AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Quad-Core Processor Review

SiSoftware Sandra 2011 SP2

A year ago, SiSoftware released Sandra 2010 with full support for Windows 7; in the 18 months since the launch of Windows 7, more than ever before we have seen the line blur between PC and entertainment hubs. Two months ago we released a Blu-Ray benchmark, now we have added a brand-new Media Transcoding benchmark using the new Media Foundation of Windows 7. We have also added yet another benchmark (GPGPU Cryptography) which allows direct comparison of CPU performance (using crypto instruction sets) and GPGPU performance.

Benchmark Results: The AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor memory bandwidth was right where we expected it to perform. The Phenom II series of processors are limited to dual channel memory while the Intel socket 1366 processors (i7 950 and the i7 990X) run triple channel memory. The Intel Core i5 2500K is Intel’s second generation Core iX series of processors which has had a few tweaks to the memory controller.