Phenom II vs Core i7: Gaming Value Comparison = Shush Intel Fanboys lol.

[Nelly]

http://www.pureoverclock.com/article794.html

Summary
When we first set out to tackle this article, we weren't quite sure what to expect. We've seen both the Phenom II and Core i7 up close and personal, and have a healthy respect for each platform. However, we are performance junkies around here and pride ourselves as overclocking enthusiasts that try to extract maximum performance from our systems, regardless of platform. And we have been suitably impressed by the overclocking prowess of the Core i7 lineup, as have many other enthusiasts the world over. But we also know that very few people are also able to take advantage of much of those increases in real world tasks that can truly harness that power to a great degree.

We've seen the pendulum swing from Intel to AMD, and back and forth, and as gamers, we had assumed that the strengths of the Core i7 platform would prove too much for a Phenom II to overcome in terms of gaming performance. So today's investigation set about not to prove a certain viewpoint, but to try to illuminate the facts of the unknown differences, not the least of which were our own experiences. And as we must admit, we were rather surprised at the results.

There are a few conclusions we can now definitively draw after today's exploration, plain and simple. It is fact that a Core i7 gaming rig will give you better overall performance in terms of absolute numbers and framerates; the difference isn't very much, but it does exist. It is also fact that such a system will cost considerably more money as well for what is essentially almost the same performance. When the results are then applied against those cost differences, it is also fact that the Core i7 system then becomes a very expensive option, costing hundreds of dollars more for little to no performance increase in most games.

Where things get really interesting is when you equalize the costs between the platforms and look at what you get for gaming performance in return. For a current difference of $215, you can purchase a second Radeon 4890 to go with a Crossfire setup in your Phenom II system and it will utterly crush a Core i7 gaming setup that will have only one graphics card. And we must admit, that provides a very compelling reason to consider an AMD gaming system, especially when we consider that a Phenom II X4 can overclock very well and also easily handle just about any regular use application. Unless you're doing a ton of video encoding or workstation renderings and animations, the cost for performance difference is very difficult to justify, particularly for a gaming setup.

As we said at the outset, passion can be a good thing when harnessed. And in this instance, using the gaming value presented by an AMD Phenom II setup can effectively let gamers harness far more additional graphics horsepower for their hard-earned money.

 

[mjones1]

i7 doesn't look worth the extra!

 

[speeduk]

Overclocked to what though? Doesnt make much sense that article.

 

[mmj_uk]

Yeah what were the overclocks? he said there was no point overclocking to 4Ghz well that's just playing into the Phenom's hands and ignoring one of the i7's biggest selling points (overclockability).

 

[Nelly]

3.8GHz I do believe, I just asked the question on the forum.

 

[mmj_uk]

I also find it strange that he use prodominantly GPU tests and it would have been a more complete review had he included CPU utilisation graphs.

 

[Nelly]

I know one thing X3:Terran Conflict benchmark the i7 romps all over the Phenom X4 955 but that review says otherwise, maybe he took results from the actual game.

EDIT: Maybe down to me using a GTX295 & the drivers I were using, Nvidia drivers are crap - need to use different drivers per game to get the best fps compared to AMD/ATI.

 

[Glaucus]

i's what we've all known. It's not as if the phenom2 is a bad clocker.
i7 is a fantastic CPU but for gaming GPU matters much more. For purely gaming you are always better of with an AMD system as for the same price you can get drastically more GPU power. Unless we are talking like 1500+ Then you can have I7and the gfx to back it up.

 

[Nelly]

Would love to see the Wattage use at load for i7 920 @3.8GHz vs PII X4 [email protected].

I wonder whats eating more watts, I'm about to test this with my rig this evening.

With P55 chipset its going to use less than X58 but I wonder what the difference is going to be, how much electricity is it going to save over a year.

 

[Xinn]

Seems the i7 was at 3.4 and the 955 was at 3.8.

Just goes to show for gaming and general use, the difference in price between an i7 and an AMD setup really isn't worth the extra money.

As the article says for the money you save you could buy another 4890 and got crossfire and urinate all over the i7 in games.

I had already decided on AMD for my next build as I use my system for gaming 90% of the time, hopefully the 965 will have come down a little in price by then and results should be even better.

Of course we all know the i7 clocks a bite more than it is in these tests but I still don't think it would make a huge difference to the results.

 

[madindehead]

Surely it would have been better, if they had both been clocked to the same speeds?

 

[Hades]

Surely it would have been better, if they had both been clocked to the same speeds?

Why? What they should have done was tested both at stock speeds and both at whatever speed they could overclock to. Actual mhz are meaningless nowadays. What's relevant in this test is how fast gaming performance is for the same amount of money. If you artificially limit one CPU then it will affect the results adversely. It does look to me like they limited the i7 if it's only running at 3.6ghz - I thought they all clocked far higher?

But this is old news - we all know that i7 is the best CPU for raw power but the AMD is the most cost effective when building a gaming PC.

 

[Pneumonic]

Surely it would have been better, if they had both been clocked to the same speeds?

Not just clock mhz though that make a difference, on a 955BE your NB/HT clocks play a huge part in overall system performance.. so much so its worth in some cases sacrificing clock speed for NB/HT performance for instance:

CPU: 3.6ghz
NB/HT: 2.6ghz

would stomp all over a straight CPU clock at 3.8ghz

with all the variables you are never going to get an overclocked review that suits everyone

 

[moppy89]

Is anyone seriously arguing that i7 is worth it if all you do is gaming? I dont think theres many of that opinion. Most people agree than a 940 or a 955 is more than enough for gaming.

 

[Venares]

Seems the i7 was at 3.4 and the 955 was at 3.8.

Had the i7 been clocked to 3.8 too it would have eaten the Phenom and then spat out the peices.
He was basicly comparing apples to apricots

But like most people have already said here, you dont buy an i7 for gaming.
If all you do is game, Core2 or Phenom, no contest when it comes down to price to performace ratio.

Most people bought an i7 because:
A: Its an i7
B: Its a new toy and its cool to play with new toys
C: Everything else you do on a PC that ISNT gaming

 

[PermaBanned]

Had the i7 been clocked to 3.8 too it would have eaten the Phenom and then spat out the peices.
He was basicly comparing apples to apricots

But like most people have already said here, you dont buy an i7 for gaming.
If all you do is game, Core2 or Phenom, no contest when it comes down to price to performace ratio.

Most people bought an i7 because:
A: Its an i7
B: Its a new toy and its cool to play with new toys
C: Everything else you do on a PC that ISNT gaming

You can't know that. Besides, 200MHz isn't going to make much of a difference. Most people buy an i7 because they have money to burn and they immediately assume that the most expensive is the best. The 550 can do things that aren't gaming... i don't get what you're saying. It's not going to take full advantage of the CPU though since it isn't as intensive, so it barely matters anyway. Of course, the i7 is going to supercharge your Word experience.

The 965 may well surprise us all...

 

[Glaucus]

Had the i7 been clocked to 3.8 too it would have eaten the Phenom and then spat out the peices.
He was basicly comparing apples to apricots

not really 200mhz will make little difference however taking that 150-250 saved by going amd and spending it on a CF setup and it will eat an I7 for breakfast. ALthough it would have been good to see them both at 3.8-4GHz depending where they maxed out.
Most people wont use an i7 in other computer tasks. Not everyone rips dvds and even less do any other sort of cpu intensive work.

Which is why you should build specific to your budget and usage.

 

[PermaBanned]

Everything i do on a computer is either:

Browsing
Text Editing
Image Editing
Video Editing
Programming
Gaming

And on everything except gaming my E2140 runs them perfectly well. So i highly doubt there's a difference.

 

[deuse]

Everything i do on a computer is either:

Browsing
Text Editing
Image Editing
Video Editing
Programming
Gaming

And on everything except gaming my E2140 runs them perfectly well. So i highly doubt there's a difference.

Same here but I got E6300@ [email protected] and a GTX does all my gaming needs
And when OCUK get the E6500K, I will have one and ramp it up to 4gig
problem solved.

 

[Xinn]

Had the i7 been clocked to 3.8 too it would have eaten the Phenom and then spat out the peices.
He was basicly comparing apples to apricots

Exaggerate more?

It would be been a bigger margin but not massive amounts as you seem to think.

C: Everything else you do on a PC that ISNT gaming

This isn't true either, you won't even notice the difference between an i7 and the 955 for general PC use such as, viewing DVD's, office, browsing the web etc.

Ripping DVD's and encoding yes, but a small percentage of users do this.

Either way they are moot points as the article is comparing their gaming performance along with the products value from a gaming point of view and in this area the 955 comes out on top.

Spend the same amount of money and you would have a CF 955 setup which would walk all over the i7 with the single GPU for a similar if not cheaper price.