Is phenom II really that bad?

Xellos2099

Platinum Member
Mar 8, 2005
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I just jumped on the gun with newegg deal of the 940 and free mobo. Now I read some review, some say it is pure crap and other say it go toe to toe with some of the higher end core 2 quad. What's everyone opinion on this?

Btw, I am current using Gigatybe DS3 v1 and a oc E6400, Q9550 is not an option since my mono don;t support it.
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
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I have no idea what you're talking about. The Phenom II is a great CPU. If I was to build an $800CAD rig right now, I'll be using the Phenom II X2 or X3 as my CPU processor. Most of the Phenom II processors top out at 3.8Ghz, with some lucky ones able to get 4Ghz.

What motherboard are you getting?
 

Gikaseixas

Platinum Member
Jul 1, 2004
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can you provide a link to that review???

Phenom's are phenomenal, you will love it
:laugh:
 

Xellos2099

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Mar 8, 2005
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BIOSTAR TA790GXB A2+ AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX ATX AMD Motherboard and it is only 10 buck at newegg with 940. Hardforum review put it at lvl that is WAY below like q9400 or something.
 
Dec 30, 2004
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Uh, Phenom 2 is awesome. I bought an x3 720BE and unlocked it and OC'd it to what's in my sig. It trounces my e8400 CPU that I sold for $135.
 

DrMrLordX

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Apr 27, 2000
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That review is a bit off, since the Phenom II has been shown to be pretty close clock-per-clock to most Penryn quads in other benchmarks, and often at a lower price point. Sure you could do better unlocking two cores on an X2-550BE but that's not guaranteed.
 

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
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PHII is quite good performance/dollar. Sadly though, it can't keep up in max raw performance. Although if a PHII has enough power for YOUR needs (like most enthusiasts), then it doesn't really matter if Intel's quads are 10% better at the uppermost of things.


Phenom V1 though, not PHII's, are however pretty blegh
 

Fox5

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Jan 31, 2005
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Phenom II does pretty well at the lower end. The Intel Core 2's with less than 6MB of cache per duo perform relatively worse. The 3MB ones (6MB total cache on a quad) might even be outperformed on a per clock basis by the Phenom II's.

Nothing touches i7 in multithreaded apps though. Hyperthreading just looks so beautiful if you have that sort of workload.
 

nbowman

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Jun 7, 2007
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Originally posted by: Eeqmcsq

His tests are on a clock vs clock comparision, instead of a price vs performance comparison. He compares a $275 CPU vs what back then was probably a $1000 CPU in a QX9770 and a Core i7 965. Thirdly, he dismisses the price vs performance comparison by telling people to "shut the hell up and go have a drink. " :roll:

ROFL, indeed, fanboys are so cute when they get all pissy too :p
 
Dec 30, 2004
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Originally posted by: Eeqmcsq

His tests are on a clock vs clock comparision, instead of a price vs performance comparison. He compares a $275 CPU vs what back then was probably a $1000 CPU in a QX9770 and a Core i7 965. Thirdly, he dismisses the price vs performance comparison by telling people to "shut the hell up and go have a drink. " :roll:

Yeah, this is probably the worst review there was out there. OBVIOUSLY biased when known-legit places like xbitlabs were getting neck+neck performance clock/clock with the Penryns.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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Sep 28, 2005
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Originally posted by: Xellos2099

I just jumped on the gun with newegg deal of the 940 and free mobo. Now I read some review, some say it is pure crap and other say it go toe to toe with some of the higher end core 2 quad. What's everyone opinion on this?

Btw, I am current using Gigatybe DS3 v1 and a oc E6400, Q9550 is not an option since my mono don;t support it.

stock to stock.. the PHII is a pretty badass processor sometimes beating C2Q's.

When you factor in overclocking, your gonna lose horribly. And not by a small margin, i mean very very horribly. But it will cost ya a pretty penny.

So it depends on what you were after.

If it was a budget sense, you made a solid choice. PHII's will go 3.6ghz+ with good cooling.

If you wanted a raw power machine, you needed to spend a bit more and grab an i7 920 D0. Once u unleash that, its game overs AMD.
 

Xellos2099

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Mar 8, 2005
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I am mainly looking at balance of good performance and a good price. I jumped into this deal mainly because of the free mobo, but I guess if i change my mine i can always try at cost at fs/ft forum. The way I figure there is no way a phenom II would lost to like a Q6600 which cost around the same thing.
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
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Originally posted by: Xellos2099
I am mainly looking at balance of good performance and a good price. I jumped into this deal mainly because of the free mobo, but I guess if i change my mine i can always try at cost at fs/ft forum. The way I figure there is no way a phenom II would lost to like a Q6600 which cost around the same thing.

You made a great choice on the CPU and to get the free Biostar motherboard. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe that motherboard has the ACC feature, which will make a difference in overclocking. Also I believe that's one of the motherboards where some have had success with unlocking the other cores in their Phenom IIs.

As for the HardOCP review, I'm not even going to read it. The comments here alone tell me that the author compared the wrong CPUs together. Who compares a $220 CPU to one that costs like $1000. BIASED!
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
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Originally posted by: Eeqmcsq

His tests are on a clock vs clock comparision, instead of a price vs performance comparison. He compares a $275 CPU vs what back then was probably a $1000 CPU in a QX9770 and a Core i7 965. Thirdly, he dismisses the price vs performance comparison by telling people to "shut the hell up and go have a drink. " :roll:

kyle pretty much is an idiot.

When I was in college I contacted him once to try to sell some agilent arcticoolers (I knew a source that could get them for me for $12 each in qty).

So I go, kyle do you know any stores who would want this for say $20 because most distrbutors charge $30.

Anyhow he writes back a scathing email about how I am not helping the overclocking "community" by selling them at cost. I replied and asked him how much profit he was making on those "ratpadz" and the site he ran. He never responded.


Basically this guy is a guy who just makes up his mind first, and then if you come up with an actual logical reasoning as to why he is wrong he will just ignore you or say something stupid like the above mentioned "go have a drink" if you cant afford $800 more for a cpu...

I remember I also once posted on hardforums that some BFG motherboard was actually an OEM chaintech nforce4 board and that most reviews of the chaintech were mediocre and he was pumping up the BFG board even though it cost 50% more. Most of the hard forums people agreed.

Anyhow kyle comes up with some response that made no sense of course. Then locks the thread. I'm assuming he was the type of child who threw tantrums. maybe like this kid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc

I cannot believe that site has such a following, with him running it and the obvious favoritism he gives to his advertisers (BFG is still a huge advertiser of theirs, and they are ridiculously pro intel compared to basically every other site on the internet)
 

Gikaseixas

Platinum Member
Jul 1, 2004
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Originally posted by: hans007
Originally posted by: Eeqmcsq

His tests are on a clock vs clock comparision, instead of a price vs performance comparison. He compares a $275 CPU vs what back then was probably a $1000 CPU in a QX9770 and a Core i7 965. Thirdly, he dismisses the price vs performance comparison by telling people to "shut the hell up and go have a drink. " :roll:

kyle pretty much is an idiot.

When I was in college I contacted him once to try to sell some agilent arcticoolers (I knew a source that could get them for me for $12 each in qty).

So I go, kyle do you know any stores who would want this for say $20 because most distrbutors charge $30.

Anyhow he writes back a scathing email about how I am not helping the overclocking "community" by selling them at cost. I replied and asked him how much profit he was making on those "ratpadz" and the site he ran. He never responded.


Basically this guy is a guy who just makes up his mind first, and then if you come up with an actual logical reasoning as to why he is wrong he will just ignore you or say something stupid like the above mentioned "go have a drink" if you cant afford $800 more for a cpu...

I remember I also once posted on hardforums that some BFG motherboard was actually an OEM chaintech nforce4 board and that most reviews of the chaintech were mediocre and he was pumping up the BFG board even though it cost 50% more. Most of the hard forums people agreed.

Anyhow kyle comes up with some response that made no sense of course. Then locks the thread. I'm assuming he was the type of child who threw tantrums. maybe like this kid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc

I cannot believe that site has such a following, with him running it and the obvious favoritism he gives to his advertisers (BFG is still a huge advertiser of theirs, and they are ridiculously pro intel compared to basically every other site on the internet)

agreed 100%
 

blyndy

Member
Nov 11, 2008
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The title makes this post a pretty obvious troll. It should have just gone ignored.
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
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Originally posted by: geokilla
As for the HardOCP review, I'm not even going to read it. The comments here alone tell me that the author compared the wrong CPUs together. Who compares a $220 CPU to one that costs like $1000. BIASED!

Remember his review of the original Phenom? On the AMD side he has these $200-300 Phenoms that were arguably not the greatest, then on the Intel side he has the moderately priced Q6600 then some other $800 and $1000 Intel Extreme processors. What a stupid asshole. At least Anandtech and Xbit do comparisons at similar price points.
 
Dec 30, 2004
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Originally posted by: blyndy
The title makes this post a pretty obvious troll. It should have just gone ignored.

You know that's not possible. I would prefer if the mods would just lock.
 

Scotteq

Diamond Member
Apr 10, 2008
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Originally posted by: Xellos2099

I just jumped on the gun with newegg deal of the 940 and free mobo. Now I read some review, some say it is pure crap and other say it go toe to toe with some of the higher end core 2 quad. What's everyone opinion on this?

Btw, I am current using Gigatybe DS3 v1 and a oc E6400, Q9550 is not an option since my mono don;t support it.


Long answer: People on the extremes of *both* sides are full of sh*t. You can play all sorts of semantics with cost/performance, or cherry pick which proccy you compare to which, or tapdance from aspect to aspect so people can't pin you down, or engage in long and complex diatribes about who is evil, or that you like blue better than green, or whatever horsecrap passes for technical knowledge these days... But the answer is No, AMD's best isn't better than or even as good as Intel's best - Or even the Midrange, depending on the application. But that doesn't mean it isn't a perfectly good processor, or that a finished system built from one isn't as good as (or better than) one built from the other.

The short answer involves a simple question: "Does the system I built accomplish the task at hand" The single syllable answer to this question is all you need.


 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Originally posted by: blyndy
The title makes this post a pretty obvious troll. It should have just gone ignored.

You know that's not possible. I would prefer if the mods would just lock.

First, the OP bought one. Second, after some replies, he and everyone here agrees that review was crap. So we have educated someone about crap. Good to trash that review soundly.

No trolling that I see.

And last, I have 2 940's@3.6, I still like my C2Q's (the 94xx series) better, but they are spendier, so bang/buck they are just fine IMO.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
phenom2 is not AWESOME, but it is not bad either. I find it to be of about equal performance per dollar the specific C2Q is competes with... however! there are more exepnsive intel chips with much worse price/performance, but overall being faster.
 
Dec 30, 2004
12,554
2
76
Originally posted by: Markfw900
Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Originally posted by: blyndy
The title makes this post a pretty obvious troll. It should have just gone ignored.

You know that's not possible. I would prefer if the mods would just lock.

First, the OP bought one. Second, after some replies, he and everyone here agrees that review was crap. So we have educated someone about crap. Good to trash that review soundly.

No trolling that I see.

And last, I have 2 940's@3.6, I still like my C2Q's (the 94xx series) better, but they are spendier, so bang/buck they are just fine IMO.
You know I only just saw that he actually had bought one; I replied in the heat of the moment, heh. Nor did I see he agreed the review was crap.

Having to read before replying is too hard... :)