Is the phenom 2 worth it?

[Mattus]

Poppelsquak. I've been researching the IT industry for years and most of the reviews and videos i've seen show the 955 BE to be faster. It doesn't overclock as much but it has a much higher stock speed, so you don't need to at first anyway. But yes, it is close, and to me it seems silly to spend so much more on what might be a few extra frames in a game that nobody's even heard of.

What? You need to do a bit more research into instructions per clock. The Phenom being clocked higher doesn't mean that you need to clock it less. In fact clock speed doesn't really matter at all. Some CPUs do more per clock, some are clocked higher. The only difference it makes is that if both clock to 4GHz, you can say that the i7 clocks better.

And obviously, the i7 is going to supercharge your text editing and browsing experience.

Well, if that's your argument, you might as well just run a Pentium III. We're talking about high-end chips. The Phenom is good value for money and a very capable gaming CPU, but the i7 is the superior chip.

 

[dmxdex2020]

Basically i think what your trying to say is that the phenom 2 is better at games or just as good as the i7 at games, but the i7 is better for editing and coding stuff like that?

 

[Mattus]

Basically i think what your trying to say is that the phenom 2 is better at games or just as good as the i7 at games, but the i7 is better for editing and coding stuff like that?

I'd say that the i7 is a bit better in games and a lot better in some activities like encoding - it's just a matter of whether you can justify the price.

 

[AMG]

I7 is best at most things particualy gaming and multicard setup, but hold on there, the AMD 955 is not that far behined, its only when doing CAD, and coding or whatever else, you might wanna consder I7 not sure how AMD feirs in that part

 

[Pneumonic]

I have seen no difference in gaming between my two set-ups (920 & 955BE) running the same graphics cards the AMD set-up is clocked @ 3.95ghz with 2.7ghz NB/HT.. and the 920 @ 4ghz..

I run my main gaming rig (duel 4870 x2) on the AMD as the motherboard seems to cope with it better

If you want a "gaming" rig save yourself some money and buy AMD you will notice no difference, the AMD also run a lot cooler and you can get better returns clock wise on air vs water

 

[Serpico]

That's good to know Pneumonic. I think it's fair to say you're unbiased.

 

[mmj_uk]

I'm not taking sides in this, but using 800*600 res as an example is an appalling argument

It's how you benchmark CPU's using games you need to remove the GPU from the equation as much as possible so that the game is almost entirely CPU limited, running games at high resolutions with all the bells and whistles on to benchmark CPU's is like comparing the speed of two trailers using the same tractor.

Otherwise at high resolutions we generally see i7/PII/C2Q all neck and neck simply because other factors aren't allowing any of them to really stretch their legs to their fullest extent, even with quad SLI you may get bottlenecks or efficiency problems within the graphics engine itself.

No doubt in the real world the C2Q/PII can in most cases keep up with i7 and both are great value, but theoretically they are still slower even for games despite the common misconception I see on this forum that Phenom II is "equal" or even "faster" when compared to i7, in terms of gaming performance the more the pendulum swings away from the GPU and toward the CPU the more you will see i7 pulling away, with CPU physics on the horizon it could be sooner than we think.

/edited.

 

[gareth170]

I have seen no difference in gaming between my two set-ups (920 & 955BE) running the same graphics cards the AMD set-up is clocked @ 3.95ghz with 2.7ghz NB/HT.. and the 920 @ 4ghz..

I run my main gaming rig (duel 4870 x2) on the AMD as the motherboard seems to cope with it better

If you want a "gaming" rig save yourself some money and buy AMD you will notice no difference, the AMD also run a lot cooler and you can get better returns clock wise on air vs water

what Pneumonic said ^^ is very true..

 

[Casdawer]

955 is better

 

[PakJai]

If you want high end gaming and good general performance at an affordable price then go AMD.
If you want high end gaming,multi tasking and running graphical apps regardless of cost, then go intel.

 

[mayebaza]

I am in the process of deciding which way to go with my new rig either the Intel’s 920 or AMD’s 955BE. At the start I knew my new rig would be Intel having built a Core 2 Quad Q6600 for my brother, boy was I jealous. To end my envy I upgraded my Athlon 64 X2 6000+, with the AMD Phenom II X4 940BE, over clocked it to 3300 MHz on an old Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe board and AMD gave me one hell of a surprise. Benchmarks are one thing but use in the real world is what counts.

Having given this question deep study and consideration, in my opinion if your are after a gaming rig AMD’s 955BE is the best choice at the moment £ for £, simply because the extra cost for the i7 boards ram and chip can be used to crossfire a 955BE rig which out performs a 920 set up for the same price. (Tomorrow I am picking up a Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P Motherboard, AMD Phenom II X4 955BE, Corsair XMS3 (2G x 2, DDR3-1600) for £350. I reckon I can pick up another Sapphire ATI HD 4850 516MB for less than £80, over clock her to 3600 MHz, making a mother of a machine for less than £450.

 

[Final8y]

If you want high end gaming and good general performance at an affordable price then go AMD.
If you want high end gaming,multi tasking and running graphical apps regardless of cost, then go intel.

Multitasking is not an issue for i7 or AMD Quads.

 

[PermaBanned]

And graphical apps is just basically either 2D or 3D rendering. So just gaming, but to a lesser degree.

 

[dmxdex2020]

Ok i will probs get the amd phenom 2 quad black edition. The price is the factor, will the i lose any peformance in games with a virus program running in background with the phenom 2?

Also will the amd phenom 2 be good enough for the new next gen dx11 cards that are coming out?

 

[dmxdex2020]

Ok i will probs get the amd phenom 2 quad black edition. The price is the factor, will the i lose any peformance in games with a virus program running in background with the phenom 2?

Also will the amd phenom 2 be good enough for the new next gen dx11 cards that are coming out?

And another that amd 3 msi board Does it allow triple channel memory? i had a look at the gigabyte udp5 and it says its dual channel? am confused on this one, though all these boards are triple channel ddr 3?

 

[lukext]

And another that amd 3 msi board Does it allow triple channel memory? i had a look at the gigabyte udp5 and it says its dual channel? am confused on this one, though all these boards are triple channel ddr 3?

AM3 boards use DUAL channel DDR3 ram
i7 boards TRIPLE channel ram

 

[Final8y]

Ok i will probs get the amd phenom 2 quad black edition. The price is the factor, will the i lose any peformance in games with a virus program running in background with the phenom 2?

Also will the amd phenom 2 be good enough for the new next gen dx11 cards that are coming out?

No you will not have a problem with a virus program running in the back ground.

Yes the Phenom 2 will be fine for DX11 cards.

 

[Meeeellar]

Ok i will probs get the amd phenom 2 quad black edition. The price is the factor, will the i lose any peformance in games with a virus program running in background with the phenom 2?

Also will the amd phenom 2 be good enough for the new next gen dx11 cards that are coming out?

ofcourse u'll lose performance. Like EVERY other cpu, when you have something working in the background then its taking up resources.

So, if you want that extra 2-3fps then i suggest you disable the vp.

dx11 cards... dot make me laugh. You talk like as if AMD chips cant do anything

 

[marscay]

Lol is it just me or are a lot of AMD fans touchy

 

[dmxdex2020]

Does it make a difference that the phenom 2 can only use dual channel instead of triple channel?