Athlon II X3 440 vs X4 630 for gaming

[solofly]

This is strictly a gaming rig. I don't overclock and want the chip to last as long as possible...

3 core at 3ghz or 4 core at 2.8...

What would you choose...

 

[LoneNinja]

Right now the X3 would be better, and down the road the X4 might become better. Either way though 200mhz and 3-4 cores is going to make virtually no difference in games until the system is so cpu bottlenecked you'll want it replaced.

 

[BD231]

Once you get past two cores there aren't many games you'll notice much of a difference in. Mhz count more than cores in this case.

Still, I'd get the cheap quad and set it to 3.4ghz like most people are doing.

 

[Jovec]

Once you get past two cores there aren't many games you'll notice much of a difference in. Mhz count more than cores in this case.

Still, I'd get the cheap quad and set it to 3.4ghz like most people are doing.

Get the x4. You say you don't want to overclock but you can easily get a few extra MHz out of the chip at stock voltage and with the stock cooler with a FSB bump. You won't shorten the chip at stock volts, just make sure to manually set your voltage and check it via Overdrive or CPUz. If you use Overdrive, you have to check the board status tab for the voltage, as the CPU status tab shows the default volts no matter what the bios setting.

If it's simply for gaming and you are dead set against overclocking you might want to take a look at the 555 x2. Faster clocks, and gaming is one of the few areas the L3 cache really helps.

 

[Maximilian]

This is strictly a gaming rig. I don't overclock and want the chip to last as long as possible...

3 core at 3ghz or 4 core at 2.8...

What would you choose...

Easy choice, 4 core at 2.8, even if you wont overclock it now you might in a year or two, adding 200mhz+ to its performance, however you will never be able to add another core to that 3 core cpu.

 

[solofly]

I think I might step it up to a PII X4 925, thanks to your suggestions guys...