Sorry AMD.

[yellowputty]

Me and AMD CPU's have been good friends since my trusty Barton 3200+. We've had many good times together, with quality performance for the money. When I felt the need for a new computer, I just assumed that I would be purchasing the latest AMD chip. I've spent the last week trying to justify the 8150 because I can genuinely use all 8 cores with parts of my code.

But it's just the principle of it. I cannot bring myself to buy such a poor performing processor. How do AMD expect people to buy a processor that is not only exceeded by the majority of Intel CPUs, but even it's own predecessor AND for similar money? What's made it a hard choice though is the sheer amount of subjective fanboy crud I've had to wade through (from both parties) and misinformed offhand comments (I should add, NOT from this forum ). At the end of the day though, numbers don't lie.

Sooo...I bought an i5 3570k! Honestly couldn't understand the tiny price difference between the 8150 and the 3570k for the performance gain.

Thanks to everyone for the help (that is anyone who has ever posted about such issues on this forum).

I feel like I should ask a question now:

Given the CPU will be on full load most of the time, how far can I overclock it on the stock cooler? What would this increase to on an air cooler of your choice?

 

[yellowputty]

Thanks for the replies, and the heatsink information. There's not much point me not overclocking the 3570k, so I bought the CM 212 for some light OCing for now. I have to admit I was hoping to get to 4.5. I was tempted by the Phanteks because of the noticeable temperature decrease under load, but it's an extra £40 for something I might not need atm.

Not surprised to hear I'm not the only one confused by the choice, and very funny reading some of the comments about socket number. I agree, I have to hand that one to AMD - I could still fit the Bulldozer on my motherboard which is now years old.

And as many others have mentioned before, I do hope AMD comes back to form soon because it benefits all of us - no one wants a monopoly.

I do wonder though, will we be forever limited by Intel and AMD? Will another company join the processing game soon?