AMD Phenom 9950 vs Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the AMD Phenom 9950 scores 8 and the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 scores 7, about 14% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The AMD Phenom 9950 has 4 cores and 4 threads, and the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 has 2 cores and 2 threads. The extra cores of the AMD Phenom 9950 help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 2.6 GHz and 3 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The AMD Phenom 9950 uses the AM2+ socket and the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 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 140 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That difference changes the cooler you need, and it shows up in heat and noise.

We do not have launch prices for both chips, so we cannot compare value.

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

At 1080p the AMD Phenom 9950 can feed a card up to the GeForce GTX 1650 Laptop before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 reaches the Radeon R9 380. If you plan to buy a fast graphics card, that gap is the real difference between these two.

Choose the AMD Phenom 9950 if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.