Is there an AMD CPU comparable to the i5-2550k?

Nebulocity

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I plan to do a decent amount of gaming with some of the newer titles (right now it's Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 with a mix of CoD in there). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Just a note, but while I am trying to maintain the ability to upgrade to Ivy Bridge in 2013/2014, I know that it's impossible to plan things out that long. I chose the Z77 boards "just in case" I upgrade processors earlier (if I even do), if I stuck with Intel.

So far, my current board and CPU choices are listed at the end of the post. However, in the essence of cutting costs where I can (but still maintaining performance), I wanted to ask the opinion of the community regarding AMD CPUs that were comparable to the i5-2550k as far as reliability and processing power/overclock-ability was concerned.

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544

OR
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=1d8eqhthxambf

CPU:
Intel Core i5-2550K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Without IGP BX80623i52550K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115230
 
Solution
In terms of raw power, there is no AMD CPU that can really compete against a Core i5 in benchmarks with the exception of some multi-threaded apps like media creation and encoding, and Civilization 5.

As shown in the gaming benchmarks of the following two reviews, AMD CPUs performs worse than Intel CPUs. Note that 1680 x 1050 resolution is used because the lower the resolution the less reliant the game will depend on the graphic card for it's performance. After all, they are comparing CPU performance not graphic card performance. Although, they should have used an even lower resolution.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fx-8120-6100-4100_6.html#sect0...
The only ivy bridge article I've read is from anandtech which shows a 10-15% performance improvement over sandy bridge. The 8120 will be close in a few benchmarks, but uses more energy. I've purchased some used sandy bridge non k cpus at a huge discount on craigslist, and all worked fine. I'll skip the overclocking if the price is right.
 

Plasmid

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Of course AMD cpus can game, they just do it slower and with higher power consumption. In gaming intel has better price to performance ratio along with incredibly low power consumption.
 

MMO Fan

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60fps is 60fps on intel and AMD and AMD plays games at 60fps + you might be able to list a couple games that where bought out by Intel and naturally favor that brand.
 

cyansnow

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no, there is no AMD cpu that can come close to the 2550k. the 1090t and 1100t phenoms could come close oc'd but no dice at stock clock. this is intel's generation so just go with them, you can't go wrong with the company proven to be on top of performance.
 

MMO Fan

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Said nothing of everyone being a mindlocked sheep but they are around TH is not immune to this global socioeconomic conditioning I referd to as Mindlocked. I am not saying Intel is no good not at all but what in fact what I am stating is the numbers, charts, reviews, and marketing don't add up. In short Intel and AMD are very close in price/performance and please spare the charts and rhetoric I have heard/seen and studied and used them all many times over the years.
 

cyansnow

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yes, this is another great point, the intels overclock quite a bit better, the 2550k is a pretty legit overclocker on high end air cooling and liquid cooling setups.
 

sp0nger

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ovious troll is ovious



dont be mad because you cant afford an intel CPU, why dont you stop listening to yourself talk long enough to realize your just jelous
 

MMO Fan

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Originality evaded you obviously mind locked repeater obvious LOL. I use i7 2600K at work and at home AMD 955 and they both play games just fine tho I will upgrade my home rig to AMD Bull Dozer FX - 4170 cause they work real good for playing games which is what I sometimes like to do a home.
 

Robi_g

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Not sure if troll
Or actually thinks AMD is better for gaming... :p

The FX 81xx are the only half decent BD CPUs but for about £10 or so more you can get an i5 2500k. I'll agree that in really heavily threaded programs the FX will beat the i5 but those programs are few and far between, by the time enough programs come out that support 8 cores exist to warrent an 8 core CPU, both CPUs will be obselete anyway.
 

neon neophyte

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known troll, hes hijacked other threads

note the join date and lack of system information

name is notable too, that of someone younger. i wouldnt bother responding to him at all. hes going to go into good behavior mode. trying to show how hes not a troll even though he came in here calling everyone sycophants. (like you can win the favor of intel?) and claiming to not be from china etc etc its all just a bunch of nonsense meant to get a reaction, because it doesnt make sense. dont bother with it.
 

MMO Fan

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Ok thanx for the input
 

MMO Fan

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For me to be honest I have had good luck with AMD products and the FX 4170 does perform well in gaming from what I have used of it tried it out on a friends build it works great I guess thats why its at the top of TH Gaming CPU chart for AMD. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html