Upgrade to phenom II or Intel I7?

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Adenoid Hynkel

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Hi Guys,

since I have installed WIN 7 some of my Games run really sloppy. The Games run much better on XP. Work wise WIN 7 kicks XP's bump. I work on Win7 and play on XP, but would like to only use one OS.
I guess it time for an upgrade.

My existing systems is:
AMD 9550
Msi K9a2 Platinum - Crossfire edition
6GB OCZ Hyper X DDR2
3870X2
600W Cooler Master PSU

My board would support the AM3 chip. Should I rather get the phenom II and a better GPU (4870x2 or 4890) or get a new board, I7, and DDR3.

Option one will def be waaay cheaper, but for the long run?

PS. I dont want any fanboy comments, I am just looking for the better solution on a long run. And yes, I know the I7 whips any AMD :p
 
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I suggest upgrading your graphics card first. The rest of your system is fine for gaming...
 
Id' go with the sevens. I7 Win7! Nothing better out on the market today. I concur with I5 as that is rated the same as some of the I7's, but why skimp on details. Money is not everything.
 
I am Penguin said:
Id' go with the sevens. I7 Win7! Nothing better out on the market today. I concur with I5 as that is rated the same as some of the I7's, but why skimp on details. Money is not everything.
Click to expand...

But it's not nothing either:)
 
You could go for the new core i7 8xx. I've just been reading about them on anandtech, looking really good. Article
 
I look through that article and for the first time forever I've started to think about getting myself an Intel for home. But I need IGP and the AMD boards have the best right now (790GX).

I would have thought the distributors would have put a nice drop on the phenomII CPUs as soon as the i5 came out, but unfortunately not. I suppose they're waiting for real world reviews and perhaps see which way new buyers are going to go.

According to those tests the i5 750 is giving figures mostly better than the AMD 965BE and there's a R600-R800 difference between them.
 
TheRift said:
I look through that article and for the first time forever I've started to think about getting myself an Intel for home. But I need IGP and the AMD boards have the best right now (790GX).

I would have thought the distributors would have put a nice drop on the phenomII CPUs as soon as the i5 came out, but unfortunately not. I suppose they're waiting for real world reviews and perhaps see which way new buyers are going to go.

According to those tests the i5 750 is giving figures mostly better than the AMD 965BE and there's a R600-R800 difference between them.
Click to expand...

AGP? get rid of it and get on with the FUTURE. I7/I5, Win7 and new GPU.
 
Congratulations on that.
And no thanks on the zotac/atom. Will keep to the Asus I have in mind.
 
Silverlight said:
using latest drivers? Windows 7 drivers?
Click to expand...
ATI drivers are for WIN7
The rest are VIsta drivers.

Thanks for all the comments. Pcint is selling the I7 2.6 for 2.7k the phonem II 955 is 100 bucks cheaper :confused:

I guess I'll go for the phenom II a 4890 and rather get a Blu Ray drive :cool:
 
general_koffi said:
I also reckon the graphics card is a bigger bottleneck than the CPU...
Click to expand...

Hmm. Games like COD4, Hummer 4x4 run maxed out in XP. In WIN 7 they lag. The only game I really could not enjoy on high settings was Crysis. Other than that, all games actually run on high with no probs.
 
blogbytes said:
Hmm. Games like COD4, Hummer 4x4 run maxed out in XP. In WIN 7 they lag. The only game I really could not enjoy on high settings was Crysis. Other than that, all games actually run on high with no probs.
Click to expand...

You can try and run those games on XP mode? Anyway up to you.
 
The i7 920 is still the best buy for overclockers/tweakers looking to get the best for their cash on the high end. The i5 750 is gimped:
1. No hyperthreading
2. PCIe linked on CPU so forced to increase voltage to overclock
3. Lower PCIe bandwitdh when using dual GPU's

The i5 750 is only worth it for people who dont overclock and dont have dual GPU configurations. Another thing is that there are no 1156 socket boards with IGP yet so even non gamers will have to purchase a discrete GPU when going 1156.

The i7 860 is also good for non-overclockers because of the turbo boost. Overclockers should just go i7 920. i7 870, i7 950, i7 975 are too expensive to even consider from a value standpoint.
 
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