AMD still worth buying?

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shadowbreaker513

[H]ard|Gawd
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I've been looking at some of the benchmarks and price brackets, and it seems that with the price slashing going on, the AMD procs have plummeted below the cost of their Intel brethren, and though I hear everyone preach Intel constantly, that usually doesn't take into account price difference. Looking at hopefully under $250 for a cpu+mobo I could get a combo deal like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.150323 which would save me some cash, but would it perform better than say a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037 with a motherboard that costs $85 or less? Also, I haven't been as up to date as I should on hardware news, but it looks like LGA775 is beginning to be phased out, which would make future upgrades more clunky, while the AMD2+ socket seems to be just rolling out, which seemingly make it more future friendly.

Any opinions?
 
am2+ is just about to get dumped for ddr3 enabled am3. am2+ is in the same boat as 775. the intel socket will not likely see anymore premium cpus made for it, and the release of phenom2 on am2+ is just to reward hardy amd users who made due with significantly inferior silicon all this time. pick your poison.
 
am3 cpu's will work in am2+ sockets so no fear about buying now and tossing in am3 chip
 
For a gamer on a budget, going AMD isn't a bad option. I have a friend who is going to go with an x2 and a 4830, and later on buy a Phen2 and another 4830. He's got a decent system put together for 500 dollars, that does crossfire.

Most games at higher res are GPU limited anyways. If the CPU was such a big deal, the i7 threads in the Intel forum would have a different tone. Go with a high end X2 for now and get a better video card.

Buy a Phen2 later. That's what I'd do if I was on a budget.
 
Sorry to hijack this thread a bit but I'm in a similar position as I am wanting to build a new computer now but I can't decide what to do.

I can either go with an E8500 or a PII 920 both in the same price range and perform about the same in gaming at stock speeds.

If I got the E8500 and more games made use of multithreading then I would probably upgrade toa Q9650 later on when they are cheap and at the end of their life cycle.

I'm on a budget now and I don't really want to wait for i7 prices to drop.

Anyway recommendations?
 
Q9650 will never be cheap.
Intel will first phase it out of the market rather than drop significantly it's price more than currently.

But it's very hard to say which is better choice - E8500 is great at gaming and amazing overclocker but with console gaming really pushing multicore programing it might soon be outmatched by quads (if more monsters like gta iv come).

920 should be fast enough for everything and if more games take care of 3+ theads will be also great choice ( take a look at Lost planet benchmarks for example how much boost quad core can get in well scalling software).

And with am2+ you have a chance next gen amd cpu architecture will work on same mobo.
 
I just picked up a Phenom 9600 BE at $104.99 at NewEgg for my son's build. I had a budget and didn't want to go below a E7300 for performance. While doing my research, I found that the 9600 did just as well in games and WAY better at encoding, so the 9600 was a no brainer, especially at almost $25 less.
 
^^^ yeah and the new Phenom II's out-perform then in almost every aspect.

shadowbreaker513 said:
Either way, being I can buy a new CPU without upgrading the mobo or I can upgrade my mobo without buying a new CPU I would prefer to the apparent dead end of the LGA775 socket.
Click to expand...

yeah thats what I was thinking
 
AM3 PH2 CPU's support both DDR2 and DDR3 (only DDR3 dual and not tri channel) and will work on DDR2 AM2+ and probably high end AM2 mobos.
 
Anyone mind giving me a recommendation on a cpu upgrade?
6000 3.1
or
7750

Upgrading from a 2400be @ 2.8. System includes:
Biostar 790gx A2+
ocz500mxsp psu
powercolor 3870
2hdd
4gb ddr2 800

I want to keep it cheap (-$100) and to improve gaming a bit.
 
I'd go for the 7750 out of those two. Not only is it essentially a Phenom x2, it is also a black edition with an unlocked multi.
 
And 7750 tend to reach 3.3 - 3.4 easily.

But i'd wait 2 or 3 weeks to see pricing on x3 new phenoms.
 
i am kinda of in the same boat as the OP. i have my intel system. but i wanted to throw together a cheap AMD system for school. i have an AM2+/future AM3 55nm chip compatible board. it has a 6400+ in it, but lately it's been huffin and puffin. i want to throw in a 98/9950 but i was wondering if it was worth it, esp with AM3 around the corner.

i guess what it comes down to is whether or not i want ddr3 right off the bat when AM3 comes out.
 
I seen some real good deals on amd processors coupled with ati graphic cards on newegg, and amd motherboards aren't that expensive. The new phenom 2s are capable overclockers, and the 7750 isn't a bad one either (even though it is phenom 1 based.) Intels are better chips but if you are gaming and get a decent overclock it is the graphic card that will make the fps appear.

Thus if you are spending less than 1200 to 1400 dollars the amds are very competitive if not a better deal than many intel platforms.
 
I think so, if I were building a rig now I would look in to a PII nice bang for your buck and more future hardware upgrades than 775 considering an AM3 cpu will work in an AM2+ socket board.
 
Phenom II's are actually a nice value at the moment for a high end quad core system.
 
Yes they are still worth buying. Just bought the Phenom 9600 + MB for $179. Gets here Tuesday, cant wait.


Im still using my S939 with an 8800GT. Thought people might laugh at me if I stuck a GTX280 in here, so figured I best upgrade first...
 
khanis said:
Phenom II's are actually a nice value at the moment for a high end quad core system.
Click to expand...

I agree, especially now that they are dropping down to the ~$200 range where I think they should have started. Really nice since you can get a 940, 790gx mobo, and 4gigs of 1066 ram for 100 more than an i7 920. Where-as with the i7 920, you'd spend $295 on the chip, and ~ $200 on both the ddr3 and the mobo. Sure, the i7 is technically a better chip, but it is also on a more expensive platform. And these days, price can make/break you.
 
CousinVin said:
^^^ yeah and the new Phenom II's out-perform then in almost every aspect.

yeah thats what I was thinking
Click to expand...

Yeah, and the PH2 940 beat the i7 920 at some tasks and I do believe perfromed as well and better at most ganes that weren't optimized for or "favored" Intel CPU's. The PH2 920 also seems to be a good CPU.
 
The Phenom 1 7750 / 9750 / 9850 / 9950's are all good cpus that don't have the TLB bug the either Phenoms did. the Phenom 2 is obviously a much better cpu but costs a little extra. The point however is that these cpus are all very capable, especially for their price.
 
Just scored a Phenom 9600 for $70 here on the forums. Then sold my X2 4800+ for $35 the next day on the forums.

$35 Phenom upgrade!
 
CousinVin said:
yeah but doesn't that kind of seem stupid to say? don't overclock the PII but overclock the i7 and then compare them? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

All he's saying is that clock-for-clock, the i7 eats the PII, but that's not to say it's a bad chip. Most current i7 or PII 940 owners certainly didn't buy them to run at stock speeds.
 
There's more to a CPU than raw speeds (for me anyway). I'm personally swaying back to AMD after the release of the Phenom 2 mostly because of the 'little' things such as ECC RAM support (assuming the mobo supports it), much more secure stock cooler mounting, unlocked multipliers on reasonably priced CPUs, and being able to use cheaper DDR2 memory. This coming from someone who has a Q6600 and a Phenom II.

I'm not choosing a CPU so much as I'm choosing a platform. Both AMD and Intel CPUs are plenty fast for me, but I like AMD's current platform a little better.
 
Im upgrading to a quad at some point soon. I've been thinking weither I would be better selling my e8400 and picking up a q9650 or selling off my e8400 and P5Q D and picking up a PII. The q9650 is a drop in upgrade with no format for me.
 
SockMan! said:
more secure stock cooler mounting, ter.
Click to expand...

true, but man I so hate AMD's stock coolers, mounting them is a PITA sometimes because I don't know if I'm putting too much force on them but they wont easily latch on.
 
have you tried intel stock coolers, lawl..!

anyways, if you already got AM2. AMD.
If you dont got anything AMD.
If you got LGA775. INTEL.
IF you seek a system to just do numbercrounching. INTEL.

i work in a company, there are many tasks, tough tasks.
Core7 is evalueted.
Core7 Failed.
Phenom 2 Passed.
Core 2 quad Passed.

What was the reason.
Price per performance.
They found the Core7 just a tiny bit better than Core 2 quad.

Does applications use Core7 architecture at all except benchmarks.
uhm, atleast miiiinimum 90%. no.

How does Phenom 2 compare to Core 2.
All in all, power requirements, and all that, i'd say a notch over q9550, depends if you wanna overclock or not.
Thats just comparing the two cpu's with none of the other things into the picture, but all of you guys who already got an nice expensive lga775 mobo, i see no reason for you guys to upgrade.

In this case, the 4850 4830 and an x2 @ 2.8 ghz would let you play youre fav games until march, stick with DDR2 and just go AM3 chip.
I forgot to remember what motherboard you got, but those aint expensive, ive tried cheapest boards with voltage setting and multiplier setting, and ive done 4.3 on PH2.
That was quite exciting for a 690G motherboard to be from asus. microatx aswell.

my opinion on the nice cpu market which getting better and better ;D
all say core 7, while it infact give little real performance value for the user in terms of gameplay advantages.
while core i5 with 2 cores and HT would be devistating for AMD, cause those would be cheap and fast.
but they are delayed, and come in late august or maybe even later, anything can happen! they just canceled some projects aswell.
so PH2 route is the way to go, an tempoarly chip is not expensive either! x2 6000+ ;)
 
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