Any major difference between AMD 965 and 906T?

[bloojays23]

Hi I just bought the AMD Phenom 960T BE zosma 3.0ghz CPU but after browsing through for headtsinks, I realize theres the 965 at the same price as the 960t.

The 965 has 3.4ghz while the 960t has 3.0ghz, is there any MAJOR difference between the 2? I know that the 960t can be unlocked to 6 cores, but I'm not sure if the 965 can do the same.

965: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
960t: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103995

OS: Windows Vista 32-bit Ultimate
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 v2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ (2 CPU) ~3.1GHz
MB: MSI - MS-7309 --- MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 AM3/AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Ram: 3070MB
Directx 10
GPU: Radoen HD 6770
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=4k19pah05s77
(the psu is shipping with the 960T right now)

I'd like get the best of the 2 right now since it would be more cpu proof in the future. And I'm not sure if newegg will take exchanges.

 

[HugoStiglitz]

the 965 will be better for games as 90% of current titles dont even use all 4 cores let alone touch 6 cores.

so you will get better performance as you 4 cores are higher clock speed than the 4 on the 960T (and who's to say it will successfully unlock the other 2 anyway)

I would keep the 965

 

[bloojays23]

I can't keep the 965 since I bought he 960t first. Hope fully they will allow me to exchange it for the 965 with no charges.

 

[truegenius]

these cpus can handle 6770, so you can go with anyone of them.

Your board cannot unlock extra cores on 960t but due to its less tdp you can clock it higher with less heat in comparision to 965.

 

[jasont78]

your gpu will run out of legs before either of the cpu's so u dont need to worry about either of them, so dont worry about it, im not familiar with your mobo but if its an older one it will also slightly cripple both cpu's anyways by way of the hyper transport or whatever amd call it not running at the full speed due to mobo limitations. the difference in speed will only be noticed in overclocking which the 965 will be easier but the 960 will probably quiet capable

 

[wr6133]

You can clock that 960T to 4GHZ as a quad core

You can the 965 too

Your board doesnt unlock cores so irrelevent there

So neither is really better than the other in any noticable way. May as well keep what you got.

 

[samuelspark]

Can't exchange CPU's. They don't let you. Just OC the CPU to 4.0 GHz.

 

[truegenius]

also what about a good cooler to run your cpu cooler and quiter at higher clocks.

960t will consume less energy than a 965 c3 at same speed so you can get higher clocks on 960t.

 

[Houndsteeth]

Stick with the 960T. The lower TDP and the (already) unlocked multiplier quite literally strips away any initial advantage the base clock of the 965. Neither processor will likely exceed 4.2 Ghz, and the 960T will do it using less power. Either way, you won't see any palpable difference between the two other than the 960T will cost less over time and will create less heat overall.

 

[WR2]

No reason to pay shipping or restocking fees.
The 965 would have been better - but the 960T is more than 'good enough'.

 

[loneninja]

Think many people are forgetting the 960T has turbo core, it may be clocked at 3.0Ghz but I believe 2 cores can jump up to 3.4Ghz in lightly threaded workloads. Performance difference at stock isn't much, and if you overclock they've probably got about the same headroom for that too, so really neither one is all that much better than the other.

 

[bloojays23]

How would I overlcock the 960t? ( I have no experience with CPUs)
And I heard a bios/MB update could allow me to unlock the cores. Unlocking isn't important to me right now but I just like to know my cards before hand.

And can anyone give me any recommendations on what heatsinks/fans I should get for the 960t if i should OC it? There are so many brands and types that I'm not sure what works best.

 

[LOTRO]

Both good CPUs I would take the 965 over the 960t tho.

 

[wr6133]

Mine is a 960T (reads 1605T in the banner as its unlocked X6)

Overclocking it on 4 cores. You can make around 3.4GHZ on stock cooler with safe temps just by whacking the multiplier up.

With an aftermarket cooler (212+ is good) you can make normally 4GHZ by a mix of increased multiplier and FSB.

At 4 cores i have never needed to alter the voltage to make 4GHZ. At 6 cores I have had to tinker with voltage but if you dont plan to unlock thats irrelevent.

 

[bloojays23]

Best answer selected by bloojays23.

 

[deejayburnout]

I have just bought a 965 yesterday and was considering the 960T, but as others have said, the 965 will be more useful as very little apps and games use 6 cores.

you could push the 960T to the same speed as the 965 and essentially have the same processor, as long as your mobo lets you.

Thats what i would do.