Best processor?

[Kong Ming]

So which processor is better?

AMD phenom II x6 1100t 3.3Ghz Black Edition This is the best Phenom X6

AMD phenom II x4 980 3.7Ghz Black Edition This is the best Phenom X4

[Crazyeyesreaper]

both are pretty terrible for gaming these days, but the x6 is better, most of the time. still both chips are beaten when gaming by a Quadcore intel i5 2300 / 2400 for around the same price,

still they are better then the FX 4100-6200 series,

[Kong Ming]

Sorry i typed AMD phenom II x4 980 3.3Ghz Black Edition. It's AMD phenom II x4 980 3.7Ghz Black Edition
I want to use these processor cuz i like AMD secondly AMD FX-8150 has problems with shogun 2

I found this at tomshardware:

"Actually the per core "Deneb" beats the per core performance "Thuban" in most cases, if You're going to be gaming only then the 980 is your best choice, if you're going to use multithreaded applications such as Adobe CS5/6 then the 1100T is the sweet pick."

"And by the way, the 980/975BE those CPUs particuallry perform great in gaming compared to the i5 2500K in gaming. look at the following, no difference between the i5 2500K and the 980BE in 1080P gaming."

[Crazyeyesreaper]

and if i load up Bad Company 2, the 1100T wins, if we go with overclocking the 1100T wins again, when we look at Memory controller performance Thuban wins again,

and toms hardware is full of , most of the time,

all AMD cpus essentially suck

in Shogun 2 they really really suck,

if you like AMD buy AMD, that simple fact is Intel wins performance at all price points
Ive owned Phenom II rigs in fact my rig before this Intel one in my sig was a 965BE 3.4GHz quadcore overclocked to 4GHz, with the NB pushed to 2.8GHz from the stock 2GHz, with 2x 5850s and later 2x 6970s

in Battlefield Bad Company 2 the Phenom 2 rig with same gpus was 50-70FPS slower,
in Shogun 2 CPU benchmark

965BE hit 13-15FPS stock, overclocked it hit 21-23fps
2500k stock hits 35fps

The big issue isnt so much AMD's cpus its their memory controller its slow, really slow

to the point DDR3 on AMD is the same speed as high performance DDR2 on AMD,

AMD Phenom II memory bandwidth on average is 11-13GB/s at 1600mhz memory
AMD Bulldozer memory bandwidth on average is 11-18GB/s at 1866mhz memory
Intel Sandybridge is 18GB/s at 1333mhz,
Intel Sandybridge is 24GB/s at 1866mhz,

This results in game such as

Skyrim
Shogun 2
F1 2011
F1 2012
Dirt 3
Dragon Age Origins
Starcraft II
and more all performing far better on a similar priced Intel CPU

fact is a 2500k overclocked to 4.5ghz will simply decimate AMDs CPUs, and hilariously enough will use less power doing so then a STOCK AMD cpu at this point.



Heres a thread detailing CPU performance in Shogun 2, which regardless of what people tell you is extremely important because during Melee battles its the CPU that bogs things down, which is what that benchmark shows 5 pages of which show the best AMD has to offer getting spanked,
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=451218

Add in the fact that Blood Pack DLC causes a near 30% hit to the CPU performance drops most AMD cpus to the dirt when running mods like Darth Mod or large unit sizes etc.

As for AMD, the Thuban chips overclock better then Deneb most of the time, their memory controller is superior and in general the northbridge will clock further allowing better memory bandwidth, but at this point in time, AMDs cpus just dont compete when it comes to gaming,

Bulldozer is a bit faster about 5-10% over Phenom II when gaming,

and Sandybridge is upwards of 20% in some situations depending on the game as demonstrated here at techpowerup!
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...0_CPU_Scaling/
Now considering this is with the best single gpu you can currently buy, i think the facts speak for themselves,

Im an AMD fanboy, when it comes to CPUs, but i wont touch their CPUs anymore cost to performance is terrible,

[craziii]

it really is too bad. amd is what drove intel to develop the c2d and everything afterwards. sad to see them go like this. I wish amd a healthy long life as a company even though I won't touch their stuff

[Kong Ming]

Crazyeyesreaper, you say 1100 is better?

[Zerosliver]

Kong Ming, with all due respect, what Crazy is trying to say is: buy intel, amd's current gen sucks and their old one isn't worth it.

Intel just gives you a lot more for your money.

AMD gpus on the other hand are fine.

[Kong Ming]

I still want to buy AMD cuz the processors are quite cheap. I have athlon II x4 645 works fine with all games. When i have more money i'm going to buy Intel.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

Intel is the same price but if you love AMD, they need the love lol

if your upgrading a from AMD on socket AM3 already then its understandable, buying from square one, AMD is worthless however

1100T is better, especially if you plan to overclock

[Kong Ming]

No, i'm not planning to overclock just gaming.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

no overclocking? then dont bother buying a new CPU, you will see a benefit but not enough to justify the price, if anything overclocking your Athlon II x4 645 would give you performance similar to the 980BE at stock,

essentially the L3 cache on the Phenom II chips helps them perform better but overclocking an Athlon II x4 from say 3.1 GHz to 3.4GHz will give you the same performance as a Phenom II at 3Ghz

etc essentially the only reason a Phenom II is an upgrade for you is cache and clock speed, clock speed can be gained for free, if your system isnt a prebuilt from Dell etc,
if it is a prebuilt then make sure it can accept the CPUs you want to buy otherwise you might be purchasing a usless CPU.

1100T is the best choice if your mobo supports it, but i still really cant suggest upgrading to anything AMD, as no matter what it is its still slow, power hungry etc

eitherway your choice. if your dead set on a cpu upgrade then get an 1100T

[Kong Ming]

I need to think about it. I've never done overclocking. U know any good tutorial? And can it damage my pc?
My mobo supports 1100 and it's not prebuilt, but maybe i will overclock my Athlon. What Intel cpu would you recommend?

[Crazyeyesreaper]

simply put any thing for intel tends to be faster, so i5 2300 2400 or 2500k for overclocking are all far faster then anything AMD has currently for less problem is Intel CPU means youll need a motherboard to go with it, making it more expensive, but an i5 2500k + p67 thats on sale would cost around $300 give or take at newegg and overclocked its performance rivals chips you would have to pay a hell of a lot more for AMD has nothing that touches it,

again bulldozer stock vs stock 2500k at 1080p is 15% faster in games, and thats an 8 core FX 8150 which costs $240-270 vs $190-210 2500k cheaper and 15% faster, 1100T comes in around 20% slower then the 2500k on average, some games its upwards of 50-70% slower, examples being Shogun 2
cpu test shows a Phenom II anything at around 15fps, 2500k pulls around 26-30fps

just google overclocking tutorial youll find the info its worth learning, there are things to keep track of aka voltages / temp etc but its not that hard just read up on it, you dont need a huge overclock but getting to around 3.4ghz - 3.5ghz would make your Athlon II x4 about as fast an a Phenom II x4 945 etc

i can tell you that you might need a better CPU cooler but a decent cooler like the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ can be had for like $25,

keep voltages below 1.45 on the CPU vcore, and 1.3 on the CPU northbridge, those are the 2 key voltages, after that its just alot of trial and error, follow the various guides etc and youll be fine

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/26...locking-athlon

read up reviews on your particular motherboard, see if it supports overclocking,

heres something you can try

when you go to your bios look for CPU bus clock FSB etc it should be 200 x 15.5 = 3100mhz
set CPU Vcore to 1.35v and try 220 on the Bus clock, = 3410mhz aka 300 Mhz etc for free,
it should also boost your NB to 2200 automatically

from their if your using DDR3 1333 MHz set the divider down so its 1066Mhz as overclocking will increase memory speeds this wil put your 1066mhz ram at 1165mhz,

read up on Athlon II x4 645 overclocking look up reviews for the CPU itself and youll be fine, also if you plan to overclock get a CPU cooler, Coolermaster Hyper 212+ is just 1 suggestion thats cheap but effective.

A review of your CPU located here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...lon_II_X4_645/

from the review with a crappy cooler they managed 3.7ghz your mileage will vary but its possible you only need around 3.4-3.5ghz to be on par with the CPUs your looking at buying 95% of the time

[Kong Ming]

So the cooler what comes with the cpu isn't good enough?

[Crazyeyesreaper]

its good enough for slight overclocking but no its not good enough most of the time thus read up on your parts first, or buy a new cpu, your choice, knowledge is power be willing to put in the effort or dont bother.