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AMD FX-9590 Processor Review: Brute Almighty
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Test System and Testing Procedures
AMD Test System:
| Processor | AMD FX-8370E, AMD FX-8370, AMD FX-9590 |
| CPU Cooler |
Noctua NH-U14S and CM Seidon 120M with Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound |
| Power Supply |
Corsair HX850W 80 Plus Gold PSU |
| Memory | Patriot Viper 3 “Black Mamba” 2x8GB DDR3 2100 MHz CL11 |
| Storage | OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD (OS) |
| Graphics | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce OC |
| Drivers | AMD all-in-one driver ver:8.70a, NVIDIA 335.23 WHQL drivers. |
| Motherboard | Asrock 990FX Fatal1ty Killer (P1.10 BIOS-FX-8380E and AMD FX-8370 Benchmarks), Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Rev 4.0 (F2 BIOS-FX-9590 benchmarks) |
| Case |
DimasTech EasyXL Test Bench/NZXT Phantom Switch 810 SE (temperature testing) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP-1 with latest patches and updates |
Intel Test System:
| Processor | Intel Core i5-4670K (Retail), i7-4770K (Retail) |
| CPU Cooler |
Phanteks TC14-PE with Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound |
| Power Supply |
Corsair HX850W 80 Plus Gold PSU |
| Memory | Patriot Viper 3 “Black Mamba” 2x8GB DDR3 2100 MHz CL11 |
| Storage | OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD (OS) |
| Graphics | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce OC |
| Drivers | Intel Chipset Driver 10.0.3, NVIDIA 335.23 WHQL drivers. |
| Motherboard | MSI Z97 Gaming 7 (E7916IMS 1.0) |
| Case | DimasTech EasyXL Test Bench |
| Operating System | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP-1 with latest patches and updates |
Latest working BIOS, updates and drivers were used at the time of the review. Each test was conducted at least three times for accuracy.
System Benchmarks
- wPrime 1.55 32M
- Aida64 Engineer 4.50
- CineBench R15
- PCMark 8 v2.0.228
- WinRAR 5.01
- Handbrake 0.9.9
- x264 FHD 1.0.1
Gaming Benchmarks
- 3DMark (Firestrike test) v1.2.362 – Default Preset
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Fraps Benchmark, Ultra Preset + FXAA on 1920×1080
Hi Ron, I too have a 9590, but it was apparently bundled with a slightly different cooler when AMD first released them last year. The fans are a different manufacturer, and I believe that they have slightly lower max airflow (somewhere in the 60cfm range IIRC). Doesnt matter anyways—at max they are WAYYYY too loud for any sane person to stand for very long.
As for you trying to keep the CPU under 60C, you should pat yourself on the back for even getting close to that. Even undervolting the 9590 at 4.7 (turbo off) 1.425V, running prime95 (max heat/power consumption/8 cores) for an hour would put me in the mid 60s. In my experience, the chip remains stable up to somewhere in the high 70s, believe it or not. And I’ve gotten the chip stable at 5ghz (no turbo), but it is right on the very edge of running too hot to be stable. Very little oc’ing headroom like you stated.
Thanks for the insight Pat. I did not know about the different fans in the first revision. I would definitely suggest something beefier for cooling such as custom loop to run this chip. The fans are just too damn loud.