How we tested:

Here is a list of the applications we've used for our testing - most of them are available for public consumption. All of the benchmarks were run at least three times and the results were averaged.

• Sisoft Sandra XII SP1
  
• Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
  
• World in Conflict
  
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
  
• PCMark Vantage x64
  
• WinRAR 3.71
  
• Paint.NET 3.05
  
• Windows Media Encoder x64
  
• DivX 6.7
  
• AutoMKV 0.90
  
• VirtualDub 1.6.15
  
• LAME MT 3.97
  
• Blender
  
• Cinebench 10 x64

Test Setup

AMD Phenom Specific Components:

• 2GB DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15-2T
  
• Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Specific Components:

• 2GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12-2T
  
• Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe

Intel Core 2 Specific Components:

• 2GB DDR3-1333 7-7-7-20-1T
  
• Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP @n

Common Components

• Nvidia 8800 Ultra
  
• Seagate 7200.10 160GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gbps
  
• PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU
  
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
  
• Direct X 10
  
• Nvidia Forceware 163.69
  
• Intel inf 8.3.0
  
• nForce 15.08

CPUs Tested

• AMD Phenom 9900 - 4x2.6GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512kb L2 cache, 2.0GHz HTT, 65nm Agena
  
• AMD Phenom 9700 - 4x2.4GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512kb L2 cache, 2.0GHz HTT, 65nm Agena
  
• AMD Phenom 9600 ES - 4x2.3GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512kb L2 cache, 2.0GHz HTT, 65nm Agena*
  
• AMD Phenom 9500 ES - 4x2.2GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512kb L2 cache, 2.0GHz HTT, 65nm Agena*
  
  
• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 - 4x3.00GHz, 2x6MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 45nm, Yorkfield
  
  
• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 - 4x3.00GHz, 2x4MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 65nm, Kentsfield
  
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 - 4x2.67GHz, 2x4MB L2 cache, 1,066MHz FSB, 65nm, Kentsfield
  
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - 4x2.40GHz, 2x4MB L2 cache, 1,066MHz FSB, 65nm, Kentsfield
  
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 - 2x3.00GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 65nm, Conroe
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 - 2x2.67GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 65nm, Conroe
  
  
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ - 2x3.20GHz, 2x1MB L2 cache, 1.0GHz HTT, 90nm, Windsor
  
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ - 2x3.00GHz, 2x1MB L2 cache, 1.0GHz HTT, 90nm, Windsor

* The Phenom 9600 and 9500 chips were replicated by down-clocking the Phenom 9700 and 9900 processors that AMD has seeded us with. The north bridge clock remained at 2.0GHz and early reports have suggested that the retail chips are coming with a 1.8GHz north bridge clock.