AMD PHENOM 9550 vs Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 – System Configuration
| Component | AMD Phenom x 4 9550 | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 |
| Processor | Phenom 9550 x 4 @ 2.2 GHz “B3” Revision | Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz “G0” Revision |
| Cooling/HSF | Cooler Master CK8-7JD2B with Copper Core | Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro with Copper Plate and Heatpipes |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H – Socket AM2+ | Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R – Socket 775 |
| Memory | Dual Channel 2 x 2048 MB GSkill 800 MHz DDR 2 @ 800 MHz 5-5-5-15 | Dual Channel 2 x 2048 MB GSkill 800 MHz DDR 2 @ 533 MHz Cas 4-4-4-10 |
| Video Card | MSI TwinFrozr II NVidia GTX 560ti 2GB Core: 880 MHz, Memory: 4200 MHz DDR5 Driver Version: Game Ready 391.35 | MSI TwinFrozr II NVidia GTX 560ti 2GB Core: 880 MHz, Memory: 4200 MHz DDR5 Driver Version: Game Ready 391.35 |
| System Drive | Transcend 480 GB TLC SATA III SSD | Transcend 480 GB TLC SATA III SSD |
| Power Supply | Corsair 430 Watt 80 Plus Bronze | Corsair 430 Watt 80 Plus Bronze |
| Monitor | Dell 17″ 1440×900 Resolution (Only one I had on hand. So that’s the highest resolution tested.) | Dell 17″ 1440×900 Resolution (Only one I had on hand. So that’s the highest resolution tested.) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit with Service Pack 1 with latest Updates and Drivers | Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 64-bit with updates and drivers |
I kept as many components as possible the same. The motherboards of course had to be different. Both would probably be considered around mid-range at the time. The Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H board uses the excellent AMD 785G chipset. The Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R board uses the excellent Intel P35 chipset. The Gigabyte P35 board would likely be considered a little on the higher-end side. The DDR2 G-Skill ram’s clock speed and timings are pretty typical of 2007/2008. The GTX 560ti video card series was released around February 2011 and probably considered premium mid-range at the time. Released only a couple years or so after the two processors it would have been used in these configurations. The monitor is the only one I have available at the time of benchmarking. The resolution fits pretty well for the time. The common resolutions were probably around the 1366×768 and 1680×1050. The highest benchmark resolution in any of these tests is 1440×900 with lower resolutions mixed in some tests to get away from a potential video card bottleneck. The power supply is the one I had available at the time of testing. It did it’s job well with no issues.
Below are the overclocking setting used for each system.
| Setting | AMD Phenom 9550 x 4 | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 |
| CPU Core Clock Speed | 11 x 240 MHz = 2640 MHz | 9 x 333 MHz = 3000 MHz |
| Northbridge/FSB | 2160 MHz (IMC & L3 Cache) | 1333 MHz FSB & Memory Controller |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR 2 @ 800 MHz 5-5-5 | Dual Channel DDR 2 @ 667 MHz 4-4-4 (In Sync with FSB) |
The Phenom gained 460 MHz in clock speed or a full 20%. The Core 2 Quad gains 600 MHz or 25%. Both are solid increases and I know both have more room available, but I only wanted to highlight the common frequencies used back then. Just to help make certain of stability without putting in more time I slightly raised the voltage above default.