Should i get a phenom ii x4 955 or i5 for my new system?

They are similar in price. I plan to crossfire in the future

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Easily i5.

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------------------------------ Intel Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz 1.23v / Abit Quad GT IX38 CrossFire / 4870 1GB /
2x2GB Gskill DDR2-1066 / WD Black 640GB / Rosewill 630w
Reply to Raidur

Actually if he plans to crossfire then the 955 has mobos with dual x16 slots.

Reply to yannifb

Unless he plans on using over a 5870 or GTX 295 (if not more) per slot then he should be ok. I'd see a Phenom II bottlenecking a GPU setup like that more than i5 anyways. *shrug

Either way you go you'll be happy. It's all overkill atm anyways lol.

Message edited by Raidur on 10-25-2009 at 08:00:37 AM

------------------------------ Intel Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz 1.23v / Abit Quad GT IX38 CrossFire / 4870 1GB /
2x2GB Gskill DDR2-1066 / WD Black 640GB / Rosewill 630w
Reply to Raidur

AMD has nothing competitive now for PC gamers. They have good low to mid-range prices.

Now that the new 1156 motherboard is here the value is Intel's alone. Two particularly good CPU's to note are:

- Intel i5-750
- Intel i7-860

Note:
the i7-860 is NOT compatible with the 1366 motherboard.
the i5-750 is significantly cheaper and performs similarly to the 860 in many cases where the Threads are not utilized or the Graphics cards are the limiting factors.

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Reply to photonboy

Also the Lynfield chips have an integrated PCI-Express controller, it may only have 16 lanes, but those 16 lanes operate faster than you'd expect.

Benchmarks have shown that 8x/8x on an i5 setup, is not a bottleneck like it was before the Lynfield on-die PCI-E. Benchmarks comparing it with an i7 dual 16x crossfire, showed only a slight decrease (which wouldn't be noticeable to the user).

I'd prefer i5, because it's the start of a new line rather than the end of an old one, as well as performance reasons.

EDIT: I was going to say "But in saying that, the i5 doesn't beat the crap out of a Phenom II, I'd check out some benchmarks, if losing 5% speed in some tasks means you get 20% more graphics etc, it's worth it. " but realised you said your setups were the same price, so doesn't matter. Go i5.

Message edited by SpidersWeb on 10-25-2009 at 08:53:46 AM

------------------------------ Intel E8500 - 4.26Ghz - 533 x 8 - on air cooling with DDR2-1066 running native
Sapphire Ati HD4850
Reply to SpidersWeb

Except that many 1156 motherboards have the Foxconn socket issue.
One might be lucky though and get a reliable board.
See Toms' Hardware CPU buyer's guide 2.0
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] uyer-guide
or this thread
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ers-beware
My opinion is to wait for a couple of months so you won't get a 1156 motherboard with a defective socket.

Reply to jj463rd

Oh yeah I heard about that, if you're going to be doing heavy overclocking, go 1366 or wait until those Foxconn sockets have gone.

------------------------------ Intel E8500 - 4.26Ghz - 533 x 8 - on air cooling with DDR2-1066 running native
Sapphire Ati HD4850
Reply to SpidersWeb

Also the possibility of future reliability problems.Consider it like this using the wrong gauge of wiring for power usage.It will work for a while but after time degrade early.It would be like having 3 working lug nuts on the wheel of a car when 4 is needed.It will work for a while but take too many corners at high speed and then your wheel will come off.

Reply to jj463rd

+1 to jj463rd. Since it 1156 is a new technology, no one knows what is going to happen or how much the socket will degrade in a year or two. Sure it may be of good value now, but you don't want to come home from work one day only to realize that it has blown up right? If I were you, I would stay away from 1156 with Foxconn sockets.

Message edited by alikum on 10-25-2009 at 10:09:30 AM

Reply to alikum

p2 x4 955

------------------------------ AMD P2955X4 ATI 5870 DX11 [:boudy:2]

24" dell 1900x1200 2x74 wraptor hd's1 X-FI pro gamer sounds
2G ram log.Z5500 speakers 650w toughpower G15kb dvd....ITS A MEAN GREEN GAMING MACHINE
Reply to sirkillalot

Raidur wrote :

Easily i5.

Easily Phenom II.

------------------------------ 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

photonboy wrote :

AMD has nothing competitive now for PC gamers. They have good low to mid-range prices.

Now that the new 1156 motherboard is here the value is Intel's alone. Two particularly good CPU's to note are:

- Intel i5-750
- Intel i7-860

Note:
the i7-860 is NOT compatible with the 1366 motherboard.
the i5-750 is significantly cheaper and performs similarly to the 860 in many cases where the Threads are not utilized or the Graphics cards are the limiting factors.

BS

------------------------------ 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

lol I thought someone like you would post up.
I do agree though, for gamers the Phenom II is competitive with the i5, but i5 has the finishing move with application performance. Both chips overclock just as well as each other too.

i7 920 though hands the 965 its own ass on a plate though. At 2.6Ghz it consistently outperforms a 965BE at 3.4Ghz, and the i7 920 can be overclocked to 3.8Ghz with relative ease. http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2389.html

The 965 @ 3.4 seems to be more inline with the Core2Quad 9550 @ 2.83 than the i5/i7 (although i5 isn't really in those tests, it certainly beats a 9550). Toms agrees on this notion as well, in their gaming CPU recommendations the i5 and i7 under Intel have nothing next to them under the AMD column. They put the Phenom II X4 next to the Core2Quads.

Where AMD is leading at the moment is value for money, but if he can get an i5 for the same price as a 955 setup... its a no brainer really, go with the one that has higher benchmarks.

Edit: found the i5 750 benchmarks, definately out performs the 965 (let alone the 955).
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 10-10.html

Message edited by SpidersWeb on 10-25-2009 at 02:32:21 PM

------------------------------ Intel E8500 - 4.26Ghz - 533 x 8 - on air cooling with DDR2-1066 running native
Sapphire Ati HD4850
Reply to SpidersWeb

Dude... Never, never and never use Tom's bias as an example. And by the way, it doesn't matter at what clock speed a CPU is, PII needs more clocks to compete with an I7 as it is an architecturally superior chip.

http://neoseeker.com/Articles/Hard [...] 65/10.html
i5 is a cheap budget platform that will banish in the shadow of new Intel CPUs. AM3 is an enthusiast platform which will hopefully support new 6-cores. End of story.

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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

Reply to BadTrip

Cryslayer80 vs. BadTRip

this probably won't end well.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to dna708

On a more serious note, you shouldn't play into either of those people's bias. Cryslayer80 posted benchmarks comparing the pII to an i7 920. As you can see, they are close. The i5 would be similar to the 920, but probably a little better since it can Turbo further. Of course this is all stock.

You should also note that those benchmarks are with an NVIDIA GPU, which isn't what you seem to plan on buying. Crossfire implies ATi. i7 has been known to have problems with NVIDIA based GPU's so you should take that into consideration.

As for the dual GPU problem (x8/x8), most benchmarks seem to show minimal real world difference.

Only thing I'd be worried about while buying the i5 750 would be the overclocking on Foxconn sockets.

It should also be noted that with turbo off, and both the pII and i5 at the same clock, the i5 would be better in almost every application EXCEPT for gaming. Gaming would be around the same.

So I would say you should go for whichever is cheaper wherever you are.

Reply to dna708

dna708 wrote :

Cryslayer80 vs. BadTRip

this probably won't end well.

[:lectrocrew:9]

------------------------------ AMD P2955X4 ATI 5870 DX11 [:boudy:2]

24" dell 1900x1200 2x74 wraptor hd's1 X-FI pro gamer sounds
2G ram log.Z5500 speakers 650w toughpower G15kb dvd....ITS A MEAN GREEN GAMING MACHINE
Reply to sirkillalot

I adore your rig killalot.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ 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

DO GIGABYTE 1156 MOBOS HAVE FOXCOM SOCKETS/ISSUE???

PAR4TICULARY GA-P55-UD3L

ITS BRAND NEW, NO REVIEWS ON NEWEGG.

I BOUGHT THIS SO SAY GOOD THINGS PLZ

I WILL NOT OC

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by demonnn on 10-25-2009 at 10:00:09 PM

Reply to demonnn

I WILL NOT OC

Reply to demonnn

FOR REAL?

------------------------------ 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

ANSWER!!!

Reply to demonnn

You shouldn't hijack someone else's thread...

Just start a new one

Reply to dna708

WILL DO ^^

Reply to demonnn

Cryslayer80 wrote :

Dude... Never, never and never use Tom's bias as an example. And by the way, it doesn't matter at what clock speed a CPU is, PII needs more clocks to compete with an I7 as it is an architecturally superior chip.

http://neoseeker.com/Articles/Hard [...] 65/10.html
i5 is a cheap budget platform that will banish in the shadow of new Intel CPUs. AM3 is an enthusiast platform which will hopefully support new 6-cores. End of story.

Are you saying the "Phenom II needs more clocks because it's architecturally superior",
or "it needs more clocks because the i7 is architecturally superior"?

The variance in scorings is impressive, I haven't got the time to look at the details but I'd be interested to see what had an impact to get the vastly different scorings. e.g. video card, chipsets etc

------------------------------ Intel E8500 - 4.26Ghz - 533 x 8 - on air cooling with DDR2-1066 running native
Sapphire Ati HD4850
Reply to SpidersWeb

I7 is architecturally superior of course.

------------------------------ 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

Either one would do you good since they are both v8 engines but I would think that the overall cost of the AMD system would be cheaper because it's been around longer so you can expect wider components selection (plus more stable bios revisions). I have an i7 920 system that I put together that is sitting on the shelf collecting dust because I'm waiting for the radeon 5850 before I convert it to my primary system. My current primary system is an Intel Q6600 running stock speeds with 8gb ram and a GTX260-216 and it's fast enough that I don't feel the need to switch to my i7 system right away (I bought the i7 processor because Microcenter sells it for a ridiculously low price of $199). My q6600 actually feels faster than the i7 at the moment because it has an Indilinx SSD drive whereas the i7 is loaded with a 7200rpm hard drive.

Message edited by groundhogdaze on 10-26-2009 at 12:54:50 AM

Reply to groundhogdaze

Why on Earth is the 920 vs 955/965 argument being brought in here? lol

AMD's cost savings will likely be found in their motherboards. You can pick up a nicely featured 790X, DDR3 board with CF support for just over the 100 dollar mark, whereas a P55 board with similar features like 8x8 will likely cost a bit more.

Both the i5-750, and Phenom 955 are good decisions for gaming, so if I were in your shoes, I'd just be bouncing around combos from everyone's favorite e-tailer that fit your price range, and performance demands. Don't get suckered into any brand loyalty jive-talk, because at the end of the day, the companies only want your cash.

Reply to DokkRokken

Cryslayer80 wrote :

Dude... Never, never and never use Tom's bias as an example. And by the way, it doesn't matter at what clock speed a CPU is, PII needs more clocks to compete with an I7 as it is an architecturally superior chip.

http://neoseeker.com/Articles/Hard [...] 65/10.html
i5 is a cheap budget platform that will banish in the shadow of new Intel CPUs. AM3 is an enthusiast platform which will hopefully support new 6-cores. End of story.

What you are showing is what happens when you don't get enough GPU power to test your CPU.

It only point out a single fact... to fully take advantage of the Intel superior power, you need to crossfire at least two 4890.

So for any single card configuration, AMD will give you the same result.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to redgarl

Ahh that's what the difference was.
Interesting.

------------------------------ Intel E8500 - 4.26Ghz - 533 x 8 - on air cooling with DDR2-1066 running native
Sapphire Ati HD4850
Reply to SpidersWeb

demonnn wrote :

DO GIGABYTE 1156 MOBOS HAVE FOXCOM SOCKETS/ISSUE???

PAR4TICULARY GA-P55-UD3L

ITS BRAND NEW, NO REVIEWS ON NEWEGG.

I BOUGHT THIS SO SAY GOOD THINGS PLZ

I WILL NOT OC

Reply to BadTrip

Cryslayer80 wrote :

I adore your rig killalot.

thanks it gets me through those games pretty fast [:mousemonkey:3]
i brake for no game [:lectrocrew:6]

------------------------------ AMD P2955X4 ATI 5870 DX11 [:boudy:2]

24" dell 1900x1200 2x74 wraptor hd's1 X-FI pro gamer sounds
2G ram log.Z5500 speakers 650w toughpower G15kb dvd....ITS A MEAN GREEN GAMING MACHINE
Reply to sirkillalot

redgarl wrote :

What you are showing is what happens when you don't get enough GPU power to test your CPU.

It only point out a single fact... to fully take advantage of the Intel superior power, you need to crossfire at least two 4890.

So for any single card configuration, AMD will give you the same result.

WTF? All right.
http://www.modreactor.com/english/ [...] rhead.html

Another thing. Let me get this Intel fanboy statement straight. I7 has more raw power than PII, which is why it beats PII at 640x480 at low. At higher resolutions when GPU becomes a bottleneck, they are the same (or Phenom II wins). So, it makes sense to spend more money on an I7 gaming system when you will get the same performance? I don't think so. As I mentioned, even if you are so crazy so you want to torture your eyes at 640x280 to prove the power of your CPU, what is the point? Well, you I7 can guys play at low and get sky popping frames, I prefer to play on high with my Phenom II with a good gaming experience.

------------------------------ 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

Just a question
I see the reaccurring theme in that the AMD MBs are cheaper - is that comparing identical features (Nr of SATA ports, Nr of USB ports, Firewire ports, quality of onboard sound chip ect.) and quality of board If so a valid point, if not then Mute. Some times you get a good deal - sometimes you get what you pay for.

Please no flame as this is not about Intel vs AMD!!!! , just a valid responce, either way.

Message edited by RetiredChief on 10-26-2009 at 06:02:09 PM

Reply to RetiredChief

With a large amount of grammar errors Also, AMD motherboards at $180 provide what Intel ones do for over $300. That is why they are better in cost. If you get an entry I7 board at $140 you will get features founded on the crappiest Biostar sub $50 mobos.

Message quoted 2 times

------------------------------ 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 :

With a large amount of grammar errors Also, AMD motherboards at $180 provide what Intel ones do for over $300. That is why they are better in cost. If you get an entry I7 board at $140 you will get features founded on the crappiest Biostar sub $50 mobos.

Thats a little extreme, but none the less AM3 boards are awesome in terms of bang per buck. Also the best ones are fx series, trust me, i have one

Reply to yannifb

The higher the resolution is, the better the GPU must be. And with the awsome resolution new monitors can have, I think it's best to put your money on graphic cards.

And maybe the Socket 1366 has triple Channel DDR3, but it's not that great of an improvement.
A faster bus to the GPU... sure,but it's not that necessary.

Buy 2 HD 5890 or 2 GTX 295, a good PSU, a 23' screen, and every other generic component, then look at how much money you have left.

Cryslayer80, don't put to much faith in 6 cores from AMD...most game don't even use 4. 6 cores would be to rival Intel's multithreading. Intel does have the advantage for busy worksations that run many demanding apps.

Reply to balanovich

Cryslayer80 wrote :

With a large amount of grammar errors Also, AMD motherboards at $180 provide what Intel ones do for over $300. That is why they are better in cost. If you get an entry I7 board at $140 you will get features founded on the crappiest Biostar sub $50 mobos.

$155 LGA1366 socket http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813186170

Memory
Number of Memory Slots 3×240pin
Memory Standard DDR3 1800(**oc)/1600/1333
Maximum Memory Supported 12GB
Channel Supported Triple Channel
Expansion Slots
PCI Express 2.0 x16 2
PCI Express x4 1
PCI Slots 2
Storage Devices
PATA 1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max
SATA 3Gb/s 6
Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC888
Audio Channels 8 Channels
Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset Realtek 8111C
Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports
PS/2 1
USB 8 x USB 2.0
Audio Ports 6 Ports
Onboard USB
Onboard USB 2 x USB 2.0 connectors support additional 4 ports

$50 Biostar http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813138111

Memory
Number of Memory Slots 2×240pin
Memory Standard DDR2 533/667/800
Maximum Memory Supported 4GB
Channel Supported Dual Channel
Expansion Slots
PCI Express x16 1
PCI Slots 2
Storage Devices
PATA 1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max
SATA 3Gb/s 4
SATA RAID 0/1/0+1/5
Onboard Video
Onboard Video Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 6150
Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC662
Audio Channels 6 Channels
Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset Realtek 8201CL PHY
Max LAN Speed 10/100Mbps
Rear Panel Ports
PS/2 2
COM 1
Video Ports D-Sub
USB 4 x USB 2.0
Audio Ports 3 Ports
Onboard USB
Onboard USB 6 x USB 2.0

I think I see a sliiight difference.

And here is ~$190 AMD vs Intel.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131363
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813153148

Aaaand the 1156 mobo for fun
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131405

Yeah Asus is the better brand but the Jetway has some nice features compared for the price. And these were the best 2 mobos I could find the in range.

Message edited by Raidur on 10-27-2009 at 08:21:36 AM

------------------------------ Intel Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz 1.23v / Abit Quad GT IX38 CrossFire / 4870 1GB /
2x2GB Gskill DDR2-1066 / WD Black 640GB / Rosewill 630w
Reply to Raidur

After a closer look, a PII 955 system and a i5 750 system will be the exact same price.

The problem is that the I5 750 is much slower. Most games will prefer the raw speed from the pII 955 to the smart versatile design from the i5. And if you buy a faster i5, you pay much more. And the pII 955 is better equipped for GPU expansion... maybe you'll like to have 16x/8x/8x pci-e slots for the new HD 75** series or watheer is on the market in 2 years.

Though this:

Quote :

(I bought the i7 processor because Microcenter sells it for a ridiculously low price of $199)

could make you reconsider a 1366 socket. (And makes me want to live in the US !!!! :fou: ) If you can wait for a special on a nice mobo, you might get a not so expensive system.

Message edited by balanovich on 10-28-2009 at 02:21:18 AM

Reply to balanovich

Clock speed does not define processor speed.
If the Phenom II has a higher clock speed, this does not mean it's a faster processor. Look at benchmarks on various websites to make your decision. i5 and i7 have new architecture which is more efficent, they often can be overclocked to 3.6 or 3.8Ghz on most models as well.

However if you go i5/1156, try and avoid the Foxconn socket if possible.
As I said in another thread, I'd either go i7 920 or Phenom II or wait until it's cleared up. There is an 'Attention Core i5 owners' thread, go have a look if you haven't already.

Message edited by SpidersWeb on 10-28-2009 at 02:47:52 AM

------------------------------ Intel E8500 - 4.26Ghz - 533 x 8 - on air cooling with DDR2-1066 running native
Sapphire Ati HD4850
Reply to SpidersWeb

I reviewed pII vs i5 750 gaming benchmarks and... I,ll admit AMD isn't necessarily better. Single and dual thread games will prefer the i5 because it overclocks itself. The few games that actually use 4 cores will benefit from the phenom's speed.

But most CPU benchmarks are done with only one graphic card. I'd like to see how well they perform with 2 and even 3 graphic cards. (any links ??)

A big question you should ask yourself is, will you overclock ? If so, i5 seems like the better choice to me.

Reply to balanovich

Focus On

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs - Should i get a phenom ii x4 955 or i5 for my new system?