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i7 or Phenom ii?

solway

solway

solway

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9 Mar 2007
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OK, don't start a bashing war between fanboys

just want to know the best route to take...
Looking for a complete upgrade..

Which has better preformance? i7 or Phenom ii?

Which cpu can be unlocked?
i.e. can you get the i7 920 to the 965 preformance including quickpath GB/s?


I have always been AMD focused in the past, however not at the moment

i'am a bit nervous in whether AMD has something up their sleeves or if intel have another AMD killler in the field..


Looking for some personal opinions and experiences

thanks
 
I7 is faster but more expensive than P2.

P2's are multiplier unlocked if you buy the BE's (Black Editions).

I don't have experience of either but have been looking into both recently. My conclusion was to get a P2 and spend the money saved on a better graphics card than I could afford with the I7.

If money is no object then I7 is the faster processor. P2 is better for price/performance.
 
i7's multipliers are unlocked downwards so you just increase BCLK (FSB equivalent) and lower multiplier to overclock, as you increase BCLK the QPI (Quickpath) increases along with it and yes you can match/exceed the QPI of the 965 quite easily.

The only problem with i7 is price, Core 2 Quad (tends to be forgotten these days) and Phenom II are both very good alternatives for gaming, for multimedia and everything else Intel tend to rule the roost especially with i7.
 
gurusan said:
Why not Yorkfield? Q9650s and e0 q9550s easily do over 4ghz....
Click to expand...

The OP doesn't say what CPU he has right now but the comment about being "AMD focused in the past" probably means he's probably on an A64 on either S949 or AM2. If it's AM2 then it would make sense to go for a P2 (assuming his mobo will take it). But if he's on S939 then it would still make sense to buy an AM2+ or AM3 based P2.

If he buys into C2D/C2Q then he's buying into a socket that won't be getting any new CPU's. So what he buys will effectively be end of line and the faster CPU before having to change CPU, mobo and RAM again. At least by buying into AM2+/AM3 then there should be faster CPU's in the future.
 
If you plan to use this rig for gaming, you will need a very good graphics card! My friend is suffering a bottleneck with his GTX 280 and i7!! He's getting less fps than he did with his old Q6600 and GTX 260! If you're on a budget, get a PII, if you have lots of dosh to blow, get an i7.
 
i am still on
athlon Xp 3200, 2gb ram and geforce 6800gt

OK.. get all the laughing out the way...

It still plays games good, just some of the latest ones that require SSE2 won't run (COD5) - it'll still run crysis on meduim with 40-50fps

I've been upgrading around the main components, therefore looking for a complete upgrade of CPU/MB/RAM/GPU


one thing i'm still interested in, is the direction of AMD/Intel in terms of road map

don't want to buy, if one decides to change the socket and therefore not back compatible

or whether i should wait for 32nm and geforce 380 with dx11
 
Hades said:
If he buys into C2D/C2Q then he's buying into a socket that won't be getting any new CPU's. So what he buys will effectively be end of line and the faster CPU before having to change CPU, mobo and RAM again. At least by buying into AM2+/AM3 then there should be faster CPU's in the future.
Click to expand...

the choice and quality of boards available for the 775/1366 platforms are still miles ahead of that for the Phenoms, something which is overlooked i think - the SB750 although improved on the crap previous amd southbridges is still weaker than ICH9/ICH10 which is something else to consider.

if i were going the DDR3 route i'd pick i7 9/10 days of the week or to save some cash for more GPU the Kentsfield/775 DDR2 route, if you only upgrade once every few years i wouldn't worry about not being able to upgrade the processor ....things change too quickly to worry about 2-3 years ahead just buy for now.
 
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marscay said:
the choice and quality of boards available for the 775 platform are still miles ahead of that for the Phenoms, something which is overlooked i think - the SB750 although improved on the crap previous amd southbridges is still weaker than ICH9/ICH10 which is something else to consider. if i were going the DDR3 route i'd pick i7 9/10 days of the week or to save some cash for more GPU the Kentsfield/775 DDR2 route.
Click to expand...

The Asus M4A79T Deluxe AMD 790FX (Socket AM3)
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (Socket AM3)
Are just as good as there Intel versions. World records are being broken on the 2 mobos above.
The southbridges are not an issue, its not like the SB750 will start throwing up harddrive errors if you connect more than one device.
What issues are you on about exactly.
When was that last time you had an AMD mobo.
 
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marscay said:
the choice and quality of boards available for the 775/1366 platforms are still miles ahead of that for the Phenoms, something which is overlooked i think - the SB750 although improved on the crap previous amd southbridges is still weaker than ICH9/ICH10 which is something else to consider.
Click to expand...
the sb750 is a great chipset. better tha previous chipset. i've not had one single problem with it..
 
I had assumed I5 would just be slower I7s with dual core instead of quad. But if they put it on a different socket too then that will be madness.
 
i7 is faster than Phenom 2, no questions asked. Every benchmark shows that in general performance the i7 is better. However, that comes at a rather steep price which most people won't want to pay out.

I went for a Phenom 2 as it was much cheaper than the i7 yet still provided the performance I needed (gaming). I don't do heavy media encoding and if I did, I've got other PC's around the house on 24/7 that I could run it on so time isn't an issue.

@marscay: There might be more choice although I disagree with the quality remark. I've never heard of anyone using a Ph2 or i7 that's complained about their board. I'm running an Asus M3A79-T and it does exactly what it says on the tin :)
 
solway said:
OK, don't start a bashing war between fanboys

just want to know the best route to take...
Looking for a complete upgrade..

Which has better preformance? i7 or Phenom ii?
Click to expand...

All such things can be answered with a quick Google for one of the gazillion professional reviews that directly compare them... you did that first, right?

i7 is obviously faster, but you pay a premium. :)
 
Hades said:
I had assumed I5 would just be slower I7s with dual core instead of quad. But if they put it on a different socket too then that will be madness.
Click to expand...

i5's will have their own socket, something like 1162. I think it's a bit stupid to be honest. It'd make more sense for both to be 1366, that way, you can focus on one line of CPUs rather than 2. If you bought a 775 and a C2D, you could later upgrade to a Q9650 no problem. If you bought an i5, there will be no option to upgrade to i7 without a complete mobo change.

I'm all for the "mainstream" and "enthusiast" options, but when i5 users fancy an upgrade and i7's come down to mainstream pricing, they can't simply slot an i7 in without swapping mobos.

But then, further down the line, maybe the i5 socket will get a CPU faster than i7, at mainstream pricing (while 1366 gets an even faster one at enthusiast pricing), only time will tell. If this happens, it would make sense actually (for most people), as it would stop the mainstream users spending "enthusiast" money on a CPU that requires good cooling and OCing to get the full potential from.
 
Hades said:
I had assumed I5 would just be slower I7s with dual core instead of quad. But if they put it on a different socket too then that will be madness.
Click to expand...

I5 is on a different socket & 1x16 or 2x8 PCIE only.
 
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