L3 Cache Size and Performance

To see the performance impact of the Phenom II X4 810’s smaller L3 cache, we ran benchmarks of the CPU paired against an underclocked Phenom II 940 as well as the original Phenom 9950. We know, it isn’t an exact apples-for-apples comparison since the 940 utilizes a slower HT link and memory controller but it’s the closest we could get for testing:

Gaming

Notes

When compared against the underclocked Phenom II 940 running at 2.6GHz, the X4 810 and its smaller L3 cache doesn’t lose as much performance as we initially expected. Performance drops less than 1% in Crysis, while Far Cry 2 and World In Conflict ran 3% and 4% slower on the 810’s 4MB L3 cache versus the 6MB 940. Lost Planet showed the biggest drop at 5%.

We also included test results with the Phenom 9950, although keep in mind that AMD has incorporated enhancements into the Phenom II parts that improve IPC, so it isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison.

Media benchmarks

Notes

MP3 encoding with LAME is highly dependant on the CPU’s clock speed, so we honestly weren’t surprised to see the two Phenom II CPUs pull even in this benchmark. Seeing Cinebench results within the margin of error was a bit of a surprise though, the two processors are practically dead even here too. We did manage to shave 2 seconds off our DivX conversion testing with the 6MB cache found on the underclocked 940 processor, and the Valve particle simulation benchmark also ran 3% faster than the 810.