm. Reviews keep mentioning about how there is an upgrade option with Phenom II being AM2 compatible; however, what next (this is probably their last product with AM2 compatibility)? Shouldn't the reviews consider the upgrade options for Core i7/X58 with Westmere in a couple of years too? For someone who is considering a fresh build, I think that is something that should be analyzed too imo. Great review otherwise as always; the playing field if not leveled is at least starting to look competitive in a few segments!!

Reply
RE: Food for thought! by Griswold, 396 days ago
No. Facts and "might turn out that way in a few years" arent the same thing.

Reply
Funny thing happened... by kmmatney, 397 days ago
I was on a plane flying back from Taiwan (I work in the Fab industry) and I happened to sit next to an Intel employee who had traveled to Asia for the Core i7 launch. I asked him about the small L2 cache, and he explained that these run about 300 test applications, and chose the cache amounts based on a compromise between performance (and latency) and die size. We talked a bit and he asked me how I knew so much about computer hardware, and I mentioned I'm an avid Anandtech reader. He recognized the name, and mentioned that he saw Anand argue with one of his coworkers for quite some time about the L2 cache size!

Reply
RE: Funny thing happened... by Zaitsev, 397 days ago
That's a great story! I would love to see anand duking it out with some intel employees! LOL

Reply
So who wants to buy me one? by Goty, 397 days ago
If I didn't have a 5000+ BE sitting in a K9A2 in my rig right now I probably wouldn't consider this CPU, but seeing as I do, it looks like I've found my next upgrade.

Reply
Why Q9450 is often slower than Q9400 by kknd1967, 397 days ago
I thought Q9450 should be better with larger cache?

Reply
RE: Why Q9450 is often slower than Q9400 by Anand Lal Shimpi, 397 days ago
In some of the tests the two will swap places simply because they run at the same clock speed and the added cache doesn't always help performance. In those cases if the Q9450 is behind it's most likely due to normal variation between test runs.

Take care,
Anand

Reply
Comments Page 1 of 10

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