Which AMD cpu to get....

[malandery]

Hey guys,
Just a Quick question.

Im thinking of upgrading my cpu, but dont know which one is better with amd.

my choices are:

AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition

or

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T

or anything in the general price range.

And is there much difference between the quad cores and six cores?
if so how much gaming wise?

Thanks
Malandery

 

[Emperus]

Both have their own benefits depending on usage.. As far as gaming is considered, you'll benefit more from a faster quad core (part due to the fact that games are still not that core hungry).. When talking about productivity such as video editing/encoding, 3D modelling/rendering, vitualisation, etc. then there you'll be better served going for a hexa core or more..

 

[simon12]

^ +1 see http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/186?vs=147&i=25.26.27.28.29.30.31.32.33.34.35.36.37.38.39.40.41.42.43.45.46.53.54.55.56.57.58.60.61.62 for a comparison

 

[manu 11]

choose either phenom ii x4 955 or 965 , 970 price is a bit high

 

[ethel]

Gaming wise you aren't going to see any benefit in having 6 cores - it's just overkill at the present time.

 

[techpro]

Not worth it in my opinion, just go with an Intel Sandy bridge platform. AMD is dinosaur tech nowadays

 

[jockey]

Darn fast dinosaurs in my cases.

 

[verrul]

I would go with the 955 with slight o/c you can match the 970 for a lot less. 1055 isn't worth it for a gaming proc. Amd is far from dinosaur tech.

 

[jockey]

I would go with the 955 with slight o/c you can match the 970 for a lot less. 1055 isn't worth it for a gaming proc. Amd is far from dinosaur tech.

+1
I have a 555 unlocked to an X4, which is basically a 955. Bumped the multi to 18, 3.6ghz, and it does wonders. Am considering going up to a 955, over the rest of the Phenom II X4s, to have all of the functions (temps) read properly. Why pay more for the same chipset?

 

[j2j663]

Not worth it in my opinion, just go with an Intel Sandy bridge platform. AMD is dinosaur tech nowadays

And yet this is the beauty of AMD, that we can even have conversations about simply upgrading a CPU. Not trying to upgrade a CPU a motherboard and whatever else Intel has stopped supporting in the 2 years it has taken your pc to get "old".

About the processor I have the same advice as everyone else. Many games won't even take advantage of 4 cores so for gaming the Phenom II X4 is a much better choice than a Phenom II X6.

This is a bit of a generalization but has its truths ... For the most part all of the Phenom II X4 BE chips are made the same, but when manufacturing chips they don't all end up being equal for various reasons in the manufacturing process. The best ones (the ones that can handle the higher clock speeds) are labeled and sold as the 975s, the next best the 970s and so on. Now this isn't always the case, there are always those times that a higher quality processor gets sold as a cheaper one for one reason or another but obviously this is less profitable for the company. And even fewer times does it happen that a lower quality processor get sold a higher quality one, but that is also bad for the company as it will get labeled as defective or even DOA.

The point of all of this is that if you are looking to push a processor and get the best overclock out of it then you should spend the money to get the processor that the manufacturer labels as its best product. If not then go with what you are comfortable spending and be confident in that choice.

 

[tajisi]

And yet this is the beauty of AMD, that we can even have conversations about simply upgrading a CPU. Not trying to upgrade a CPU a motherboard and whatever else Intel has stopped supporting in the 2 years it has taken your pc to get "old".

You'll say this when you try to slap Bulldozer into an old board and it doesn't work or has crippled performance. Sometimes you have to ditch legacy sockets to make changes (LGA775 to 1156 for example, but not so much 1156 to 1155). AMD has as much to gain from encouraging new motherboard purchase as Intel. Every corporation is motivated by greed, not love and hugs from the fans. ^^

Current gen Phenom chips are (in my opinion, anyway) not worth it considering that something new is around the corner. The OP might be better served by waiting for Bulldozer, or will have to just upgrade again in the near future. The dinosaur comment was out of hand, but even the latest Phenom (short of the x6) chips are only about on par in most cases with the Core 2 Quads from yesteryear.

To even match the newest Sandy Bridge stuff from Intel you'd have to overclock by a silly amount. What's the point of running a chip to the breaking point to compete with a chip that outperforms it at lower speeds? Are we back in the Pentium 4/Netburst days? Bulldozer will change that, but that's the status of it at the moment. I'd wait for Bulldozer if I were the OP, save my cash, and see what rolls out.

This comes from someone who has various builds from both AMD and Intel.

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

IMO bulldozer still cant bulldoze intel.Why?
Because Intel is the dinosaur tech.

 

[Wisecracker]

Yeah ...

Some of you guys are delusional.

A PhII quad will push today's best video cards to their maximum frame rates with the additional benefit of having a solid upgrade path in the future.

*Intel Upgrade Path* is quite a contradiction in terms, now, isn't it?

 

[jockey]

Up until last year, I've been running off of a 1990 AMD system. My Phenom II would probably work in it. Let's see, 21 years, three systems, all upgradable. Man, did I make a bad choice. This from a Phenom II X2 owner that can't be out-done by Intel! Goodnight Fanboy, and good luck upgrading your system next month.