Core i7 920 or Phenom II X4 965

I wonder, if I should pick an Intel Core i7 920, or an AMD Phenom II X4 965. What I will be using my computer primarly for is gaming,
Price doesn't really matter
. Now I want to know which one of these that will give the highest performance/overclock, and I want to overclock 'em A LOT ! I will be using watercooling,
AND NO FANBOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I THINK AMD AND INTEL BOTH MAKE GOOD CPUs SO NO BULLSHIT LIKE "INTEL MAKE BETTER QUALITY CPUs" OR "AMD SUCK BALLZ" OR "INTEL IS BUTTER WHILE AMD IS MARGARINE(hehe I hate margarine ) OR SOMETHING SIMILIAR!!!!!! INTEL'S WEBSITE IS MAYBE MORE SEXEYYY BUT THEY DON'T MAKE COOL DRIVER UPDATES LIKE AMD!

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Both are good choices.

BUT If money is no problem then get i7.
It handles every CF/SLI comfig just fine.

Though both will OC good but i7 will last you longer.

Reply to shubham1401

It depends. If you want to go with a single powerful GPU (as many people does) then there's really no difference since you will not be able to have a bottleneck on the CPU with a single card (at last not in this generation and I think neither the one to come).

If you want to go with CF/SLI with two powerful cards (275/4870 or better) or 3-SLI/CF-X then you'll experience a great bottleneck on the CPU with a Phenom. This naturally becomes more evident at high resolutions since at lower resolutions the FPS are too high (in almost all titles) for the eye to recognize it, but it's there nonetheless.

Spending more for Core i7 is only justified with an high-end SLI or Crossfire setup elsewhere you will notice no difference whatsoever in gaming. With an high-end SLI/CF setup however the difference between the two CPUs is substantial.

Articles you want to read:

For SLI/CF performance difference a system with i7 offers: (not compared with a Phenom II but the results are the same)
http://www.guru3d.com/article/core [...] e-review/1

For OC capabilities of PhenomII and i7 compared:
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2119.html

For a comparision between a PhenomII rig and an i7 one at the same price range (note that the i7 system in the article is based on a MicroATX board, so it doesn't reach the full performance of and ATX one for various reasons, one being the PCI-E lanes speed on that MicroATX board):
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2360.html

Message edited by selea on 09-01-2009 at 02:33:54 PM

Reply to selea

well as a workhorse, the i7 is a tough act to beat. if you are gamer-centric, then go with the Phenom 2. i am not going by review sites, benchmark scores or personal bias. i have both and the P2 has a cleaner, smoother feel to it playing games. the best combination i have tried so far was a P2 955 with a GTX 295. adding a second one did not go so well. it could do it but it required pushing the hardware beyond what i was comfortable with for 24/7 usage.

Reply to roofus

However a GTX 295 in a Phenom II gives a bottleneck on the CPU being about two 275 in SLI. If you play on resolutions at or above 1080p you will notice the difference the bottleneck does; it is there also on lower resolutions but usually (apart some titles as Crysis) the fps, either if bottlenecked, are too high for the eye to discern it.

If you read the first article I mentioned you will see this clearly in benchmarks.

As for the smoother feeling I cannot understand what do you intend. FPS is what makes a game smooth or not, and FPS in a SLI system are greater on an i7 system, so there's no way you can perceive playing on a PhenomII with a 295 as "smoother" than doing the same with an i7. On a single-GPU system, however, there's no difference and smoothness relies on the GPU you have (and RAM etc.).

Message edited by selea on 09-01-2009 at 02:25:58 PM

Reply to selea

biggeneral wrote :

I wonder, if I should pick an Intel Core i7 920, or an AMD Phenom II X4 965. What I will be using my computer primarly for is gaming,
Price doesn't really matter
. Now I want to know which one of these that will give the highest performance/overclock, and I want to overclock 'em A LOT ! I will be using watercooling,
AND NO FANBOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I THINK AMD AND INTEL BOTH MAKE GOOD CPUs SO NO BULLSHIT LIKE "INTEL MAKE BETTER QUALITY CPUs" OR "AMD SUCK BALLZ" OR "INTEL IS BUTTER WHILE AMD IS MARGARINE(hehe I hate margarine ) OR SOMETHING SIMILIAR!!!!!! INTEL'S WEBSITE IS MAYBE MORE SEXEYYY BUT THEY DON'T MAKE COOL DRIVER UPDATES LIKE AMD!

If money is not a problem then get the most expensive i7 (i7 975) with 4 64GB Intel SSD X25-E in RAID-0. Top it off with 2 or 3 EVGA GTX 295.

Reply to masterasia

biggeneral wrote :

I wonder, if I should pick an Intel Core i7 920, or an AMD Phenom II X4 965. What I will be using my computer primarly for is gaming...

Gaming.... Single, or Multi GPU?

Single? Doesn't matter, really: Get what you like. Or what's on sale. Or the one in the green box 'cos that no good ex girlfriend has blue eyes, so you hate blue. Whatever. With a single card, it won't matter.

If you're planning on SLI/Crossfiring (or Tri/Quad) in order to drive a large resolution monitor, then you may want to weight your decision towards the i7. But don't take my word for it - GURU 3D tested it for us

------------------------------ Which Chip? Well, it depends on which set of thieving b@stardz you choose to support: The ones who use insider trading to enrich themselves while running their company into the ground, or the ones who illegally pay vendors to not support the first group.
Reply to Scotteq

if i get a normal liquid cooling system the maximum over clock is 3.8? or better (with i7 920)
and maximum over clock for P II 965 is 3.6 or better?

Reply to biggeneral

f i get a coolermaster v10 or v8 cooling system the maximum over clock is 3.8? or better (with i7 920)
and maximum over clock for P II 965 is 3.6 or better?

Reply to biggeneral

I don't know the coolermaster v10 performance first hand, so I don't know for sure, but with a good air cooler the i7 920 with the D0 stepping can reach about 4.0 ghz. There are some people that are able to put it at 4.1-4.2 ghz on air, but it naturally depends on the processor you have (everyone behave differently) and naturally how good you are at OC. The usual max OC of the i7 920 D0 is 3.8-4.0 GHZ on air.

As for the PII usual OC varies between 3.6-3.7 GHZ, but there are people that put it at 3.8 GHZ if not a little more.

Message edited by selea on 09-01-2009 at 05:30:22 PM

Reply to selea

Go for either.

And the Phenom II doesn't bottleneck with 2 or 3 video cards like one of the posters is attempting to claim.

Awhile back there was one review where the reviewer admitted he had driver problems but he posted results anyway. People have been quoting the incorrect conclusions from that review as being "proof" of this "fact" since that time. In several later reviews it has been shown to not be true.

This makes many people wonder why some people still cling to that incorrect conclusion.

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Message edited by keithlm on 09-01-2009 at 05:35:44 PM

Reply to keithlm

if you don't really have a tight budget (ie >$1000) go for the i7, it handles programs that are cpu heavy better (ie video encoding)

though if you have a tight budget (<$1000) go for the phenom II, though i would make sure you get an AM3 board and DDR3 memory, you never know how long AMD is going to keep that DDR2 controller around

Reply to mindless728

so i will buy i7 920 and overclock it .

Reply to biggeneral

keithlm wrote :

Go for either.

And the Phenom II doesn't bottleneck with 2 or 3 video cards like one of the posters is attempting to claim.

Awhile back there was one review where the reviewer admitted he had driver problems but he posted results anyway. People have been quoting the incorrect conclusions from that review as being "proof" of this "fact" since that time. In several later reviews it has been shown to not be true.

This makes many people wonder why some people still cling to that incorrect conclusion.

Dead on. The P2 doesnt show any signs on bottleneck unless you are dealing with quad or tri SLI. I dont know where that crap is coming from.
OP, both will do 3.8 on air pretty easy without the expense of liquid cooling. My 920 D0 will do 4 on air with right around 1.27 volts. The P2 has much better temps though to be honest. It isnt just CPU temp you have to watch but the voltage regulators on X58 boards can get very hot.

Reply to roofus

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