X2 faster than Phenom?

[Kish]

Hi guys
I just built a new PC last week, and somehow it seems to be SLOWER than the one I built two years ago!

Here's the specs for the new:
Phenom 9500 2.2Ghz
8.0gb ram
9600gt
500+500gb hdd raid 0

Here is the old:
64 X2 5600+ 2.8Ghz
2.0gb ram
7900gs
250gb hdd

Both systems run vista ultimate 64-bit. Both systems are defragged completely. Running the same game runs it much faster in the X2 system.

For example, one game I play called Cabal Online runs at 60+fps on my X2 system, while it runs in the low 30's fps in my Phenom system. Video settings for both are set at the same level, with the same resolution.

I'm guessing the fault could be the Phenom? I know dual cores are better for games, but such a big fps difference is very strange, especially considering the 9600gt is much faster than the 7900gs (and raid 0 kinda helps as well).

Any ideas?

 

[_-..zKiLLA..-_]

the only thing i can think of is maybe ur bottlenecking the phenom. thats alot a RAM then necessary. umm either that or the games ur playing arent ready for 4 cores yet. so basically you have 2 cores running 2.2ghz vs. 2 cores running 2.8ghz. now if you extract a really big rar file or convert a movie or something of that sort then the phenom will most likely win

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Yea, those AM2+ quad core Phenom CPU's were quite the disappointment. They ran well on apps that can utilize the quad cores, but for gaming they pretty much sucked.

Have a looksie: Tom's Hardware Phenom Review


ZDNet - AMD's Phenom - For suckers only

 

[Kish]

Thanks for the quick response zKilla
I will try removing the ram down to 2.0gb and test the setup.

Besides games though, vista does seem more responsive on the x2 than on the Phenom. So if what you say is true about the cores, then the Phenom should win in usual daily tasks. For example, interacting with the start menu is much more responsive on the x2 while quite sluggish on the Phenom.

Yea, those AM2+ quad core Phenom CPU's were quite the disappointment. They ran well on apps that can utilize the quad cores, but for gaming they pretty much sucked.

Have a looksie: Tom's Hardware Phenom Review


ZDNet - AMD's Phenom - For suckers only

Wow, impressive results!
I certainly didn't expect my old X2 to beat my Phenom by 20fps!

So do you think that if I somehow overclock the Phenom to 2.8ghz with a better cooler, it can match my X2?

 

[rohan23]

No, daily tasks don't require multicores. Try extracting files, compressing files and editing files. The Phenom will leap ahead of your x2.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

Kisk:

You currently do not use applications that require the extra cores. If you are playing the latest games, the ideal processor would be a triple-core. I don't have benchmarks on me, but it has been proved that triple-core performs the best for the buck. I don't think you'll need to OC it to 2.8 to see similar performance so long the games you play are recent. In case of older games that don't use that 3rd core, your Phenom will not be as fast as your X2 until its clock has matched that of the X2.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

So do you think that if I somehow overclock the Phenom to 2.8ghz with a better cooler, it can match my X2?

It's worth a shot. Tom's saw a 15% increase in perfromance from their X4 9700 that was OC'd to 3.0GHz.

 

[Kish]

Thank you all for the responses!
Removing to 2.0gb ram didn't help. So it is the Phenom.
I will post OC results when I get my new cooler

 

[worshipme]

It is true that the X2 will probably be faster than the Phenom in multi threaded apps because of it's clock speed advantage. The Phenom is faster than the X2 clock for clock though so if you overclock it to 2.8GHz+, then you'll have the X2 soundly beat in every app.