As you can see, the 9950BE puts up respectable numbers in all of the tests.

  

Conclusion

  

It's great to see AMD releasing new CPUs and competing for the top spot.  The 9950 Black Edition is a good shot in the arm for AMD.  It's also a decent overclocker compared to earlier Phenom CPU's.  Currently AMD can't touch the high end Intel CPU's, but that's alright.  The 9950 is capable of playing the toughest games (Crysis settings would have to be turned down to be playable) and handling the toughest tasks.  At $215 it's positioned pretty good amongst quad core CPU's.  The only Intel Quad you'll find cheaper is the Q6600.  The integrated memory controller is faster, but it also means that you are going to have to stick with DDR2.  The integrated memory controller also takes up precious real estate and leaves less room for larger cache sizes.  I'm sure when AMD shrinks the die to 45nm, they will be able to add a few more megabytes of cache.  If you are looking for an inexpensive way to jump on the quad bandwagon, the 9950 is for you.  However, if you're looking to dominate benchmarks and gaming FPS, you may want to wait until the 45nm version arrives.  Even though the 9950 didn't blow away any benchmarks, it was a very stable CPU and it's priced right.  Club Overclocker recommended!

 

Performance:	4 out of 5
Innovation:	4 out of 5
Quality:	5 out of 5
Stability:	4 out of 5
Aesthetics:	N/A
Software/Drivers Pack:	N/A
Overclocking:	3 out of 5
Value:	3 out of 5
Project Skill Level (5 being most difficult)	4 out of 5