I would like to see when conroe comes out which cpu is better for a gaming rig based on all the components, motherboard, chipset, memory, graphics card. It doesn't really matter to me which cpu is faster if the cpu's don't have the supporting cast to win the benchmarks. Will an AM2 fx62 with a sli motherboard, gforce 7900 gt's and good memory beat a top of the line Conroe on a 965 chipset with the best possible graphics setup available?

My big question about Conroe is yes it appears it will be competitive but what about the supporting options? Can I SLI or Crossfire or will we be limited to vanilla? And if it does beat AMD will the availability to the enduser be such that we can build our own rigs or have to wait another couple of months because all the cpus are going to Dell?

My problem is I am currently stuck with an agp system and the graphics just isn't keeping up with the games so I need to upgrade soon but I want the best gaming cpu with good supporting cast. Maybe I will have to wait till Maximum PC comes out with their new rig of the year. It is all exciting though.

point please???

oh nevermind i just saw your handle.

that it is a fact that AMD has been the better gaming platform the last year or so. I was looking to switching to AMD for my gaming rig this summer until the Conroe data started comming out. The Conroe is looking good but how long is it going to take to get some decent supporting hardware. From what I can tell AMD still has all the decent supporting hardware, chipsets, motherboards etc.

By the end of August this should not be the case if Intel has marketed their product properly. If not, why get an Intel for gaming if you still can't get a rig that can beat the high end AMD stuff?

If you look at benchmarks from AMD/Intel from the latest chips (excluding Conroe), then you see that Intel had basically caught up with them in the gaming performance arena using the 960 series CPU on the 975 chipset, which newer versions also support Conroe.
Also, ATI has the RD-600 chipset released, which is an ideal gaming/workstation chipset that rivals even the best of AMD's offerings...
So, the tides have changed, and what was once a year ago, are no longer so clear today, advantageous wise...
And Conroe is supposedly to be released in quantity by the end of July/First of August... with stocks being built up today as we speak...

Well, you say you've seen Conroe data, so that implies a functional computer. I've seen them running 1900XTs just fine. I don't remember seeing reports of SLI or XFire on Conroe, but I wouldn't let that stop me. You can do well with a single high end GPU. And believe me, if they haven't already run SLI and/or XFire, they will.

I have yet to see a current game overwhelm the X1900XT series... worked hard yes... but handled very well...
Crossfire and SLI imo are for those with more money than brains or simply those who demand bragging rights...

The only review worth anythignint he real world is one that loads up as much crap as possible and then starts a game or Super PI or Primordia. I am more concerned about how my system will act with very little unused RAM left. With the improvements of AM2 I might just skip FX60.

Or a high resolution monitor? :x

You mean you actually try to make your gaming experience as bad as possible?

*shakes head*

What the guy has a problem with is that there are no 965x intel chipsets that currently support crossfire or sli which is a big problem for conroe at the moment. For the enthusiast gamers out there who will most likely want the fastest processor when it comes out will find that they cannot use dual graphics cards. Thus the best conroe based system won't beat an AM2 or 939 or pentium D system in most games. Of course, this will be rectified later on but it may just hold conroe back for a crucial first few months of deployment.

I do realise that the 975x chipset supports crossfire as it always has done, but the motherboard manufacturers have been a right pain in the whatever in telling us whether their motherboards will support conroe. It's like a two pronged attack trying to making the decision to buy into conroe as hard as possible.

Ok, answers to the topic starter:
Most new games are gpu bottle necked rather than cpu bottlenecked, thus, sli will be more advantageous than a bnetter processor. However, to the average user, sli and crossfire is a waste of money and the conroe is a good value chip.

I have absolutely no idea how long you will have to wait for conroe to be fully released as alot of parties are showing interest in the chip. I would be suprised if you had to wait more than a month after release though. Despite this, it will probably be much cheaper if you can wait a little bit longer.

You mean you actually try to make your gaming experience as bad as possible?

*shakes head*


That's right. My Pc is primarily for productivity, so if my chip can't handle how I use the PC it's not for me. That's why i would NEVER recommend ANY speed PD/P4. They choke real bad when you load up lots of stuff.

If I have two Visual Studio projects open (normal) and Virtual Server with VMs running I don;t want to stop all that just to start it back up after the frag fest.

Might consider Linux instead of Windows if that's the case. Besides, there's a nice performance increase under 64-bit Linux compared to 32-bit... but only with A64s.

Some of my games are DirectX and I really dont' have time to switch if it doesn't run Visual Studio.

You mean you actually try to make your gaming experience as bad as possible?

*shakes head*He's the clown who thinks that benchmarks are meaningless on a "clean" install. The problem is, how is every site going to have the same apps, and windows installed for the same length of time, same uninstalls,etc.etc. The way they test them is the only "viable" way of doing it. A 2 year old install of Windows isn't going to perform the same as a fresh install, and review sites have to reinstall windows regularly. So use fresh install as the "standard", which is what they strive to do.

Touche' !!! I must have really tiny brains cuz I ain't got much money and have nothing to brag about.