should I go x2 3800 or wait for conroe

[kyhoola]

There's some independent testing done at Anands and others very recently showing the same performance advantage as the Intel controlled testing done in the past.

Conroe has proven to be a big step for Intel because it is actually a better CPU when compared to an equivelent AMD 64 CPU but it's not so big a difference as the hype surrounding it especially at stock IMHO. Intel know that but they want to get the hype going for their CPUs so they no doubt have "engineered" it so that they will be overclocking demons and obviously more overclockable than a comparible AMD so it's looking highly likely Conroe will be a win-win for Intel.

Yep agree 100%. All I was trying to say is no one knows IF it will be as good as the hype until its released to everyone. It may well be, tbh I hope it is. But lets hope that some people havent waited for several months to build a new system thinking conroe will be much much quicker than what is currently available and it turns out to be a small increase that isnt really noticeable.

 

[str]

There's another thing to consider too regarding AMD vs Intel. It's in AMD's favour for Intel to get into a price war because Intel like to keep pricing high to maintain their revenue and profit advantage. Intel can't do that just now because of AMD so until Intel takes back some of their lost market share and show they have the performance advantage they'll have to be price competitive and that'll make their shareholders cry for quite some time but in the meantime we benefit thanks to the lower prices.

 

[Pr0t0c0L]

There's another thing to consider too regarding AMD vs Intel. It's in AMD's favour for Intel to get into a price war because Intel like to keep pricing high to maintain their revenue and profit advantage. Intel can't do that just now because of AMD so until Intel takes back some of their lost market share and show they have the performance advantage they'll have to be price competitive and that'll make their shareholders cry for quite some time but in the meantime we benefit thanks to the lower prices.

lol you sure?? intel havent lost any market share in the desktop market

it will hurt AmD more Intel can afford to go into pricing war, not AmD

 

[str]

Yeah, I'm 99% sure.

There's always that 1% of uncertainty though so elaborate on why you think differently and maybe change my mind?

 

[Jay_t]

It only worth upgrading if you can find someone who will give you a decent price for your current rig. If so, go for conroe

 

[str]

Yep agree 100%. All I was trying to say is no one knows IF it will be as good as the hype until its released to everyone. It may well be, tbh I hope it is. But lets hope that some people havent waited for several months to build a new system thinking conroe will be much much quicker than what is currently available and it turns out to be a small increase that isnt really noticeable.

Yeah, there's like that 0.01% of uncertainty about it's performance because it's not released yet but really the independent testing results prove beyond doubt in my mind anyway (and no doubt in all the hardware enthusiast websites who have their reputation on the line) that Conroe will be spectacularly successful for Intel although I agree the hype has already reached fever pitch when perhaps that shouldn't be so until it's released.

 

[Durzel]

Yeah, there's like that 0.01% of uncertainty about it's performance because it's not released yet but really the independent testing results prove beyond doubt in my mind anyway (and no doubt in all the hardware enthusiast websites who have their reputation on the line) that Conroe will be spectacularly successful for Intel although I agree the hype has already reached fever pitch when perhaps that shouldn't be so until it's released.

Agreed.

The hype is justified imo, even allowing for the "90% of all people on XS with ES chips work for Intel" assertion which is ridiculous - ALL of the results on there and also elsewhere (China hardware sites, Anandtech, etc) all say the same thing.

 

[kyhoola]

Agreed.

The hype is justified imo, even allowing for the "90% of all people on XS with ES chips work for Intel" assertion which is ridiculous - ALL of the results on there and also elsewhere (China hardware sites, Anandtech, etc) all say the same thing.

No one said 90% of ppl on xtreme forums have them..did they?

90% of the chips out for testing are with people relating to Intel, Employees, Staff, Testers etc.

 

[monkeypants]

No one said 90% of ppl on xtreme forums have them..did they?

90% of the chips out for testing are with people relating to Intel, Employees, Staff, Testers etc.

He meant that 90% of the people who have the chips on XS are associated with Intel, not 90% of all XS members.

 

[Angilion]

Architectural details of Conroe are available and the architectural differences logically lead to Core 2 Duo having a significant performance advantage over Athlon64 X2 at the same clock speed, even at a slightly lower clock speed. I'd be suspicious of claimed performance advantages without any apparent reason, but the reasons are there.

It would be interesting to see how much smaller the difference would be when both cores (EDIT: more accurately, the caches) are being used equally. If you could, for example, run the same video editing twice simultaneously, each instance assigned a core of its own. Not realistic, but interesting.

EDIT: Not enough coffee, not enough explanation. Core 2 Duo has a caching system that's far better suited to unequal use than Athlon64 X2. Core 2 Duo's L2 cache can be dynamically allocated to either core. So a single core can have 4MB of L2 cache, or it can be split between the cores in any proportion, to better match the relative requirements of each core.

 

[roadie]

Ok, how much difference is Conroe going to make to games that are limited by the amount of AA and AF you are running?

If you can afford to go to a whole new platform with no impact on the rest of your life, then Conroe may be the chip for you. However, Intel have run a massively successful marketing campaign in the enthusiast market and although Super Pi may now be much, much quicker, games may not be affected as much. A 2.6Ghz single core AMD 64 chip should be fine for the next 6 months...?

It's toss up. What do you value most?