How Do I Decide what CPU to get?

[Exilary6661]

I'm trying to build my own PC and I am confused on what Processor to get, some people reccomend AMD and others say Intel. The main purpose of my computer is for gaming (Starcraft II, Diablo 3, etc.) and various school work. I already have a Motherboard in mind if that helps the decision and I'll provide the link below. I am on a certain price range so something not to expensive but something that won't become out-of-date really fast.

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295

A friend of mine was reccomending the:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+

He says he has it and it's been doing him good for the past years he had it but I haven't heard good things about AMD, so another thing I wanna ask is why is there feud between AMD and Intel? Is it the persons preference or?

Thank you.

 

[InvalidError]

Intel has the highest single-threaded performance of any x86 CPUs currently on the market and most games heavily favor single-threaded performance so Intel CPUs dominate nearly every game benchmark at any given CPU price point. Once you thow in the motherboard price though, things may be slightly in AMD's favor for overall cost vs performance.

AMD CPUs still get the job done. Intel CPUs just do it better in general. In many cases though, we are talking about differences like 70fps vs 80fps which are largely irrelevant since most people cannot tell the difference on a 60Hz LCD.

 

[nforce4max]

AMD dual cores are horribly slow for normal gaming use and it just isn't going to cut it now days. Go for a Pentium G series or an i3. If you can get a phenom 2 x4 and overclock it to lets say 3.5ghz it will last for a few years like the intel i3.

 

[buzznut]

Is there a war? AMD would have you believe they want no part of that, and I can see why. Intel is an industry giant and has more resources for research and development, marketing, paying vendors, etc. They are much like Microsoft in their dominance of the market. But the truth is this business is brutal, and you can liken AMD and Intel to David and Goliath. Which does not mean AMD will win simply because they have a tiny sling.

Having said that I think you should really look at your budget. The truth is that, yes Intel CPUs are clock for clock faster than AMD. However a quad core from either company will be fast enough to run today's software and tomorrow's as well. In terms of what you can do with the CPU, a lower priced quad core that is sufficiently fast makes a lot of sense to a person on a budget. I'm talking about a $100 AMD quad core here.

The Phenom II quad cores are drying up quickly, so it makes it difficult to recommend them. The newer FX quads are outpaced by Intel's dual core i3 CPU's, so those are a difficult recommendation also. However, I can tell you if overclocking is an interesting option for you, the FX series do overclock quite well.

Again, its your budget that should dictate your buying choices. Most games these days are dependent on a solid graphics card for performance, which is why I say any decent quad core CPU is sufficient for today's software. So buy the best quad core CPU you can, but put most of your budget towards a mid range or high end graphics card for the best balance of power.

If you had say $200 for a CPU purchase then by all means take a look at Intel i5's. $200 for the mobo you are looking at and $200-250 for a nice midrange card like the GeForce GTX560ti or the HD 7850.

 

[jaguarskx]

See my response in your other duplicate thread:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/341789-28-decide


Do not make multiple posts for the same questions only six minutes later. This is a forum not a chat room.

 

[Exilary6661]

Yes, sorry for posting two threads, I didn't mean to I guess my comp was messing up
Thanks again everyone.

 

[Exilary6661]

Best answer selected by Exilary6661.