Which CPU at stock speed?

[milki654]

So as the title is referring, I'm wondering which CPU is better at stock speed.

- Intel i5
- AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black edition

I'm not planning on overclocking in near future. How much does the Intel's Turbo Boost improve the speed? I will only have 1 GPU so the i5's 16x PCIe lanes doesn't bother me. Is i5's 8mb cache a lot better than 965's 6mb cache?

So thats it, I think its a pretty simple question and thank you.

 

[tecmo34]

Here is a review of the two... You can decide for yourself based on your needs

Intel i5 750 versus AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE


I vote for the i5 750... myself

 

[Truhls]

Well that depends is the I5 a lynnfield or clarksdale? Cus you would be putting up a 2core processor vs a quad.

 

[milki654]

i5 750

Sorry forgot on that*

 

[Truhls]

Yeah pretty much what tecmo said. Id also go with the I7 just because they are fairly equal on most things to the point you wont notice a difference....except with the electric bill the 750 could pay for itself at some point over the 965

 

[milki654]

You mean i5 right?

Actually they both are almost the same price in my country (2€ difference) so the price isn't an issue. Thanks tecmo for the link, both are pretty much equal, i5 beeing a slighty better.

 

[sanchz]

Yeah pretty much what tecmo said. Id also go with the I7 just because they are fairly equal on most things to the point you wont notice a difference....except with the electric bill the 750 could pay for itself at some point over the 965

The differences on electrical consumtpion are minimal. Why? Cause turbo boost keeps the i5 close to it's 95 TDP most of the time, while the PII gets to 125w if it's 100% loaded, but since common typical load does not surpass 80% and might be less than 50% most of the time, it'll be using up about 70-100 W.

As to the upgrades, AM3 WILL support Phenom II X6s; while LGA 1156 will NOT support Core i7 Hexa-Cores.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

If cash is not a factor, go for the i5 and spend more for the 1156 motherboard too. If you need value, more bang for the buck, find a Newegg AM3 mobo for $50, get a Phenom II X4 955 Black edition and overclock it to a stable 3.7, 3.8 GHz.

 

[milki654]

Hm but still how can i5 at 2.6GHz be slightly faster than 965 at 3.4GHz?

Ok, I know i5 has Turbo boost but thats only 3.2GHz on one core. Is it because of the i5's chip design (no north bridge)? Or is it because i5 has 8mb L3 Cache and 965 having 6mb L3 Cache, also worth mentioning that i5 has 1mb L2 Cache and 965 2mb L2 Cache (I don't know what these cache are so if anyone can explain it go ahead).

 

[Truhls]

Hm but still how can i5 at 2.6GHz be slightly faster than 965 at 3.4GHz?

Ok, I know i5 has Turbo boost but thats only 3.2GHz on one core. Is it because of the i5's chip design (no north bridge)? Or is it because i5 has 8mb L3 Cache and 965 having 6mb L3 Cache, also worth mentioning that i5 has 1mb L2 Cache and 965 2mb L2 Cache (I don't know what these cache are so if anyone can explain it go ahead).

Well for one, the i5 is only faster in "Benchmarks" trying to see the difference between them in the real world.....well...you almost never will. The intel chips generally only surpass AMD chips in multithreaded applications, which means large amounts of dvd encoding/CAD work and such. Even then they are usually only better by a fairly low %. For gaming which one you get really doesnt matter. Id personally get the cheaper one, but if your budget allows it an i5 wouldnt be bad either.

 

[milki654]

Thanks truhls for the reply, I won't be planning on encoding/converting dvd/bluray or any of that stuff much only meaybe few times a month, I'll be mostly using for watching movies, browsing the web (using lots of tabs) and playing games. As I said the price is pretty much the same for the CPU's, for the motherboards a mid-range 1156 is similar to a more high end amd. But I think I'll pick the AMD just because it supports two 16x PCIe so I could get another 5850 in future and have them in crossfire or alternative for a PCIe card supporting full lenght sata 6gb/s + usb 3.0 (with the 1156 I just can't have both at full speed)

Intel has better Architecture then Amd

What do I gain from its so called better Architecture?

 

[cjl]

Basically, it's faster at a given clockspeed. The i5-750 will be just as fast as a Phenom II 965, in just about everything. It is pretty even - it's not faster, but it's not slower either.

 

[Raidur]

With the i5 you'll have massive overclock headroom for when you want a free upgrade.

However, if you don't plan on going crossfire and don't mind the extra watts the phenom ii will perform similar to the i5 and even i7 until you get a setup that will be bottlenecked by the cpu.

So if you don't plan on upgrading your gpu to a 5970 or better before upgrading your cpu then you'll never notice the difference. Especially with a little overclock phenom ii is a very capable gaming cpu.

+1 i5

 

[milki654]

So if you don't plan on upgrading your gpu to a 5970 or better before upgrading your cpu then you'll never notice the difference. Especially with a little overclock phenom ii is a very capable gaming cpu.

Wait so your saying that a 5970 gets bottlenecked by the Phenom II? If so, why's that?

 

[cjl]

It depends on the game, but in some cases, even a Phenom II will bottleneck a card such as a 5970. Of course, in that case, a stock i5 will also bottleneck - you'd need a heavily overclocked i5 or i7 to get a significant improvement over the Phenom II.