AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Review & Overclocking - PAGE 6

So, in reality, is there any point in going with this CPU over a Core 2 Duo/Quad tech CPU? Sure, the Phenom wins in memory bandwidth benchmarks, but that didn't amount to anything when it came to gaming.

Why would you even pit a regular HD versus an SSD? That comparison was just completely useless and told me nothing, other than that SSD's are so much faster...duh! Couldn't you have just swapped the same drive over to run the tests?

As for gaming, why not run them for more realistic resolutions and varying qualities, other than the lowest? I get you were trying to compare CPU processing capability, but as long as the CPU can keep up in feeding the GPU, who cares about excess processing?

Anyways, it was a good article...I hope they hit the e-shelves soon.

Well, you can save on the motherboard and processor, and get a higher end GPU, which will give you overall better gaming performance at high-rez high-aa/af than a slightly faster Core 2 with a slightly cheaper video card.

Also if you are more into rendering, three cores beats two.

Basically, its an option - and having choices leads to more competition, that lowers prices.

quote Iceguy2003

So, in reality, is there any point in going with this CPU over a Core 2 Duo/Quad tech CPU? Sure, the Phenom wins in memory bandwidth benchmarks, but that didn't amount to anything when it came to gaming.

I had existing SSD results, and have standardized on SSD's for Intel reviews. I don't have a second SSD for the AMD platform, and realistically, the SSD only makes a big difference in HDTach and HDTune. I put in the numbers for reference.

I run two types of gaming tests:

- older games at low resolution, little eye candy to evalute the processor for the ability to "feed" a video card; basically a pure cpu test

- new games at high resolution, high aa/af - ie the Crysis, DMC4, WIC tests, to see how much / little impact the CPU has at 1024 (little eye candy), 1024/1280/1600 (high eyecandy aa/af)

The idea of the second set is to see how it would perform for a gamer; realistically if gaming is your area of interest, look at the 1600x1200 high aa/af results in order to make a buying decision.

I try to have relevant data for all types of readers :-)

quote InfoSeek

Why would you even pit a regular HD versus an SSD? That comparison was just completely useless and told me nothing, other than that SSD's are so much faster...duh! Couldn't you have just swapped the same drive over to run the tests?

As for gaming, why not run them for more realistic resolutions and varying qualities, other than the lowest? I get you were trying to compare CPU processing capability, but as long as the CPU can keep up in feeding the GPU, who cares about excess processing?

Anyways, it was a good article...I hope they hit the e-shelves soon.

Very nice review. I like how you show all aspects of its computing power. I think an AM3 mobo with DDR3 1600 and full 16x PCI-E 2.0 SLI would would really set this chip off.

Why were they using 1333mhz DDR3 with the Intel and not the AMD... seems to have skewed the results a bit... not to mention the fact that the Intel is running a SSD and the AMD is running a normal sata II drive. To many confounding variables, no clear conclusions... cept that they both seem awesome

The way the review has been written, clearly shows that its biased towards AMD cpu's. when X3 720 beats e8400 in any benchmark, its written as X3 beats 8400 by a huge 22% margin.
but when its other way round, the numbers are either notmentioned with words such as 'ouch' or maybe modestly describe as e840 beats by a mere 22 %.
NOT FIR

What the hell was that?
How do you outfit two cpu's with comletely different components and then put them head to head?

We understand cpu's made by different manufacturers and you cant use the same board. But why didnt you use same components for other items?

i.e. RAM, HDD, you could have also equiped AMD with DDR3 board and ram.

This test is flawed and pointless, you may as well never have done this test.

Same problem all over the internet, they are equiping AMD with DDR2 and not 3, whats the point!

Basically, what this proves, is that AMD's chip, on a system with dated components, stacks up to Intel's chip, with up to date equipment. Furthermore, this test didn't go into the overclock capabilities these chips have. I rate this test 0 out of utters. Cows could have cleaned up this debate much quicker, and made more sense in the process.

quote Fizzlepop

Basically, what this proves, is that AMD's chip, on a system with dated components, stacks up to Intel's chip, with up to date equipment. Furthermore, this test didn't go into the overclock capabilities these chips have. I rate this test 0 out of utters. Cows could have cleaned up this debate much quicker, and made more sense in the process.

Exactly - I mean why would you try to review a CPU by using seperate parts for the rest of the system ( DDR2 Ram vs. DDR3, HDD vs SSD , Old MOBO design vs. Newer, etc. etc. ) and then try to draw conclusions on which performs better !! - especially when the new phenom 2 processor is designed to work with the newer components as well ( I could see doing this if the AMD product did not run on the new tech but can not understand why you would try to compare two distinctly different setups and try to draw a conclusion of how the 2 CPU's compare - of course the gaming performance is going to be better on a system with a SSD drive and 1333 DDR3 Ram vs. a HDD and DDR2 800 Ram !!

I would just like to clear things up a bit. This is an older review and all of ones done after have been providing much more reliable results.

All AMD processors are reviewed on the same motherboard, whenever it's possible of course. Same thing for Intel processors. Also, for both AMD and Intel reviews we are using the same memory, video card and hard drive.

Since earlier this year, I am the main reviewer for Intel, while Carl, aka The_Smith, is doing AMD hardware. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to PM one of us. We'll be happy to make our reviews better to our readers!

Just FYI, we'll be making a couple changes in our benchmarking suite and switching to Windows 7 x64 as soon as possible.

Thanks Zertz for the FYI... Keep up the awesome work on the benchmarkings. I know I appreciate it.

Thanks

Bhenning: I just bought this processor and was thinking about overclocking. I am new to this aspect of computing so I wanted to be guided properly down the right path. I have the stock cooling fan and sink installed. How high do can I soup this baby up before it gets dangerous for longevity? You said you maxed out at 3.7. Was that stock cooling or upgraded? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Carlos