Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 reviewed

About three months ago the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 was released. In the meantime the price dropped from about €500 to more affordable €320 and since Intel's Extreme Editions will phase out, the Q9650 will become the fastest Core 2 Quad. Furthermore the processor is cooler and much cheaper than the QX9650, which isn't faster without overclocking. Therefore we reviewed the Core 2 Quad Q9650 and ran some benchmarks with the CPU.

The default core frequency of the Core 2 Quad Q9650 is 3.0 GHz and the processor has 2x 6,144 KiByte L2 cache. According to Intel the four cores have a TDP of 95 watt. A multiplier of 9 and 33 MHz FSB result in the 3.0 GHz clock speed of the CPU. The Core 2 Quad Q9650 is produced in an 45 nanometer architecture and because of the multiplier the processor has good overclocking capabilities. Below you can see how the Q9650 was in our benchmarks. We tested the CPU's performance in the games Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Race Driver: Grid and World in Conflict as well as in the applications Cinebench R10 (x-CPU), POV-Ray, 7-Zip (Packing) and 3D Mark Vantage (CPU Score).

Select game by clicking:

Crysis - World in Conflict - Race Driver: Grid - Call of Duty 4

Select benchmark by clicking:

3D Mark Vantage Cinebench POV-Ray 7-Zip

Conclusion: Core 2 Quad Q9650
The primary competitor of the Core 2 Quad Q9650 is the AMD Phenom X4 940. In most benchmarks the Q9650 beats the Phenom X4 940, but the difference is small. The Intel processor costs about €320 while the AMD CPU is sold for about €220.