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How much difference between Athlon 240 and Athlon 620

Biz.Kid09

Biz.Kid09

Biz.Kid09

Soldato
Joined
14 Oct 2009
Posts
9,659
Location
UK
Well I use DVD Flick quite a lot and I am finding that my laptop
is taking quite a long time to encode compared to friends phenoms e.t.c
So I have decided to get a pc and I don't really have the budget for a phenom so i had a look at the athlons and I was just wondering how much difference there will be between the 240 and 620 with regards to encoding and also is the 620 worth the extra??
Secondly will having 2gb ram instead of 4gb make a difference in encoding??
Thanks
 
Hey Biz.Kid09,

It appears that DVDFlick is Multithreaded so the AII X4 620 will be faster than the AII X2 240, if that's the primary reason for you to build a new value machine you can't do much better than than the AII X4 620 unless your a gambling man then the Phenom II X2 550 may unlock into a full blown x4 (or X3) with 6MB level 3 cache . . .

The only other option is the AII X3 triple core 425 which sells for a similar price to the AII X2 240 although OcUK don't stock them . . . :cool:
 
I agree with big.wayne to an extent with his choice's out of the two you have chosen and for the program you wish to run the Athlon II X4 620 would be the cpu to go for.
However for your needs i think you should look at the Phenom II X3 720 as you will get the benift of the level 3 cache and from most reports these all unlock the 4 core using ACC on the new AM3 Mobo's Gigabyte's one's being the most popular.
If your budget can not stretch to the 720 then the AthlonII X4 620 is the cpu to go for.

As for ram yes you will notice a differrence between 2Gb and 4Gb when encoding or doing any other task within windows for that matter.
 
Ok...So what cpu has more chance of unlock 720 or 550? How much difference is there between 720 and 620 if i cant unlock the 720?
Thanks for you help guys
 
Biz.Kid09 said:
Thanks for you help guys
Click to expand...
No problem! :)

Although I think the advice being offered isn't making your purchasing choice any easier! :p

As you have expressed an interest in Video-Encoding I would drop the Athlon II X2 to the bottom of your pick-list, not that it isn't a great processor for the money but there are better options *if* the budget allows . . .

The Athlon II X3 425 is a more encoding friendly processor and that should be your baseline but if you can lob extra funds at the CPU budget then you just need to decide which of these two chips will be best for you . . .

  • Athlon II X4 620 (2.6GHz)
  • Phenom II X2 550 (3.1GHz)
The AII X4 620 offers a guaranteed Propus Quad-Core running at 2.6GHz for £81.99, not cheap but still well below £100, by all accounts it can overclock fairly well (3.5GHz-3.6GHz) which should be really good at encoding. One thing I would check out if how Level 3 cache effects encoding? . . . I'm sure there is some useful benchmarks floating about somewhere which would be good to check out!

The Phenom II X2 550 offers a guaranteed Deneb Dual-Core running at 3.1GHz for £71.99, so a tenner less than the AII 620 X4 but missing the extra two cores. I'd say about 50% of the people that have posted have had good luck and managed to unlock their chips back into full blown Quad-Cores which is cool, some have only managed to unlock an extra core (so X2 > X3) and a few others have chips that won't unlock at all . . . .

This is why the Athlon II X3 425 offers a good compromise, you get a good price, guaranteed triple cores *and* you still have an outside chance to unlock the fourth extra core which would give you a cheap AII X4 620 . . .

I think the strength of AMD products is how much tech you can get for little money, the processor and motherboard I am using cost less than £100 and zips through all my tasks and games just fine.

I think what you should do is list all the hardware you need and what your budget is, once we look at the availible options according to a fixed budget the choice should become a lot easier! :cool:
 
from memory the 620 is badly hit by lack of L3. the 425 didn't appear to be affected by it and even match @ stock and overclocked the phenom II 720.

If only doing video encoding then the 620 is fine, otherwise the phenom II 550 is far better at everything else.

ATM the 425 is the best value out of the lot.
 
Biz.Kid09 said:
I have worked everything out and i have about £70 exc VAT for a cpu so it seems both the 425 and 620 fit fine
Click to expand...
Well the AII X3 425 is basically the same processor as the AII X4 620 but with the fourth core disabled, I'd say you have a 30% chance of unlocking the 425's disabled core which would be nice (el cheapo AII X4 620), if not its triple core city . . .

So you kinda are looking at
  • AII X3 425 (maybe unlock 4th Core?)
  • PII X2 550 (maybe unlock 3rd /4th Core?)
  • AII X4 620 (maybe unlock 6MB Level 3 Cache)
I am obsessed with bang-for-buck and don't have much luck gambling lol so the AII X3 425 was the obvious choice under my circumstances, I'm also an old school dual core user and not a heavy media encoder so the X4 chips hold no appeal whatsoever, I probably would have gone with a Regor X2 but I caught a special introductory offer on the AII X3 where they were selling cheaper than the AII X2's so I thought what the heck . . .

I think the AII X3 425 and the PhII 550 are the chips with most appeal, both will deal with encoding no problem but if the 550 unlocks you got a terrific bargain! . . . other than that you can play it very safe and pay up for a AII X4 620 :cool:
 
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Hmm choices lol....Well there is quite a difference between a 550 and 620...I think i will either go 620 or 425
If i go for 2gb ddr3 will that impact encoding?? if not i can spend more on cpu
 
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Biz.Kid09, don't give yourself a headache . . . .any of those chips will be a great improvement to what you are using atm, and there will be new chips turning up every few months to tempt you, a shiney new expensive CPU bought today will be less shiny and outmoded next year, you need to get value for money right! :)

I really don't know much about Video Encoding apart from it is a Predictive Task that responds well to extra cores. I would look up for some reviews that contain lots of encoding benchmarks and check out the difference. I think if you can afford it that 4GB will be a good move, 2GB is fine but is the low end of things once you get Windows 7 with a few other bits and bobs running, as to how much this will effect encoding I really don't know but if you wanna do stuff while encoding then 4GB is sure to please! :cool:
 
lol i am getting confused
So bottom line what cpu do you think i should get??
What cpu gives the most value for money...240? 425? 620?
I have however decided that i will probably finances and AMD's pricing allow it move to a Thuban cpu...
 
are you planning to overclock? if so the 425. It will outperform the 620 when OC'd. the lack of L3 cache hurts the 620 bad yet doesn't seem to hit 425 too badly which matches the phenom II 720.

If running stock the go with the 620.
 
feeddagoat said:
the 425. It will outperform the 620 when OC'd. the lack of L3 cache hurts the 620 bad yet doesn't seem to hit 425 too badly
Click to expand...
feeddagoat, sorry to niggle but I see you keep saying the same thing and I wondered is this something you have tested yourself or are you passing on information parrot fashion you read in a review? (or two or three etc?) :confused:
 
Agree with wayne i really dont think it makes any real world difference. I used mine for about a month, Games, films, media streaming and buring and encoding my dvd VoBs. Then i tryed to unlock it and what do know BAM L3...have used unlocked eversince and have noticed 0 Zero nada difference in day to day. Prob would show up in benching, but thats not why people buy a x620
 
id be cautious of the athlon x4 620 if your gaming, got one a few days ago and fps in crysis is appalling, with the old e8200 dual [email protected] i could run crysis maxxed out with 4xAA, now its choppy even with no AA. other than gaming tho its an absolute smashing chip for encoding/editing etc.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2009/10/26/amd-athlon-ii-x4-620-cpu-review/6

check the lack of scaling and apalling min framerates in crysis, took mine up to 3.85ghz, made no difference to fps :( now gone up for sale and after a phenom BE as i do nothing but game lol!
 
buttkinz said:
id be cautious of the athlon x4 620 if your gaming, got one a few days ago and fps in crysis is appalling
Click to expand...
You got one a few days ago and you have already decided the chip has a problem?

You just stated in another thread you spent a week trying to solve a crossfire problem?

How long have you had this chip exactly? :D

buttkinz said:
Iv spent a week digging around thinking there was a problem with crossfire on the new board, benching and testing everything, turns out the athlon quads are awful for gaming, even overclocked
Click to expand...

Well It looks like something is up with either your set-up or your overclock settings, you must be an overclocking genius to have deduced all this is such a short amount of time, I had my AII X3 system running at stock at least one week before overclocking it and everything worked great, suprisingly good actually almost not needing the chip to be running higher than stock 2.7GHz.

The only main differences here are your using a 4-core Propus and I'm using a 3-core Propus (Rana). your using a Crossfire set-up and I'm using a single Radeon HD 4870 512MB.

I have stumbled across a problem which sounds awefully like the situation you have described and that is if I don't set the correct ratio between CPU-MHz and CPU-NB MHz (maybe HTT also?) then 3D becomes *choppy*, I observed this just a few days ago when working on pushing my overclock and running some 3Dmark benchies, it would literally jump and splutter (pause/skip) through some of the tests? . . .Of course the problem disappeared when I reduced the overclock/reset the system to stock.

I haven't yet worked out the cause of this issue but I have a feeling there is some ratio that needs to be maintained when combining high CPU speed with high NB speed . . .

Currently at (13.5x250) 3375MHz and everything is really nice, been playing Stalker S.O.C for a week @ 1920x1200/Max and its smooth as anything.

I would say assuming there isn't some 4-core Propus/Crossfire problem the issue lay with your lack of patience/incorrect overclock settings than the chip being poop! :D
 
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