AMD Phenom instead of Intel Core2Quad Q6600 would you recommend?

The equivalent of AMD for Intel's Q6600 would be Phenom 9900, which runs at 2.6Ghz. With all due respect, I suspect your friend is lying. Intel's Q6600 basically beats all current Phenom hands down. It has higher performance (about 10% over 9300), while has lower power consumption, and lower heat dissipation.

Gaming benchmarks:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/13633/5

For your system suggestion, I would recommend DDR2 over DDR3, and ASUS Maximus Formula. DDR3 currently does not have the performance gain to justify the cost (unless you do a lot of Winzipping), and the money used buying 1Gb of DDR3 would probably buy you 8Gb of DDR2 800. You won't notice a single performance difference between them.

Whatever you do, its entirely up to you. But I would advice you against both DDR3 and Phenom.

your friend is an out-of-his-mind fanboy. no way any phenom will beat a core2quad right now. the quads have so much overclocking headroom anyway compared to the phenom it's not even funny. this coming from a guy who built an athlon x2 when it came out originally on socket939.

oh, and especially not if you're planning to pay MORE for the phenom than you would the core2quad!!! the phenom has some neat design philosophies, but they do not pay out.

No contest, get the Q6600.

Yeah, the Q6600 will beat the Phenom. See the following article where it's compared to the Phenom 9700:

Phenom 9700, AMD's 1st Quad-Core CPU

Here's a little preview of the upcoming Phenom 9900. Not only can it not beat the Q6600, but it also seems to consume about 100w more power when stressed than the Q6600.

AMD Phenom 9900 Processor Review - Spider Platform

Only two games are part of the preview. The Phenom 9900 only beat the Q6600 in two benchmarks:

1. Memory Bandwidth - AMD's CPUs usually beat Intel's CPUs. Only a big deal if you are running applications that deals with excessive amounts of data. Other than that it's just a footnote.

2. POV-Ray Real-Time Raytracing - Great if you are a graphic artist and POV Ray is your thing.

It's No Contest. Really: Get the Q~Ship.



Then once you have your system running, stop back and we'll tighten you up with a nice overclock. Given a decent Mobo, 3.0 Ghz is there simply by setting the FSB to 333. Going a little further: 3.2Ghz on a Q6600 is almost laughably easy. 3.4Ghz (Yes, that's 47% faster clock speed than a Phe~numb) is perfectly doable with air cooling and some voltage tweaking. Further than that takes some more work, but there's a few peeps here with 3.6 or faster, though at that level you should think about water cooling to keep temperstures under control.

OK Omer, listen carefully.......put down the Phenom and step away from the motherboard.....very good....now....go get a Q6600 like any right-thinking person, add some DDR2-800 with low latency, pump the FSB on your P35 or X38 MB to 375 or 380, set the vcore to 1.3875 or 1.4, and you will have a rocket fast system and you'll never look back again.

Sure I'd recommend Phenom... if I worked for AMD, owned AMD stock or took pleasure in seeing others make mistakes.

Is your friend a special friend?

Wow.

I....I....Im at a loss. Ive never seen such unanimous agreement. Must be a full moon. Wheres thunderman to defend Phenoms honor?

Thunderman strikes again. Team Obvious defeated him in the usual way.

Q6600 >> Phenom

Hell... If you look at the difference in price and buy DDR2 instead of DDR3 memory, it works out to getting a very good Motherboard and Optical Drive FOR FREE

I am also building a machine for 3D Studio Max, Autocad and other 3D softwares.
I want a system for at least 2.5 years, so I´m thinking quad cores.
If I choose Q6600, I´ll not be able to a major upgrade (Nehalem).
If I choose an AM2+ motherboard and a Phenom (B3) I´ll be able to upgrade with Deneb.
Overclockig is out of the equation.

I´d like some opinions..

Get the Phenom!

...if you can get it for $150.

You would probably never encounter the TLB bug while rendering. The bug only affects virtualizations.

As for POV-Ray, since most rendering are floating point intensive, so this is why you see most AMD processors outperforming their Intel counterparts. IMO, it really is up to you. With AMD's current roadmap, it is unlikely that Intel would release a higher clocked part, although I also have some doubt about AMD's 45nm Phenom (Shanghai).

My recommendation would be, wait a little bit for the B3 revision of Phenom, like you said. B3 revisions should come out in March or so. If B3 revision maintain B2's performance, with higher clocks (up to 2.6Ghz), then go with a Phenom.

One thing to keep in mind: Intel's next generation architecture, codenamed Bloomfield for desktop, will probably trump AMD on its FP front. So since you would be tossing your system for a new platform in the event that you want to switch, going for a Phenom would be more logical due to their cheaper price.

I have my doubts about 45nm Phenoms, from the process node data presented in IEDM. We would probably see slightly lowered clocked 45nm Phenom at slightly reduced thermal envelop, just like AMD's initial transition from 90nm to 65nm.

Thanks again yomamafor1.

It´s nice to see some constructive ideas.

If I decide for a Phenom (B3) is it worth getting DDR2 1066?
And if it´s a Q6600, what´s the "ideal" ram?

Phenom is very sensitive to RAM speed, so getting a DDR2 1066 will definitely bring performance up to Q6600 level in some programs.

For Q6600, DDR2-800 is suffice. Intel's CPU is insensitive to RAM speed.

Hi lunyone,

As I said before, I´m building a new system for 3dsMax, Maya, Autocad.
I think I won´t overclock it as it´ll be on and stressed a lot of time. (Question: If I overclock the Q6600 to 3GHz, can it work 24/7 or will I need special cooling, etc.?)

Not sure that 24/7 at 3gig without better cooling than stock will do. I'm sure if your temps are good and solid than 24/7 shouldn't be an issue. If your not OC any than either system will do. Of coarse the q6600 will save you some time, not sure how much though. If the cost difference is enough than the Phenom would be good also. You can decide which way your going and I'm sure you'd be happy with either system. Generally I'd say a q6600 w/p35 mobo would cost you about $400 and a 9600 Phenom w/AM2+ mobo would be about $340 or so, so not sure if the $60 difference is worth it to you or not. AMD should be changing to AM3 mobo's later this year or maybe next year (about same timeframe as Intel) so I don't know if that really factors into your thoughts or not.

Yes, Q6600 G0 with a P35 board. Might as well get DDR2 PC8500 so you can push it even more. My Ballistix Tracer PC8500 is stable at 1064 @ 4-4-4-12 using 2.3v. I recommend using a cooler for the ram. Benchmarks for my ram beats the DDR3.

http://www.dvhardware.net/article19063.html

Maybe in the future DDR3 will be much better than now.

Guys,

He said overclocking was out of the question, so drop the ''but but but if you OC then you can r0x0rs the 411" garbage. Stick to helping him to identify the soulution thats right for him within the parameters he laid out.

IRT future upgradability, B3 steppings, Denab etc.
Your plan looks to future upgradebility, and that is wise, however, right now, waiting may not be such a good idea. There is no factual evidence to support the theory that the B3 stepping of Phenom will solve the problems inherent to the B2 stepping. In fact, considering AMDs "truth in advertising" record for the past 2 years Im suprised so many people would advise waiting for B3. The same holds true for Denab. There is no reason to beleive it will not be problem ridden or a no show. Conversley, it may show early and it may be a screamer right out of the gate. The simple fact is no one knows what B3 or Denab will do. Personally, I wouldnt recommend planning a system on susch large unknowns. If you can sustain yourself with a fast 90nm AM2 fX2 or some time, then that might be a good option...to buy time, but be warned that to do so predicated on the theory that B3 will perfrom as advertised is a 50/50 gamble, and if you do that, you may find yourself building a new system any way.

So what it seems to come down to is this. You can go with proven stability now through an Intel system, which will have some upgradebility down the road assuming you build on a Q6600, or you can gamble your money on a phenom/denab.

I'd suggest Q9450. 2.66 GHz, SSE4.1, Quad core, already 45nm.

Just have to wait another couple months.

Rendering is highly threaded, so a Phenom wouldn't be too shabby, but I still highly recommend waiting for higher clocked B3's that are TLB bug free.

AMD fanboys will say the TLB isn't a big issue, but the fact that AMD stop shipped K10's, and canceled/delayed two Agena part because of it would say otherwise.

If I was using the computer in a production environment with programs that use multiple cores (I believe Maya would), then I would spend the extra on the Q6700. Especially if you don't want to overclock. Seems like it would pay for itself really quick. Your time is money.

We have AutoCAD Civil3D here at work, and it really does not benefit from multiple cores - other than multitasking. Our Autodesk sales person said they were not likely to get that going in the next release either. They are working on just getting 64bit support, which is needed. We are in the process of getting a system, and opted for a 3GHZ core 2 duo instead of the quad core. It should be faster in AutoCAD for the next few years, after which we will want a new system anyway.

So what if AMD fixed the bug. The bug isnt causing problems for the people that use the chip.

What B3 needs to do is clock higher.

If it all does is fix the bug then its a HUGE dissaster. At least get the orginal launch clockspeed cpus out. But they really need to get higher clocked models out.