Conclusion

With the Phenom II AMD is on the right way. Especially with the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition they can catch up with intels Core i7 CPUs and they therefore perform as well as Intels Core i7 920 or QX9650 quad core CPUs.

Especially in datacompression, rendering and Video/Audio encoding they cought up whith Intel. Meanwhile AMDs Phenom II X4 955 BE competes with Intels Core i7 920 for the corresponding place in the rankings.
Also regarding the gaming performance AMD doesn't need to hide. Down to the higher frequencies and the DDR3 memory interface they are able to perform at least as well as a QX9650 and under the very CPU optimized circumstances we tested they still can catch up with the Core i7 920.

The main reason to actually buy a Phenom II X4 955 BE based system is its price/performance rating. A recent and very well equipped ASUS M4A79T mainboard costs about CHF 220.- 4 GByte of DDR3 1333 MHz memory from Kingston you can get for about CHF 85.- and the CPU might cost about CHF 280.- Therefore you are able to buy a recent and quick quad core platform for about CHF 600.- If you want to buy an equivalent Intel based system with a well equipped mainboard you need to spend about CHF 900.- In this case the price/performance rating speaks very clear words in favour of AMD.

These times, if you are looking for a solid basis for office computing, games or a multimedia PC you'll find that a platform based on AMDs Phenom II X4 955 BE is extremely good value for money.

AMDs Phenom II X4 955 BE can now be bought at Digitec.ch to a very attractive Price of CHF 317.- (ca. EUR 210.-).

Authors: jl.hadey@ocaholic.ch and m.buechel@ocaholic.ch
English translation by: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch