AMD Athlon II X4 651 or Phenom ii x4 960t

[bawchicawawa]

So, i'm very interested in the "AMD Athlon II X4 651". It's the a8 3850 (or) a8 3870k with the IGP deactivated. (not sure which one, since the a8 3870k is 3gz, same as the 651).

Being the 960t as the same price of 651, here are the stats.
both priced at 111usd

Athlon II X4 651
3ghz
32 nm
1866 memory controller
fm1 socket
100w
huge l2 cache at 1mb per core, 4mb of l2 cache in total. Though, it has no l3 cache

Phenom ii x4 960t
3ghz
45nm
1333 memory controller
AM3+ socket
95w
only 512kb l2 cache per core but has 6mb l3 of shared cache



So, i'm just wondering if anyone has the 651, i'm REALLY interested in the benchmarks and how far people have OCd it.
I've also heard rumors of the 651 OCing at around 4.3-4.5 on air, seeing as it's 32nm, lower heat because the IGP is deactivated, so that leaves more room for OCing etc.

 

[AM2A]

I haven't seen any benches of the 651, but you can compare the A8 3850 to a phenom ii to get a good idea of the performance.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/399?vs=88
From all the benchmarks I've seen on llanos, they look to be basically even with a phenom ii at the same clocks. Phenom iis seem to get a little bit better performance in games though (a few fps).
I'd say that the only major differences between the two is the choice of motherboards, and that the 960t will be easier to overclock. Also, with the 960 you have a shot at unlocking extra cores.
Overclocking on llano depends a lot on the motherboard, 4.3-4.5 is possible but I wouldn't believe it till I see it.

 

[bawchicawawa]

Yeah, I understand I can compare the a8 3850 directly to the 960. But, With the igp deactivated, you can safely overclock it even higher, because there is less heat and power consumption. That's what i'm thinking, anyways.

I'm just wondering if i can find someone with a 651 to see their results with overclocking the chip.

 

[holdingholder]

Not even close in my opinion, there are several reasons to go with the Phenom. The Phenom is significantly better at gaming, and FM1 motherboards are generally not made for hardcore gaming, thus will have much less options than a FM3/FM3+ MB. Also the Multiplier is locked an the Athlon so 4ghz is out of the question, tops is probably about 3.4 ghz.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

get the phenom 960t, its faster than any athlon II. I also dont think the athlon has an unlocked multiplier, which means you will be more reliant on motherboard quality/features for overclocking.

 

[esrever]

I would go with the phenom, the fm1 motherboards are still expensive and may not offer very good OC

 

[AM2A]

I did a little digging and it seems that overclocks above 4Ghz on llano are coming from MSI boards that have a "lab burst mode" that messes with the system clock to give artificially inflated results. There's some discussion about it at extreme systems.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?274039-Athlon-II-X4-631X&p=4975701&viewfull=1#post4975701

edit: based on reported OC's on llano 3.3-3.6Ghz is typical, results vary depending on the motherboard used.

 

[bawchicawawa]

Ok, thanks for the replies, people.

Oh well, kinda figured it was too good to be true.

=]

 

[bawchicawawa]

Best answer selected by bawchicawawa.