AMD Phenom X4 9500 and 9600 Quad-Core Action - Final Thoughts and Conclusion

AMD Phenom X4 9500 and 9600 Final Conclusion:

Well, these Phenom X4 Quad-Core CPU's have been a long time coming, I remember all the hype as far back as CES in January 2007, AMD has been promoting this new line of CPU's like crazy, but it's been a long time since the announcement and the release date, and will be interesting to see how long until they are readily available on store shelves.

Throughout the review I referred back to two other reviews we've done, our review of the Intel Quad-Core QX6700, and our review of the Geforce 8800GT. Now in our synthetic CPU tests the Intel Quad-Core QX6700 came out on top, but in full system benchmarks the Phenom/Radeon system was able to keep up with our Intel/Nvidia 8800GT system that we reviewed.

For the CPU specific benchmarks, when compared to our previous results in our Intel Quad-Core QX6700, the Phenom fell short in all benchmarks, but you also need to remember that the Intel Quad-Core QX6700 still retails for $629.95 at Memory Express while the estimated MSRP's of the two Phenom X4 CPU's is $247 and $278 USD for the Phenom 9500 and 9600 respectively. I think that the Phenom line could prove to be very popular if the estimated MSRP's are correct, and will provide an affordable Quad-Core solution for most users.

In our full system testing (3DMark06 and PCMark Vantage) the ATI HD 3850 and Phenom X4 system was able to keep up with the Intel X6800 and Geforce 8800GT, and able to easily defeat the Intel X6800 and Geforce 8600GTS, which is pretty impressive since the Radeon HD 3850 retails for about $189.95 CDN at Memory Express, while the Nvidia Geforce 8800GT retails for about $289.95 CDN at Memory Express. Now of course the Quad-Core Phenom X4 is going to help the performance numbers a lot when compared to the Intel X6800, and the comparison isn't on an exactly level playing field, but the Intel X6800 is currently retailing for quite a bit more than the estimated retail price of either Phenom X4 CPU's, so for someone looking to buy a new CPU/Video combo, the Phenom/Radeon (Spider Platform) could be very attractive.

At the end of the day I was very happy with the performance, and once more driver optimizations occur the performance will probably increase by even a bit more. The biggest question is going to be how long before these CPU's are readily available on your local store's shelves, as AMD has been famous for releasing products, but not being able to keep up with demand, and judging from the estimated MSRP and the performance of the Phenom X4 CPU's, that demand could be pretty high. 

Phenom 9500

Phenom 9600

I'd like to thank Memory Express for letting us review the AMD Phenom Processors. If you have any questions, comments, or general feedback, please leave it at the "Comments" link below.