phenom II am3 3.2ghz or I7 920 2.66ghz

F

funkysnair

VIP Member
what would you choose?

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £255.99

OR

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail + BattleForge Bundle £212.99

i also noticed the motherboards for the am3 are cheaper but with the same features as socket1366 mobos

thats got to be a plus right?

give me your views because i am seriously considering the am3 chips now
 
Core i7 :)

I think it will outperform the AMD by quite a bit....when overclocked.
 
Honestly I'd go 955.
Gaming wise, the 940 wasn't far behind the i7, while the 940 was using DDR2 on an AM2+ board. The 955 has been reaching 2.8ghz overclocks, but alot of users on forums have claimed higher.
Personally. I'd get an Am3 setup, but get a 720 BE (mine's stable at 3.9ghz, and one bump in vcore (to like 1.35 or something) got me to 3.8ghz.) It's a solid chip, and will handle games for the time being quite well, on a few built-in game benchmarks it didn't affect framerates more than like 5 frames lower than the 920 (being most games are JUST getting a solid dual core feed, let alone quad.)
If you get the 720 now for $140, and then love the 1ghz overclock for like .05vcore, you can wait for later steppings of the Am3 chips - which are supposed to reduce the TDP on quads (therefore less heat too), and i'm assuming will have a slightly better internal arrangement.

AS FAR AS GAMES GO, the 920 and AMD 940 weren't in a different league at all, and that's using older hardware. The 955 will handle any game on the market, as will the 920, so it's not going to really show in games, 3.2ghz quad core Phenom II will be able to maintain just fine :) In other things (Excel, format conversions, etc) the i7 will win, but, if you're primarily a gamer, I'd go AMD.
 
thanx for your input, im just wondering how much better the i7 will be to the 955, gonna have a look at some benchmarks-

anyone know any reliable websites to get benchmarks off?
 
none really have solid benchmarks with like systems - there are no 955 vs i7 reviews up yet :P
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-955,2278.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii955/
I also forgot to add that AMD Overdrive 3.0 will be fully working on AM3, on AM2+ you can't use BEMP, etc, but yeah. I'm using the beta now and it's pretty snazzy. :P

Here are i7 from the same two sites (for cohesiveness's sake)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-phenom-ii,2119-2.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/nehalem_core_i7_review/


EDIT:
To behonest, put it all on hold. If you want to be able to keep the same motherboard for future cpu upgrades, I wouldn't invest much in a 790/SB750 board- the 890/SB850 boards are due out Q2 of 09, so you may be better off just putting up with your current build until those are released, if anything the current mobos will at least be lowered a bit, but RD890 is supposed to be pretty solid.
 
Last edited:
Mitch? said:
none really have solid benchmarks with like systems - there are no 955 vs i7 reviews up yet :P
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-955,2278.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii955/
I also forgot to add that AMD Overdrive 3.0 will be fully working on AM3, on AM2+ you can't use BEMP, etc, but yeah. I'm using the beta now and it's pretty snazzy. :P

Here are i7 from the same two sites (for cohesiveness's sake)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-phenom-ii,2119-2.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/nehalem_core_i7_review/


EDIT:
To behonest, put it all on hold. If you want to be able to keep the same motherboard for future cpu upgrades, I wouldn't invest much in a 790/SB750 board- the 890/SB850 boards are due out Q2 of 09, so you may be better off just putting up with your current build until those are released, if anything the current mobos will at least be lowered a bit, but RD890 is supposed to be pretty solid.
Click to expand...

thanx for that...

i think it would take a few months to get all the parts together anyway, ill buy it weekly- my idea is to take my time choosing the parts and keep using my q6600 rig for time being

my q6600 is still a good performer and benches 17,000 on 3dmark06 but i want to build a new computer, might give this q6600 rig to my girlfriend
 
Jamin43 said:
Why?

Not questioning your accuracy - but curious for my own understanding.
Click to expand...

Because the issue in gaming isn't as much as the cpu being powerful - it's the cpu being able to support the video card to its potential. Unless your going quad-CrossfireX, you won't notice a difference in a Crossfire or SLI build with the processors, save for 1-5fps, because both are so fast. Say, an AMD X2 5000+ would bottleneck the card, so you 'd see significant advantage to a faster cpu, but once you hit a certain point it doesn't make a huge difference, at least not enough to justify spending an extra $200 (for the entire i7 system, not just cpu)
 
If you're using it on an AM3 platform, you can install DDR3-1333, though it should be noted that only one module per channel works at that frequency
Click to expand...

Read this on one of the links, Im also interested in the 955 and getting DDR3-1333 ram, so what does this mean exactly?
 
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