Best processor for Gaming and AMD processors explained

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Osiris85

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Hey there,

A short while ago I created a thread asking for advice on a budget gaming rig. I received recommendations about going for an AMD CPU and now I would like to give it a shot.

Though I am a bit out of touch with the latest hardware ( and clueless about AMD ), could anyone assist me with the following:

* What brand of CPU ( Intel or AMD ) is best for high-end gaming
* Could anyone explain or give details about the AMD PHENOM types of processors ( how are they compared to Intel, how do they work, what kinda performance can I expect etc..... )

Thanx guys and girl :D
 
Gaming you want either an i5 750 or a Phenom 965/1055T since they are all the same price. However, if you have random amounts of cash lying around you'd like to burn you want the i7 930. That comes out about 30-50% more expensive than the first lot. Will give you a few % more fps today, but should last a year or so longer. It all comes down to what cash you have available and if you are interested in value for money
 
Archer said:
Gaming you want either an i5 750 or a Phenom 965/1055T since they are all the same price. However, if you have random amounts of cash lying around you'd like to burn you want the i7 930. That comes out about 30-50% more expensive than the first lot. Will give you a few % more fps today, but should last a year or so longer. It all comes down to what cash you have available and if you are interested in value for money
Click to expand...

Thanx Archer,

I see that Intel latest and greatest are quad core,right? Though they are quite expensive

AMD on the other hand have the Hexacore processors.

Which one would you guys say is the best? ( regarding performance, spec wise etc....)
 
Then you want the first lot: i5 750, or Phenom 965/1055T
First two are quads. i5 will OC a bit better than the 965. Unsure of the 1055 but its got 6 cores. I'd take the 1055T to know that you wont have to upgrade for a long time

edit: intel's latest and greatest is a 6 core with hyper threading so 12 virtual cores. Be prepared to fork out around R10k for it
 
.......and also, what really differentiates AMD from Intel?

What is 3DNow! and AMD have hexacores for more-or-less the same price as an Intel quad core, which one would be better?
 
Archer said:
Then you want the first lot: i5 750, or Phenom 965/1055T
First two are quads. i5 will OC a bit better than the 965. Unsure of the 1055 but its got 6 cores. I'd take the 1055T to know that you wont have to upgrade for a long time
Click to expand...

...wont have to upgrade for a long time......damn I love the sound of that! :D

How much does the 1055T go for these days?
 
I've got the 1055t, bought it for R2200. My rig is mainly used for gaming. Newer games will be utilizing more cores like BC2 is using all 6 my cores. The 1055t also makes for a good quad core when only 4 cores are being utilized because it overclocks the active 4 cores and underclocks the inactive 2.
 
Osiris85 said:
.......and also, what really differentiates AMD from Intel?

What is 3DNow! and AMD have hexacores for more-or-less the same price as an Intel quad core, which one would be better?
Click to expand...

One has a blue logo with lots of marketing power, the other has a green logo.

I'd also say take the 1055T.
 
Penquin said:
I've got the 1055t, bought it for R2200. My rig is mainly used for gaming. Newer games will be utilizing more cores like BC2 is using all 6 my cores. The 1055t also makes for a good quad core when only 4 cores are being utilized because it overclocks the active 4 cores and underclocks the inactive 2.
Click to expand...

oooohh......overclocking, not a big fan of that :(

Does it do this automatically? What is the lifetime of the 1055T? How much heat does it generate?

I'd hate to get this processor and it fries 6 months down the line
 
I'd say the best CPU for gaming is ... the Core i3! The AMD 6-core will not give you faster gaming compared to a quad core, which is only marginally faster than a dual core. It's single-threaded performance which is still the most important. Hence my vote is for a Core i3 530 for a wonderful cheap computer, or AMD Phenom II 955/Core i5 750 for something faster. If you wanna spend more rather get a Core i7 860.
 
not to put intel down or anything, but i recently sold my Intel Quad core PC and i will never buy an intel again. before the intel pc i used to buy only AMD, the only reason i went intel was because i couldnt find amd stock and didnt want to wait.

I found the intel box quite sluggish at times and multi threading was a b!tch, none of my AMD boxes ever had these kinds of problems.

My opinion, you cant go wrong with AMD, its not always about the fastest clockspeed, its about performance in general and im sorry to say but i was very dissapointed in the Intel box which for the price and hardware should have performed alot better than my previous AMD, but it didnt. ( My old AMD system was only a dual core btw ).

I have since moved onto a AMD laptop and im quite happy with my choice :D
 
Osiris85 said:
oooohh......overclocking, not a big fan of that :(

Does it do this automatically? What is the lifetime of the 1055T? How much heat does it generate?

I'd hate to get this processor and it fries 6 months down the line
Click to expand...
It's not "overclocking", it's like turbo-mode for AMD. Don't worry, CPU's generally last a long time and don't "fry".

Anyway, I wanted to back up the assertions made in my last post with some benchmarks so here we are:
the Phenom X6 1055t vs Core i3 530
As you can see the 6 cores really help with certain apps, like video encoding or 3d rendering. However go to the gaming section and you'll see the Core i3 is just as fast.
 
thriel said:
I found the intel box quite sluggish at times and multi threading was a b!tch, none of my AMD boxes ever had these kinds of problems.
Click to expand...
I think you had some sort of Software issue. Never experienced that.
 
Synaesthesia said:
I'd say the best CPU for gaming is ... the Core i3! The AMD 6-core will not give you faster gaming compared to a quad core, which is only marginally faster than a dual core. It's single-threaded performance which is still the most important. Hence my vote is for a Core i3 530 for a wonderful cheap computer, or AMD Phenom II 955/Core i5 750 for something faster. If you wanna spend more rather get a Core i7 860.
Click to expand...


That's just nonsense - the part about quad core only being marginally faster than dual core. The majority of games now are being optimized for multicore and heavy threading. Case in point, BFBC2 scales linearly with increased cores.

One difference between Phenom's and Intels is SSE4 support - AMD STILL doesn't have it, whereas Intel's had it for a long time. Clock for clock i5 is faster than Phenom2 - and tends to overclock better. But AMD compensates with lower general pricing, so dollar for dollar AMDs can sometimes be much better value. 1055t is exceptionally well priced against Intel's equivalent - i5 750 - and beats it in most benchmarks.
 
Synaesthesia said:
I think you had some sort of Software issue. Never experienced that.
Click to expand...

no, its not a software issue.

I am not syaing the box was slow, i am saying that when i run multiple programs at once it gets sluggish. It is the same programs i ran on my AMD system and same programs i run on the laptop now. the intel ran fine otherwise, but the slugishness eventualy got annoying to a point where i got rid of the system, i sold it for less than half i paid and it still had 5 months warentee on the box and 2 years on the gfx card and 4 years 5 months on the screen. in othewr words it wasnt even a year old.

and as i said before, i will never buy another intel again, neither will i recommend it to anyone.
 
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