AMD Phenom 9900 and the Spider Platform

[HEXUS]

The AMD Phenom 9900 Spider platform looks fantastic on paper. But does reality reinforce or negate that opinion?

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[kalniel]

On page 2 you have a table showing TDPs for the Phenom chips.. where did you get these from? I thought AMD had hushed these up and were only talking about 'ACP' (Average CPU Power) these days?

[Tarinder]

That's what AMD claims in its internal literature, but we understand that one man's TDP isn't the same as another.

Looking for confirmation on this now.

[truthseeker]

I confess, I am an AMD fan, but I must explain that you missed many things in this review:

1/ Power consumption
- Spider uses less power because the OC'd 8800GT is a hog versus the 3870 and the X38 chipset uses 2-3X the power of the 790FX.
2/ Heat
- The 8800GT pours hot air right into the chassis while th 3870 sends the hot air out of the chassis. The X38 MUST be hotter than the 790FX. Why do you think NV asked its customers to retool their chassis so it could fit the heater GT? What does that do to system reliability?
3/ 3D Performance
- Why didn't you test multi-card configurations? The beauty about Spider is that you can throw two, three, even four GPU cards in there. You can't do three or four cards with the 8800GT. You can only do it with Ultra and GTX.

I have to conclude that the reason you didn't test the Spider strengths is because you are biased.

[moogle]

I have to conclude that the reason you didn't test the Spider strengths is because you are biased.

or maybe not enough time? hexus and bias?
hardly.

[kalniel]

I have to conclude that the reason you didn't test the Spider strengths is because you are biased.

Did you read the review?

[SiM]

I have to conclude that the reason you didn't test the Spider strengths is because you are biased.

Lol... go back to bed Hector

[moogle]

Lol... go back to bed Hector

even us amd fanboys agree its a fair review...

[vrykyl]

Hahaha nice first post AMD employee.

And nice review as always Hexus - amd are sorely lacking at the moment, and you arent afraid to show it.

[truthseeker]

I am in high-tech but not an employee. At least I admit I am an AMD fanboy, though, which most wouldn't. Even with this said, why wasn't heat, noise, 3x/4x Crossfire tested? Just answer the question. Intel is the #1 advertiser on this website, either directly or indirectly, so of course Hexus can't be harsh on them. Where was Hexus when AMD was stomping all over Intel?

[SiM]

I am in high-tech but not an employee. At least I admit I am an AMD fanboy, though, which most wouldn't. Even with this said, why wasn't heat, noise, 3x/4x Crossfire tested? Just answer the question. Intel is the #1 advertiser on this website, either directly or indirectly, so of course Hexus can't be harsh on them. Where was Hexus when AMD was stomping all over Intel?

I think they will test 3 and 4 cards eventually. But how many people are interested in that? I and probably most other users only use one card, we don't care if it can take 10 cards... I want to see how single card systems perform

[[GSV]Trig]

I'm a wallet fan-boi and while I can buy something thats damned fast and upgradable and still keep money in my pocket for the impending arrival of child I'll do that, to get the most out of the spider system "truthseeker" is suggesting I buy 4 gfx cards?!?!..

Erm, no ta, Intel are currently kicking AMD where it hurts as are NVidia, I have no doubt that AMD's future will pick up, if the money holds out that is..
However people have a decent upgrade path with the S775 stuff at the mo and its AMD of late that are letting people down, that coupled with Hector slating Intel directly and people screaming its not fair everytime Intel wins a review stinks of the pplayground imho...

[Agent]

I am in high-tech but not an employee. At least I admit I am an AMD fanboy, though, which most wouldn't. Even with this said, why wasn't heat, noise, 3x/4x Crossfire tested? Just answer the question. Intel is the #1 advertiser on this website, either directly or indirectly, so of course Hexus can't be harsh on them. Where was Hexus when AMD was stomping all over Intel?

Right here. Doing the exact same thing, but in AMD's favour.

HEXUS.net - Review :: AMD XP1700 JIUHB Testing : Page - 8/8

Highs

*

Amazing potential
*

Seem to run at high speeds with minimal voltage increases
*

Cheap
*

Fantastic price-to-performance ratio

Lows

*

None at this price

Or maybe
HEXUS.net - Review :: Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz Prescott : Page - 9/9

There just aren't enough compelling reasons to buy a S478 Prescott right now. On the contrary, there's mounting evidence to suggest that purchasing the 3.4GHz model, priced at around £290, would be a sideways move if you're currently in possession of a reasonable system.

Benchmark evidence sides with the current Northwood core, for it's rarely displaced as as S478 leader. What's more, AMD's excellent Athlon 64 S754 processors are able to match the Prescott in most respects and positively outshines it in gaming-related tests. Benchmarks numbers, for once, don't tell the entire story. What complicates the issue even further is Intel's move to Socket T (775 pin) chipsets, of which Alderwood and Grantsdale have currently been making the news. Only Prescotts, it seems, will make the transition from S478 to S775, so there's little impetus in buying a current Prescott Pentium 4 if processor longevity is your primary aim. Let's face it. S478 is more or less finished as Intel's lead consumer-level platform.

Indifferent performance, heat problems, lack of S478 upgrade potential, and strained availability, at the end, all count against a recommendation for the Pentium 4 3.4GHz Prescott processor. Looking at the overall situation from an enthusiasts point of view, we'd either plump for a slower Pentium 4 Northwood and i865PE motherboard or any number of AMD setups. Spending big bucks now may prove to be a foolhardy decision in the near future. Intel's high-end consumer-level options are compromised by the knowledge that a raft of new technology is just waiting to be unleashed. Intel's Prescott deserves a second chance on a new range of motherboards. In its current state, though, there's little to recommend an immediate purchase, unfortunately.

A 30 second search would find plenty of reviews on the site going against Intel and telling people, pretty much point blank not to buy them. So much for "can't be harsh on them".

While I'm not the reviewer - as for 3*/4* cross fire, just how many people are going to do that out of all the sales worldwide? I wouldn't even like to guess, the percentage has got to be in decimal point figures.
IMO, it just doesn't make sense to test for such a small sector of the market given the time constraints.

[tickedon]

The *one* thing I think is missing are power consumption figures.

People have benchmarked the individual components (e.g. AMD motherboards are meant to be pretty darn good when it comes to power consumption), so it would be interesting to see how much power each would use - and thus what I'd pay in the longer term keeping both machines running near 24/7.

Apart from that, fair cop, good review - nothing in that review that surprises me.

[moogle]

I am in high-tech but not an employee. At least I admit I am an AMD fanboy, though, which most wouldn't. Even with this said, why wasn't heat, noise, 3x/4x Crossfire tested? Just answer the question. Intel is the #1 advertiser on this website, either directly or indirectly, so of course Hexus can't be harsh on them. Where was Hexus when AMD was stomping all over Intel?

like agent has said, ive checked the past amd reviews ie the X2 and the athlons that hexus have done and it's in their favour. I guess they are bias then?
Worst thing is an AMD fanboy who can't admit defeat. C2D's are trouncing AMD right now theres no doubt about it.

Me and I think Kalniel and SiM are AMD fanboys. There I've admitted it, and I've admitted it before in the thread and I've had an AMD system since the first Athlon, but I'll still be upgrading to a C2D setup as it's best performance for the money. When you're a fanboy and you choose preference over performance you lose out. Intel isn't the #1 advertiser on Hexus. I hardly saw Intel ads before that dog one appeared. I mostly saw corsair and alot of random ones but the majority were corsair ads. I think you should go see the Alienware vs Hexus article somewhere on the site. Just because a company sends them a nice expensive SKU for review doesn't mean they will be getting a good score if it really isn't that good. The TDP of the high end phenoms are like 30W above the G0 Q6600 so likely its going to be hotter, about noise I don't really know but when is that ever a factor unless they are reviewing cooling? This is performance they were reviewing, maybe in the heatsink section they'd do noise.

1) The GT's beat the 38xx cards without being overclocked in the first place. Where is the evidence to show the X38 uses more than the 790FX?

2) Sure the air is still channeled out into the case, temps will prove that the X38 runs hotter. Maybe you're right.

3) So Hexus missed multi gpus. Hey its the system that AMD sent them isn't it? Possibly in another review they will delve into scalability of the GPU's. Okay so you can chuck 4 or so cards in. Which market does that appeal to? I thought sli took enough space as it is. I'd rather have one card that has great performance rather than 4 less powerful cards that add up to that one big card. Not to forget the power consumption. I'm guessing it's multiplied by the no of cards you use. Idling with 4 cards must be a electricity bill nightmare.

And like I said before, I can see how you think Hexus are bias what with the Intel ads and such but seeing as it's your first post you've probably just read that 1 review and based your thoughts on that. Like it's been said in agents post they dont favour one brand they just tell it like it is.

So there I'm an ex AMD fanboy I suppose. But I'm not an Intel one either. If AMD starts making top performing components for the price I'd switch back to them. You might think with so many posts I'm just defending hexus but I remember going in all those AMD vs Intel threads at the time AMD was trouncing Intel and I fought hard for AMD. Plus that Intel system in the review could have used a Q6600 clocked to Q6700 speeds and the price/performance for that system would be way higher.

[Main]

The processor is a 'true quad core' but is slower than the competition and has a crippling bug.

The motherboard can take any of AMD's current processors and should take all future models (currently planned) as well, but the southbridge sucks.

The graphics cards offer a decent bang per buck, but are defeated by the competition and lack a top end counterpart.


...so definately not one of the scarier spiders then...

Good review, although I am also a bit of an AMD fanboy so it's disappointing and annoying to see them not doing very well.