AMD Phenom II 920 compared to a Intel Q9300

[redwudz]

I just got the Phenom 920 this afternoon and installed it into my HTPC to replace an older Phenom 9500. Both the Intel Q9300 and the Phenom 920 are overclocked to 3.3Ghz. The RAM settings on both are not really optimized. I ran graysky's HD benchmark on both PCs. These tests and info are preliminary for both PCs, but I was impressed at the AMD's performance.

I will run a BD>MKV conversion on both PCs in the next few days as that's a good test of what I plan to use the PCs for. The HTPC with the Phenom has cooling problems, mostly because of the HTPC case. I would have liked to use the nice heatpipe cooler included with the AMD CPU, but I was lacking the mounts, so I re-used the existing Gemini II cooler.

First the Intel 9300, 3.3Ghz with 2GB DDR2 1200 RAM:

x264 HD BENCHMARK RESULTS Intel 9300
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Results for x264.exe v0.58.747
encoded 1442 frames, 54.05 fps, 3906.11 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 66.33 fps, 3902.97 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 66.53 fps, 3903.97 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 66.64 fps, 3905.01 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 19.10 fps, 3952.94 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 18.76 fps, 3953.17 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 19.11 fps, 3953.16 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 18.83 fps, 3952.80 kb/s

Results for x264.exe v0.59.819M
encoded 1442 frames, 71.74 fps, 3889.63 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 71.92 fps, 3889.06 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 72.18 fps, 3889.35 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 71.99 fps, 3889.39 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 21.11 fps, 3963.47 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 21.12 fps, 3962.77 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 21.02 fps, 3962.57 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 21.37 fps, 3962.57 kb/s


System Details
--------------
Name Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
Codename Yorkfield
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz
Core Stepping M1
Technology 45 nm
Stock frequency 2500 MHz
Core Speed 3300.8 MHz (7.5 x 440.1 MHz)
FID range 6.0x - 7.5x

Northbridge Intel P45 rev. A2
Southbridge Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) rev. 00

CAS# 5.0
RAS# to CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
Cycle Time (tRAS) 18
Command Rate 2T
Memory Frequency 440.1 MHz (1:1)
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Size 3326 MBytes
Channels Dual (Symmetric)

Windows Version Microsoft Windows Vista (6.0) Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1

max VID 1.238 V
Voltage sensor 0 1.33 Volts [0x53] (CPU VCORE)
Number of processors 1
Number of threads 4
Number of threads 4 (max 4)
L2 cache 2 x 3072 KBytes, 12-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EM64T
Package Socket 775 LGA (platform ID = 4h)

Temperature sensor 0 42°C (107°F) [0x2A] (CPU)
Temperature sensor 1 45°C (112°F) [0x2D] (System)
Temperature sensor 0 79°C (174°F) [0x1A] (core #0)
Temperature sensor 3 76°C (168°F) [0x1D] (core #3)
Temperature sensor 2 75°C (166°F) [0x1E] (core #2)
Temperature sensor 1 67°C (152°F) [0x26] (core #1)
Temperature sensor 0 50°C (121°F) [0x32] (GPU Core)
Temperature sensor 0 48°C (118°F) [0x30] (GPU Core)

CPUZ 149 Screenshots:






The AMD Phenom II 920, 3.3Ghz 4GB DDR2 1066

x264 HD BENCHMARK RESULTS Phenom 920
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Results for x264.exe v0.58.747
encoded 1442 frames, 72.05 fps, 3905.42 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 71.71 fps, 3905.42 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 71.88 fps, 3905.42 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 71.27 fps, 3905.42 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 17.95 fps, 3952.85 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 18.05 fps, 3952.85 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 18.03 fps, 3952.85 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 17.98 fps, 3952.85 kb/s

Results for x264.exe v0.59.819M
encoded 1442 frames, 73.94 fps, 3891.55 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 73.59 fps, 3891.55 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 73.59 fps, 3891.55 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 73.77 fps, 3891.55 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 19.33 fps, 3963.43 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 19.36 fps, 3963.43 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 19.29 fps, 3963.43 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 19.35 fps, 3963.43 kb/s


System Details
--------------
Name AMD Phenom
Codename Deneb
Specification AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 920 Processor
Core Stepping
Technology 45 nm
Stock frequency 2800 MHz
Core Speed 3304.0 MHz (14.0 x 236.0 MHz)
FID range 5.0x - 14.0x

Northbridge AMD 780G rev. 00
Southbridge ATI SB700 rev. 00

CAS# 5.0
RAS# to CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
Cycle Time (tRAS) 15
Command Rate 2T
Memory Frequency 472.0 MHz (1:2)
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 2814 MBytes
Channels Dual (Unganged)

Windows Version Microsoft Windows Vista (6.0) Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1

max VID 1.350 V
Voltage sensor 0 1.44 Volts [0x5A] (CPU VCORE)
Number of processors 1
Number of threads 4
Number of threads 4 (max 4)
L2 cache 4 x 512 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Instructions sets MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64
Package Socket AM2+ (940)
Package Type 0x1

Temperature sensor 0 44°C (111°F) [0x2C] (TMPIN0)
Temperature sensor 1 57°C (134°F) [0x39] (TMPIN1)
Temperature sensor 2 108°C (226°F) [0x6C] (TMPIN2)
Temperature sensor 0 61°C (141°F) [0x1E8] (core #0)
Temperature sensor 1 61°C (141°F) [0x1E8] (core #1)
Temperature sensor 3 61°C (141°F) [0x1E8] (core #3)
Temperature sensor 2 61°C (141°F) [0x1E8] (core #2)

CPUZ 149 Screenshots:





I would somewhat ignore the temps that the benchmark shows, as using other temp reading programs shows they are incorrect. Also some information, especially the temp reading were corrupted when converted from .rtf format to notepad.txt format. The temps/C are messed up, but the temps/f went through correctly. All other info seems to be OK.

I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this data, except both MBs need some RAM optimization. But it looks like the Phenom II performed fairly well just out of the box. If you presently have a compatible AM2+ motherboard, it's one option for a bit more performance. The Newegg price for the Phenom 920 was $220US.

[jagabo]

Yes, a top of the line AMD Phenom II quad compares well with a mid level Intel quad processor. You can pretty much tell this by the similar pricing.

Both have cut prices in the last few days so retail prices should be coming down a bit soon.

[greymalkin]

this is good news for me as I'd like to replace the 5700+ in my 780g board with a phenomII some day.

[redwudz]

I've done a bit more fine tuning and I have it running at 3.36Ghz at present. That puts the RAM at 960Mhz (480Mhz), so that's probably as fast as I can go with 1066Mhz RAM. (533Mhz)

It's been completely stable, so I'll probably leave it at those settings. It runs about 42C at idle, but might run lower with a better cooler setup. The only changes I made was setting the RAM voltage to 2.1VDC, which it's rated at, and raising the FSB frequency up to 240Mhz from the stock 200Mhz. No other voltage adjustments. It runs way faster than the Phenom 9500 it replaced.