AMD VS Intel please tell me which one is better TX

What do you need it for?

^+1 Also, what are your other planned specs? Memory? GPU? etc...

^^ Good question...

Direct answer for the OP, the X3 720 would be the better choice as both the x3 and the E8400 would offer similar gaming performance and the x3 little better in multithreaded apps...

I will agree with gkay09. You already listed the specs for both chips, so I think it comes mostly down to preference. The AMD gives you the extra core, which most programs won`t have much use for... but apart from energy consumption (just disable it if you really wanted to conserve) I would go with the AMD. Although if you have the extra $20... I would recommend the 720 Black http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
I haven`t looked into the specifics of the 720, but I was able to get a 13% OC after 20 seconds in the BIOS with my 7750 Black. Either way you go you will be happy, goodluck!!

Hmm, smells like a troll.

i add one more. thank you for your suggestions!

what's your mobo?

E8400 will be the best pick for games hands down. the tri core will be better suited for multi threaded apps such as encoding + decoding vids + music.

I say go with the 720BE, but be sure to get an AM3 board. The E8400 is also a good choice and it overclocks very well, but with the 720BE and an AM3 board you will be able to drop in a newer CPU in the future. The Athlon 6000+ is fine for a budget build but it's already pretty dated so don't get it if you can afford something better.

the 775 socket is pretty dead but that does not mean you should avoid the E8400. its downright amazing when it comes to overclocking and games for the price.

If you're considering dual core you should consider the Phenom X2 550BE, though some say it's not as powerful as the e8400 the review at guru3d indicates that it's roughly equal to it in gaming & most benches. It's $109 versus the $169 for the e8400 take the extra $60 and put it towards a better GPU maybe go up to a GTX 275.

thank you guys! ill consider all your ideas. i want to try AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition first.

Wow, all that great info and you decide to run the 550, read some reveiws and you will see that it is much slower than the 720be and the 8400, and these two chips overclock fantasticaly!

I personally have a phenom II 720, and had previously a phenom 9500 for about a week, and returned it because it was too slow.


I love my phenom II 720. I have 8gb ddr2 800 corsair cas 5 ram, which I got for 20$ per pair, (45-25$rebate) and a msi geforce 260 216core overclocked to 655mhz from factory. The machine feels incredibly fast, and I feel that a faster CPU wouldn't do me as much good as say, a 30gb SSD for an operating system hard drive.


I have tried overclocking my system. I got it to 3.2ghz, on all 3 cores, stabily, and clocked my ram at 1180mhz.

I didn't see any significant performance gain, so I lowered the clock back to the original clock speed, to conserve on heat and energy costs. It just felt not worth it.

Phenom 1, and phenom II are worlds apart in efficiency.

I'd actually recommend the phenom II 940, which is currently 189$ on newegg, but if you aren't willing to hoff up the extra 15$ over the e8400, I'd seriously recommend the 720, which is 139.99 on newegg right now. Freaking awesome chip.

My system runs crysis smooth on high btw. I can't do extra high, because I'm running winxp64, and don't have DX10 working.

My system

Case, free for this system

corsair vx550 69$ on sale
corsair 8gb ram, 2x (45-25)$ or 40$ total
geforce 260 216core overclocked, 160$
phenom II 720 139$
GA-MA78GM-US2H motherboard, 74.99

dvd drive, 9 years old, effectively free for this system

the power supply was a bit pricey, but its really well made


I'm very, very satisfied with my system.

Most apps can't even use 4 cores, so a quad isn't truly nessessary. With 8gb ram, I never, ever run out.

Its really nice

No DX10 on XP64, shocker!!  

I used four Intel based systems and have only used one AMD processor in the last 10 years. But I am now convinced that dollar for dollar across the board AMD's chips are a better value. How can Intel charge $580 for an i7 940 2.93 Ghz while the Phenom II X4 955 3.2 Ghz is less than half that price, $340 cheaper?!

Why compare it to the 940 though? The i7 920 is much closer in price, but it still equals or beats the performance of the Phenom II in every way, especially when overclocking is considered.

The difference in the real world is irrelevant especially for a mainstream user,moreover the cost of ram,mobo would make the i7 definitely much more expensive than an AM 3 set up the 955 is extremely powerful as well and provied better price to performance for a mainstream user not everyone needs the latest and greatest, if that was the case then everyone would ditch their gtx 260 and 4870 and go straight for the gtx 295 or the 4890 simply because they are the best at the moment.

+1... 720.. i have it too.. great cpu... and you can use the savings to plant some treess... you wont regret that..

hey guys. i replace my CPU. i got a AMD a64x2 7850 2.8 total cache 3M. after replace it, i got 11000 score on 3Dmark vantage. i got 8800 when im using AMD8400 x3 2.1. right now i can play Crysis at enthusiastic setting smoothly. i think i got the best to fit my board(up to 90W) and graphic card(GTX260). thank you guys.

Intel owns because if you look at it........ comparable intel cpu's are only maybe 20 dollars more expensive than their AMD counterparts, are more reliable, do not burn up as quickly as AMD if you take off the CPU fans and they may not be that good overcloclers but they are also based on newer tech. Who wants a 90nm phenom in their cpu when you can get a 32nm cpu from intel in 2 months

core 2 duo owns by the way becuase it has actually beat the phenom x3 in many benchmarks because

Depends on what benchmark.