Athlon II X2 for gaming??

Hi again,
on my first question you have been very helpfull about my mobo(AM3) and phenom II X2 (545, 550).
My problem is that i live in Cyprus where the price for 550 is only 103 Euros :fou: .
Scan co doesn't deliver to Cyprus and Pixmania who does comes up to 104.90 Euros(with delivery).
I was wondering if Athlon II X2 245 is good enough for my children gaming.
Pls advise cause i got stressed. My son's birthday is on next friday so i got to move fast
Thanks again

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Hold off on amd for a week or two. They're going to be dropping prices

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Reply to PsychoSaysDie

PsychoSaysDie wrote :

Hold off on amd for a week or two. They're going to be dropping prices

Knowing the place i live i don't expect any price dropping

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Reply to ouzopower

Yes it would be good and it will overclock very well. However, if the games they play are very new some of them need a quad core, but something tells me the games they play wont require a quad core so go for it.
To be sure though, we need to know the other components of your computer.
Motherboard?
Ram?
Video card?
Games they play?

Reply to zipzoomflyhigh

ouzopower wrote :

Knowing the place i live i don't expect any price dropping

And there aren't, he thinks the I5's are new gods of performance that will bring AMD to it's knees and force it to lower prices of all it's products to $1 But anyway, I'd suggest investing in Athlon 250 at least, as I think it is not so much more expensive. However, if you can't afford it, 245 is still a great choice.

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------------------------------ Phenom II 955@3,808GHz HT-2380MHz, NB-2380MHz|6GB OCZ Gold DDR3 1600Mhz|Powercolor Ati HD4890|1TB WD Black Caviar|M4A78T-E
Reply to Cryslayer80

motherboard:GA-M720-US3 (rev. 1.0)
ram:Kingston hyperx khx8500d2k2/2g
video card:radeon x700Pro Advantage 256MB v/d/vo
Pes9(he wants also pes2010), Call of duty, NBA, The sims, Need for speed, Age of Mythology and so on

Reply to ouzopower

A great mobo, nvidia chipset, but it might have compatibility issues with AM3 CPUs (even though it says it's AM3, it is actually an AM2+ mobo with support for some AM3 CPUs). So I'd suggest something like M4A78T-E combined with 4GB OCZ Gold AMD edition memory.

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------------------------------ Phenom II 955@3,808GHz HT-2380MHz, NB-2380MHz|6GB OCZ Gold DDR3 1600Mhz|Powercolor Ati HD4890|1TB WD Black Caviar|M4A78T-E
Reply to Cryslayer80

AMD Phenom II X2 545 = 96 euro,
AMD Phenom II X2 550 = 105 euro,
AMD Athlon II X2 245 = 75 euro
AMD Athlon II X2 250 = 88 euro

Reply to ouzopower

Hm, for that money I'd really honestly suggest the 545. But if the budget doesn't allow, 250 is a clear winner to me in this situation.

------------------------------ Phenom II 955@3,808GHz HT-2380MHz, NB-2380MHz|6GB OCZ Gold DDR3 1600Mhz|Powercolor Ati HD4890|1TB WD Black Caviar|M4A78T-E
Reply to Cryslayer80

http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/M [...] uctID=3006
pls check this out. i believe it suports the cpu's we are talking about but i'm not an expert

Reply to ouzopower

Hm, well that is a good mobo and it would get my recommendation if you can't get AM3. It would support those CPUs, the only question is does it have an applied BIOS update as it is needed on every AM2+ mobo to run AM3. But I guess they wouldn't be advertising it for AM3 CPUs and include Athlon II in the CPU support list.

------------------------------ Phenom II 955@3,808GHz HT-2380MHz, NB-2380MHz|6GB OCZ Gold DDR3 1600Mhz|Powercolor Ati HD4890|1TB WD Black Caviar|M4A78T-E
Reply to Cryslayer80

Cryslayer80 wrote :

A great mobo, nvidia chipset, but it might have compatibility issues with AM3 CPUs (even though it says it's AM3, it is actually an AM2+ mobo with support for some AM3 CPUs). So I'd suggest something like M4A78T-E combined with 4GB OCZ Gold AMD edition memory.

the problem is that i have allready bought all exept cpu

Reply to ouzopower

M4A78T-E costs 140 Euro
GA-M720-US3 (rev. 1.0) costs 68.50 euro
with two children, you understand...

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Reply to ouzopower

The Athlon II 250 is a little better than an E5300, which is a good budget gaming cpu. It will work fine for most games, and if you ever wanted to try your hand at overclocking you could always buy a good aftermarket cooler and clock it up a bit.

But if possible you should try to get the Phenom II X2 550 or 545. They perform a good amount better than the Athlon Ii and theres always that chance that it could be unlocked to a full blown quad core.

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Reply to bige420

i have bought the ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER XTREME REV.2
Is it good enough?

Reply to ouzopower

Cryslayer80 wrote :

And there aren't, he thinks the I5's are new gods of performance that will bring AMD to it's knees and force it to lower prices of all it's products to $1 But anyway, I'd suggest investing in Athlon 250 at least, as I think it is not so much more expensive. However, if you can't afford it, 245 is still a great choice.

Your the only person on this forum who thinks that amd's prices are perfect.

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------------------------------ Core I7 920 D0 @ 4.2Ghz
MSI X58 Pro-E
32GB SSD, WD Blacks In R0
Sapphire HD 5870's In XFire
Reply to PsychoSaysDie

Yes that is a very good cpu cooler.

Reply to bige420

for simple use or for overclocking?

Reply to ouzopower

Everything.

------------------------------ Phenom II X2 unlocked to four cores @ 3.8gHz,1.45V. 4GB DDR3-1600 Gigabyte 785g ATi Radeon HD4870 1GB
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Reply to smithereen

Hello,

These may help, they are links for CPU charts here on Toms.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] ,1403.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] ,1402.html

The reason i am linking these two is because these two games (while your children may not play them) are very CPU intense, so they should hopefully give you an idea of how they will perform in games.

Obviously, there is a difference, but if the cost of the build is a factor, then this is a good way to go to help save $$.

I think considering the rest of the build, mainly the x700pro and the games you mentioned, this will be more than adequate to play the games they want.

Now, my geography isn't the best but, Cypress is east Mediterranean, (near Iran?) so i would imagine it gets hot (correct me if i'm wrong ^^ ) so overclocking may not be a good idea. There is no reason to "risk" expensive, difficult to get parts for a slight performance boost.

I really hope this helps. Best of luck 8)

Reply to Kithzaru

PsychoSaysDie wrote :

Your the only person on this forum who thinks that amd's prices are perfect.

Well... I suppose the op isn't really into overclocking, because when you go to a few different computer sites, it shows the Intel winning by the time both cpu's reach 3.5 ghz despite the AMD being at 3.75 ghz instead, and having the advantage. So either, he's not really overclocking, or he rather have the "upgrade path" from the AM3.

The Regor is actually the better choice currently if you aren't overclocking. But, what most people don't see is that Intel cpu's scale much better then AMD offerings when overclocked to high speeds.

This is with the safe assumption that he isn't going to overclock cause he probably would have mentioned it more in detail by now.

In the situation you are overclocking, find a good Intel option within your budget. Basically anything in the same budget with overclocking is going to go to Intel.

Overclocking is definitely not meant for novice computer users.

Reply to threednonsense

Exactly Kithzaru. His video card is the x700pro, nearly junk. Has the actual speed of the 9800pro, and only supports SM2. A great gaming machine this will never be. Just get whatever CPU you can afford, and let the kids play whatever they can. With that video card, its not going to make any difference. (I don't mean to be rude, but facts are facts.)

------------------------------ The voice of REASON
Do NOT feed the TROLLS!
Always a DEMON!
Reply to 4745454b

Huh? He mentioned that it was adequate and you call it junk? Don't suggest anything that is going to cost the guy more money if it's good enough...

Honestly, he could have saved money by using the stock hsf but my post wasn't really directed at him since he said he already got the parts. Because, on a serious note, it can't be that hot that you would need an aftermarket cooler. If you said you did, I'd have to say your exaggerating.

The recent cpu's run cool, so I'd be more worried about motherboard and case temps if anything.

Message edited by threednonsense on 09-11-2009 at 07:30:10 AM

Reply to threednonsense

I agree though, with that video card, the cpu really doesnt matter.

I suggest you get a new video card to if your kids want to play COD and NFS.

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Reply to zipzoomflyhigh

ouzopower wrote :

M4A78T-E costs 140 Euro
GA-M720-US3 (rev. 1.0) costs 68.50 euro
with two children, you understand...

Okay, yeah. And psychosaysdie is really a fascinating human being

------------------------------ Phenom II 955@3,808GHz HT-2380MHz, NB-2380MHz|6GB OCZ Gold DDR3 1600Mhz|Powercolor Ati HD4890|1TB WD Black Caviar|M4A78T-E
Reply to Cryslayer80

Don't worry 4745454b.
Actually a new vga is on schedule. I know this is not a "heavy" one, but for the moment..
About overclocking, although i'm Greek it sounds Greek to me. he, he
Kithzaru: Larnaca, Cyprus 34°55'0.38"N, 33°38'10.44"E
Sunny most of the time. If schedule to come mail me.

Reply to ouzopower

kithzaru: the second link is a game they both want to play (they had an older version San Andreas i think, but i find it very violent and inhuman...

Reply to ouzopower

zipzoomflyhigh wrote :

I agree though, with that video card, the cpu really doesnt matter.

I suggest you get a new video card to if your kids want to play COD and NFS.

We started playing NFS Most Wanted with an Athlon XP 2100+ 1.7Ghz, 1GB Ram and GForce FX 5700LE 128MB and we found it great game

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Reply to ouzopower

Woa woa, hey guys, let's not start a flame fest on the GPU lol. It is for the kids ^^ i was just pointing out that there is no real need to be concerned with a CPU bottle neck and that any of the CPU's listed would be on par or higher with the other components.

ouzopower, yeah that second link should help a bit. I think it will be fine with the 250 Regor core.

May i ask, what resolution are the games going to be played at? 1280x1024?

I think i am going to stay on the side of voting against overclocking, unless you are really familiar with it. (also, guys, this isn't the place to fight about AMD vs Intel OCing, let's help out here).

If you DO decide to overclock and get more out of the CPU, then the 550 is really the way to go with the unlocked multipliers. Experienced OCers have hit near 4ghz on air cooling with these CPU's.

Reply to Kithzaru

As i wrote before overclocking sounds greek to me.
But i see i can find a lot of info (and help as i can see) about oc in the future (in case that the computer is not "strong" enough for any application or game).

Reply to ouzopower

The only problem I can see is that that video card is really bad, might not play a few of their game if they're newer. If you wanted to get something better and not break the bank, the 4670 or a 4650 for around $50-$60 usd.

Reply to bige420

ouzopower wrote :

We started playing NFS Most Wanted with an Athlon XP 2100+ 1.7Ghz, 1GB Ram and GForce FX 5700LE 128MB and we found it great game

Need for speed 1? lol

Maybe your not aware that there is like 8 need for speeds since NFS1....

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Reply to zipzoomflyhigh

zipzoomflyhigh wrote :

Need for speed 1? lol

Maybe your not aware that there is like 8 need for speeds since NFS1....

which is the newest and which the best?

Reply to ouzopower

need for speed shift best looking but most fun was need for speed most wanted or carbon

Message edited by obsidian86 on 09-13-2009 at 09:37:28 PM

------------------------------ I took a step back to look at the bigger picture and realized i needed better glasses
Reply to obsidian86

ouzopower wrote :

We started playing NFS Most Wanted with an Athlon XP 2100+ 1.7Ghz, 1GB Ram and GForce FX 5700LE 128MB and we found it great game

Yeah ok that was how many years ago??? I'd love to see you try to play NFS Shift on that system. :lol:

Reply to zipzoomflyhigh

bige420 wrote :

The Athlon II 250 is a little better than an E5300, which is a good budget gaming cpu. It will work fine for most games, and if you ever wanted to try your hand at overclocking you could always buy a good aftermarket cooler and clock it up a bit.

But if possible you should try to get the Phenom II X2 550 or 545. They perform a good amount better than the Athlon Ii and theres always that chance that it could be unlocked to a full blown quad core.

I just bought an Athlon II 250 a few days ago. Long time since I built my last AMD K7 that runs the old games like GTA 3 and such. Its been 15 years since then. Okay so anyways I have been reading about the testing their doing on these little Gems and they are overclocking them anywhere from 3.4 MHZ to 3.9 MHZ with good cooling. I just bought the gigabyte MA790Gp-uDH4 with the Cooling pipes on there and I am going to overclock it using AMD overclock software that is easy to use. Dude I paid 80 bucks for that mobo with a 20 buck rebate. and the AMD set me back 70 bucks for that price man dollar per dollar AMD wins over Intel everytime man..

Reply to SBFHawk1

What they don't show you is that when your overclocking, the Intel scales a lot better than the AMD offering, and by a large margin especially when they crank it past 3.5 ghz. Anandtech did a review where they threw in a few overclocked benchmarks at the end and the 3.5 ghz Intel was already winning against a 3.7 ghz AMD counterpart.

Let's put it this way. I'm running a 3.9 ghz e5200 on an older stepping model (Newer stepping models do this on stock voltages) and I wouldn't touch the Regor even with a ten foot pole, so to speak.

Message edited by threednonsense on 10-15-2009 at 10:44:53 AM

Reply to threednonsense

Its pretty common knowledge that clock for clock amd is a bit inferior to intel. When comparing the Phenom II architecture and the Core 2 architecture, the Phenom II must be clocked about .4ghz more to have comparable performance.

Reply to bige420

No, it's not, otherwise you wouldn't have idiots trying to overclock a regor when the e5200 clearly wins.

Reply to threednonsense

Ok maybe common knowledge wasnt the best phrase to use. But most people with "higher" tech knowledge know this.

Reply to bige420

Dude I am happy with my 250 it rocks! I overclocked it the first time to 3.8MHZ. I ran a CPU benchmark test and scored 1887 I can copy the results when I get home. Thats about a tad three PCs lower then the first level Quad Core in Performance. For 78 bucks cant beat that. I can always upgrade if I need more later to a Phenom quad core. I can hand down this awesome 250 little gem to my son for future use..

Reply to SBFHawk1

Overclocking a 250 is just plain stupid. Especially when only a 3.4 ghz e5200 would take it out. I don't even want to mention 3.8 ghz or more.

I ain't saying it's bad though. What I am saying though, is you could have gotten something else for a better price if you wanted to overclock.

I even got my outdated e5200 with MO stepping to boot at 4.3 ghz with a 10 dollar hsf. Planning to "update" it to a RO stepping soon so I can possibly get those speeds prime 95 stable.

Again, from the benchmarks I seen, it's a great stock cpu. It's just not something you want to overclock when there are better options around.

Reply to threednonsense

I wouldn't say 'just plain stupid'. According to bit-tech's review, when overclocked to GHz, the e5200 wins a few more than it loses, but it's still close. The 250 dominated the memory-intensive tests, but lost most of the other tests - when overclocked. It cleaned up at stock, for what it's worth.

Message edited by smithereen on 11-16-2009 at 10:51:49 PM

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Reply to smithereen

Its not plain stupid. I have GTA4 running on a 250 II non-clocked at 77% percent utilization. I use the 4670 HD Radeon Card and I am averaging 40 FPS second on a budget PC that is running the most intensive memory Pig game on the planet!

Reply to SBFHawk1

It is still plain stupid. I don't trust bit tech and the e5200 still wins. How can the benchmarks be so close when anandtech showed the e5200 winning with a 300 ghz disadvantage? Hmmm... Second, I really like how they didn't show the voltages for the e5200. Cause from what I understand, the RO stepping can do 4.0 ghz on stock voltage. And they admitted to maxing out the 250? Seriously now...

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Reply to threednonsense

Dude you can keep trusting in your intel thats fine. Dollar per dollar though AMD wins everytime..E5200 hundred are you kidding me look at the ratings on CPU benchmark after overclocking the 250 I scored 1889 points thats E7400 territory man! Your e5200 hundred is coming in at 1300 dude even non clocked 250 scored 1661 look at the charts on http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

if you dont belive me man...

Message edited by SBFHawk1 on 11-16-2009 at 07:55:40 PM

Reply to SBFHawk1

Quote :

We started playing NFS Most Wanted with an Athlon XP 2100+ 1.7Ghz, 1GB Ram and GForce FX 5700LE 128MB and we found it great game

mine was an ultra, ahhh the good ole FX days * i miss me old dust buster.

Quote :

Dude you can keep trusting in your intel thats fine. Dollar per dollar though AMD wins everytime..E5200 hundred are you kidding me look at the ratings on CPU benchmark after overclocking the 250 I scored 1889 points thats E7400 territory man! Your e5200 hundred is coming in at 800 dude even non clocked 250 scored 1680 look at the charts on http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

if you dont belive me man...

i dont.

AMD Athlon II X2 250 1661 175

Pentium Dual-Core E5200 @ 2.50GHz 1635 180

Message edited by wh3resmycar on 11-16-2009 at 08:04:29 PM

Reply to wh3resmycar

opps sorry man even lower hahahahahah

Yeah those were the days on my old AMD2 K7! playing GTA3! LOL

Reply to SBFHawk1

Okay close but no cigar..After overclocking it goes up there man somewhere around 1880 something..Thats pretty high for 70 bucks that I paid for the underdog..Dont you think? Hey its all good..

Reply to SBFHawk1

Uhhhh, I think i mentioned it was better @ stock speeds. What's your point again? Also, isn't the program filled with synthetic benchmarks and such? Sure okay, what does this have to with real life performane? Almost next to nothing...

yeah, I paid about 67 bucks for my e5200... Nearly a year and half later they come out with the Regor? That's pathetic if you ask me. I really love how there's benchmarks of the 250 being maxed out and them saying how it can't go any higher no matter what they do, while they are sitting on an e5200 RO stepping that can do 4.0 ghz on stock voltages. Do the math...

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Message edited by threednonsense on 11-17-2009 at 05:22:46 AM

Reply to threednonsense

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Forum CPU & Components : CPUs - Athlon II X2 for gaming??