AMD Athlon X2 7750 Review

ajmatson - December 14, 2008
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Testing:

I really wanted to see what this new dual-core processor from AMD could do, so I will be pushing the limits through a series of benchmarks, including scientific and video tests. To show a broad comparison I will be putting it up against a series of other processors, including dual-core and quad-core CPUs, old and new. This will be done so that you know exactly how it performs against other processors on the market, and not just dual-core ones that only gauge direct competition. All hardware will be run at stock speeds, timings and voltages so that there are no outside variables that might interfere with the scores and throw off the comparisons. Just a note, because of a limitation of comparison hardware available and time constraints, the scientific benchmarks will be run on all processors available and the video benchmarks, which are largely CPU dependent, will be run on only a limited number of comparison processors.

Testing Setup AMD CPU's:

Processor(s): AMD Athlon X2 7750, AMD Phenom X4 9850
Motherboard: Foxconn A7DA-S
Memory: Mushkin Redline XP2 8000 2 x 2 GB 5-5-5-12
Video Card : PowerColor Radeon HD 4850
Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 7200.11 750GB SATA w/32MB Cache
Optical Drive: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

Testing Setup Intel CPU's:

Processor(s): Inter E7200, Intel E8400, Intel Q6600, Intel Q9300, Intel Q9450, Intel QX9770
Motherboard: Gigabyte X48-DQ6
Memory: Mushkin Redline XP2 8000 2 x 2 GB 5-5-5-12
Video Card : PowerColor Radeon HD 4850
Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 7200.11 750GB SATA w/32MB Cache
Optical Drive: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

Comparison CPUs:

Intel E7200 Core 2 Duo (Scientific tests only)
Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo (Scientific tests only)
Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad (Scientific tests only)
Intel Q9300 Core 2 Quad (Scientific tests only)
Intel Q9450 Core 2 Quad
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (Scientific tests only)
AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Box

Overclocking:

Overclocked settings:

Processor: AMD Athlon X2 7750 "Black Box" @ 205x15.5 = 3.177GHz
Memory: Mushkin Redline XP2 8000 2 x 2 GB 5-5-5-12 @ 820MHz

Being a "Black Edition" processor gives you a little more flexibility with overclocking because of the unlocked multiplier. To begin I started by raising the multiplier 1x at a time until the system became unstable. I was able to boot at 16x but I could not complete a benchmark, so I backed the multiplier down a half to 15.5x and I was able to complete several test benchmarks with no problem. Next I raised the bus speed 5MHz at a time, but once I tried 210MHz there was no joy. I backed off slowly, 1MHz at a time until I was able to boot at 205Mhz. During the overclocking session I did have to raise the CPU voltage to 1.5v, however CPU-Z reported it as 1.520v. So for the overclocking results we will be running at 3.177GHz (205Mhz x 15.5) at 1.5 volts.