Phenom 965BE

[yurkan]

Hello,

Getting strange results in CPU mark for Phenom 965BE.

I`m looking for a low budget upgrade from my Q6600 for gaming. Able to buy Q9550 and stay on my LGA775 or buy a Phenom 965BE and jump to AM3 platform. So I took those two cpu`s as well as AM2+ board for a test.

So my config is:
MB: Asus Maximus II formula or MSI K9A2 Neo F
CPU: Q6600/Q9550 or Phenom 965BE
RAM: 2x2GB 800Mhz
GPU: XFX 5870 1GB
HDD: 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
PSU: Corsair 650W PSU

A was able to run Windows 7 on both platforms through Sysprep, without reinstalling, so everything remains the same I change only CPU and MB. Also I disabled any setting that lower CPU speed for power saving, so they run on highest standart clock.

Results of CPU Mark (Results from CPU list):
Q6600 - 2750.7 (2976)
Q9550 - 3721.5 (4070)
965BE - 3455.0 (4302)

As you can see difference with Phenom is huge. Does it mean if I get better motherboard it will run better? I play GTA4 and Battlefield 3, with phenom 956BE stock I get 1-2fps increse over Q9550oc 3.4Ghz but I do not want to jump to another platform for only 2 fps.

Can I get Phenom run better or is it running as it should?

[David (PassMark)]

A new AM3 motherboard might allow better / faster RAM. So you might gain a small amount depending on what RAM you are already running.

This post also covers a lot of reasons a PC might be running slow,
Causes and Solutions for a slow PC

[yurkan]

Thank you for reply. I tested q9550 3.4Ghz with 64bit version and get CPU score of 5729.4, with 32bit version I get 4373.4. Does it mean that scores in list of benchmarked CPUs made also with 64bit version of programm?

[David (PassMark)]

They are average results. But the vast majority of results coming in are now 64bit.

For example, for the Q9550 CPU, as of today, we have 802 benchmark results from different machines that potentially make up the average.

Of these 802, there are ~490 that are running at standard clock speeds and ~300 that are overclocked. The overclocked results get their own chart.
(the numbers aren't exact as we also exclude some for be duplicates and other reasons)

Of the 802 results 82.9% are running a 64bit O/S.

[yurkan]

Today I tested stock q9550 and ph965 with 32bit and 64 bit versions.
Results:
q9550 (32bit) - 3723.7
q9550 (64bit) - 4789.5
ph965 (32bit) - 3456.1
ph965 (64bit) - 4332.0

Acording to my results I guess most ph965 systems were benchmarked with 64bit version of programm to get 4295 in average. Am I right?

Also going from 32bit to 64bit passmark I got big drop in 3D Graphics mark (Complex, DirectX 10). Q9550 and 5870 results:

32bit 64bit
Simple 3000.2 2765.7
Medium 1234.1 1221.2
Complex 80.3 59.1
DirectX 66.7 43.6
Total 3067.7 2488.1

Can you explain this?

[David (PassMark)]

Yes, as pointed out above, the vast majority of results coming in are now 64bit. This applies to pretty much all CPUs nowadays.

The difference in the 3D result will likely be because you are running different device driver versions in your two different O/S installs. You should also due a few runs and take the highest. Background activity can mess up a run from time to time.

[yurkan]

I installed all drivers for two motherboards on one Windows 7 64bit, and for testing I boot to this OS without installing any other drivers. So drivers remains the same. I test a couple of times on intel and amd cpu, results are similar, on 64bit passmark 3D score is lower than on 32bit passmark.

[David (PassMark)]

It is impossible that the drivers are the same in 32bit and 64bit. The 32bit drivers won't work in 64bit. If you are using two different motherboards then this is another source of difference.

[yurkan]

I use two programs - 7.0 Performance Test 32bit and 64bit, all on 64bit Windows 7. On 64bit version of Performance Test 7.0 I get higher 3D score and lower CPU score. On 32bit version of Performance Test 7.0 I get lower 3D score and higher CPU score.

[David (PassMark)]

V7 of PerformanceTest is an old release. You should use V8 instead.

On 64bit version of Performance Test 7.0 I get higher 3D score and lower CPU score.

This contradicts your earlier post.