Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Phenom X3 and Phenom X4: Which One is the Best USD 200 CPU?

Conclusions

Except on a very few occasions (3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage CPU tests and on Cinebench) we haven’t see AMD CPU’s being faster than Intel’s during our tests.

We don’t see why someone would by a Phenom CPU while you can buy a faster CPU from Intel for absolutely the same price.

If you are looking for a CPU on the USD 200 range you have only two real options: the new Core 2 Duo E8400 and Core 2 Quad Q6600. For the mainstream user Core 2 Duo E8400 is the best option, as it provides a higher performance under almost all scenarios and you also get SSE4.1 support, which improves performance a lot if you have an SSE4-capable application. Core 2 Quad Q6600 is a better option if you have a specific application that is able to recognize more than two cores, like rendering. If you aren’t a professional designer dealing with 3D modeling, stick with Core 2 Duo E8400.

The reviewed Phenom CPU’s will only be good products if AMD lowers their prices severely.

Of course we haven’t run all programs available on the market and maybe there are some programs out there that show an advantage to AMD CPU’s. But according to the programs we chose, at this time Intel has the edge on USD 200 CPU’s.