AMD Phenom II X3 720 vs AMD Phenom 9650 for RENDERING, and gaming.

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ [...] 6819103649

OR

AMD Phenom 9650 2.3GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ [...] nom%209650

Hmmm, more cores or speed? Any chance you can get the 9950 from newegg? Four cores, 2.6GHz, and its around $180. If you can't, I'd probably get the X3. The 9650 might have four cores, but they aren't that fast. The PhII is faster C4C then the older PhI, I'm guessing that lack of the fourth core isn't going to hinder it that much.

If you don't need the fourth core, get the PhII X3 720, but if you do feel that you need a fourth core, forget the first gen Phenoms and spend an extra $20 over the PhII X3 720 and get the PhII X4 940. It's a nice quad core for $189.99 that'll blow the old Phenom you were looking at out of the water.

I know a Phenom 9850 beats the Phenom II X3 720 in rendering with 3ds max at stock speeds. Not sure if the 9650 will do the same.

The Phenom II X3 720 will beat it in almost anything else though, especially gaming.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipse [...] i=3512&p=6
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 148-7.html
http://guru3d.com/article/amd-phen [...] iew-am3/18

There are 3 websites that show the Phenom 9950 out performing the Phenom II X3 720 in 3ds max 9 rendering.