AMD 4400+ VS 4600+

[Zac1000]

I was thinking of building a computer with an AMD 4600+ X2 CPU however when i did a little research i found that the 4400+ had an L2 Cache of 2MB and was about £50 ($110) Cheaper.

What i wanted to know was would it be worth the extra money just for a .2 GHZ speed boost and a 1MB L2 Cache drop.

The system i will be running is as follows:
520W Atrix PSU
4400+ / 4600+ AMD X2 CPU
1Gig DDR1 Ram 2x512
ASUS A8N-SLI
ASUS 7900 GT

I will be using it to run mostly source engine games like half life 2 and DoD: source, i rarely run it higher than 1024x768 and usualy run it in lower graphics settings (Probly because i currently have 512MB SDR ram) Would the L2 Cache make any diffrence to the gameplay or would it be better to have the 0.2 GhZ speed boost. Also if possable i would like to know if it would be better to have 2Gig of RAM instead of the 1Gig

 

[RichPLS]

The 4400 is better, IMO...
or the Opteron 175

 

[MG37221]

I have the Opteron 175. I rather wish that I'd have held out and purchased the 4800 instead. I feel that it would have been worth it.

I had a Socket 754 3700+ (single channel 2.4GHz with 1MB L2 cache). I went from that to a Socket 939 3500+ (dual channel 2.2GHz with 512KB L2 cache) and went from that to my present Opteron 175 (same as a 4400+). I love having the dual core but I sure do miss the raw speed of that old 3700 (it's in my sister's PC now).

I'm figuring that in a 754/3700 - 939/3500 comparison, that the dual channel VS single channel memory access/512KB VS 1MB L2 cache is a wash leaving the real difference between these two procs the 200 MHz difference in clock speed. The 3700 was LOTS faster!

Take this with a grain of salt but I think I'd go with the 4600 considering your options. Oh sure, the 4400 is really plenty quick enough for games & such when paired with a decent video card but there's nothing that compares to computer speed you can feel 8O Please note that I don't overclock. If you do, nevermind.

Tough choice you have. Here's an interesting article to add to the confusion but it is well worth a read.

 

[RichPLS]

My Opty 175 runs at 2x 2.64GHz at 40C...
That is faster than a stock FX-60

 

[Zac1000]

Thanks for the info guys, im sticking to the 939 socket because the motherboard im getting comes free with the processer if you buy the ram as well (Nice little saving eh?) I also doubt it will be doing much over clocking because i will be trying to stick to stock cooling.

Thanks for the article MG, quite helpful although theres very little beween the 2 im thinking of buying although it does mention that in high end gaming the 4400+ gives it an edge.

The price diffrences between the processers are +£30 for a 4200 ->> 4400 and +£80 for a 4600. So for an extra £50 ($110) I wouldn't be getting much of an upgrade in performance because i won't be running multiple programmes at once, but will be playing high end games.

Correct me if im wrong.

 

[MG37221]

Just found this, which is quite interesting. It also implies that socket 939 CPUs may also be part of the July 24 (or was it 27?) price cuts.