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AMD Phenom 9950 or Intel Q6600

Dean0493

Dean0493

Dean0493

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Joined
31 Jul 2007
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14
Location
Manchester
Hi all, new here and thought i would start of buy asking for some advice please. Iam currently looking for a new CPU and i cant choose between the Phenom 9950 black edition or the Intel Q6600. Always used AMD, but it seems that oCuk are using Intel more than AMD. I know the Q6600 is good for overclocking, but having never overclocked before, i would rather use a CPU that is fast from stock as iam only using it for gaming, as i have just come from AGP and now going to PCI-E and iam expecting a huge speed increase, iam using a XFX 8800GTS Alpha dog. So the big question is which CPU do i choose? Any other recommendations are welcome, Ill be happy if it runs Crysis smoothly. Thanks
 
Out of those two go with the 6600, fantastic chip for the money.

And seriously, learn to overclock-it's really easy (I consider myself a complete noob and have still got an extra .6Ghz out of my E4500).
 
TBH at stock there is not going to be a lot in it. If you were to overclock then the Q6600 is prob then the better option, although with the AMD you have unlocked Multi so its fairly easy to clock that too.
 
jak731 said:
e8400 or e8500 if its gaming only. most games cant use 4 cores therefore a faster dualcore cpu is better
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Agreed, if you not going to over clock then a e8400 stock speed is 3.0GHz and it might be a good buy as not many games show that much beneifit from a quad core at the moment.
If you going to keep it a long time then a quad might be better but i would think the longer you keep it the more likely have to overclock it at some point.
 
If its for gaming only then i have to agree with JAK731 Dual Core Cpus are currently better with that the Intel's have the edge over current AMD Dual Core's
However it looks like you only upgrade every few years so with that in mind i would recommend you get a Quad core. As for wether you get an Intel over an AMD Phenom
is more down to how adventurious you are feeling, as mentioned above the Intel Q6600 does overclock very easily and on average reach 3 - 3.2 Ghz without to many problems but with a bit more fiddling reach 3.6 Ghz and up.
The AMD Phenom also overclocks to around 3.2Ghz but this does take a bit more fiddling with . If you are only going to run the CPU at stock then its a case of 6 and half a dozen
it really then comes down which CPU you would be more comfortable with.
If it was myself i would go with the AMD Phenom if i was not planning on Overclocking as i have used AMD's most of my Computing Life and know ropughly where i am with them, however if i was planning to overclock the guts out of it then i would have to say i would go for the Intel Q6600
 
Fastest AMD quad cores struggle to keep up with Intel's "low end" quads and eat just horrible amount of power especially compared to 45nm Intels.
Probably only area where that AMD could compete is in most performance at stock speed per price.

And like said in gaming dual cores give better bang per buck for some time but if next upgrade will be years from now then quad core is sensible choise.
Beside games depend very heavily on graphic card and newer generations tend to bring bigger performance jumps in easy to replace graphic cards than CPUs.

Also Crysis is especially heavy on graphics so no matter how fast CPU you have don't expect to run it at maxed settings with that card.
 
EsaT said:
Fastest AMD quad cores struggle to keep up with Intel's "low end" quads and eat just horrible amount of power especially compared to 45nm Intels.
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No they do fine when overclocked, and overclocking is getting a lot better on motherboards, 45nm Phenom chips should be great for that and they do become a lot faster when overclocked, reaching a higher IPC than the Intel chips. Also they have a more efficient architecture than Intel overall, they might use more power but they don't have a northbridge contributing to power use as Intel does.
 
Vegeta said:
Taking the michael right?
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My Original post was not clear, This isnt a dig at the Q6600 its a quality chip Please let me give my 2p worth.

Clock for Clock there is nothing in it, The Phenom has as far as im aware the newer set of instructions and with the AM2+ Socket, has a better upgrade path than the soon to be obsolete 775.

If your overclocking then yeah the Q6600 is the better chip but were not talking about overclocking & at some point this century (if asus get their finger out) more reasonably priced SB750 Mobo's that overclock Phenoms absolutely fine should be hitting the shelves & Amd will have a motherboard/Processor combo that At this price range can compete with Intel ableit chronically late but if your upgrading now then there is no reason not to really consider Amd.

I agree with many others on here if your going for as fast as possible at stock & not bothered about upgrade paths then the E8500 Wolfie @ 3.16GHz would be my choice.
 
ouzodan said:
My Original post was not clear, This isnt a dig at the Q6600 its a quality chip Please let me give my 2p worth.

Clock for Clock there is nothing in it, The Phenom has as far as im aware the newer set of instructions and with the AM2+ Socket, has a better upgrade path than the soon to be obsolete 775.

If your overclocking then yeah the Q6600 is the better chip but were not talking about overclocking & at some point this century (if asus get their finger out) more reasonably priced SB750 Mobo's that overclock Phenoms absolutely fine should be hitting the shelves & Amd will have a motherboard/Processor combo that At this price range can compete with Intel ableit chronically late but if your upgrading now then there is no reason not to really consider Amd.

I agree with many others on here if your going for as fast as possible at stock & not bothered about upgrade paths then the E8500 Wolfie @ 3.16GHz would be my choice.
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incorrect again, at stock speeds a q6600 is faster than any amd quad.
 
The way the cache works on them intels are about 10% faster clock for clock until about 3.2 where clock for clock the amd's become faster.
 
I have one particular review at hand that backs what im saying the Q6600 wins some and it loses some vs 9950be any gain either way is irrelevent in the real world.

Clock for Clock Intel probably do run slightly faster but its fairer to compare price vs price (£130). The 9950be is clocked 200mhz faster so cancels any Cache gain by the Q6600.

Again im not having a dig at the Q6600 its a quality processor and has been for ages but the 9950 is now the right price and offers a better upgrade path over LGA775......
 
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