So? AMD or Intel?

MonKENy

Platinum Member
Nov 1, 2007
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Whats the latest in the news of battle? Or is it pretty equal? Im just pricing things and need to know which line I should go down.
 

LoneNinja

Senior member
Jan 5, 2009
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Really depends on your budget and intended use of the machine. AMD has a number of great products at different price points, but Intel is holding the top performance crown. AMD is currently going with the more cores for your dollar approach, which can be seen with the Athlon II X4/Phenom II X4 mostly being priced compared to Intel dual cores. Intel has the more powerful individual core with better single threaded performance, but you get better multitasking and improved performance in software programed to use all the available threads.

Intel has Sandy Bridge, a new architecture releasing this month, I personally wouldn't build until after that is released to see how it effects the market.
 

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
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At the lower to mid end, assuming you don't overclock, they are fairly equal, although AMD is better for multi threaded apps because you get more cores for your money, while Intel gives you more speed but less true cores. All depends on the apps really.
Once you get to the $300+, AMD can't compete because they don't really have anything in that price range.

If you overclock, Intel is probably the better bet assuming you get a 4 core, 4 thread CPU or better. If you are looking at a $100 CPU and want to overclock then probably go AMD since Intel only offers dual core CPUs at that price AFAIK.


What you have to remember at the end of the day is that Intel and AMD are competing with each other, which means AMD can't afford to price itself out of the market by offering poor pricing, so you end up with 2 companies offering similar value products at stock clocks, but with different benefits and drawbacks, mainly in terms of the number of cores (AMD), and the ability for those cores to dynamically change clockspeed (Intel).
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
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I wasn't trolling. I didn't know anyone would get anything other than an i3 on a budget.

Lets see i3 dual core for $125 to $150 or quad core phenom for same? Not to mention, cheaper MB's for AMD than Intel.

It still comes down to your decision on whether money or performance is more important.
 

theevilsharpie

Platinum Member
Nov 2, 2009
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Whats the latest in the news of battle? Or is it pretty equal? Im just pricing things and need to know which line I should go down.

It's been a quiet weekend, but at the close of the market on 12/31, AMD's stock price went up 0.04 whereas Intel's only went up 0.01. All, in all, pretty equal.

:awe:
 

edplayer

Platinum Member
Sep 13, 2002
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Except those areas in which 4 cores have distinct advantage.

Once again, it's what you consider more important, money or performance.


I'm not understanding your point. The AMD cpu has 4 cores while the Intel has 2 + hyperthreading.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
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Interesting.

Right now on newegg:

i3 540: $125
X4 970BE: $186

Interesting

Right now on NewEgg

i3 540: $125
x4 920: $120

The point is those programs which benefit from quad cores versus dual core do better on AMD at this price point. We can argue benchmarks all day but the Choice between AMD and Intel STILL comes down to cost versus performance.
 

Cogman

Lifer
Sep 19, 2000
10,286
145
106
Interesting

Right now on NewEgg

i3 540: $125
x4 920: $120

The point is those programs which benefit from quad cores versus dual core do better on AMD at this price point. We can argue benchmarks all day but the Choice between AMD and Intel STILL comes down to cost versus performance.

Not to mention the fact that Intel motherboards are STILL more expensive than AMD. You can look at spending $20+ for a comparable intel motherboard. So the comparison isn't quite as straight forward as comparing equally priced CPUs.
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
Go intel if you have enough money to get an i7, go amd if you don't.
 

jjmIII

Diamond Member
Mar 13, 2001
8,399
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ASRock H55M Pro LGA 1156 was $90 when I bought it, and I grabbed an i3 540 for $104 on eBay. Great cheap little rig. I like the mobos that have S775 cooling holes along side the S1156 HSF holes.

Reviews have the i3 trading pretty equal blows with the AMD X4's.
 

edplayer

Platinum Member
Sep 13, 2002
2,186
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Interesting

Right now on NewEgg

i3 540: $125
x4 920: $120


Well that one looks a lot better. You do know though that the reason I posted those two was because it was the two linked to in the benchmark, right? The 920 is only 2.8GHz but it looks look a decent purchase versus the 970BE.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
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Not to mention the fact that Intel motherboards are STILL more expensive than AMD. You can look at spending $20+ for a comparable intel motherboard. So the comparison isn't quite as straight forward as comparing equally priced CPUs.

This is not true if comparing to 1156, only 1366. Look at these 2 gigabyte boards, both UD3's, both with SATA and USB 3, both with intel and AMD's non IGP chipsets and they are the same price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128412

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128438



And AMD has nothing in the 1366 CPU range it can compete with so its not surprising the motherboards cost more. They have a tough time giving the i5's competition let alone the i7's and gulftowns.

To the OP i would consider a AMD quad if spending under $150 and a qaud core i5 or i7 if spending $200 or more.
 

Sp12

Senior member
Jun 12, 2010
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Not quite the correct comparison. Equivalent AMD boards are indeed ~20$ cheaper.

That AMD board is based on their old Northbridge, supports CFX, has integrated Sata3. It's not quite comparable.
 

jacktesterson

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
5,493
3
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Too often people relate Performance to what they see on paper.

I still find it amusing to this day. Yes I have a nice machine but I can generally afford to.

I have about 6-7 pcs at any given time running in my basement as I build and sell like many here, both amd and intel.

In 85% of my builds, I use AMD. Wanna know why? Because for 85% of people out there, a pc is simply used for email, web and general applications. Here comes the fun part. I recently showed somebody a low powered x3 405e build with 4gb ram on a 880g board with onboard Ati 4250. I also showed him a i7 950 with a 5850 installed with 12gb ram built mostly of spare parts I had at the time. He played around with both for a while. Besides what I listed above he also wanted to play 1080p mkv files on his big screen. Now he was never going to buy the i7 rig, he just happened to see it and asked to try it. His VERY first question was "why is this pc $700 more then the other system when I can't see any difference? I said because it's more of an ethuiast rig. He said I'd never buy that.

That's the truth. The 405e 45w CPU with 4250 plays 1080p less than 10% CPU use due to dxva. Browsing was similar.

AMD has a big market. Anybody who doesn't consider them are foolish.

Even the x6's have advantages.

I'm not pro amd, but yes until I do support them!