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i5/i7 or amd 6 cores?

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
18,809
Location
Finchley, London
I'm now considering upgrading motherboard and cpu and ram and buying a second graphics card with a view mostly to gaming on crossfire/sli. I found an intel 1155 sandybridge board http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-449-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=

that supports both quad crossfire and sli and has 8+2 Phase Power for extreme overclocking. My question though is, am I better off with intel quad core or AMD 6 core? This also has to take into account me being able to find an AMD motherboard that also supports both crossfire and sli. I certainly cannot afford any intel above quad core. For example,

an i5-2500 3.30GHz (Sandybridge)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-361-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

or one of the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Cores?

Or would an i7 be much better than either? I also have no idea what hyperthreading does and if I need it.

My goal here is to upgrade with a certain amount of future proofing, to the best gaming rig I can afford with a huge leap in fps. Gaming is obviously not all I do on my PC, but it's something I've always wanted to have, very little bottlenecking, smooth as peanut butter gaming and mucho mucho frames per second. :p
 
Merlin5 said:
I'm now considering upgrading motherboard and cpu and ram and buying a second graphics card with a view mostly to gaming on crossfire/sli. I found an intel 1155 sandybridge board http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-449-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=

that supports both quad crossfire and sli and has 8+2 Phase Power for extreme overclocking. My question though is, am I better off with intel quad core or AMD 6 core? This also has to take into account me being able to find an AMD motherboard that also supports both crossfire and sli. I certainly cannot afford any intel above quad core. For example,

an i5-2500 3.30GHz (Sandybridge)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-361-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

or one of the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Cores?

Or would an i7 be much better than either? I also have no idea what hyperthreading does and if I need it.

My goal here is to upgrade with a certain amount of future proofing, to the best gaming rig I can afford with a huge leap in fps. Gaming is obviously not all I do on my PC, but it's something I've always wanted to have, very little bottlenecking, smooth as peanut butter gaming and mucho mucho frames per second. :p
Click to expand...

AMD Bulldozer is being released next month and the increased competition will hopefully mean more competitive prices. The new AMD motherboards will support Crossfire and SLI too.

I would avoid a P67 motherboard as the Z68 is coming out soon and Gigabyte is going to replace its P67 motherboards with Z68 ones.
 
I have an i7 930 and because of the Hyperthreading the computer sees 8 cores not 4 even though there are only 4 cores of course. Personally I think you would be better with an Intel CPU but I have no love for AMD since I think they are not worth the money, yes Intel are more expensive but you get a lot more out of them imho.

I would wait till Bulldozer comes out and see what happens to prices you might be able to afford something better with whatever budget you have ;)

Stoner81.
 
At the moment the Intel CPU's are better but when it comes down to gaming, most of your FPS are coming from the GPU not the CPU, so it really depends on how much you are willing to spend.

Personally I would go with the 2500 :)
 
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Thanks for the advice. Yep, I'm aware of the upcoming bulldozers and will hold off for a few weeks. I was originally planning to just get a x4 955 but since I posted about that, many people have now told me that there won't be much if any difference in most or certain games. Crossfire was then recommended to me if I really want to see major improvement. It's a pity my motherboard doesn't support crossfire, then all I'd have had do is buy a second 5850 and maybe the x4 955.

As things stand, I obviously need a new motherboard so I might as well go the whole hog and do it properly and spend in the region of around £450 I reckon. That's what then got me considering intel v AMD. Thanks for the tip about Z68 boards. Ok then, so I guess I'd better bump this thread again after FX/bulldozers are shipped and get people's opinions then for a better idea what to do.
 
Merlin5 said:
Thanks for the advice. Yep, I'm aware of the upcoming bulldozers and will hold off for a few weeks. I was originally planning to just get a x4 955 but since I posted about that, many people have now told me that there won't be much if any difference in most or certain games. Crossfire was then recommended to me if I really want to see major improvement. It's a pity my motherboard doesn't support crossfire, then all I'd have had do is buy a second 5850 and maybe the x4 955.

As things stand, I obviously need a new motherboard so I might as well go the whole hog and do it properly and spend in the region of around £450 I reckon. That's what then got me considering intel v AMD. Thanks for the tip about Z68 boards. Ok then, so I guess I'd better bump this thread again after FX/bulldozers are shipped and get people's opinions then for a better idea what to do.
Click to expand...

Have you tried unlocking your CPU??
 
arknor said:
performancer per £ a lot of the amd chips are better and the gap isnt as huge as people make out
Click to expand...

Is that why I'm constantly seeing some people's posts slate AMD as if you're losing 100fps? or it takes 2 hours to render something against Sandybridge for 10 minutes?
That some people are going on as if:

AMD ---
Intel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was originally going to go for Intel this time but when Overclockers had nice prices for a hex core early/mid December 2010 I thought it was too good to pass up on. I didn't know of Sandybridge at that time as they weren't out yet plus my games were really struggling on a AMD Athlon X2 4600+, 2GB DDR PC3500 with two x1950xtx's. I could no longer tolerate the low fps for my gaming needs, I just had to buy. I would have loved to have waited a bit longer but it's so infuriating when your system has become that old you just can't enjoy your gaming anymore. You want eye-candy, no jaggies and nice fps but you have to sacrifice. I don't like that.

I haven't had an Intel since the P2 or was it P3 days which was a 450Mhz CPU back in 1998/99. Ever since then I've always jumped to AMD chips that were relatively great prices. The only costly AMD I had spent on was a Athlon XP 3200+ when they were first out.

I'm no fanboy but everytime when I've needed a new system I always seem to hit the times when deals are on or the hardware has matured for whatever bugs has been worked out with the software so I take them. It's because of that it's always usually been AMD prices slashed. I usually get 2 - 4 years out of my system until the next upgrade.

I don't benchmark, constantly look at unzipping tests or the such. If I can get a steady 60fps with some nice AA the majority of time I'm more than happy. That is of course until you co
 
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V F said:
Is that why I'm constantly seeing some people's posts slate AMD as if you're losing 100fps? or it takes 2 hours to render something against Sandybridge for 10 minutes?
That some people are going on as if:

AMD ---
Intel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was originally going to go for Intel this time but when Overclockers had nice prices for a hex core early/mid December 2010 I thought it was too good to pass up on. I didn't know of Sandybridge at that time as they weren't out yet plus my games were really struggling on a AMD Athlon X2 4600+, 2GB DDR PC3500 with two x1950xtx's. I could no longer tolerate the low fps for my gaming needs, I just had to buy. I would have loved to have waited a bit longer but it's so infuriating when your system has become that old you just can't enjoy your gaming anymore. You want eye-candy, no jaggies and nice fps but you have to sacrifice. I don't like that.

I haven't had an Intel since the P2 or was it P3 days which was a 450Mhz CPU back in 1998/99. Ever since then I've always jumped to AMD chips that were relatively great prices. The only costly AMD I had spent on was a Athlon XP 3200+ when they were first out.

I'm no fanboy but everytime when I've needed a new system I always seem to hit the times when deals are on or the hardware has matured for whatever bugs has been worked out with the software so I take them. It's because of that it's always usually been AMD prices slashed. I usually get 2 - 4 years out of my system until the next upgrade.

I don't benchmark, constantly look at unzipping tests or the such. If I can get a steady 60fps with some nice AA the majority of time I'm more than happy. That is of course until you co
Click to expand...

If your X2 4600+ was a socket 939 one they sell for a decent price on the famous auction site.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Have you tried unlocking your CPU??
Click to expand...

Yep, loads of times, it won't unlock. I also found out something last night and so me being.. erm.. 'unlocky' :p is a blessing in disguise perhaps. Someone on overclock.net who wrote a guide for unlocking phenom ll 555 and it's sister chips wrote at the beginning, "Now here is where things get tricky, because of power phases on modern motherboards the recommendation is that you NOT buy a motherboard that only has 4+1 power phase, you should not unlock and further more overclock the unlocked cores because of the heat that is generated by the boards’ mosfets and VRM’s" My mobo happens to be 4+1. :eek:


Skeng said:
Click here for Benchmarks i5 2500k vs AMD x6


As you can see the i5 is a lot faster not to mention if you get a good one you can overclock that mother to 4.7Ghz - 5Ghz. And lastly they run very cool compared to nehalem.
Click to expand...

Thanks, great bench comparison. I misread them at first and thought the x6 AMD had beaten the i5 by more things, until I realised many of those are 'lower is better'.:D i5 wins 38, hexcore only wins 4. Well then, i5 it is then. Unless bulldozer turns out to be better and affordable. What about the i7, is it much better for me than even i5, if, the new bulldozers aren't as good as intel?
 
Maybe by 50 frames per second in something source based where it would be 100 FPS for AMD, and 150 for Intel... I doubt there is anything mainstream game wise that AMD couldn't max out at over 60 frames per second which is all most LCD's will be able to display anyway.
 
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