AMD Phenom 9900 Processor Review – Spider Platform

Additional Spider and Phenom Features

HD Technology Leadership

AMD Spider is the only platform that boasts major next-generation, industry-standard technologies to provide unparalleled bandwidth and balance in the delivery of next-generation HD content. With HyperTransport 3.0 technology, AMD Phenom processors have more system bandwidth than ever before with up to 16 GB/second of high bandwidth I/O. When combined with the additional bandwidth of AMD PCI Express Generation 2.0 chipsets and graphics processors, AMD Spider enjoys maximum bandwidth in support of smooth 1080P video playback, enhanced multi-GPU and high-speed disk and network interfaces. With the only true quad-core processor and infrastructure flexibility with AM2+ socket, AMD processors are compatible with future 65nm and 45nm AMD Phenom processors to deliver key performance gains.

Video enthusiasts enjoy best-in-class HD entertainment on Spider with the addition of the powerful visual processing capabilities of the ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series. Striking image quality and power efficient playback are made possible through the ATI Avivo HD video engine and the Unified Video Decoder (UVD). The addition of UVD ensures exceptional platform efficiency and image quality in HD-DVD and Blu-ray decoding for both H.264 and VC-1 specifications. Big screen gaming and entertainment is also made easy with enhanced HDMI connectivity with integrated HDCP and audio for HDMI video.

Scalable Platform Performance

AMD Spider offers a new class of enthusiast platform scalability, with multiple upgrade options to increase performance and boost compatibility with configurations that deliver over two teraflops of desktop processing power. The multi-core design of AMD Phenom quad-core processors, based on Direct Connect Architecture, features an integrated memory controller supporting memory speeds up to DDR2 1066, 128-bit floating point units and AMDs Balanced Smart Cache for rapid access to memory, with a shared L3 cache for better performance on multi-threaded software. Since the AMD socket AM2 platform shares the same pin count as the new socket AM2+ older processors can be used on the newer motherboards and new processors used on older boards. AMD has even gone as far as saying that socket AM3 will work on all three platforms.

The ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series introduces the world to CrossFireX technology, a new class of scalable multi-GPU performance, supporting three or four ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series graphics processors for unparalleled upgradeability and DirectX 10.1 performance with the industrys only tri- and quad-GPU solution for Microsoft Windows Vista. Providing the foundation for CrossFireX, AMD 7-Series chipsets support up to four graphics processors with 42 PCI Express lanes, ensuring maximum performance and upgradeability for gamers and PC enthusiasts. AMD 7-Series chipsets deliver the ultimate in personalized enthusiast platform performance with AMD OverDrive, the industrys most powerful and intuitive Windows-based overclocking and performance tuning utility. Through a simple Windows-based interface, AMD OverDrive satisfies the needs of a wide range of performance-oriented users from enthusiast overclockers to mainstream gamers. In addition, AMD AutoXpress settings increase your default system performance when activated with enthusiast DDR2-800 DIMMS, ATI Radeon graphics, as well as AMD Phenom processors to increase performance.

Energy Efficiency

High-performing, energy-efficient AMD Spider platforms provide leading platform performance-per-watt, combining the energy-efficient AMD Phenom quad-core processor for an improved computing experience, the lowest-power 65nm enthusiast AMD 7-Series chipset, and low-power, high-performance 55nm ATI Radeon HD 3800 graphics. The AMD Spider platform also includes an unprecedented list of computing technology firsts that focus on power consumption, including: ATI PowerPlay, CoolnQuiet 2.0 technology, Microsoft DirectX 10.1, HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0.

Enhanced features include AMD CoolCore technology, a split power plane design and the ability to have independent core frequencies. The AMD 7-Series chipsets are designed using 65nm process technology, a first for chipsets. With a TDP of approximately 10 watts, the 7-Series chipset offers maximum energy efficiency, allowing users to focus resources on processing performance. With a flawless 55nm transition, the ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series delivers more than two times the performance-per-watt over the previous generation. In addition, ATI PowerPlay for the desktop allows for automatic power state adjustments for increased GPU efficiency when under moderate load or idle. All of these features contribute to better power optimization by providing more efficient performance, energy usage, and unprecedented performance-per-decibel.