AMD or Intel Quad Core

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jpacelli

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Sep 9, 2003
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Okay it's been 2 years since I've upgraded my computer. Currently I've got the following;
MOBO: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
CPU: AMD Toledo 4400
MEM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
VID: Geforce 7800Gt 512Mb

Not upgrading
CASE: Thermaltake III
PSU: Thermaltake Silent Pure Power W0049RUC ATX12V / EPS12V 680W Power Supply
HD: 2x250G SATA drives
DVD: 16x DVD Lite-On Burner
CD: 16x CDRW Lite-On Burner
LCD: Samsung 214T 21.3" monitor

I play games like NWN, NWN2, COD4, Crysis, Frontline: Fuels of War

So I'm planning to upgrade the mobo, cpu, mem, and video.
I've always had AMD but recently everyone is saying to get Intel instead
So which is better
Intel Q6600 or AMD Phenom 9850 (releasing soon 4/7)

then for video;
9800GX2
8800GTS vs 9800GTX
8800GT x2

Joe P
 
V

v8envy

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2002
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We don't know the pricing on the 9850 though. If it's cheap enough (read: well under $200) and the OP absolutely positively refuses to OC it might still be a contender.

For gaming my vote is for the Q6600 (or better yet, one of the new 45nm Intel quads) -- no question or doubt about it. The Q6600 is a great value buy if you've got a Microcenter nearby, but the pricier 45nm quads will save you money on power long term.
 
Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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If you OC, stay away for the 45nm quads, they are a bear to OC, due to the high FSB requirement.

See sig.. I can get Q6600's up there on cheap ram and cheap to mid mobos, but even on my DS4 and PC-8500 memory, I can barely beat my best Q6600.
 
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v8envy

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2002
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I'd say you beat your WORST quad handily enough though. Plenty of new 65nm quads are ... giving people the not so fresh feeling. I've got a 2997 ghz one myself. Sample size 1 and all.

My general thinking is more casual overclockers will be able to hit 3.2 ghz on the 45nm quads than 3.4 or higher on a 6600. So for a casual overclocker like myself the 45nm quads are the cat's meow. People like aig and yourself -- that's a whole different ball of wax.
 
Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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Originally posted by: v8envy
I'd say you beat your WORST quad handily enough though. Plenty of new 65nm quads are ... giving people the not so fresh feeling. I've got a 2997 ghz one myself. Sample size 1 and all.

My general thinking is more casual overclockers will be able to hit 3.2 ghz on the 45nm quads than 3.4 or higher on a 6600. So for a casual overclocker like myself the 45nm quads are the cat's meow. People like aig and yourself -- that's a whole different ball of wax.
Click to expand...

Well, now, 3.2 on a Q9450 ? vs 3.4 on a Q6600 ? Thats a tough call. But I like those numbers as being "normal" OC's on those two chips. But with a 200 mhz advantage the Q6600 should be faster, AND cheaper....

So the reason for selecting the 45 nm ? power savings ? It will take a long time to get back $150 difference.
 
H

HopJokey

Platinum Member
May 6, 2005
2,110
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Originally posted by: Markfw900
Originally posted by: v8envy
I'd say you beat your WORST quad handily enough though. Plenty of new 65nm quads are ... giving people the not so fresh feeling. I've got a 2997 ghz one myself. Sample size 1 and all.

My general thinking is more casual overclockers will be able to hit 3.2 ghz on the 45nm quads than 3.4 or higher on a 6600. So for a casual overclocker like myself the 45nm quads are the cat's meow. People like aig and yourself -- that's a whole different ball of wax.
Click to expand...

Well, now, 3.2 on a Q9450 ? vs 3.4 on a Q6600 ? Thats a tough call. But I like those numbers as being "normal" OC's on those two chips. But with a 200 mhz advantage the Q6600 should be faster, AND cheaper....

So the reason for selecting the 45 nm ? power savings ? It will take a long time to get back $150 difference.
Click to expand...

In the future software that takes advantage of SSE4 instructions found in the 45nm Quads might be more prevalent. That is another factor to consider as well.
 
G

graysky

Senior member
Mar 8, 2007
796
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Tough to say about SSE4 with Nehalem just around the corner... (Q4 of 2008 actually). 3.2 GHz stock with 8 physical cores and 8 virtual cores. I dunno about the extensions, but the devs of x264 haven't incorporated SSE4 or SSE4.1 into x264.exe as an example. I doubt games will require it either... the name of the game now seems to be multithreaded again, with the octo-cores less than 1 year away.

I'd say get either a Q6600 or a Q9450 for now. I wouldn't touch the AMD quads personally.
 
H

heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
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Originally posted by: jpacelli
Okay it's been 2 years since I've upgraded my computer. Currently I've got the following;
MOBO: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
CPU: AMD Toledo 4400
MEM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
VID: Geforce 7800Gt 512Mb

Not upgrading
CASE: Thermaltake III
PSU: Thermaltake Silent Pure Power W0049RUC ATX12V / EPS12V 680W Power Supply
HD: 2x250G SATA drives
DVD: 16x DVD Lite-On Burner
CD: 16x CDRW Lite-On Burner
LCD: Samsung 214T 21.3" monitor

I play games like NWN, NWN2, COD4, Crysis, Frontline: Fuels of War

So I'm planning to upgrade the mobo, cpu, mem, and video.
I've always had AMD but recently everyone is saying to get Intel instead
So which is better
Intel Q6600 or AMD Phenom 9850 (releasing soon 4/7)

then for video;
9800GX2
8800GTS vs 9800GTX
8800GT x2

Joe P
Click to expand...


E8400 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache $200
Just went out-of-stock - :(

MSI GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 $207 AR
Just for the sake of starting an arguement - :)
 
R

Ratman6161

Senior member
Mar 21, 2008
616
75
91

I'd say get either a Q6600 or a Q9450 for now. I wouldn't touch the AMD quads personally.
Click to expand...


But the question was AMD Vs Intel and specifically Q6600 Vs Phenom 9850. There is a fairly simple answer to that. At stock speeds, for gaming, those two are not too far apart and your best bet is to buy the cheaper of the two platforms (considering motherboards, memory etc, not just the CPU price) and put your money in the video card which will probably have a bigger effect on gaming anyway. If you are going to overclock, then the Q6600 is definitely the better choice as I'd say that about 100% can reach at least 3 Ghz
 
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v8envy

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2002
2,720
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Originally posted by: Markfw900


So the reason for selecting the 45 nm ? power savings ? It will take a long time to get back $150 difference.
Click to expand...

Depends on how much heat your boxes are dumping into the room right now. When you factor in cost of cooling and/or higher cost of solving air flow in confined quarters the 45nm chips with the same performance at a lower clock rate start looking better.

The 45nm part should be fine at 3.2 with stock cooling on a low end board like the DS3L or P35-E. You're begging for trouble doing 3.4 that way with a Q6600 -- wonder how long my X3210 @ 2997 will last on that DS3L. 45nm advantage for the casual overclocker, no biggie for the pro.

I also keep saying -- the Q6600 at $200ish is the undisputed quad core value champ right now. Nothing else comes close. But at $259 (typical Q6600 online price) vs $359 Q9450 the power advantage is a good reason to dogpile on the 45nm part.

 
Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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You're begging for trouble doing 3.4 that way with a Q6600
Click to expand...
Let see, I have a Q6600 B3 on a S3 board @3200, and one on a DS3R board @ 3510, and both run 24/7 @ 100% load for months, no problem.

And when my IP35E comes today, it will be@3400-3500 I bet, running the same way. That POS P5K will only run 3200.
 
V

v8envy

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2002
2,720
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0
Originally posted by: Ratman6161

But the question was AMD Vs Intel and specifically Q6600 Vs Phenom 9850. There is a fairly simple answer to that. At stock speeds, for gaming, those two are not too far apart and your best bet is to buy the cheaper of the two platforms (considering motherboards, memory etc, not just the CPU price) and put your money in the video card which will probably have a bigger effect on gaming anyway. If you are going to overclock, then the Q6600 is definitely the better choice as I'd say that about 100% can reach at least 3 Ghz
Click to expand...

Absolutely not. The Phenom uses far more power than the Q6600 (as much as $15/month more if used full blast), so even if you can save a few $ upfront you'll more than pay for it over the course of the coming days and weeks.

And that was a lower clocked 9500 or 9600.

Also, did you look at the link TuxDave provided for a review on this very same site? The E8200 and even E6750 dual cores obliterated all Phenoms in games where CPU was a factor -- Supreme Commander, Crysis, HL2. And even the Q6600 posted better performance. The whole point of getting a quad vs a dual core is futureproofing -- you're expecting games in the future to require far more CPU.

So in the future when the Intel quad (which is slightly faster in the first place) isn't enough to post decent frame rates you have the option of overclocking it 20-30%. You do not have that option with the Phenom - suicide benchmarks at 3.5ghz with deadly voltages and water cooling notwithstanding. While it's true the difference is small now that won't be true in the near future.

The real answer is, for the forseeable future a dual core intel >>> quad core AMD for gaming. But the 45nm quad intel is also >> quad core amd, and quad 65 intel is > amd. Unless the price difference is 25% or larger, it's a no-brainer.

Also keep in mind a quality AMD boad with few Phenom issues is about $180 (non-pro versions that don't support 125w cpus are just an accident waiting to happen) while a quality Intel quad capable motherboard can be had for $130ish (asus P5K-E, MSI Neo2-FR, Abit P35-Pro, DS3 or DS3R e.g.)

 
V

v8envy

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2002
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Originally posted by: Markfw900
You're begging for trouble doing 3.4 that way with a Q6600
Click to expand...
Let see, I have a Q6600 B3 on a S3 board @3200, and one on a DS3R board @ 3510, and both run 24/7 @ 100% load for months, no problem.

And when my IP35E comes today, it will be@3400-3500 I bet, running the same way. That POS P5K will only run 3200.
Click to expand...

The S3 and S3R are not the same board as the S3L -- they have better north bridge cooling and 6 phase power regulation.

I'm a bit surprised at how poorly the P5K has treated you though, and looking forward to how well you do with a quad on the P35-E over the next few months. 35000 may be stretching it a bit though -- shooting for over 4000 mhz on the fsb? =)
 
Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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S3 is top of the line ? thats a P965-S3..... and the 3R was $120.....I got the S3's for $60 used.

And B3's@1.4 vcore really beat up a motherboard. I killed my 965-DS3 and gigabyte won't honor the warranty. They say I scratched the motherboard, but Duvie as my witness, we both know those scratches weren;t there when I mailed it. No more gigabyte for me.
 
J

jpacelli

Member
Sep 9, 2003
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I just got a $500 gift certificate from my job since I went to India for 6 wks at the beginning of this year. Newegg isn't one of the places I can get a GC from but I saw TigerDirect listed so I'm getting a $500 gift certificate for there.

Saw this combo deal from them
Q6600 combo with 4GB and mobo
Is this a good mobo?

Only thing I would need to get then is a video card and I would have $100 left on card so I would only need to put in $200 at most

Or do I wait the 2 weeks since Intel is dropping prices on the 20th and get a Q6700.

I've got plenty of options and now I've got $500 extra to work with. Granted I must spend it at TigerDirect but it's free money.

I could purchase the following
9800GTX $330
mobo $150

The would be my $500 basically. Then I could always buy the CPU and memory from newegg for another $400. So $400 to upgrade my system to a new decent system.

Joe
 
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