Features & Specifications
The AMD Dragon platform I am testing today features a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H mainboard that features the AMD 790GX chipset. The CPU in my Dragon platform machine is the new AMD Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad-core. The CPU runs at 3GHz and uses AMD Socket AM2+. Voltage required is 0.875-1.5V and the TDP for the CPU is 125W. Total L2 cache is 2MB and the CPU has a 6MB L3 cache. I used 2GB of Corsair DDR2-1066RAM for testing and a 750W PC Power & Cooling PSU. The 940 BE CPU is built on the 45nm process and has 758 million transistors.

The Gigabyte mainboard used in this review was provided by AMD and did require a BIOS update for stability. Before the BIOS update the system crashed and locked up randomly. After the BIOS update the system has ran for nearly a month constantly without any glitches, lockups or other issues. Be sure if you build a Dragon platform machine that you get the latest BIOS for the board. Graphics in the machine are via an AMD HD4850 video card and the test system runs Windows Vista Ultimate.

Benchmarks
When it comes to new platforms, the proof is always in the benchmark pudding. I tested the Dragon platform machine with several benchmarks including SysMark 2007, 3DMArk06, Cinebench 9.5, Cinebench 10, and PCMark Vantage.

The first test for the Dragon platform machine was Sysmark2007. The overall SysMark 2007 score for the machine was 156. Individually the machine scored 145 on the E-Learning section, 196 on the video creation section, 122 on the productivity section and 173 on the 3D section.

On 3DMark06, the machine performed very well. The CPU score was 4219, not too far off from the Intel QX9770 CPU my gaming test machine uses at 4520. Consider that the AMD 940 BE part costs $275 and the QX9770 is priced at over $1400 at Newegg right now, and you can see that the AMD Phenom II 940 Black Edition brings a major portion of bang for your buck to the table. Pick the right parts and you could build a Dragon gaming machine for the price of the Intel QX9770 alone.

Cinebench 9.5 is a test of the CPU that requires rendering an image using all four cores on the CPU. The Dragon machine scored 1569 CB-CPU on the test and on Cinebench 10; it scored 9757 CB-CPU, both very good numbers considering the price of the CPU.

I ran PCMark Vantage on the machine, which simulates different usage scenarios the average computer user would use a computer for. My Dragon platform machine scored 4952 PCMarks total on the test. The details were 3746 on the memories section, 3997 on TV and movies, 5415 on gaming, 4628 on music, 4034 on communications, 4713 on productivity, and 3077 on HDD.

Synthetic benchmarks give an idea of the overall performance of a CPU and paltform, but to really get an idea of how well a new platform will work requires using the machine. Performance is great, but overall platform stability is a must. AMD's new Dragon platform is dead stable (after the BIOS update) and runs quieter than my former work machine that used the AMD Spider platform.

Performance with 2GB of RAM was great for general computer work. In my daily work I typically run six or more browsers open often with each browser window running multiple tabs. On my Spider platform machine I would often find new windows wouldn't open and things slowed down a lot as I had more tasks running at once. The Dragon platform has none of these issues. I edit lots of photos with Photoshop and the Dragon platform is noticeably faster sizing images and applying filters and enhancements.

The machine is great for gaming and offers up great performance. It’s not going to run Crysis at full detail and 2560 x 1600 smoothly, but I have yet to find the machine that will. Gamers who opt for the Dragon platform will find that it is a very good gaming machine.

Overclockers should find that there is overhead with the 940BE processor to play until your heart is content. Overall, the Dragon platform is very impressive not only for its performance, but for the price it brings all of that performance to the table at. AMD's new Dragon platform simply offers tons of bang for your buck.