MitraMSI > Printable version> AMD Phenom 2 X4 955 / MSI 790 FX / XFX 4870 X2

Phenom 2 X4 955 BE

There are no surprises when it comes to the appearance of the latest Phenom 2 CPU, it shares the same design as all recent AMD processors with a large metal heatspreader covering the CPU cores. Printed on the heatspreader are the various product codes with the HDZ955 confirming the model number for this part. Flipping the CPU over reveals the AM3 pin layout which is also compatible with AM2+ motherboards. As a result the processor can be purchased now and used in a brand new DDR3/AM3 system or used in an existing DDR2 build as an upgrade and then moved into a higher specification motherboard in the future.

Underneath the heatspreader we have a Deneb core which is a 45nm part. Normal operation occurs at 1.35v however the processor specifications state that it will operate from 0.875v to 1.5v. AMD have chosen a 3.2GHz core speed for this model and it is achieved through a 16x multiplier and 200MHz bus and like the other AM3 CPUs it uses a 2000MHz HyperTransport link.

One of the disappointing aspects of the Phenom 2 810 when it launched was that it had 4mb of L3 cache compared to 6mb on the older 940 model. With the 955 BE this has been rectified and we have a processor with 4x64kb of L1 Data and Instruction, 4x512KB of L2 and 6Mb of L3 Cache.

Finally, all of the standard instruction sets for AMD CPUs are supported, including 64bit compatibility and SSE3/4A and the chip has a TDP of 125watts.

MSI 790FX-GD70

When we visited MSI at Cebit this year it was clear that they were putting a lot of focus on making their products look more professional and attractive and with the 790FX-GD70 it seems they will also be applying those aspects to packaging. The new style of MSI box looks very clean and there is nothing to detract our attention from the various specifications and product information on the front and back of the box.

Inside the good first impression continues as we find a massive amount of bundled cables and connectors, really nothing has been omitted by MSI. Highlights of the bundle include the well written manual and M-Connectors which make case/system wiring a simple and easy process.

A black and blue colour scheme has been chosen for the 790FX-GD70 and it goes well with the large heatsink which contains a copper heatpipe. This is an AM3 based board which uses the 790FX chipset and features support for 16gb of dual channel DDR3 up to 1333MHz as standard or 2133MHz via overclocking. All currently available AM3 processors are supported as well as the upcoming Athlon 2.

When we begin looking a little closer at the board it immediately becomes clear that MSI have aimed high with this product. The selection of add-in card slots is exceptional and through the use of four large PCI-Express slots we can take advantage of Quad CrossFireX via a 2x16, 2x8 configuration.

Also present is a single PCIe1x and two standard PCI slots, the only disappointing aspect of this is that the 1x PCIe slot will almost always be unusable as it is below the primary graphics slot and will likely be covered by a GPU cooler.

At the bottom right of the board is a selection of buttons, starting from the right we have power on, reset and Clear CMOS but then it gets a little more interesting. The next button is branded Green Power and enables/disables the enhanced power saving features on the board. Finally we have two overclocking related items, a button and a dial. The first runs an automatic overclocking test to determine a safe overclock for the system. The dial allows us to change the bus speed of the system in increments by twisting, the scale of the change can be adjusted by a BIOS setting.

Board connectivity is also great on this product, on the back panel we have PS/2, optical and Coaxial out, seven USB 2.0, firewire, dual GB LAN, analog audio and finally a single eSATA which takes the number of SATA connections on the 790FX-GD70 to nine. Six of these are controlled by the SB750 with the other 2 internal connectors running off the JMicron JMB322.

It is also worth noting that MSI use components such as solid capacitors and shielded choke throughout the board which enhances the lifespan of the product as well as increasing power efficiency.

MSI use an American Megatrends based BIOS on this product, it follows their standard layout and is easy to navigate and use. Performance options are all located in the Cell Menu screen and allow us great flexibility in configuring the system. CPU multiplier is available in 0.5 steps up to 32.5, Bus speed up to 600, CPU voltage to 1.9v and memory voltage as high as 2.4v.

Also present in the BIOS is M-Flash, this small utility allows us to easily backup or update the system BIOS using a USB drive and we are very happy to see it on this board.

A full selection of BIOS screens can be downloaded from here.

XFX 4870 X2

XFX package their 4870 X2 in a large box which gives away little information on the card specifications, other than memory amount which is listed twice. Inside the card is well protected and comes bundled with all of the cables and connectors we feel are standard in today’s market. This includes a CrossFire connector and DVI to HDMI dongle.

he XFX version of the 4870 X2 looks quite similar to the reference model due to the same dual slot cooler being used but the card has been subjected to a slight makeover with the use of black PCB and DVIs. Mixed with the stylish XFX artwork it makes for an impressive looking product.

As expected there are two R700 GPUs under the cooler, linked by a PCI-Express bus. These 55nm chips contain 16 ROPs and 800 Unified Shaders. Each GPU has access to 1024Mb of GDDR5 via a 256bit memory bus and XFX have chose clocks of 750MHz core, 900MHz memory.

Support for all of the standard Radeon features is present and includes PCI-Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1 and AvivoHD for acceleration of Blu-Ray content. AvivoHD is especially useful when we take into account that this card is capable of outputting high definition video over HDMI along with 7.1 audio.

Test System

AMD Phenom 2 X4 955 Black Edition

AMD Phenom 2 810
AMD Phenom 2 720

MSI 790FX-GD70

2x2GB Corsair Dominator 1600MHz @ 1333MHz DDR3 8-8-8-24
AMD Phenom 9950 Black Edition
AMD Phenom 2 940 Black Edition
2x2GB Corsair Dominator 1142MHz DDR2 @ DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15
Intel i7-920
3x2Gb Corsair Dominator 1066MHz 8-8-8-24-2T
Asus Rampage II Gene Motherboard

XFX Radeon 4870 X2 2 GB

Samsung SyncMaster 305T
Akasa 1000w PSU
Benq 16x DVD Writer
LG GBW-H10N Blu-Ray Writer
Xbox 360 HD-DVD Drive
Belkin Wireless-G PCI card
1x Intel 80Gb SSD
3x WD Raptor Hard Drives (OS/Games on RAID 0 Drives)
Arctic Cooling MX-2 Paste
CoolIT Domino ALC

Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit + SP1
Catalyst 9.4
DirectX 9.0c/DirectX 10
SiSoft Sandra Pro Business 2009 SP3
Photoshop CS4
Cinebench R10
Adobe Media Encoder
Fritz 11
Easy CD-DA
World In Conflict: Soviet Assault
Left 4 Dead
Grand Theft Auto 4
H.A.W.X.
Empire: Total War
CCCP (Codec Pack)
PowerDVD 9.0
Everest Ultimate

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows Vista was installed. Following the completion of the installation, the video drivers were installed. All windows updates were then installed as were the latest builds of the benchmarking tools. Finally, the hard drive was de-fragmented. For each test, the video drivers were set to default quality/optimizations (unless otherwise stated).

Good Benchmarking Practice:
Where possible, each benchmark was performed three times and the median result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables that will follow. All applications had their latest patches applied and all hardware features the latest BIOS/Firmware.

Driver Heaven does not use benchmark scripts. We play the games for long periods of time on various levels and report any unusual findings we see. Then we record with FRAPS across several in game levels recording the averages. This is real world testing and is just how you guys will experience the game. Occasionally we might throw in a time demo as a further comparison, but we will note it.

SiSoft Sandra Pro Business

For the first time since Core-i7 launched in October last year AMD used one of those processors in a presentation for the press. The reason for this is that with a price tag of $245 the 955 Black Edition is not far off the i-7 920 at $270 and AMD feel that their processor is more than a match for the low end i7. Unfortunately this proves not to be the case in Sisoft Sandra where the Intel processor outperforms the AMD models by a large amount in CPU arithmetic. Memory bandwidth also favours the i7-920 thanks to its triple channel architecture.

Driver Heaven Photoshop V3 Benchmark (64Bit)

Most people are tired of running 3dmark and Pcmark and similar benchmarks, while these are visually attractive benchmarks they are not in many cases indicative of real world situations, this is not the case with Photoshop. This is a real world application with a myriad of uses appealing to all users from digital photographers to budding graphic designers. It is also a wonderful test of all round system performance, specifically memory bandwidth and CPU processing power. For full information and links to download this bench for yourself and to compare scores with other Driver Heaven members, head over here. We are using Photoshop CS4 64-Bit for this testing.

DH Photoshop Bench V3	Phenom 2 940	Phenom 2 810	Phenom 2 720	Phenom 2 955 BE	I7-920
1. Texturiser Test(1)	2.2	2.5	2.4	2.1	1.0
2. CMYK Colour Conversion	1.3	1.8	2.1	1.4	1.0
3. RGB Colour Conversion	1.6	1.8	2.3	1.5	1.1
4. Ink Outlines	19.2	21.7	20.9	18.1	19.5
5. Dust & Stratches	2.1	2.4	2.9	2.1	1.6
6. Watercolor	19.0	21.8	20.9	17.8	19.4
7. Texturiser Test (2)	2.2	2.5	2.4	2.1	1.1
8. Stained Glass	14.2	16.3	16.2	13.7	12.0
9. Lighting Effects	2.1	2.3	3.4	2.0	1.3
10. Mosiac Tiles	10.9	12.5	11.9	10.4	9.3
11. Extrude	77.8	86.6	81.1	72.8	68.8
12. Smart Blur	50.7	59.8	53.0	47.3	50.9
13. Underpainting	29.6	34.1	31.6	27.8	19.6
14. Palette Knife	26.0	29.9	27.7	24.3	16.9
15. Sponge	25.3	29.1	27.1	23.7	27.0
Total	284.2	325.1	305.9	267.1	250.5

Photoshop Performance also favours the Intel chip however it also demonstrates very well the strides AMD are making with each processor refresh. The 955BE with its DDR3 is significantly faster than the older Phenom 2 940. This test also shows why we were more than a little underwhelmed by the 810/720 at launch.

Adobe Media Encoder CS4

Our Media Encoding test uses the latest CS4 software from Adobe. This software accesses all four cores available on the Phenom range and is therefore an ideal application for media enthusiasts. To test performance we run a 1920x1080 file (custom recording) through the encoder set to 1080p 24 HQ using the H.264 Blu-Ray codec within the application.]

Music Encoding

Our music conversion test takes a 15 track lossless album and converts it using CD-DA convertor into 128Kbps Mp3 format.

In our video encoding test we see that there is quite a variation of performance across the various processors. The 955 achieves a 20 second reduction in time over the 940 but still doesn’t finish first, that honour falls to the i7-920 with a 48 second advantage. When we look at re-encoding music files we see the 955 being competitive with the Intel 920 for the first time in this review, there would be no way to tell the two apart in real world use.

It is also interesting to see the comparison between the older 9950 processor and the new 955. In both encoding tests the new Phenom 2 is significantly faster than the older model and should be a very attractive upgrade option for those on AM2+ motherboards.

High Definition Playback

Blu-Ray: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, chapter 1. Indy 4 is encoded in High Definition 1080p format using MPEG4 AVC compression (rather than Mpeg 2 which is used on older Blu-Ray’s) and comes on a dual layer(50 Gb) disc. The aspect ratio of 2.40:1 is used with letterbox bars at the top and bottom of the 16:9 image. This portion of the movie has an average video bitrate of around 37 Mbps and regularly peaks above this making it one of the most demanding Blu-Rays on the market. For comparison, a movie such as Casino Royale has a bitrate of 24 Mbps.

MKV: Our test file was a 1080p .mkv file which was taken from a 1080p source and converted into this format.

Playback of Blu-Ray content is GPU assisted on the Dragon platform and when combining an ATI graphics card with the i7-920. Despite this we can see some significant CPU usage savings when moving between CPUs. In the case of 955 vs. 9950 for example there is a 40% reduction in maximum CPU use which leaves more resources free for other tasks. Unfortunately though, this is another test where the 955 loses out to the Intel model.

The same can be said of the MKV test where the i7 performs significantly better than any of the AMD processors. This performance trend will be visible in with any content which is not GPU assisted.

Gaming - CPU Comparison

To test the impact on gaming with each CPU we have run each processor through a section of World in Conflict Soviet Assault. The single XFX 4870 X2 was our card of choice for this test and as the results show, in a real world gaming scenario these processors have little impact on the gaming performance.

There are small benefits when moving from the Phenom 2 940 to the 955 or even choosing an Intel system but overall it will be the graphics card which is most important when gaming. On that aspect it’s hard to fault the XFX card which provides completely playable framerates, even at this incredibly high resolution.

Overdrive V3

As with almost all performance motherboards the 790FX-GD70 comes with the manufacturers own monitoring/configuration software and overall it is good however being released at the same time as the 955 BE is an update to AMDs own version of a monitoring/tweaking application, Overdrive Version 3.

This software works on all recent AMD motherboards, CPUs and GPUs and provides us with a massive amount of system information. It also allows us to perform automatic and manual tweaking of the system including a page which helps find the maximum speed possible on the CPU.

In addition to this we have two new options available within the software. The first is Smart Profiles which allow us to tailor the system speed/settings on an application by application basis. This includes setting options such as overclocking a single core rather than all four when an application uses only one thread. The second is Black Edition Memory Profiles. BEMP checks the modules installed in the system against a list of pre-certified settings and ensures that the system memory is configured to its optimal level. In a way it is quite like X.M.P. on the Intel platform however in this form it is selected in Windows rather than the BIOS.

AMD CPU Comparisons

Throughout this article we have tested the 955 Black Edition against similar processors from the Phenom range, such as the 9950 and 940. One significant question which still remains, how much of an improvement is the new AM3 chip over other models in the family, or even those from the Athlon 64 Range? Below we have a list of AMD processors and their specifications; each has been tested in Fritz and Cinebench to show how they compare to the new Phenom 2.

CPU	Speed	Cores	Multiplier	Bus/HT Link	L1	L2	L3
Athlon 64 X2 6000+	3.1ghz	2 (Brisbane 65nm)	15.5	200/1000	4x64	2x512
Athlon 7750 BE	2.7ghz	2 (Kuma 65nm)	13.5	200/1800	4x64	2x512	2mb
Phenom 8750	2.4ghz	3 (Toliman 65nm)	12	200/1800	3x64	3x512	2mb
Phenom 9350e	2.0ghz	4 (Agena 65nm)	10	200/1800	4x64	4x512	2mb
Phenom 9850	2.5ghz	4 (Agena 65nm)	12.5	200/2000	4x64	4x512	2mb
Phenom 9950	2.6ghz	4 (Agena 65nm)	13	200/2000	4x64	4x512	2mb
Phenom 2 940	3.0ghz	4 (Deneb 45nm)	15	200/1800	4x64	4x512	6mb
Phenom 2 810	2.6ghz	4 (Deneb 45nm)	13	200/2000	4x64	4x512	4mb
Phenom 2 720	2.8ghz	3 (Deneb 45nm)	14	200/2000	3x64	3x512	6mb
Phenom 2 955 BE	3.2ghz	4 (Deneb 45nm)	16	200/2000	4x64	4x512	6mb

More than any other tests in this review these two sets of results give us the best indication of how far AMD CPUs have evolved over the past few years. From the high end dual core Athlon 6000+ to the 955BE we see huge increases in performance. Fritz results for example have more than doubled since the Athlon era. When we move to Cinebench we see that single core performance has increased by 25% and even when looking at the multi core results of Phenom 1 vs. Phenom 2 we see an increase of over 3000 points though most of this is due to clock speed increases.

Gaming - X2

Our gaming tests were performed on the 955 BE build and show that the XFX 4870 X2 performs exceptionally well. We would need to tweak the detail levels of GTA IV to achieve playable framerates at 2560x1600, or consider lowering the resolution to 1920x1200 but the other three games play fantastically. Even the incredibly demanding Rome: Total War ran without issue on its maximum resolution with 2x anti-aliasing. As for H.A.W.X. and Left 4 Dead, neither posed any problem for the XFX card.

GPU assisted upscaling of DVDs

It is fair to say that many of the people reading this article will have a substantial collection of DVDs and that many will not have been replaced by a Blu-Ray version at this time. It is however more than likely the case that these movies will be watched on a screen (monitor or HDTV) which is capable of much higher resolution than DVDs provide. In this scenario it is important to have quality upscaling software and recently Cyberlink released PowerDVD 9 which includes just that. Even better though is the fact that it supports GPU acceleration for both ATI and Nvidia hardware.

Before we discuss the results it is worth taking into account two points about DVD upscaling. The first is that our performance figures are taken from a Core-i7 CPU. In this task it doesn’t really get faster than that and so the CPU only performance is quite low. The lower specification the processor, the more impressive the GPU assisted gains will be. The second point is that the appearance of the upscaled content will vary greatly depending on the hardware used, including aspects such as the size/resolution of the screen. We shouldn’t expect to see excellent results on a 2560x1600 screen; 720p and 1080p models can show desirable results though. And one other point... upscaled DVD will never look as good as Blu-Ray.

In terms of performance we can see that both GPUs reduce our CPU usage by a considerable amount. Like Blu-Ray acceleration in the same software ATI, or in this case XFX with their 4870 X2, have the edge in this test although the Nvidia results are still impressive.

Overclocking

Overclocking the Phenom 2 X4 955 Black Edition is a very simple process as it has unlocked multipliers, through changing these we are able in increase the speed of the CPU with very little tweaking other than the core voltage.

Our overclocking test was performed on the CoolIT Domino A.L.C cooler with a voltage of 1.55v.

Before beginning the manual overclocking process we first ran the automated tool within Overdrive, this resulted in a CPU speed of 3.9GHz through 19x205MHz. Following this we began manual tweaking and found our limit at 1.55v to be 4.3GHz (226x19).

For the X2 we performed initial overclocking with Catalyst Control Centre with manual tweaking on Rivatuner. The final overclock we achieved was 790MHz core, 1013MHz memory.

	Stock	Auto OC	Max OC
Phenom 2 955 BE	3.2ghz @ 1.35v	3.9ghz@1.45v	4.3ghz@1.55v
X2	750/900		790/1013

Here is the impact of our CPU overclock on the Fritz performance

Fritz 11	Nodes
955 BE	7799
955 BE @ 3.9ghz	9595
955 BE @ 4.3ghz	10740

As expected the increased TDP of the 955 see’s it record higher temperatures than the 810/820 models though the comparison with the fastest Phenom, the 9950, is impressive. Despite a much higher clock speed the 955 is a cooler running chip.

NOTE:Temperatures for XFX’s 4870 X2 are near identical to the reference model.

Conclusion

AMD 955 Black Edition

AMD’s new Phenom 2 X4 955 Black Edition is the first of their processors to be worth considering against the Core-i7 brand. While there is nothing from the Phenom 2 range to compete with the 940 and 965EE, the comparison with the i7-920 is quite interesting. On the whole the Intel chip is faster with only a few scenarios where the Phenom 2 955 comes close (gaming and music encoding) we must however take price into consideration. In that area the AMD chips are very attractive, building a high spec 790FX/955/DDR3 system is significantly cheaper than a X58/920/DDR3 system with the same options such as Quad CrossFireX.

In terms of the comparison to previous AMD CPUs there are significant performance increases visible when looking at the comparison to the original Phenom and the recently released Phenom 2 810 and 720. We also see good increases in performance over the DDR2 based Phenom 2 940 which makes this processor even more attractive.

Without doubt this should have been AMD’s first processor to be released in the AM3 range, it provides good value and the performance which was lacking on the 810 and 720.

MSI 790FX-GD70

With the 790FX-GD70 MSI has created an excellent AMD based motherboard. It looks great with its black and blue styling and the use of good power saving technology and high quality components allow MSI the option of attaching a low profile cooler which won’t interfere with larger CPU heatsinks.

A large heatsink is certainly something worth considering because this board is an overclockers dream, either through automatic tuning or through the use of a simple dial on the motherboard to achieve higher speeds. Novices and experienced users should be able to get everything they need from this product.

In terms of performance there is nothing to fault on the 790FX-GD70, it provides an ideal base for even the most powerful CPUs and with the addition of features such as M-Flash to the BIOS the product is about as well rounded as it could be.

XFX 4870 X2

Because XFX have gone with reference specifications for their 4870 X2 performance is exactly where we would expect it to be. The card is able to provide great framerates at high settings/resolution in the latest games and has a reasonable level of overclocking potential. The card looks better than the reference model which is always a bonus and XFX have chosen their bundled components well, nothing is omitted.

All of this is backed by the exceptional XFX warranty and support process which includes real time chat sessions with XFX technicians. As a result it is hard to find a better X2 on the market and due to a recent drop in price it is also very good value.