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AMD Phenom 9850B Quad-Core
Check Prices $224
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Buy Core i5-4690 3.5GHz
Buy Phenom 9850B Quad-Core
Core i5-4690 3.5GHz
Phenom 9850B Quad-Core
Cyberpunk 2077 3% 129%
Doom Eternal 6% 121%
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot 14% 103%
Microsoft Flight Simulator 24% 193%
Grand Theft Auto VI 55% 266%
Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order 26% 197%
Need For Speed Heat 3% 128%
In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz is massively better than the AMD Phenom 9850B Quad-Core when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.
The Core i5-4690 3.5GHz was released over three years more recently than the Phenom 9850B Quad-Core, and so the Core i5-4690 3.5GHz is likely to have far better levels of support, and will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the Phenom 9850B Quad-Core when running the latest games.
The Core i5-4690 3.5GHz and the Phenom 9850B Quad-Core both have 4 cores, which is not likely to be a limiting factor for gaming.
Both the Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz and the AMD Phenom 9850B Quad-Core have the same number of threads. Both CPUs have one thread per physical core.
Multiple threads are useful for improving the performance of multi-threaded applications. Additional cores and their accompanying thread will always be beneficial for multi-threaded applications. Hyperthreading will be beneficial for applications optimized for it, but it may slow others down. For games, the number of threads is largely irrelevant, as long as you have at least 2 cores (preferably 4), and hyperthreading can sometimes even hit performance.
More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.
The Core i5-4690 3.5GHz and Phenom 9850B Quad-Core are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the Core i5-4690 3.5GHz has a 1 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. In this case, however, the difference is probably a good indicator that the is superior.
Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.
The Phenom 9850B Quad-Core has a 1024 KB bigger L2 cache than the Core i5-4690 3.5GHz, but on the other hand, it is the Core i5-4690 3.5GHz that has a 4 MB bigger L3 cache than the Phenom 9850B Quad-Core. The L3 size of the Phenom 9850B Quad-Core is probably low enough to greatly inhibit its gaming performance in comparison to the Core i5-4690 3.5GHz.
The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.
The Core i5-4690 3.5GHz has a 11 Watt lower Maximum TDP than the Phenom 9850B Quad-Core, and was created with a 43 nm smaller manufacturing technology. What this means is the Core i5-4690 3.5GHz will consume slightly less power and consequently produce less heat, enabling more prolonged computational tasks with fewer adverse effects. This will lower your yearly electricity bill slightly, as well as prevent you from having to invest in extra cooling mechanisms (unless you overclock).
The Core i5-4690 3.5GHz has an on-board GPU, which means that it will be capable of running basic graphics applications (i.e., games) without the need for a dedicated graphics card. The Phenom 9850B Quad-Core, however, does not, and you will probably have to look for a dedicated card if you wish to use it at all.
For in-depth GPU comparisons with the Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop, click on the following GPU overview comparison icon (visible throughout Game-Debate), and choose a GPU from the list to compare against:
On-board GPUs tend to be fairly awful in comparison to dedicated cards from the likes of AMD or Nvidia, but as they are built into the CPU, they also tend to be cheaper and require far less power to run (this makes them a good choice for laptops). We would recommend a dedicated card for running the latest games, but integrated GPUs are improving all the time and casual gamers may find less recent games perform perfectly acceptably.
CPU Core Details
CPU Codename
Haswell Agena
MoBo Socket
LGA 1150 Socket AM2+
Notebook CPU
14 May 2014 01 Jul 2008
CPU Link
CPU Technical Specifications
CPU Threads
3.5 GHz vs 2.5 GHz
Turbo Frequency
3.9 GHz vs -
Max TDP
84 W vs 95 W
22 nm vs 65 nm
Bit Width
64 Bit vs 64 Bit
100°C vs 70°C
CPU Cache and Memory
L1 Cache Size
256 KB vs 512 KB
1024 KB vs 2048 KB
6 MB vs 2 MB
Max Memory Size
Memory Channels
- vs 2
ECC Memory Support
CPU Graphics
Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop
Base GPU Frequency
400 MHz vs -
Max GPU Frequency
11.1 vs -
Displays Supported
CPU Package and Version Specifications
PCIe Revision
PCIe Configurations
CPU Mini Review
Core i5-4690 3.5GHz is a high-end CPU based on the 22nm, Haswell architecture.
It offers 4 Physical Cores (4 Logical), initially clocked at 3.5GHz, which may go up to 3.9GHz and 6MB of L3 Cache.
Among its many features, Turbo Boost and Virtualization are activated.
The processor integrates powerful Graphics called Intel HD Graphics 4600, with 20 Execution Units, initially clocked at 350MHz and that go up to 1200MHz, in Turbo Mode which share the L2 Cache and system RAM with the processor.
Both the processor and integrated graphics have a rated board TDP of 84W.
Compared to Core i5-4670K there's an overall 3% performance boost. Its performance is exceptionally good and enough for even the most demanding applications. Phenom 9850B Quad-Core is a business-class processor based on the 65nm, K10 architecture.
It offers 4 Physical Cores (4 Logical), clocked at 2.5GHz and 2MB of L3 Cache.
Among its many features, Virtualization is activated.
The processor DOES NOT integrate any graphics. and has a rated board TDP of 95W.
It offers average performance. This means it will become a bottleneck in some demanding applications.