PC Perspective
http://pcper.com/article.php?aid=483&type=expert&pid=12Quote:
I can't help but draw the analogy of the Phenom launch to that of the Radeon HD 2900 XT: it was a technologically advanced GPU that had scaling issues that kept it from competing at the high end of its market thus forcing AMD to drop prices to stay in the game. Now that AMD's HD 3800 series of GPUs has seemingly fixed that problem, they are presented another with the Phenom desktop processor. Hopefully AMD will make as quick a turnaround on this project as they did on the GPU side and we'll see the Phenoms truly compete at all price ranges.
HardOCP
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQyMiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA== As stated on page one, the Phenom is a disappointment. It comes close to meeting a clock-for-clock battle at 2.4GHz or so, but still just does not do it. Phenom has not caught up with the IPC Conroe had to offer so many months ago. As the clocks scale, Phenom begins to look even worse against the new Intel Yorkfield processors. Keep in mind those Yorkfield core Intel processors are priced about $700 more than our Phenom 9600, but the lower end Intel Yorkfield cores are coming and will be very close in price to our Phenom 9600. And yes Yorkfield will simply run away from Phenom in clock to clock benchmarks.
The Spider platform is a shining star with its solid 790FX chipset motherboards, and the AMD OverDrive application is a sure fire winner over other solutions, but it is hard to suggest a system based on those qualities alone when it seems there are going to be much greater values in Intel products very soon. AMD has to scale, and scale quickly. I have seen Phenom processors running at 3.6GHz (air cooled) on the 790FX chipset. AMD needs 3GHz+ to be a retail reality soon, but sadly I simply don’t see it happening. I have lost a lot of faith in AMD the last 12 months.
Our computer hardware environment has to have solid competition in it to keep prices low and performance high; AMD is now in the position to come to the rescue of the enthusiast…again.
Tech Report
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/13628 Spider is an ambitious attempt at an enthusiast platform, and while Phenom and the Radeon HD 3800 series might grab all the headlines, the 790FX chipset is undoubtedly a key component of the overall equation. With support for HyperTransport 3 and second generation PCI Express, the 790FX has the high-bandwidth connectivity needed to fully exploit Phenom processors on one end and Radeon HD 3800 series graphics cards on the other. In fact, the 790FX is the only chipset currently on the market that fully supports all the features packed into new Phenom processors. Couple that with excellent OverDrive tweaking and overclocking software that we're told will be widely-supported by motherboard makers, and the 790FX looks pretty good.
Anandtech
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3153 It's tough to believe that what we're looking at here is a farewell to the K8. When AMD first released the Athlon 64, its performance was absolutely mind blowing. It kept us from recommending Intel processors for at least 3 years; Phenom's arrival, however, is far more somber. Phenom has a difficult job to do, it needs to keep AMD afloat for the next year. Phenom is much like the solemn relative, visiting during a time of great sorrow within the family; let's hope for AMD's sake that it can lift spirits in the New Year.
PC Perspective
http://pcper.com/article.php?aid=483 I have no doubts that many readers of this review fill find it disappointing that AMD's Phenom processors were not competitive with Intel's high-end quad-core processors. It's hard to hide my own disappointment as I personally really wanted AMD to do well - competition makes the world go 'round and prices go down; always good things in my book. The Phenom launch isn't a total loss though thanks to the aggressive pricing that AMD is pinning on these initial CPUs; that will appeal to many enthusiasts.
