AMD vs Intel?

DMGrier

DMGrier

VIP Member
Is there a difference in the quality between these two brands? What I mean is AMD as reliable as Intel cpu's?
 
No, and Yes.

AMD chips at the moment are best in the low end/mid range sector, while intel pretty much dominates the high end with the i7 chips, as the nehalem architecture is faster clock for clock than the Phenom II/Athlon II architecture.
 
I am looking at AMD cause it would save me some good amount of cash especially with the AMD Phenom 2 x6. For what I would want to do that would be plenty of cpu power for me I just have always used Intel (that is what came with my store bought computer) and I don't want to buy a AMD cpu and the thing be a piece of crap.

I read they are soon releasing a new line called Fusion which are suppose to be close to the "i" series from intel.
 
DMGrier said:
I am looking at AMD cause it would save me some good amount of cash especially with the AMD Phenom 2 x6. For what I would want to do that would be plenty of cpu power for me I just have always used Intel (that is what came with my store bought computer) and I don't want to buy a AMD cpu and the thing be a piece of crap.

I read they are soon releasing a new line called Fusion which are suppose to be close to the "i" series from intel.
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AMD will be releasing the bulldozer line of processors some point in 2011....however, it will be AM3 compatible and therefore purchasing an AM3 board with ddr3 memory and a Phenom II processors will leave you a viable route for upgrade. What exactly are you planning on doing with your computer? The Phenom II X6 is an excellent chip for programs that utilize multiple threads, such as those for rendering or modeling....for gaming its probably a bit overkill, although in the future games will continue to become more multithreaded so its not necessarily a bad thing to spend the extra over a 955 or 965 on the 1055T.
 
Well I am looking at doing a build that will be my home theater. Play games, do bluray and play music. The reason I am picking such a expensive cpu is to have a computer that will run the latest and greatest games for a long time.
 
i think for home theatre you would be a little more gpu bound? im not quite sure tho, alot of the encoders for dvd software in playback software i think is moving to gpu acceleration iirc
 
FuryRosewood said:
i think for home theatre you would be a little more gpu bound? im not quite sure tho, alot of the encoders for dvd software in playback software i think is moving to gpu acceleration iirc
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DMGrier said:
What is gpu acceleration iirc?
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IIRC=if i recall correctly. GPU acceleration just means that more work is done by the CPU. Quite honestly, for a home theater setup you don't need a hex core processor....but, like i said earlier, its definately not a bad investment considering the amount of power you get for the price.

Also, the only reason for HT you would need GPU or CPU power is for gaming, which since you mentioned you want to play games, you would want to look into a good graphics card as well. Right now the best price/performance would be the 5850 cards...but it really depends on your budget.
 
Tho possibly you could get a nice quiet 5770 that will perform pretty nicely too, thats just my thoughts, not sure how much louder a 5850 could be
 
FuryRosewood said:
Tho possibly you could get a nice quiet 5770 that will perform pretty nicely too, thats just my thoughts, not sure how much louder a 5850 could be
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Louder? So just because a card is larger and graphically stronger you assume it's louder? That has absolutely nothing to do with it at all. You really need to stop giving people ''advice''.

As for AMD VS intel....the upgradeability thing is BS on AM3. People have said this time and time again. But things on motherboards keep improving, so therefore just being able to slap a newer CPU in an old motherboard is still bottlenecking your new CPU. For instance, in some of the older AM2 boards, you can run AM3 cpu's sure, but hyper transport will be cut in half. Plus, DDR2 ram is way out of date now. Soon there will be DDR5 ram, and then Sata12gb/s, and then USB4.0, or whatever who knows. Newer chipsets are better at overclocking, the SB850 has faster transfer rates for RAID, etc etc. Point is, upgrades to motherboards happen ALL the time and every year, so stop saying that you can just buy this board now and upgrade the CPU later because there WILL be bottlenecks somewhere.

Bulldozer is gonna have quad channel memory, and who's gonna want to run one on an ''old'' board with dual channel? The CPU itself is going to be bottlenecked in a lot of ways on current AM3 boards. Hyper transport will be bottlenecked as well I'm sure. AND anyway this is under the major assumption that bulldozer will in fact be compatible with any AM3 board to begin with, something I seriously doubt will happen.

That being said, you don't really NEED a hex core at all. An I5 750 would do all you need and way more, it's a very powerfull CPU. And by the time you would NEED to upgrade, it won't be for a couple years anyway and by that time ANY pc is vastly outdated and not really upgradeable anymore.
 
DMGrier said:
. . . The reason I am picking such a expensive cpu is to have a computer that will run the latest and greatest games for a long time.
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No such thing. :D

DMGrier said:
I plan on building a evil 3k desktop.
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87dtna said:
. . . That being said, you don't really NEED a hex core at all. An I5 750 would do all you need and way more, it's a very powerfull CPU. And by the time you would NEED to upgrade, it won't be for a couple years anyway and by that time ANY pc is vastly outdated and not really upgradeable anymore.
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I agree with this. Instead of spending $3000 now, it makes so much more financial sense to spend $600 now and then $600 again in 2 years. That 2-years-from-now-$600 system will probably perform on par with your 2-year old $3k system. Also, I'd imagine you won't be doing all that much multitasking with a home theater rig.
 
87dtna said:
Louder? So just because a card is larger and graphically stronger you assume it's louder? That has absolutely nothing to do with it at all. You really need to stop giving people ''advice''.

As for AMD VS intel....the upgradeability thing is BS on AM3. People have said this time and time again. But things on motherboards keep improving, so therefore just being able to slap a newer CPU in an old motherboard is still bottlenecking your new CPU. For instance, in some of the older AM2 boards, you can run AM3 cpu's sure, but hyper transport will be cut in half. Plus, DDR2 ram is way out of date now. Soon there will be DDR5 ram, and then Sata12gb/s, and then USB4.0, or whatever who knows. Newer chipsets are better at overclocking, the SB850 has faster transfer rates for RAID, etc etc. Point is, upgrades to motherboards happen ALL the time and every year, so stop saying that you can just buy this board now and upgrade the CPU later because there WILL be bottlenecks somewhere.

Bulldozer is gonna have quad channel memory, and who's gonna want to run one on an ''old'' board with dual channel? The CPU itself is going to be bottlenecked in a lot of ways on current AM3 boards. Hyper transport will be bottlenecked as well I'm sure. AND anyway this is under the major assumption that bulldozer will in fact be compatible with any AM3 board to begin with, something I seriously doubt will happen.

That being said, you don't really NEED a hex core at all. An I5 750 would do all you need and way more, it's a very powerfull CPU. And by the time you would NEED to upgrade, it won't be for a couple years anyway and by that time ANY pc is vastly outdated and not really upgradeable anymore.
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1. Are people going to want to spend the money on four DIMM's? Doubtful
2. Hypertransport right now doesnt even run at the maximum rated speeds for HT 3.0, there is plenty of bandwidth available. Also, most people upgrading to phenom II's would be running AM2+ boards,which support the same HT speeds as AM3 boards.
3. Just wait and see then when bulldozer comes out on AM3...

"Soon" there will be all these new SATA and USB formats? Think about how long Sata II and USB 2.0 stuck around, SATA III and USB 3.0 are both pretty new technologies, i wouldnt be surprised if the specifications for Sata IV and USB 4.0 arent even started for 3-4 more years.
 
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oh god another one of these threads, tbh its not which one is better its personal preference i prefer intel to amd like i do nvidia to ati dont ask why i do, i dont dislike amd and ati i just prefer intel and nvidia :), although if i was to rummage around for some pros and cons id say that amd is good value for money but dont overclock very well :)
 
If you are spending $3k on a pc, I would go intel all the way. Also the i7 quad outperforms the AMD hex . IMO only spend around 2500 including everything max, eventhough that with1500 you make an i7 rig.
 
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