AMD Launches 125W Phenom II X4 965 CPU

Test Setup, Methodology, and Benchmarks Used

Too keep things consistent and try to maintain and "apples to apples" comparison, we try to use as much common hardware across the board. Each system's BIOS was set to "Optimized Defaults", with a verification of CPU & Memory speeds and timings.


We started out with a clean install of Vista and performed all the Windows updates to bring it up to current levels as of when this review was written. Then we installed all out benchmark programs and ran a disk defrag. Afterwards we disabled some un-needed Vista features that could affect results such as SuperFetch, System Restore, Defrag, Indexing, and Remote Assistance. Furthermore we ran the Bapco Auto-Configuration Tool and used its "Level 3" settings which disables a bunch more stuff:

* Disables screen saver
* Disables Windows Update
* Disables Desktop Cleanup Wizard
* Disables User Account Control (UAC)
* Disables the Sidebar
* Disables Windows Security Center warning messages
* Disables Windows Firewall
* Disables incoming Remote Desktop connections
* Disables Windows Error Reporting to Microsoft
* Prevents the Welcome Center from running at startup
* Disables Windows Defender

Each of the benchmarks were run at least five times, with the average being reported.



The following tests were performed:

* Synthetic Benchmarks:
o SiSoftware Sandra - 2009 SP1 (15.60)
o Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition - v4.60
o WinRAR - 3.80
* 3D Rendering Performance:
o POV-Ray - 3.7 beta 29
o MAXON CINEBENCH - R10
* Video Encoding Performance:
o Tech ARP's x264 Benchmark - v2.0
o Windows Media Encoder 9 (x64 Edition)
o Divx Encoder - 6.6.1 (Codec 6.8.5)
* Math Calculation Performance:
o Wolfram Research Mathematica - v7
o wPrime - v2.00
o PiFast - 4.3
o HyperPi - 0.99b (Contains Super-Pi Mod v1.5)
* Gaming Performance:
o Lost Planet: Colonies Edition
o Far Cry 2
o Crysis Warhead
o Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
o Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark
o Valve VRAD map compilation tool
* Miscellaneous:
o Notfred Folding @ Home Benchmark

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