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[Solved] AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE vs. Intel Q9400

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs - [Solved] AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE vs. Intel Q9400

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Best answer from sseyler.

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llarson2012   10-15-2009 at 08:08:31 PM

So I was wondering what would be a better choice for a build I was doing this fall/winter. I am planning on gaming on this rig, so I want a good processor. I narrowed my choice down to an Intel Q9400:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115131

...Or an AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103674

Both of these processors cost $189 on Newegg. At first glance, it appears that the AMD dominates in performance. But all of my friends say to go with Intel. There seems to be this weird stigma with AMD quality. It would be great to get any advice I could on which processor to go for.

Thanks!


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Best answer from sseyler
Given that LGA 775 is a dead platform and that both processors have similar stock performance, you should go with the 955 BE and the AM3 platform on this argument alone: 955 BE.

 

Looking at the Tom's Charts, the 955 will beat out the higher-binned (and higher-priced) Q9550 in games and will trade blows when it comes to rendering and application use. The 955 BE will have an all-around solid lead over the Q9400, especially in gaming. If you are looking for a gaming processor at this price-point, the decision should be a no-brainer: 955 BE.

 

If you are an overclocker, and you have no problem with messing with the FSB, memory divider and northbridge/memory/processor voltage, then the Q9400 will likely to around the same levels that the 955 BE will. I believe 4 GHz is more easily achieved by the Q9400, but you will likely need to fool around with it and be confident in your overclocking abilities (especially since you're starting out at only 2.66 GHz - you'll need to tweak the FSB and memory divider quite a bit). Also, you will likely need faster memory to accommodate the high FSB speeds when overclocking the Q9400, unless you really cripple the memory clock with the divider. Both should be able to easily achieve ~3.7-3.8 Ghz without too much effort, albeit the 955 BE will be FAR easier with its unlocked multiplier: Q9400 or 955 BE, 955 BE if you will do basic overclocking.

 

There is nothing wrong with the quality of AMD processors. Your friends are simply biased and uninformed and are telling you to go with Intel due to the hype they've heard or their unjustified prejudice toward AMD. Remember, we are looking at performance/price, not who wins in the absolute sense or which processor is the G3WD3R one. Both processors will be perfectly reliable; quality isn't the issue here. The decision is pretty clear to me. You make the decision for yourself.

 

Here is a link to a comparison between the 955 BE, Q9450 and Q9550. Remember, the Q9400 has half the cache of the Q9450 (6 MB vs. 12 MB), so its performance will be slightly less than the Q9450: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] .html?prod[2607]=on&prod[2621]=on&prod[2620]=on

 


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xaira   10-15-2009 at 08:36:51 PM

if ur friends arent die hard tekkies, i wudnt listen to them, there is a stigma around amd parts that intels marketing team works fevorishly day and nite to create thet stigma, the socket 775 platform is pretty much dead as of the release of lga 1156, go with the 955, make sure the board supports the 125w tdp tho, and i would try to go am3 ddr3 route, because the next gen amd chips should be fully compatible, but most likely only with ddr3

------------------------------ "Envy is ignorance" - Henry Thoreau : Best quote ever.

http://www.pingtest.net/result/3022953.png
 Reply to xaira
jennyh   10-15-2009 at 08:40:21 PM

Your friends are idiots, the 955 BE walks all over the Q9400.

Message quoted 1 times
------------------------------ AMD to make $1.5bn profit Q4, *gauranteed*
 Reply to jennyh
sseyler   10-15-2009 at 08:45:27 PM
Best answer

Given that LGA 775 is a dead platform and that both processors have similar stock performance, you should go with the 955 BE and the AM3 platform on this argument alone: 955 BE.

 

Looking at the Tom's Charts, the 955 will beat out the higher-binned (and higher-priced) Q9550 in games and will trade blows when it comes to rendering and application use. The 955 BE will have an all-around solid lead over the Q9400, especially in gaming. If you are looking for a gaming processor at this price-point, the decision should be a no-brainer: 955 BE.

 

If you are an overclocker, and you have no problem with messing with the FSB, memory divider and northbridge/memory/processor voltage, then the Q9400 will likely to around the same levels that the 955 BE will. I believe 4 GHz is more easily achieved by the Q9400, but you will likely need to fool around with it and be confident in your overclocking abilities (especially since you're starting out at only 2.66 GHz - you'll need to tweak the FSB and memory divider quite a bit). Also, you will likely need faster memory to accommodate the high FSB speeds when overclocking the Q9400, unless you really cripple the memory clock with the divider. Both should be able to easily achieve ~3.7-3.8 Ghz without too much effort, albeit the 955 BE will be FAR easier with its unlocked multiplier: Q9400 or 955 BE, 955 BE if you will do basic overclocking.

 

There is nothing wrong with the quality of AMD processors. Your friends are simply biased and uninformed and are telling you to go with Intel due to the hype they've heard or their unjustified prejudice toward AMD. Remember, we are looking at performance/price, not who wins in the absolute sense or which processor is the G3WD3R one. Both processors will be perfectly reliable; quality isn't the issue here. The decision is pretty clear to me. You make the decision for yourself.

 

Here is a link to a comparison between the 955 BE, Q9450 and Q9550. Remember, the Q9400 has half the cache of the Q9450 (6 MB vs. 12 MB), so its performance will be slightly less than the Q9450: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] .html?prod[2607]=on&prod[2621]=on&prod[2620]=on

 



Message edited by sseyler on 10-15-2009 at 08:50:12 PM
Reply to sseyler
El_Capitan   10-15-2009 at 09:22:07 PM

AMD ftw!

------------------------------ Win 7 x64 | ASRock M3A780GXH/128M | Phenom II x720 BE 3.7GHz at 1.525V | 45C Idle - 61C Max | 4GB Crucial DDR3 1333 RAM at 1600 w/8-7-7-18 timings | GTS 250 512MB OC'd | $470 Total price of entire system.
 Reply to El_Capitan
brett1042002   10-15-2009 at 09:40:15 PM

+1 for AMD 955 BE

------------------------------ PII 955 BE CPU @ 3.6ghz w/ TRUE Black HS, 4gb Corsair RAM @ 1600mhz, Antec 1200 case, 650w Corsair PSU, Asus TOP 4890 1gb, Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500gb HDD / 7200.11 640gb Slave, Windows 7 Pro 64-bit RTM
 Reply to brett1042002
ominous prime   10-15-2009 at 09:53:29 PM

jennyh wrote :

Your friends are idiots, the 955 BE walks all over the Q9400.



QFT, go AMD.

Reply to ominous prime
slo   10-15-2009 at 10:08:12 PM

The amd is an excelent processor and is more than enough even for the hardcore gamers.
Anything above that is bragging rights and enthusiams (with the exception of some who might benefit from the i7 achitecture eg. rendering and encoding)

Reply to slo
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