Phenom 9600 vs Athlon II X4 635

[dangthe]

First of all, hello - this is my first post on the Toms Hardware forums altho I am a long time reader.

I have been out of the PC components game for quite some time and I "reactivated" myself now because I bought StarCraft II yesterday and I am not really pleased with my PCs performance

I have a 9600 Phenom based PC (Agena 2.3GHz), 4gigs of DDR2-800, an Asus GeForce GTS250 1GB sitting on top of an Asus M2N32SLI-Deluxe mobo

Game is running fine and is playable, but its not as smooth as I would like it to be, I experience weird choppiness from time to time. I read somewhere on the SC2 forums that first generation Phenom processors ending in 00 will experience some problems with the game, so I decided to get a new one.

My budget is not really big at the moment, so I want to get a processor that will work on the M2N32. I saw that they updated the BIOS to support most of the Athlon IIs and Phenom IIs.

The new Athlon's caught my eye (X4 635 to be specific), but I cannot find any articles that compare those 2 (my Phenom and the new Athlons), they only compare new Athlons with new Phenoms.

So (FINALLY), my question is, can someone tell me which one would be better for SC2 gaming? I also read that SC2 loves higher clock speeds, but that is kinda unconfirmed


dangthe

 

[Lmeow]

The Athlon II X4 635 is a faster CPU in both single-threaded and multi-threaded applications. It is also faster in gaming.

 

[mosox]

Here's a comparison between the 9650 (same CPU on 65 watts) and the 635

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/23?vs=122

Have you tried to OC your CPU? I see they have a new revision for the 635, GMBOX.

 

[dangthe]

Thank you for the replies guys. Mosox, nice website tnx

 

[dangthe]

Are you asking me if I tried OC-ing the Phenom 9600? I havent. I am afraid because I have a 460W power supply Cooler master and This cooler which doesnt perform very good on CPU loads from what Ive read

 

[dangthe]

The Phenom 1 and the AthlonII X4 are nearly identical performance wise at the same clock speed.

Yes, but the Phenom is @ 2.3 while the Athlon is @ 2.9

 

[mosox]

What are your temperatures? You can try the OC and see what happens with your game. Might be a too weak GPU not the CPU.

 

[Wisecracker]

Here's a comparison between the 9650 (same CPU on 65 watts) and the 635

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/23?vs=122

Have you tried to OC your CPU? I see they have a new revision for the 635, GMBOX.

I was kinda surprised .... I checked at 2.6GHz (probably as far as you can get a Ph 9600 quad without going too crazy with voltage and cooling) and it was almost respectable.

Probably even more respectable with an AMD chipset with ACC, instead of the M2N32SLI-Deluxe (but I'm sure the 635 has more 'headroom' in the OC dept)

 

[dangthe]

Well, I am all in for buying the Athlon, but I have some more questions. I used this tool to calculate the power output of my PC with the Athlon Antec Power Supply Calculator

My question is, is this tool trustworthy in the first place? If it is, do I have to tick soundblaster and the NIC card in the upper right menu if they are integrated on the motherboard?

 

[mosox]

No, only if they're separate. The Athlon consumes less than your current Phenom.

 

[dangthe]

Well, considering the 45nm production technology, it would seem logical, but various websites claim the opposite :| I will buy it and find out