Reviews - AMD Phenom II X6 1075T and Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition CPUs

Wow, lots of replies :p I don't have the time to reply to each so I'm just going to leave it with a few general points. Firstly, I quite agree that AMD have the price/performance crown. No doubt about it. And in that respect it's a bit silly to compare a £800 CPU with a £150 CPU.

Regarding i7 clocks, I suspect it's fair to say that x58 i7s clock significantly further than S1156 i7s (based on my own limited experience). I could be wrong on this - but from what I've picked up, if there's an X58 clocked below 4GHz it's because the cooling isn't up to the task, whereas (I think, and may be wrong) with the S1156 i7s it's more commonly that the CPU has reached its limits. Certainly my 920 happily clocked to 4.3GHz for stable 24/7 operation (folding) when I put it under water, and it was far from a golden chip in terms of voltage. With my H50 cooling it, I could only keep load temperatures under control at 4-4.1GHz, and that's by no means a bad CPU cooler, so it certainly wouldn't surprise me that many people haven't clocked their x58 i7s to 4GHz.

Also agreed that a clock for clock comparison between i7/Thuban isn't entirely fair for the reasons stated earlier. However, it's the best we can do and it makes more sense to compare CPUs using clock speeds (something which allows some constructive comparison between architectures) rather than whatever arbitrary clock speed either manufacturer has decided should be 'stock' speed.

Regarding the 3D mark Vantage score, zoomee - they're comparing the 1095T overclocked to 4.1GHz (though I take your point about NB o/cing) to the stock 980x (3.33GHz?) and the 980x remains faster (barely). If you were to compare them clock for clock (or at stock vs stock, or max o/c vs max o/c, whatever tickles your fancy :p) then based on that benchmark at least I'm sure there'd be a pretty significant (~20%) difference.
By the way, I can't read your SiSandra screenie, it's too small :(

Anyway, I\'m about to make the switch from i7 to Phenom II X4, so I\'m certainly not an Intel fanboy in case anyone was wondering :p