My first post for the start of May is about AMD Phenom Series. As we all know that the first generation of Phenom which are Phenom 9500 and Phenom 9600 does not make a big impact into the high end computing. With a problem in the processor make it a little bit hard to be chosen compare with Intel processor, Intel Quad Core Q6600 that have more high rating benchmark than both Phenom.
Then after having a tough start for Phenom, AMD has released the 50-series which are 9550, 9750 and 9850. The '50' behind means the processor is free from the TLB erratum problem and Phenom 9850 is a black edition processor for ease to overclock. What I can say here, the Phenom 9750 can compete with Q6600 but for me, AMD is a way behind Intel because Q6600 is quite an old processor. The thing that AMD have my respect is they released the first native quad core that deserve to get high attention from the world. Its mean that AMD have high capability to create something new, to jump into the new technology even though R&D for AMD is not really big comparing to Intel. Native quad core means the all core for the processor is working together natively. For example, Q6600 is a quad core processor but its basically just two Dual Core that being combine in a single 'Die'. Okay, enough for the native quad core. Here comes the review:
*Phenom 9X50 detail:
- Core Clock:
- 9850: 2.5GHz
- 9750: 2.4GHz
- 9550: 2.2GHz
- 9850: 2.5GHz
- L1 Cache: 64KB L1 data, 64KB L1 instruction per core, exclusive
- L2 cache: 512KB per core, exclusive
- L3 cache: 2MB accessible by all cores
- Hyper Transport and Northbridge Frequency:
- 9850: 2GHz (4MT/s)
- 9750 and 9550: 1.8GHz (3.6MT/s)
- 9850: 2GHz (4MT/s)
- TDP:
- 9850 and 9750: 125W
- 9550: 95W
- 9850 and 9750: 125W
What I want to comment is the TDP. The TDP for all of the processor is not quite 'green' for AMD. The thing is AMD is catching up with Intel and hopefully AMD will give a good fight with Intel for a better technology. Who knows what will happen, maybe next year we will get a 8-core processor. :P
