The chaps over at Guru3D take a further look at the AMD Phenom 9700, a mainstream level native quad-core processor based on a completely new architecture. Here's a taster:

The Phenom 9700 processor as tested today is an okay competing processor compared to the Q6600. But considering that's Intels upcoming "budget" level quad core processor, with a new 45nm die, the Q9300 (2.5 GHz) is scheduled for next month already, we can only conclude that it's barely enough.  But some perspective then; AMD reacted immediately at the launch by pricing the Phenom series really good. You can pickup the Phenom 9700 processor at the price of a Q6600 placing it precisely where it should be. The thing is though, Phenom was consistently behind in gaming performance and that's a big deal to me. Also, Intel's quad core processors overclock much much better. Yet another thing to consider.

So overall I'm not at all disappointed by AMD Phenom at all. It's just that we were all expecting a little more. We as consumers like it when two gigantic processor manufacturers have to battle for that number one spot. Granted, we did run into some very weird problems, but considering we only had an engineering mainboard & engineering class CPU available to work with, I'm overall satisfied with the performance versus the dough you have to pay for this processor. Pricing wise, this product is okay, and looking at it from a performance for wattage point of view we noticed that Phenom is definitely using less power than the 65-nm Intel products, but not the 45nm Penryn Yorkfield processors though.

Now the other part of the Spider project ... really impressive is the new AMD 790FX chipset we tested. Surely we had a number of bugs, but the sheer versatility, price and flexibility it delivers is exceptional. Especially with AMD's overdrive, you can do stuff like increasing multipliers or voltages on the fly, from within windows. No need to reset at all. Once the AMD 790FX platform has been optimized and stabilized a little more, we'll take a deeper look into the new mainboards (which will be priced aggressively as well).

For those that own an "older" AM2 based mainboard, for slightly more than 200 EUR this could be a well worth upgrade, the quad core Phenom processor will work fine in that mainboard as well. And at this price-level that's a pretty nice and affordable upgrade to a quad-core PC. Before inserting the Phenom, be sure to flash your BIOS to the latest Phenom compatible firmware though ! Check this with your vendor.

In conclusion, what AMD needs to focus on to address the gamers market is releasing faster clocked Phenom processors. I expect that once they reach 3 GHz, they'll finally have a product that can wind up Intel, but only a little. When the pricing strategy is sharp enough, then and only then will the "Spider" platform be a good success. The Radeon 3850 & 3870 cards, as we recently tested, really offer heaps of bang for bucks, and the AMD 790FX mainboards the versatility you need to get the most out of it.

In related news, Hardcoreware posted a review on CPUs from AMD and Intel.