AMD or Intel

Hi guys i m going to purchase a new cpu and am stuck between AMD or Intel.
I used intel processors for 7 years, So should i go for AMD's Phenom II x4 955 or must stick with Intel and get Core i7 920. I m going to purchase new processor for best rendering speed in Autodesk 3Ds max and besides i m a gaming enthusiast. And One last thing, if i get AMD Phenom II x4 955 should i go for nvidia 980a SLI motherboard, or recommend me a motherboard which would give best performance on Nvidia cards with AMD processor.

I reccomend I7, although I prefer Amd for my own systems. If you do video rendering I7 is by far the best you can get. It's gaming performance is also the best (not MUUUCH better then the less expensive phenom II's)

For rendering, you want the i7 without a doubt. They will be pretty close in gaming most of the time, but the i7 will utterly flatten the PhII in rendering.

This place really has mellowed out, it's nice to see good advice without the flames!

Look at the benchmarks for what you want to do. Look at the prices. If you think you'll wanna upgrade look at current and speculative upgrade options.

For my current personal build I went with the cheapest Intel Quad Core at the time, the Q8200. As socket 775 is phased out I'm upgrading to the top 775 processor when the price comes down into my range. I'll upgrade my video card once or twice more and probably get 3 or 4 years out of my rig.

AMD has a lot of nice options too. While I poke fun at the "triple cripple" Phenom X3, it does offer higher clocks (at the same price) than other X4 Phenoms but still offers three cores, so it's kind of a multi-purpose between multi-threading and faster clocks.

Of course, if money isn't a constraint Intel has the better parts in price ranges AMD can't compete in, but most of us here buy processors in the 150-300 range anyway.

If you do a lot of rendering, or need to render for deadlines where the speed of render is important, you should definitely go for an I7.

yeah