The idea of this article was born quite unexpectedly. We were browsing a summary of test results and saw that results of two different CPU groups were so interwoven that we were tempted to compare them, even though these groups differed so much. First of all we made charts. This made things even more interesting! So, we decided to write this article. Don't be surprised, its main participants will be AMD Phenom X3 8450/8750 and Phenom X4 9550/9850 on one hand, and Core 2 Duo 4300/4400/4500/4600/4700 (the entire E4x00 family) as well as the new Core 2 Duo E7200 on the other hand.

In this article we deliberately won't make deep analytical conclusions or discuss architectural peculiarities and reasons of either phenomenon. This article is written for users that must make a choice. What they need is numbers, not words.

Some of you may be insulted to see the top AMD Phenom X4 9850 compared to Intel Core 2 Duo E4x00. But we did not want to ruin the Phenom image, really. Judging by test results, this Core 2 Duo series performs as the closest competitor to Phenom X3/X4.

Hardware and Software

Testbed configurations

• Memory: 4 GB (4 x 1 GB modules)
• HDD: Samsung HD401LJ (SATA-2)
• Coolers: Thermaltake TMG i1, Thermaltake TMG A1
• Power supply unit: Cooler Master RS-A00-EMBA.

* Per single core in multi-core processors.
** "X x Y" means "X KB per each of Y cores".
*** In AMD processors it's memory controller bus frequency.
**** Specified differently in Intel and AMD processors, so a direct comparison would be incorrect.

Software

* Means that two or more simultaneously active threads are actually present during tests; not just the fact that a process generates several threads.