PC Perspective - AMD Phenom X4 9850 Processor Review

	AMD Phenom X4 9850 Processor Review - Long Awaited B3
	Author: Ryan Shrout Date: Mar 27, 2008 Subject: Processor Manufacturer: AMD

The PC Perspective Podcast is your weekly stop for the latest PC tech news and reviews! Give it a listen!

Summary

The following is a summary of the more detailed analysis of the AMD Phenom X4 9850 processor. For all the in-depth analysis and testing you'd expect from us, be sure to click this link to get all the details!

Click this link to get the full article

It wouldn't surprise me really to find out that some of you might not even have known that AMD's Phenom processors had been released. Sure, we had a review up of the technology and have actually done a follow up or two, but to be truthful the new processor from the once-worshiped AMD launched with a thud rather than a bang. The initial launch parts were released at 2.2 and 2.3 GHz, a considerable drop from their expected clock rates and thus performance was poor when compared to anything Intel had n their top-of-the-line Core 2 series.

What does the B3 stepping change?

The new AMD Phenom X4 9850 processor that we are testing here today is mainly addressing the TLB bug that existed in previous silicon. The fix was easy to do, but getting an entire silicon process re-spin up and running is much more work that simply sending out a software patch that folks expected for Windows and games. Phenom originally launched in November of 2007 and AMD was busting its collective tail to get the B3 Phenoms out the door for us today.

As you would expect, any of the still available B2 stepping quad-core Phenom processors have reached the end of their short lives and will either be sold at a discount or sent back to AMD. Keep your eyes open for deals! What you get instead is all quad-core Phenoms, known as the X4, running on the updated and fixed B3 stepping along with some new clock speeds. The X4 9850 that we are testing runs at 2.5 GHz, a cool 200 MHz increase over the previous B2 stepping top frequency of 2.3 GHz. It is also a fully unlocked processor, though AMD has not given it the "Black Edition" moniker for whatever reason.

Let's see some quick performance numbers for this sub $240 processor:

The new AMD Phenom X4 9850 is a great processor for its segment even though it is still not able to dominate in any fashion over the Intel quad-core options. Just as with the initial 2.3 GHz Phenom B2 launch, AMD still considers the Intel Core 2 Q6600 its primary competition, and I consider the Q9450 to be another potential threat as well. This new CPU is definitely getting AMD closer to its performance goals and any enthusiast or gamer looking for a ~$240 processor is going to have a fantastic experience with the 9850. The added performance and efficiency of the 2000 MHz memory controller and system bus add to the benefits of the 2.50 GHz clock rate producing the best fastest stock speed AMD quad-core CPU to date.

Pricing and Availability

The estimated price on the AMD Phenom X4 9850 processor is $235; that's a pretty good bargain for a quad-core processor that performs very well. The other new B3-stepping CPUs that will show up in the channel today include the X4 9750 at $215 and the X4 9550 at $195. When you see the prices stepped like this, it's hard to justify NOT spending the extra $40 for the extra 300 MHz and the fully unlocked multipliers of the 9850.

Compared to Intel's product line up, the closest competitor is the Q6600 currently sitting at $280 or so while the Q9450, based on the 45nm process, is still missing from store shelves. In terms of performance, the AMD Phenom X4 9850 is very much in line in nearly all of our tests, making the Phenom AT LEAST a fighting chance for your dollar.

Final Thoughts

The new Phenom X4 9850 processor is a very welcome newcomer to the processor segment and it could be responsible for a rebirth of interest in AMD CPUs. It is far from the fastest CPU was have put through the paces but with the B3 stepping AMD was able to fix the TLB erratum, increase the clock speed to 2.50 GHz and raise memory controller clock rate enough to boost performance across nearly all of our benchmarks. Its price should be attractive to a lot of gamers and enthusiasts as should combining an X4 9850 with a complete Spider platform. Though AMD's components aren't winning the top spot in any of their three markets (CPU, GPU, chipset), they are priced well and perform competitively as a complete solution for real-world gaming and computing making the Spider platform a much more attractive option than it was before.

Be sure to use our pricing engine to find the best prices on AMD Phenom CPUs and anything else you might need:

Click here for the Detailed Review