AMD Phenom™ II X4 840 v AMD Phenom™ II X2 555

[Uther39]

Just a quick one, i have both these CPUs available in my garage, and i was wondering what will give me the better all round performance for every day use, including some light gaming SIMS 3 etc etc, Now its going in a media center under my TV and the MSi mobo in there is very basic so does not have the Core unlock feature, i will also not be OC ing in any way. Again at stock speeds which one will give me the better over all performance will the 555s L3 cache make any difference.

Processor AMD Phenom™ II X4
Model 840
OPN Tray HDX840WFK42GM
OPN PIB HDX840WFGMBOX
Operating Mode 32 Bit Yes
Operating Mode 64 Bit Yes
Revision C3
Base Speed (MHz) 3200
Boost Speed (MHz)
Voltages 0.85 - 1.40V
Max Temps (C) 71
Wattage 95 W
AMD Virtualization Technology Yes
L1 Cache Size (KB) 128
L1 Cache Count 4
L2 Cache Size (KB) 512
L2 Cache Count 4
L3 Cache Size (KB) 0
CMOS 45nm SOI
Socket AM3
AMD Business Class No
Black Edition No


Processor AMD Phenom™ II X2
Model 555
OPN Tray HDZ555WFK2DGM
OPN PIB HDZ555WFGMBOX
Operating Mode 32 Bit Yes
Operating Mode 64 Bit Yes
Revision C3
Base Speed (MHz) 3200
Boost Speed (MHz)
Voltages 0.875-1.40V
Max Temps (C) 70'C
Wattage 80 W
AMD Virtualization Technology Yes
L1 Cache Size (KB) 128
L1 Cache Count 2
L2 Cache Size (KB) 512
L2 Cache Count 2
L3 Cache Size (KB) 6144
CMOS 45nm SOI
Socket AM3
AMD Business Class No
Black Edition Yes

 

[saint19]

Hi.

The Phenom II comes with L3 cache and a 50% posibility of unlock one or two cores more for get an X3 or X4 for the same price of a dual core CPU.

 

[Uther39]

@ saint19, did you at all read my question ?

 

[saint19]

Lol, yeah but I forgot post the other.

I know that you don't want overclock, but in game the difference will be 5-10% with the L3 cache, and would be better if your are lucky and unlock the other cores.

 

[3ogdy]

uther39, you said you weren't going to overclock, so the if the processor is a Black Edition one or not should make no difference to you. In this case, I'd go with the X4. Let me tell you why:
Imagine yourself playing Sims 3(or 4, 5 9 or whatever other game). You want to run a full system scan with your antivirus software and you may also want to perform some other task. The quad would perform better because there's the Affinity option in task manager(Processes tab->right click on a process->Affinity) that lets you specify how many cores a program can use and exactly which ones. Like this you can play a game that only takes advantage of 2 cores while running a full system scan with your antivirus software using one of the remaining cores and using the other core for any other CPU-intensive task you may want your CPU to perform while you're enjoying your game. That's why I'd go with the X4, you can do more stuff at the same time...just because there's not a lot of software that knows how to take advantage of more than 2 CPU cores it doesn't mean you can't tell that specific piece of software what cores it can use..and redirect your CPU's potential to other tasks by using the Affinity option in Windows Task Manager.

 

[nforce4max]

Both can unlock especially the x2. The p2 x4 840 is a Deneb core and there is still 6mb of L3 cache there but just switched off so it is no athlon core. I know first hand the p2 x4 8x0 series can unlock L3 cache because my x4 820 unlocked just fine to 6mb with no issue.

 

[sosofm]

Processor AMD Phenom™ II X4 840 is a quad and in multitasking the quad core cpu's are unbeatable.

 

[Amphoteric]

Use the PII840. True, it has less cache, but you're going to find it much more responsive with several applications open. Also, you didn't give the motherboard model number nor did you mention DDR3 speed/RAM you may have laying around. In this situation, use the highest rated RAM your motherboard will support (just because the CPU northbridge can use 1600/1333/1066 RAM doesn't mean your mobo will support 1600 sticks). You will find fast RAM will make a MUCH bigger difference combined with the quad core.

 

[Uther39]

My mobo is MSI 870 C45..

 

[Uther39]

Well just to let you all know i used the X4 840, and using the on board MSI easy OC switches ive managed to get a stable OC of 3.8 ghz, combined with 4gb of 1600mhz ddr3 ram it well and truly zips along.