Cpu for gaming on a 1900*1200 resolution screen

[TheWolfler]

Hey, i am looking forward to building a new gaming system this spring, and i cannot decide weather to go with a AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE or intel i5 750.
What comes to my attention is that the i5 750 is more powerful compared to the X4 955 in regular applications. When it comes to gaming though, the X4 955 seems to tag along at 1 - 4 frames less then the i5 750(with the same gpu). But then again the i5 is clocked at 2.66 gHz while the x4 955 is at 3.2. It seems to me that the i5 has more potetial than the x4 955 in terms of overclocking. I have looked around on the web for an overclocked i5 vs. overclocked x4 955 bench mark results, but couldn't find any. I have paper built both systems... and amd is cheaper. $700 for the amd build, and 800 for i5 build (this does not include graphic card). I am waiting for the fermi 100 cards to come out before i can calculate the full build cost. I am hoping that the 5000 series cards drop in price, or that the new nvidia cards suit my gaming needs abit more. Either way I was thinking about the 5850.

BOTTOM LINE

- Is the x4 955 enough for 1900*1200 gaming, or would the i5 give me a good extra boost?


Thanks

 

[JackNaylorPE]

+1 for Intel option

 

[LePhuronn]

Even at that resolution it's still the GPU that you'll be most dependant on.

The Phenom II will more than likely have enough grunt to game at that resolution, but the i5 most definitely will, so I vote i5 too based on that.

 

[Freakykiwi]

It will depend on whether a game is more CPU or GPU dependant, you'll need to look as specific benchmarks for games you're interested in and make a decision from there.
Remember than anything over 60fps is not visible - on a 60Hz monitor anyway.
40fps is considered adequate by most reviewers but I certainly prefer the fluidity that 60fps provides.

I doubt that the Phenom II would bottleneck a 5850 and you still have plenty of overclocking headroom to play with anyway if it does.
The i5 is certainly a more powerful CPU but the P55 chipset provides fewer PCI-x lanes than the AMD 790 chipset which could be an issue if you're looking to run multiple graphics cards.

 

[TheDuke]

the phenom II is more than enough
I'm using a phenom II x4 925 and that shows no hiccups in games
at that resolution the video card is much more important

 

[TheWolfler]

It will depend on whether a game is more CPU or GPU dependant, you'll need to look as specific benchmarks for games you're interested in and make a decision from there.
Remember than anything over 60fps is not visible - on a 60Hz monitor anyway.
40fps is considered adequate by most reviewers but I certainly prefer the fluidity that 60fps provides.

I doubt that the Phenom II would bottleneck a 5850 and you still have plenty of overclocking headroom to play with anyway if it does.
The i5 is certainly a more powerful CPU but the P55 chipset provides fewer PCI-x lanes than the AMD 790 chipset which could be an issue if you're looking to run multiple graphics cards.

A game that i have in mind is battlefield bad company 2. I have seen that 4 threaded cpu's add about 10 fps over a 2 threaded cpu in that game.

 

[apache_lives]

i prefer the intel build *BUT* that extra $100 going towards the video card will see most games run better then the Intel system easily.

 

[andy5174]

Save $100 and get a better graphic card, such as, HD5870/HD5970.

PII-955+HD5870/HD5970 will definitely give you better gaming performance.

 

[TheWolfler]

Alright, thank you guys.

 

[TheWolfler]

Best answer selected by TheWolfler.