AMD Phenom vs Pentium i7

[carlactln09]

Hello, I was wondering which would be better for building a gaming community, an AMD Phenom II Quad core or an Intel Pentium i7?

 

[redeemer]

i7 is far superior

 

[jaguarskx]

There is no such thing as an "Intel Pentium i7". It is called an Intel Core i7 and it can outperform AMD Phenom II quad and six core CPUs.

See following review as an example. The review is a little dated from December 2010 and it does not include Intel's current Sandy Bridge family of Core i7 CPUs (socket 1155). Clock for clock Sandy Bridge CPUs are about 10% faster than the previous generation of Core i7 CPUs (Lynnfield, socket 1156).

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/cpu-benchmark-highend_6.html#sect0

 

[megamanx00]

If you have the money the Sandy Bridge i7 is the way to go for gaming. AMD isn't even in the running except for cheaper budget builds. I'd like to say that will change will Bulldozer, but it's pretty darn late and who knows.

 

[simon12]

The i5 2500K is the best gaming CPU you can get.

 

[megamanx00]

^ No the i7 2600K is the best, but the i5 2500K is a much better value

 

[redeemer]

^ No the i7 2600K is the best, but the i5 2500K is a much better value

Well he mentioned "gaming cpu" and he is right about the i5 2500k, again if its a gaming rig we are talking about here. Build a gaming rig around a i7 2600k is pointless.

 

[simon12]

In a number of benchmarks the 2500K beats the 2600K, I am fairly sure that purely for gaming the 2500K is as good or better than the 2600K see http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/50?i=288.287.145.289.363.142.157.99.48.45.144.100.46.54.107.362.49.108.109.47.55.146.102.88.50.117.143.56.51.57.118.76.120.80.59.58.83.75.89.87.147.399.81.97.84.119.53.60.122.112.85.82.123.52.105.121.106.86.62.94.114.61.21.27.29.111.22.98.90.28.63.24.23.66.78.25.64.26.30.65.31.32.33.67.35.36.34.37.68.93.69.38.101.70.71.116.39.40.41.92.42.43.44.72.73.74.115

 

[mdd1963]

If/when hyperthreading is disabled, then the 2600k should defeat the 2500k by virtue of it's 100 Mhz higher clock speed.....by slightly less than a 1/33rd margin.....

 

[megamanx00]

-_- it's not just the extra clock speed but the extra cache. Crysis is more of an exception where hyper threading slightly hurts it. It's better to look at the overall comparison

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288

Of the 4 games anadtech has on their CPU Bench comparision Crysis is the only one that shows the 2600k being slightly slower. The other 3 favor the 2600K and at least in the case of Fallout 3 it seems to be more than just the extra 100MHz

 

[simon12]

Fair point I stand corrected in this one the scores are 4 to 2500K and 6 to 2600K http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20 for gaming though its worth $5 extra not $100