AMD Phenom 9650 vs Core 2 Duo E6600

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the AMD Phenom 9650 scores 7 and the Core 2 Duo E6600 scores 6, about 17% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The AMD Phenom 9650 has 4 cores and 4 threads, and the Core 2 Duo E6600 has 2 cores and 2 threads. The extra cores of the AMD Phenom 9650 help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 2.3 GHz and 2.4 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The AMD Phenom 9650 uses the AM2+ socket and the Core 2 Duo E6600 uses LGA775, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 95 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the AMD Phenom 9650 cost $176 and the Core 2 Duo E6600 $316, which gives 4.0 and 1.9 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the AMD Phenom 9650 can feed a card up to the Radeon R9 380 before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core 2 Duo E6600 reaches the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the AMD Phenom 9650 if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Core 2 Duo E6600 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.