Overclocking: Core i7 Vs. Phenom II

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Pe-Killer

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Conclusion

As far as we can see it, there are four different factors that go into the purchasing decision of one of these next-gen platforms.

The first is price. AMD has the upper hand here. Although its Phenom II X4 940 is priced fairly close to Intel
’s Core i7 920, 790GX-based motherboards cost in the neighborhood of $150, while high-end X58 platforms generally tend toward $300 (although we’ve recommended a $250 model here). DDR3 memory is still significantly more expensive than DDR2. Populating three channels, the more modern technology is going to bear a notable premium over two channels of the more mainstream type. In all, the Phenom II machine costs about $250 less to build than our i7 box did, while arming the AMD platform with a better aftermarket cooler would have shaved $50 or so from its advantage.

Next is performance. Intel maintains its advantage in this one, even with both configurations overclocked. We very effortlessly achieved a 3.8 GHz overclock on the i7 920 by bumping its Bclk up to 190 MHz and keeping all other settings in place. Knowing that our own German lab was able to reach 3.8 GHz stably on air (and AMD’s lab team said to expect frequencies up to 3.9 GHz at 1.55 V), we pushed our X4 940 extremely hard. While we were able to boot at up to 3.8 GHz, benchmarks wouldn’t finish consistently until we had dropped down to 3.64 GHz—and that was still at 1.6 V. Anything less and even that speed wasn’t 100% solid. Given the speeds we were able to achieve, Intel’s entry-level Core i7 walked away from AMD’s fastest Phenom II in all but one test.

Third, you have power. We’re giving this one to AMD, as well. At idle—where you’ll spend most of your time—the overclocked Phenom II spins down to 800 MHz and yields some impressive power figures. Once it shoots back up to 3.64 GHz, it’s sucking down more juice than Intel’s 3.8 GHz Core i7. However, we anticipate that most enthusiasts aren’t going to peg their chips at redline very often.

Finally, there’s the upgrade question. For owners of existing Socket AM2+ motherboards, today’s Phenom II is a drop-in component. Provided that your board and graphics are beefy enough to warrant the new CPU, stepping up is a matter of spending $275. Conversely, adopting i7 means buying a CPU, motherboard, and DDR3 memory, at least. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Intel has always been aggressive about nudging the bleeding edge forward and advocating new technologies—sometimes to its own detriment. We know DDR3 is going to replace DDR2, and it’s nice to have an X58 board able to support CrossFireX and SLI. AMD’s upgrade path simply lets enthusiasts stretch their aging hardware out a little bit longer.
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So What Do I Buy?

The Core i7 and Phenom II seem suited to two different customers. Indeed, there will undoubtedly be gamers who go all-AMD and are willing to sacrifice a bit of speed in order to save money and Intel loyalists who adopt i7 at a bit of extra cost for its newer technology. We thus see distinct advantages to each platform.

For the gamer or multimedia aficionado with a mind to performance, Intel’s Core i7 920 overclocked to 3.8 GHz simply delivers the most compelling experience. The ~$250 hardware price premium is the cost of entry over AMD’s solution, and we think it’s worth paying. AMD is planning its own shift to DDR3 in the first half of 2009, and less-expensive X58 boards are trickling out (the cheapest right now being Gigabyte's $210 EX58-UD3R), so the cost-difference will continue getting smaller.

If you’re instead buying for a more productivity-oriented purpose, the Phenom II makes sense. After all, it’s able to handle every task nearly as well as i7 does (both platforms overclocked, of course), it drops into existing AM2+ motherboards, it costs less, and in a majority of situations, will use substantially less power—even highly-tuned, as we've done here. We didn’t have as much luck overclocking the Phenom II as we expected, but the chip is still a notable improvement over AMD’s 65 nm Phenom series.
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http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-phenom-ii,2119-10.html
 
Core i7 is a far better CPU. Google for stats

Overclocking on the extreme version of the Core i7 is abit restricted but who needs to overclock that CPU.

Core i7 will cost you major money compared to AMD's Phenom II.

I dont recommend that anyone upgrade to Core i7 at the moment, wait a few months because Intel are also unveiling another new platform and also the new 8 core CPU.
 
RedhotNeo said:
Core i7 is a far better CPU. Google for stats

Overclocking on the extreme version of the Core i7 is abit restricted but who needs to overclock that CPU.

Core i7 will cost you major money compared to AMD's Phenom II.

I dont recommend that anyone upgrade to Core i7 at the moment, wait a few months because Intel are also unveiling another new platform and also the new 8 core CPU.
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that and of course AMD is releasing there AM3 mobo's and cpu's... I can see the AMD phenom 2 doing some really decent performance with ddr3... that means you can overclock the Hyper link and such with out hitting the ram limitations... but lets hope AMD can pull off some magic with these new CPU's.
 
RedhotNeo said:
Core i7 is a far better CPU. Google for stats

Overclocking on the extreme version of the Core i7 is abit restricted but who needs to overclock that CPU.

Core i7 will cost you major money compared to AMD's Phenom II.

I dont recommend that anyone upgrade to Core i7 at the moment, wait a few months because Intel are also unveiling another new platform and also the new 8 core CPU.
Click to expand...

lol, times are hard for everyone, anyone buying an Icore 7 even if he can afford it is just really wasting money. Intel is a rip off.

phenom II, half the price FTW :)
 
scotty777 said:
1/2 price, 4/5 performance, who's complaining...
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everyone is forgetting that amd is getting 4/5 the performance on ddr 2 whereas intel is on ddr 3. when amd moves to ddr 3 the scores may be alot different.

but iv'e found in the past that intel lovers are like brick walls. they would justify spending R40 000 on a cpu if intel charged that price, it reminds me to an old farmer types that believe calculators are evil and refuse to use one :p they just wont budge. so too all who wanna waste money, go ahead ....
 
Thriel i highly doubt ddr 3 will make up the performance gap.

AMD have done something good with this cpu but their pricing is high i feel. DDr3 will not be this expensive for much longer and with cheaper mobo's coming out i7 will become cheaper and does out perform amd.

4k for an amd cpu is crazy if you ask me :), surely thats a rip off?
 
killadoob said:
Thriel i highly doubt ddr 3 will make up the performance gap.

AMD have done something good with this cpu but their pricing is high i feel. DDr3 will not be this expensive for much longer and with cheaper mobo's coming out i7 will become cheaper and does out perform amd.

4k for an amd cpu is crazy if you ask me :), surely thats a rip off?
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LOL.

Aren't the i7s getting discontinued soon to make way for the i5? Which is another new socket. That doesn't support triple channel.

Whatever.

Oh and I agree with the Intel fanboys are brick walls concept.
 
i7 getting discontinued bwhahah, maybe the brick wall applies to you :p

Funny how amd fanboys always feel the need to insult people :p, must be an inferiority complex :p

Well the good thing about these amd cpu's is atleast its cheaper than buying a whole new rig but i would imagine that 4k for a cpu is still out alot of people's reach, surely they will bring out a 100-150 dolla phenom 2 at some stage because not everyone can drop 8-10k on new stuff let alone 4k.
 
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Sigh, so you're telling me they are gonna be running 3 consumer sockets simultaneously?

775 and i5 and i7?

LOL.
 
I would imagine 775 would be phased out when i5 comes into play as that is the entry level version of the cpu, the i7 is the top of line more expensive version which i would imagine they would not discontinue for obvious reasons (pm me if you need to know these reasons).

I guess maybe you think intel will discontinue their flagship product to support the much cheaper entry level product :p, again brick wall comes into play, its a good concept for your post i must admit.

Qwik please give me your source for intel discontinuing the i7, who knows maybe i am wrong and in fact intel will discontinue their flagship product.
 
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killadoob said:
4k for an amd cpu is crazy if you ask me :), surely thats a rip off?
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4K for any CPU is a rip off, IMO. There is no difference whether its an AMD or Intel. But thats just me, others are different. It depends what you want from a CPU and how much you are willing to spend. One should look at price/performance and see which offers the best value. From the looks of it, the AMD Phenom II offers the better price/performance (overseas at least).
 
killadoob said:
I would imagine 775 would be phased out when i5 comes into play as that is the entry level version of the cpu, the i7 is the top of line more expensive version which i would imagine they would not discontinue for obvious reasons (pm me if you need to know these reasons).

I guess maybe you think intel will discontinue their flagship product to support the much cheaper entry level product :p, again brick wall comes into play, its a good concept for your post i must admit.

Qwik please give me your source for intel discontinuing the i7, who knows maybe i am wrong and in fact intel will discontinue their flagship product.
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Seens thy won't be discontinuing i7. Still checking though. I remember reading they would once i5 gets released.
 
You must remember that toms got engineering samples. The retail chips will fare better with overclocking.
 
magikn00b said:
I can see this thread going on 4-5 pages :P
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lol - it's always the same. People on either side blindly defending their choice. The problem is, no one is right. Just because Ferrari, for the sake of the argument, make the fastest car, does not mean that someone should buy their version of a Citi golf, if they made one. It's the same with the technology, if it's better but slower, it does not make a difference. People need to look at their budget, look at what they are willing to spend, and get the one that best suits their usage and budget.
 
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