AMD Phenom-II X4-975 BE Deneb Processor Review

To start off the new year right, AMD is filling in some more of their Phenom-II lineup. Two AMD CPUs set for release in early January 2011 are the Phenom-II X4-840 and the Phenom-II X4-975BE. The Phenom-II X4-975BE HDZ975FBGMBOX will become AMDs newest flagship quad-core processor. The Thuban based 6-core processors have taken AMD's top spot away from the Phenom-II X4 Deneb based series, but the quad-cores still pack a lot of performance and come at a price that is much less expensive than the Intel alternative. The Phenom-II X4-975BE comes set for release at an MSRP of $195 and at a screaming 3.6Ghz clock speed. In this article, Benchmark Reviews is putting the Phenom-II X4-975BE through its paces. It's really going to have to perform well to compete with the new Sandy Bridge platform coming out at the same time.

The Phenom-II X4-975BE comes to us as no surprise off the back of the X4-970BE and all the previous Phenom-II X4 quad-core, black edition processors. AMD is very consistent in their releasing and naming of incrementally faster CPUs. In all reality, the Phenom-II X4-975BE isn't all that different from the original Phenom-II X4-940 released back in January 2009. The Deneb die remains the same, as well as almost all the specifications of the processor.

AMD also has a precedent of releasing their newest Phenom-II processors as "Black Edition" processors. The difference between a Black Edition (BE) processor and any other AMD processor is that the BE CPU has an unlocked multiplier. In the case of the Phenom-II X4-975BE, the multiplier is set to x18. Black Edition CPUs are meant for computer enthusiasts who are bent on overclocking their machines. In recent times, both AMD and Intel began locking the CPU multiplier, making it more difficult to overclock a CPU. Now, with the BE CPUs from AMD and the K series CPUs from Intel, the companies have unlocked the multipliers on some of their CPUs and, of course, charge more for these processors.

Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)
Product Name: Phenom-II X4-975BE
Model Number: HDZ975FBGMBOX
Price as Tested:$199.99 at Newegg

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by AMD, Inc.

Phenom-II X4-975BE Features

AMD64 with Direct Connect Architecture

• Helps improve system performance and efficiency by directly connecting the processors, the memory controller, and the I/O to the CPU.
• Designed to enable simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing
• Integrated Memory Controller
  • Benefits: Increases application performance by dramatically reducing memory latency
  • Scales memory bandwidth and performance to match compute needs
  • HyperTransport Technology provides up to 16.0GB/s peak bandwidth per processor-reducing I/O bottlenecks
  • Up to 37GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth (HyperTransport bus + memory bus)

AMD Balanced Smart Cache

• Shared L3 cache (either 6MB or 4MB)
• 512K L2 cache per core
  • Benefit: Shortened access times to the highly accessed data for better performance.

AMD Wide Floating Point Accelerator

• 128-bit floating point unit (FPU)
• High performance (128bit internal data path) floating point unit per core.
  • Benefit: Larger data paths and quicker floating point calculations for better performance.

HyperTransport Technology

• One 16-bit link at up to 4000MT/s
• Up to 8.0GB/s HyperTransport I/O bandwidth; Up to 16GB/s in HyperTransport Generation 3.0 mode
• Up to 37GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth (HyperTransport bus + memory bus)
  • Benefit: Quick access times to system I/O for better performance.

Integrated DRAM Controller with AMD Memory Optimizer Technology

• A high-bandwidth, low-latency integrated memory controller
• Supports PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066); PC2-6400 (DDR2-800), PC2-5300 (DDR2-667), PC2-4200 (DDR2-533) or PC2-3200 (DDR2-400) SDRAM unbuffered DIMMs - AM2+
• Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) and PC3 10600 (DDR3-1333MHz) - AM3
• Up to 17.1GB/s memory bandwidth for DDR2 and up to 21GB/s memory bandwidth for DDR3
  • Benefit: Quick access to system memory for better performance.

AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) Technology With Rapid Virtualization Indexing

• Silicon feature-set enhancements designed to improve the performance, reliability, and security of existing and future virtualization environments by allowing virtualized applications with direct and rapid access to their allocated memory.
  • Benefit: Helps virtualization software to run more securely and efficiently enabling a better experience when dealing with virtual systems

AMD PowerNow! Technology (Cool'n'Quiet Technology)

• Enhanced power management features which automatically and instantaneously adjusts performance states and features based on processor performance requirements
• For quieter operation and reduced power requirements
  • Benefit: Enables cooler and quieter platform designs by providing extremely efficient performance and energy usage.

AMD CoolCore Technology

• Reduces processor energy consumption by turning off unused parts of the processor. For example, the memory controller can turn off the write logic when reading from memory, helping reduce system power.
• Works automatically without the need for drivers or BIOS enablement.
• Power can be switched on or off within a single clock cycle, saving energy with no impact to performance.
  • Benefit: Helps users get more efficient performance by dynamically activating or turning off parts of the processor.

Dual Dynamic Power Management

• Enables more granular power management capabilities to reduce processor energy consumption.
• Separate power planes for cores and memory controller, for optimum power consumption and performance, creating more opportunities for power savings within the cores and memory controller.
  • Benefit: Helps improve platform efficiency by providing on demand memory performance while still allowing for decreased system power consumption

HDZ975FBGMBOX Specifications

• Model Number & Core Frequency: X4-975 / 3.6GHz (Black Edition)
• OPN: HDZ975FBGMBOX ("M" indicates new revision)
• L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor)
• L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor)
• L3 Cache Size: 6MB (shared)
• Total Cache (L2+L3): 8MB
• Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *
• Memory Controller Speed: Up to 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
• Types of Memory Supported: Unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz)
• HyperTransport 3.0 Specification: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
• Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth: Up to 37.3GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 21.3 GB/s memory bandwidth
• (DDR3-1333) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]
• Up to 33.1GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]
• Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
• Fab location: GLOBALFOUNDARIES Fab 1 module 1 in Dresden, Germany (formerly AMD Fab 36)
• Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
• Approximate Die Size: 258mm2
• Approximate Transistor count: ~758 million
• Max Temp: 62 degrees Celsius
• Nominal Voltage: 0.825-1.4V
• Max TDP: 125 Watts
• MSRP: $195 USD

*Note: configurable for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes

Closer Look: Phenom-II X4-975BE

The Phenom-II Black Edition processors were made for overclockers. A main concern for overclockers is always cooling. In order to push a CPU to a higher clock speed and therefore to better performance, you have to be able to keep it cool. With that in mind, the quite large 1.47" x 1.47" (37.31 x 37.31mm) heat-spreader surface area of the Phenom-II AM3 design is great for helping to dissipate excess heat. This design provides about 71% more contact surface area than recent Core i5 processors and 24% more contact surface area than Core i7 processors. With the right cooling hardware, this surface area can be taken advantage of and will allow for better overclocking.

The technical specifications for the Phenom-II X4-975BE haven't changed from previous releases of the Phenom-II X4 series; except for the 100MHz bump in clock speed, of course. The Phenom-II X4-975BE still has a nominal voltage of 0.825-1.4v and it is compatible with memory up to DDR3-1333MHz and DDR2-1066MHz. Though built on the AM3 938-pin micro pin grid array, the Phenom-II X4-975BE, like all other Athlon-II and Phenom-II processors, is backwards compatible with the AM2+ socket. Following all current AMD processors, the Phenom-II X4-975BE is built on a 45nm process. This process is becoming quite dated in the computer hardware industry as Intel has been using a smaller, 32nm process for quite some time now.

The Phenom-II series is AMD's upper echelon of CPUs and the processors differ from the lower, Athlon-II series CPUs mainly because of the addition of the L3 cache. The Phenom-II X4-975BE has a total L3 cache of 6MB shared across all four processor cores. In addition, the X4-975BE has an L2 cache of 512KB per core for a total of 2MB and an L1 cache of 512KB, 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core.

As the New Year begins, Intel is starting to release their new lineup of CPUs with the Sandy Bridge platform. Given the hype this platform has caused, it would seem like AMD is in trouble of losing the inexpensive price market. For quite a while now, AMD has been releasing processors that can outperform similarly priced Intel CPUs. In this article, we will be using one of the new Sandy Bridge processors that is being released at a similar price point to the Phenom-II X4-975BE to see how the two compare. The Phenom-II X4-975BE is set to release at $195, while the Intel Core i5-6500 is set to be released at $205. (We used the i5-6500K, but without being overclocked, it should be equal in performance to a normal i5-6500.)

Recently, nearly all of AMD's processors have proven to be great at overclocking, even those that are not Black Edition CPUs. I expected the same out of the Phenom-II X4-975BE, although it should be even easier to push this CPU due to the unlocked multiplier. The fact of the matter is, I was only able to push the Phenom-II X4-975BE from it's stock clock of 3.6GHz to a stable overclock of 4.0GHz. That's about an 11% increase in clock speed, which isn't terrible. We were able to push the other Phenom-II processor released today from 3.2GHz to 3.9GHz. That's an increase of almost 22%, nearly double the headroom we found in the Phenom-II X4-975BE. There is probably some explanation of this in the fact that the Phenom-II X4 series has been releasing updated processors using the same build now for quite a long time. Most of these processors have been able to overclock stably to about the 4.0GHz area. The X4-975BE, being a later-generation Phenom-II X4 processor, likely shouldn't have as much headroom as previous versions.

Many of our readers have recently asked me about undervolting a CPU in order to make it as utility friendly as possible. Not much is getting cheaper these days, and the price of electricity is on the list of utilities that continue to increase in price and make our lives that much more stressful. When a CPU can run at stock speeds but on less voltage than it is set for, you will see a decrease in the amount of energy the processor uses. With the Phenom-II X4-975BE processor, I was able to set the voltage to 1.2v, down from a normal 1.4v, and run it stably at stock speeds.

Since the Phenom-II X4-975BE comes with an unlocked multiplier, I started off the overclocking simply by incrementally increasing the CPU multiplier. The Phenom-II X4-975BE already starts with a very high CPU multiplier of x18. I moved the multiplier up by x1 at a time until I could no longer boot into Windows. I reached that point at a multiplier of x22. This put the Phenom-II X4-975BE at an amazing 4.4GHz. However, while I could get into Windows, the 975BE didn't withstand the stress testing I talk about in the testing methodology section. I started moving down the multiplier again by x0.5 at a time until the Phenom-II X4-975BE until the CPU passed the stress tests.

With a multiplier of x19.5 and the base clock still at 200MHz, the Phenom-II X4-975BE passed the stress testing. This put the CPU at 3.9GHz. That's a nice clock speed, but I wanted to get more out of the Phenom-II X4-975BE. I started increasing the base clock from 200MHz by an additional 5MHz. I only got to 210MHz before the Phenom-II X4-975BE failed the stress testing again. The highest stable overclock I could find was with the CPU multiplier at x19.5 and the base clock at 205MHz. I had to boost the CPU voltage to 1.6v to get to this level. This gave me an overclock of 4.0GHz, only 11% faster than the stock speeds.

Testing and Results

Before I begin any benchmarking or overclocking, I thoroughly stress the CPU and memory by running Prime95 on all available cores for 12 hours. If no errors are found, I move on to a gaming stress test. To do this, I use Prime95 again to stress the processor, while running an instance of FurMark's stability test on top of this. If the computer survives this test for 2 hours without lockup or corruption, I consider it to be stable and ready for overclocking. After achieving what I feel is stable overclock, I run to these tests again for certainty. The goal of this stress testing is to ensure the clock speeds and settings are stable before performing any benchmarks. I adopted this method from another writer here at Benchmark Reviews and it seems to do a great job of flushing out what only seem to be stable overclocks.

Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. This process proves extremely important in many gaming benchmarks, as the first run serves to cache maps allowing subsequent tests to perform much better than the first. Each test is completed five times, with the average results displayed in our article.

The Phenom-II X4-975BE will become the most expensive and fastest AMD quad-core processor available. Set to release at an MSRP of $195, the Phenom-II X4-975BE competes directly with the Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge processor clocked at 3.3GHz. We have tested the Phenom-II X4-975BE against the Core i5-2500. Let's take a look at the results.

Intel H67 Test Platforms

• Motherboard: Intel DH67BL with BIOS 1596
• Processor: 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) Intel Core i5-2500K
• CPU Cooler: Scythe Yasya
• System Memory: 2x2GB Patriot Gamer Series DDR3 (1333MHz@7-7-7-21)
• Primary Drive: Filemate Solid GO 60GB SSD
• Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Graphics Adapter: MSI NVIDIA GTS450 Cyclone (Forceware 260.99)

Intel X58 Test Platform

• Motherboard: MSI X58 Pro LGA1366 Intel X58 ATX
• Processor: 2.66GHz Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield/Nehalem BX80601920 ($280)
• CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen II
• System Memory: Kingston 6GB (3 x 2GB) KVR1333D3K3/6GR DDR3 1333MHz (PC3 10666) (CL7-7-7-20)
• Primary Drive: Filemate Solid GO 60GB SSD
• Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Graphics Adapter: MSI NVIDIA GTS450 Cyclone (Forceware 260.99)

AMD 890GX Test Platform

• Motherboard:Biostar TA890GXB-HD (890GX/SB850)
• Processor:3.6GHz AMD Phenom-II X4-975BE HDZ975FBGMBOX (MSRP $195)
• Processor: 3.2GHZ AMD Phenom-II X4-840 HDX840WFK42GM (MSRP $102)
• Processor: 3.3GHz AMD Phenom-II X2-560BE HDZ560WFK2DGM ($100)
• Processor: 3.1GHz AMD Athlon-II X4-645 ADX645WFGMBOX ($119)
• Processor: 3.1GHz AMD Athlon-II X3-445 ADX445WFK32GM ($77)
• Processor: 3.2GHz AMD Athlon-II X2-260 ADX260OCK23GM ($79)
• CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen II
• System Memory: 2x2GB Patriot Gamer Series DDR3 (1333MHz@7-7-7-21)
• Primary Drive: Filemate Solid GO 60GB SSD
• Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Graphics Adapter: MSI NVIDIA GTS450 Cyclone (Forceware 260.99)

Benchmark Applications

• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
• AIDA64 Extreme Edition v1.1
• PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0b1019
• Futuremark PCMark Vantage v1.0.2.0 64-Bit
  • TV and Movies
  • Gaming
  • Music
• SiSoftware Sandra 2010.1.16.92 CPU Test
• Maxon CINEBENCH R11.5 64-Bit
• Street Fighter IV benchmark
• x264Bench HD 3.0
• Handbrake 0.94 video transcoding

AIDA64 Extreme Edition v1.1 Benchmark Tests

In November, 2010, FinalWire acquired and discontinued Lavalys EVEREST, updated it, and released it as AIDA64. AIDA64 is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes AIDA64 a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

All of the benchmarks used in our test bed rely on basic x86 instructions and consume very low system memory while also being aware of HyperThreading, multi-processors, and multi-core processors. While the AIDA64 CPU tests really only compare the processor performance more than it measures platforms, it still offers a glimpse into what kind of power each platform possesses.

The Phenom-II X4-975BE falls right in line with where it should in comparison to the other AMD processors, topping the AMD numbers. When compared to the i5-2500 CPU, the Phenom-II X4-975BE fails to overcome and falls behind by about 22%. When overclocked the Phenom-II X4-975BE closes the gap to about 9%, and comes pretty close to the performance of the Core i7-920 CPU as well.

Like the Queen benchmark, the Photoworxx tests for penalties against pipeline architecture. The synthetic Photoworxx benchmark stresses the integer arithmetic and multiplication execution units of the CPU and also the memory subsystem. Due to the fact that this test performs high memory read/write traffic, it cannot effectively scale in situations where more than two processing threads are used. The AIDA64 Photoworxx benchmark performs the following tasks on a very large RGB image:

• Fill
• Flip
• Rotate90R (rotate 90 degrees CW)
• Rotate90L (rotate 90 degrees CCW)
• Random (fill the image with random colored pixels)
• RGB2BW (color to black & white conversion)
• Difference
• Crop

I have noticed over time that the Photoworxx test, unlike most of the other AIDA64 tests, depends a lot on the L3 cache. In this test more than any other, the CPUs that have an L3 cache perform a lot better than those that do not. Once again, the Phenom-II X4-975BE tops the AMD CPUs and this time it even outperforms the newly released Core i5-2500 CPU.

The Zip Library test measures combined CPU and memory subsystem performance through the public ZLib compression library. ZLib is designed as a free lossless data compression library for use on virtually any computer hardware and operating system. The ZLib data format is itself portable across platforms and has a footprint independent of input data that can be reduced at some cost in compression.

In the ZLib compression test, the Phenom-II X4-975BE comes very close to the performance of the i5-2500K and even outperforms the Core i7-920. When overclocked, the Phenom-II X4-975BE actually outpaces the new Sandy Bridge CPU.

The AES integer benchmark measures CPU performance using AES data encryption. It utilizes Vincent Rijmen, Antoon Bosselaers and Paulo Barreto's public domain C code in ECB mode and consumes 48 MB of memory.

While I normally like to put both of the Everest integer performance tests on one graph, the Core i5-6500K made that impossible this time. With the new Sandy Bridge processors, Intel made some major changes to the way their CPUs handle AES compression. This new processing is a boon to webmasters everywhere, as well as anyone who deals with encrypted files on a regular basis. With that in mind, the Core i5 processor completely destroys the competition in the AES test. The AMD Phenom-II X4 processors both outpace the Core i7-920, and the Phenom-II X4-975BE beats it by a sizable margin.

In the floating point tests, the Phenom-II X4-975BE once again beats out the Core i7-920 CPU in the 32-bit and 64-bit tests. In the 128-bit SinJulia tests, it falls behind both the Intel CPUs and, even when overclocked, it can't compete with the Core i5-2500K CPU in any of the tests. The new instructions for floating point processes in the Sandy Bridge CPUs really let the Core i5-2500K take top spot in these tests.

Passmark Performance Test

PassMark Performance Test is a PC hardware benchmark utility that allows a user to quickly assess the performance of their computer and compare it to a number of standard 'baseline' computer systems. The Passmark Performance Test CPU tests all benchmark the mathematical operations, compression, encryption, SSE, and 3DNow! instructions of modern processors.

In our tests there were several areas of concentration for each benchmark, which are combined into one compound score. This score is referred to as the CPU Mark, and is a composite of the following tests: Integer Math, Floating Point Math, Find Prime Numbers, SSE/3DNow!, Compression, Encryption, Image Rotation, and String Sorting. For this review, we've also decided to run the memory benchmark, which results in a composite score based on the following tests: small block allocation, cached read, uncached read, write performance, and large block allocation.

At clock speeds in the CPU tests, the Core i5-2500 here outperforms the Phenom-II X4-975BE by about 9%, and the AMD Black Edition CPU falls even further behind the Core i7-920. When overclocked to 4.0GHz, the Phenom-II X4-975BE makes up the difference and more, overcoming the lead of the Core i5-2500, but still falling shy of the i7-920 performance. With the integration of the IMC onto the die of the Sandy Bridge CPU, it really isn't much of a surprise that memory bandwidth is higher than that of the Phenom-II X4-975BE.

PCMark Vantage Benchmark Tests

PCMark Vantage is an objective hardware performance benchmark tool for PCs running 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. PCMark Vantage is well suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista/7 PC: from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops, to dedicated workstations and high-end gaming rigs. Benchmark Reviews has decided to use a few select tests from the suite to demonstrate simulated real-world processor usage in this article. Our tests were conducted on 64-bit Windows 7, with results displayed in the chart below.

TV and Movies Suite

• TV and Movies 1 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
  • Video playback: HD DVD w/ additional lower bitrate HD content from HDD, as downloaded from net
• TV and Movies 2 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 19.39 Mbps terrestrial HDTV playback
• TV and Movies 3 (SSD=100%)
  • HDD Media Center
• TV and Movies 4 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • Video transcoding: media server archive to portable device
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 48 Mbps Blu-ray playback

Gaming Suite*

• Gaming 1 (CPU=30%, GPU=70%)
  • GPU game test
• Gaming 2 (SSD=100%)
  • HDD: game HDD
• Gaming 3 (CPU=75%, RAM=5%, SSD=20%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • CPU game test
  • Data decompression: level loading
• Gaming 4 (CPU=42%, RAM=1%, GPU=24%, SSD=33%)
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • GPU game test
  • CPU game test
  • HDD: game HDD

Music Suite

• Music 1 (CPU=50%, RAM=3%, GPU=13%, SSD=34%)
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • Web page rendering - w/ music shop content
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
• Music 2 (CPU=100%)
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
• Music 3 (CPU=100%)
  • Audio transcoding: MP3 -> WMA
• Music 4 (CPU=50%, SSD=50%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player

* EDITOR'S NOTE: Hopefully our readers will carefully consider how relative PCMark Vantage is as "real-world" benchmark, since many of the tests rely on unrelated hardware components. For example, per the FutureMark PCMark Vantage White Paper document, Gaming test #2 weighs the storage device for 100% of the test score. In fact, according to PCMark Vantage the video card only impacts 23% of the total gaming score, but the CPU represents 37% of the final score. As our tests in this article (and many others) has already proven, gaming performance has a lot more to do with the GPU than the CPU, and especially more than the hard drive or SSD (which is worth 38% of the final gaming performance score).

SiSoftware Sandra

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what's really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

The SANDRA DhryStone and Whetstone tests are CPU tests that run completely within the CPU + cache memory itself. These tests are perfect for seeing general efficiency per processing core. Dhrystone is basically a suite of arithmetic and string manipulating programs and is an older CPU tests. Even so, it remains a simple and accurate way to show RAW CPU processing performance. The whetstone benchmark primarily measures floating-point arithmetic performance.

The Dhrystone test suite results once again show the Phenom-II X4-975BE topping the AMD CPUs, which is exactly where we would expect it to be. Unfortunately the Phenom-II X4-975BE can't keep up with the Intel CPUs here, falling behind by quite a large margin, even when overclocked to 4.0GHz.

The Whetstone tests show a similar story to a lesser degree. The Phenom-II X4-975BE gets a lot closer to the performance of the Intel CPUs, but still trails slightly, even when overclocked.

Maxon Cinebench is a real-world test suite that assesses the computer's performance capabilities. Cinebench is based on Maxon's award-winning animation software, Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. Maxon software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. Cinebench Release 11.5 includes the ability to more accurately test the industry's latest hardware, including systems with up to 64 processor threads and the testing environment better reflects the expectations of today's production demands. A more streamlined interface makes testing systems and reading results incredibly straightforward.

The Cinebench R11.5 test scenario uses all of a system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene, "No Keyframes" the viral animation by AixSponza. This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. The OpenGL graphics card testing procedure uses a complex 3D scene depicting a car chase with which the performance of your graphics card in OpenGL mode is measured. During the benchmark tests the graphics card is evaluated by way of displaying an intricate scene that includes complex geometry, high-resolution textures, and a variety of effects to evaluate the performance across a variety of real-world scenarios.

In the CPU Single Core tests, Cinebench focuses on a single thread of processing, so all of the AMD CPU scores are based nearly completely on their clock speeds. You can see this clearly from the results if you exclude the Core i7 and i5 processors. The Phenom-II X4-975BE at 3.6GHz sits on top of the AMD CPUs and even outperforms the Core i7-920, although that CPU is performing at a much slower 2.66GHz. When overclocked the Phenom-II X4-975BE extends the lead.

In the Multi-Core Cinebench test the Intel Core i7 can take advantage of multi-threading so the Core i7's four cores turn into eight threads, giving it a higher score than all but the Core i5-6500K. The 6500K doesn't have hyperthreading capabilities, but still destroys even the 8-threaded Core i7-920. While still topping the AMD numbers, the Phenom-II X4-975BE can only come close to the i7-920 when overclocked to 4.0GHz.

Street Fighter IV Benchmark

PC-based video games can depend heavily on the CPU if the attached GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is less powerful, or the graphics settings are configured so low that they create no strain on the video card and must rely purely on system processing speed; a phenomenon known as CPU-dependence. The opposite is true when the video game has a powerful video card installed, and can handle all graphical demands without receiving assistance from the CPU. Benchmark Reviews has proven consistently that, with a high end GPU in use, frame rates are not often noticeably impacted by changes in processor or RAM.

Capcom's Street Fighter IV is part of the now-famous Street Fighter series that began in 1987. The 2D Street Fighter II was one of the most popular fighting games of the 1990s, and now gets a 3D face-lift to become Street Fighter 4. The Street Fighter 4 benchmark utility was released as a novel way to test your system's ability to run the game. It uses a few dressed-up fight scenes where combatants fight against each other using various martial arts disciplines. Feet, fists and magic fill the screen with a flurry of activity. Due to the rapid pace, varied lighting and the use of music this is one of the more enjoyable benchmarks.

Street Fighter IV uses a proprietary Capcom SF4 game engine, which is enhanced over previous versions of the game. In terms of 3D graphical demand, Street Fighter IV is considered very low-end for most desktop GPUs. While modern desktop computers with discrete graphics have no problem playing Street Fighter IV at its highest graphical settings, integrated and mobile GPUs have a difficult time producing playable frame rates with the lowest settings configured.

While PC games are generally playable regardless of CPU, the Street Fighter IV game is surprisingly dependent on the CPU. That is why it is included here.

It takes the Street Fighter IV gaming test to bring out the competition between the Phenom-II X4-975BE and the Core i5-2500K. In fact, in this gaming test, the Phenom-II X4-975BE outperforms the Core i5-2500K when the two are at stock clock speeds. When overclocked to 4.0GHz, the Phenom-II X4-975BE nearly reaches the performance of the Core i7-920.

Video Transcoding Tests

x264 HD Benchmark 3.19 Test

Tech ARP's x264 HD Benchmark comprises the Avisynth video scripting engine, an x264 encoder, a sample 720P video file, and a script file that actually runs the benchmark. The script invokes four two-pass encoding runs and reports the average frames per second encoded as a result. The script file is a simple batch file, so you could edit the encoding parameters if you were interested, although your results wouldn't then be comparable to others.

In the AVI format transcode, the Phenom-II X4-975BE tops all of the other AMD CPUs. It should, considering it costs about $80 more than the most expensive of the other AMD processors. Unfortunately, the Phenom-II X4-975BE can't match the performance of the newly released Core i5-2500K.

Handbrake 0.9.4 Video Transcoder

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder program designed to convert MPEG video (including DVD-Video) into an MPEG-4 video file in MPEG-4 Part 14 (.mp4) or Matroska (.mkv) containers. The program is used to convert DVDs into other forms so they can be viewed on portable media devices and with most media players. While Handbrake was originally developed for BeOS, it is now available for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Handbrake is a readily available program that easily handles and utilizes multiple CPU cores and threads. This makes it an ideal program for us to use to test CPU performance. The amount of time it takes for Handbrake to convert a media file scales very nicely based on the clock speed and available cores of the CPU. For this test, I used a 1.12GB video file in MPEG format to be converted to MP4 format using the "iPhone &iPod Touch" presets. I recorded the total time in (min:sec) that it took to transcode the video file.

The Handbrake transcode tests give us a good look at performance that will concern a lot of people. With the release of the Sandy Bridge CPUs, Intel has focused on media performance, so it comes as no surprise that the i5-2500K performance the best of all the processors here. The Phenom-II X4-975BE doesn't perform terribly, especially when overclocked to 4.0GHz, but it also doesn't compete with the latest Intel CPU priced about the same.

AMD Phenom-II X4-975BE Final Thoughts

Intel has thrown down the gauntlet with the Sandy Bridge release. Gaming performance wasn't exactly a focus here, since the extreme gaming market is a lot smaller than the up-and-coming media centered market. With smartphones and tablets making such a splash in the market, media transcoding is becoming more popular than ever. Unfortunately, as we have shown in our tests, the Phenom-II X4-975BE lacks the performance necessary to compete with the Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge CPU in these areas.

In my recent experience, I have been disappointed by the Core i5 CPUs and very impressed with the performance of the AMD CPUs for their price. A Phenom-II X4 Black Edition processor would have no problem competing with a similarly priced Core i5 CPU. In fact, a much less expensive Athlon-II X4 processor would be able to compete with a old Core i5 CPU. This is simply not the case anymore.

The ball is in AMD's court now. Intel has released their Sandy Bridge platform and proven that they can give the performance necessary to compete in the mainstream market. AMD's stranglehold on the entry-level market might be in jeopardy as well depending on the performance of the lower end Core i3 Sandy Bridge processors. It's about time for AMD to come up with something new, and I don't mean another series of CPU releases that are just 100MHz speed bumps over their predecessors.

Sometime this year, possibly very soon, AMD will announce the release of their APU, the Brazos chips. These will be the AMD processors that have an integrated GPU on the same die as the CPU. The only problem is, everything we have heard from AMD about the Brazos chips is that they are targeted for low-end mobile platforms. That doesn't give us much hope for a new battle for power in the enthusiast or even mainstream computer market. The money, however, is moving toward mobility. Netbooks, tablets, smartphones, etc. That is where the money is at. I can't say I would be too surprised to see AMD move away from the trying their hand at the enthusiast end, but it would be very a sad day to say the least.

In many ways, with the Sandy Bridge release, Intel has left the door wide open for AMD to come down and sweep away the enthusiast market. Even if they only release a platform that is just comparable, or slightly below, the Sandy Bridge high-end performance, all they have to do is allow for overclocking and they will have a distinct advantage. With all the restrictions on overclocking in the Sandy Bridge platform, AMD should take note of the disgruntlement of the high-end enthusiast market. AMD had brought overclocking to masses with their low-end CPUs. The Athlon-II series was great at overclocking and had a lot of headroom. To make things nicer, they were very inexpensive CPUs, so it didn't cost an arm and a leg to start overclocking, like it will now with the Sandy Bridge CPUs.

AMD Phenom-II X4-975 BE Conclusion

IMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that could render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating specifically for the product tested which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate.

The Phenom-II X4-975BE performs very well in its place at the top of the AMD quad-core line-up. If the 975BE had been released two months ago, it would have been a great processor for its price as well. That's not the case anymore. With the Core i5-2500 being released at nearly the same price as the Phenom-II X4-975BE, it's performance just doesn't cut it anymore. A few months ago, I would have been able to give high marks for the performance we saw from the Phenom-II X4-975BE, but today I can't. That being said, I have to give the Phenom-II X4-975BE some points for its performance in comparison to the higher priced Core i7-920 CPU.

AMD has released a large number of these increasingly faster Phenom-II X4 CPUs, with the Phenom-II X4-975BE being the latest. This is a testament of the increasingly strong construction of the AMD CPU line. Now that the 45nm process has been around for a while, both AMD and Intel have been able to enjoy better yields for their processors. With Intel focused on producing mainly 32nm chips for a while now, AMD should be able to quickly realize high yields when they decide to release a 32nm CPU. Until then, we stick with the Athlon-II and Phenom-II series, which are solid processors and generally great overclockers.

One huge advantage that AMD has maintained is that they developed their most recent processor lines to fit in the older AM2+ socket. They also developed the AM3 socket, giving compatibility with newer technologies like DDR3 memory. This makes the Phenom-II X4-975BE a very versatile CPU. Many desktop computer users wait a long time before upgrading their systems. When they finally do, they may take their time, desiring to upgrade a single or only a few components at a time. With each new Intel release recently, a new motherboard would be required in addition to a CPU for an upgrade. With AMD, as long as you have an AM2+ motherboard, you can upgrade at your leisure.

The Phenom-II X4-975BE follows on the heels of a long line of CPUs that were great overclockers. It appears that the Phenom-II X4 series is reaching the end of its line, however. The Phenom-II X4-975BE we received for testing only reached a stable overclock of 4.0GHz. Now, a 4.0GHz quad-core processor has been very impressive up until now. With the Sandy Bridge CPUs reaching up near the 5.0GHz mark now, 4.0GHz doesn't seem as impressive. It also doesn't seem as impressive when the Phenom-II X4-975BE starts as a 3.6GHz stock clocked CPU. That's only an 11% increase in clock speed on a series of processers where 20% is common.

As of March 2011, AMD's HDZ975FBGMBOX costs $199.99 at Newegg. That fits right in line with where the newest Phenom-II quad-core should fit. A couple of months ago, that would have been a great price for a processor that rivals the Core i7-920 in many areas of performance. Today, however, with the Core i5-2500 being released at just $205 and boasting performance that easily beats the Phenom-II X4-975BE, $195 just isn't good enough. AMD is going to have to drop their prices, or launch a new CPU line to remain competitive at this stage.

Pros:

Cons:

Ratings:

• Performance: 8.00
• Construction: 9.00
• Functionality: 9.00
• Overclock: 8.25
• Value: 7.50

Final Score: 8.35 out of 10.

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