AM3 Phenom II x4 955 or 1156 i5?

[Assasjin]

Hey guys,

I have a MSI X48C with DDr2 800 and a Q8200, ati 5870
I want to upgrade because socket 775 is Dead..

I did a lot of research and the i5 beats the pheneom II x4 955 and even 965 in a lot of benchmarks.
But AMD has good upgrade ability because they use the same socket for a long time and it's cheap..

I heard next year somewhere around Q2 AMD is going to launch a 6 core CPU (wich wil be around 250-300 bucks ppl speculate) BUT the thing is:
Look at the i5, it's clocked at 2,6 Ghz and stil beats the 955 not because of power but because of technology.
So can AMD pull a rabbit out of their hat and surprise us with the new AM3 6 core CPU??

So the question is: Go AMD and Upgrade cheap hoping they get good CPU's in the future or Go i5? (and maybe upgrade to i7 cause i9 wil costs prolly A LOT knowing intel)
(I'm new to the whole upgrading thing so I can't really tell how Well or Bad AMD/Intel will do in the future)

 

[Philippart]

I voted for AMD:
1. it's a lot cheaper and in general you won't "feel" any performance difference, except you only run benchmarks or other similar tasks
2. I read that many current am3 boards will support the 6core cpu with a bios update.

BUT: buy a good motherboard brand, like MSI, Asus or Gigabyte otherwise you won't be very lucky for the future bios support.

 

[Assasjin]

I heard 785G is the best chipset, Am i correct?

 

[BladeVenom]

What are you using your computer for? For gaming I could see going AMD for less expensive Crossfire motherboards, but for most applications i5 would be my choice.

 

[Philippart]

look at this comparison http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_chipsets
The 785G is essentially the same as the next 2 chipsets that will follow in 2010, but keep an eye on the southbridge, it should at least be a SB750.

 

[Assasjin]

Originally posted by: Philippart
look at this comparison http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_chipsets
The 785G is essentially the same as the next 2 chipsets that will follow in 2010, but keep an eye on the southbridge, it should at least be a SB750.

Could you recommend one?
All i can find have 700 or 710

found this one Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 790GX , but it's not a 785 chipset

 

[classy]

Hmmm, if you have the latest board revision of the MSI 48C platinum, I would buy a Q9550 and upgrade my video. You have a lot of untapped potential. While there will nothing new coming down the pike 775 wise, 48x is still a top of the line platform.

 

[classy]

Also if bang for the buck is your angle, I would say the AMD 955.

 

[Aenslead]

Go Core i5. You can't go wrong there. Will PWN anything AMD throws at it. Do some OCing and you should be in the big leagues.

 

[Assasjin]

What is AMD fusion btw?? the description is promising. Is it out already..

 

[alyarb]

If you're going to spend $200 on a CPU, you'd better get the i5 because of the higher IPC. If you want bang for your buck, get a Phenom X2 or X3 and unlock it - save $100 for the same performance.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: alyarb
If you're going to spend $200 on a CPU, you'd better get the i5 because of the higher IPC. If you want bang for your buck, get a Phenom X2 or X3 and unlock it - save $100 for the same performance.

^ this.

Unlock is not a guarantee, but there are enough success stories to make it worth a shot. If you're not doing dual-GPU, then 1156 is a great platform, and *will* be faster once both are overclocked to upper norms (high 3ghz range on good air cooling).

 

[Jumpem]

People still buy AMD?

 

[alyarb]

Originally posted by: Jumpem
People still buy AMD?

you're obviously kidding, but be honest for a sec. sargas->regor unlocking is a steal considering that $95 combo is still on newegg and will do 3.6+ GHz. what a great starting point for low power gaming machines or gaming HTPCs. sure, westmere will surpass this, but you won't find any westmere CPU+mobo combos for under $100 for quite a long time.

AMD is not going to get into a single-threaded or clock freq contest with intel, but they are dominating the low end duals and quads especially if you unlock. the single->dual unlocking is almost a guaranteed shoe-in and callisto unlocks appear to be greater than 50% success rate.

of course nehalem is a superior architecture, but most applications, including games, do not justify the $150 premium that goes along with i5/p55 as opposed to to callisto/785.

of course, the i7 is the undisputed choice for crunchers/encoders/etc, but you've got to hand it to AMD bringing some really decent, really inexpensive performance, and this is coming from someone who'd written them off completely during the 65nm period.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Jumpem
People still buy AMD?

I don't Buy Intel.

 

[soccerballtux]

Love being able to use DDR2. So much cheaper. I have 8GB. Awesomeness.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Love being able to use DDR2. So much cheaper. I have 8GB. Awesomeness.

No kidding. Good DDR3 is still hella $$$$. Probably be priced better next year, but unless you're made of $, DDR2 is a really smart choice. 8GB of PC8500 >>>>> 4GB of PC16800 or whatever.

 

[Eeqmcsq]

What are you using the computer for? What is your usage patterns? Are you a light multitasker, or a heavy multitasker?

If you're a light multitasker, the i5 is the better choice at completing many tasks. If you're a heavy multitasker, the i5 falls a little bit behind AMD. If you're heavy into gaming, the graphics card is the more important component.

If you want to reuse your DDR2 memory from your current build, go AMD. If you need bang for the buck, go AMD.

As far as AMD's 6 core CPU, remember that it will be a lower clocked CPU at stock because of the extra heat generated by the extra 2 cores. So depending on what you use your computer for and whether you can stretch out to 6 cores of usage, the 6 core may end up being a downgrade from a quad core.