AMD Or Intel: Which $100 Gaming CPU Should You Buy?

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[citation][nom]mapesdhs[/nom]Is it really that good for just $15?(I don't suppose you know if a Thermalright XP-90 could be usedwith an AM2+ or AM3 mbd?)[/citation]

Yes, the Hyper TX2 really is that good.

Thermalright XP-90 might be a bit better, but it's a hellofa lot more expensive the last time I checked.
 
e6500 would pull a rabbit from the hat..........

I dont like this and the benchmark core2duo one should get would be the E7400, which is at least 2.8ghz or the E7500 3.0ghz. Otherwise just get a Quad already for a few more dollars.
 
Cleeve writes:
> Thermalright XP-90 might be a bit better, but it's a hellofa lot more expensive the last time I checked.

*grin*

I ask because this is the cooler my brother's PC is using at the moment,
currently cooling an Athlon64 3400+ (oc'd from 2.4 to 2.76), but I was
trying to find out if I would need any extra parts in order to use it
with an AM2+/AM3 mbd.

So, on the cost front, zero, already have it. 😀 But I don't know if I
can use it on a 620 without having to buy more parts (still no reply from
Thermalright).

Ian.

 
[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]Not $100 CPUs, read the title.
I've already said we're going to follow-up with an OC article, so there's a bit of a gaping hole in your paranoid theory there.The simple truth is that I didn't have enough time to overclock and get the article out. Nice conspiracy theory, tho. I have more proof for you... If you take the first letter of every paragraph it spells out H-E-C-T-O-R-R-U-I-Z. The Illuminati are also involved! lol
I'd say, honestly, most of our readers don't overclock. That's not to say I think overclocking is useless, but I do think the majority of our readers don't overclock.As I said tho, I agree that overclocking results are important in this price range especially, and that's why I'm writing a follow-up...[/citation]

The best comment by an author ever! Why Cleeve is my favorite!
 
[citation][nom]rdawise[/nom]The best comment by an author ever! Why Cleeve is my favorite![/citation]

Heheh. Thanks bro.

Nice to know my low-caliber sarcasm isn't totally lost on the audience. :)
 
Absolutely, exploration of OC potential is required at this price point. Please explore this arena using one well-respected air-cooling option on all platforms and report back!
 
[citation][nom]magicbullet[/nom]at the conclusion page, how could an average FPS be lower than the min FPS?[/citation]
It's a percentage of the E6500 average and min FPS. If the E6500 gives min 50 and avg 60 and the 550 gives min 56 and avg 65, the min percentage will be higher than the average.

If you look at the results for Far Cry 2, Fallout 3 and Prototype, you'll see that the minimum FPS of the E6500 are low when the Athlon also has low minimum. It means the E6500 is cache bottlenecked in those games.
 
For the AMD overclocking, the better choice for the motherboard would have been the TA790GXE with the SB750. It has better OCing ability than the SB710 of the TA785GE. Definately would like to see OC results. Nice article.
 
overclocked tests must be included. its a shame not to oc any cpu :)

im seeing intel dual core to be the champion in performance when overclocked. i might be wrong though. thats why its good to include overclocking tests in this review
 
[citation][nom]rip187[/nom]Ohim its for the same reason that us "cheap bastards" buy a i7 920 and overclock it rather than buying an I7 that costs twice or 4 times as much. The benefits outweigh the risks.[/citation]

For some, yes. For others, like me who make a living on my computer, lower power consumption, lower heat generation, lower noise, more dependability outweigh cost, so overclocking is not an option. As always, it really depends on your situation.
 
kqaker1, you've lost me, how can one be a 'fan' of a CPU supplier?
And 'loyal'? Er...

Football teams? Fandom makes sense. Cricket? Rugby? Musical bands?
Yup; fans, loyalty, neither a surprise. But a chip company? That's
just daft. We're talking about a bunch of switches made out of
silicon here, not a pop star. 😀 I like to use the best tools.
I don't care who makes them.

I certainly hope AMD can stay in the game, but I won't buy an
AMD solution if it's clearly not the best choice for my needs.

Atm I'm sorting out a gaming rig for my brother, who wants
something suitable for playing the slightly older generation
of games (nothing newer than Stalker SOC). It'll be an AMD
setup, most likely a 620 with 4890 gfx.

Later I intend to build a system for myself, for video encoding.
It'll be an i7 setup, either 860 or 920, not decided yet. My
current system has a 6000+, bought the week AMD cut prices by
50% so it was massively better value than any Intel at the time.
ie. I buy whatever seems best for my needs - budget, speed,
power, heat, etc.

The idea of being a 'loyal fan' of a chip company seems to me to
be a mismatching of concepts, like the Suez Crisis popping out for
a bun. Wierd....

Ian.

 
PLZ Do look into overclocking potential.
I heard that the pentiums overclock well and the new athlons are monsters even with stock cooling.
As for the Phenoms, I have yet to find an article that discusses their OC potential. If anyone here knows how well the phenom overclocks on air or knows of an article, can you please send me a link ?
 
[citation][nom]wintermint[/nom]Which of the 4 CPU listed in the article is more future-proof?[/citation]
Phenom II 550/710 IF THEY UNLOCK, if not the 710. The 710 has more cache than the 620 which gives it a decent advantage.
 
Very nice article.

It would be interesting to see some of those numbers redone with the processors running at a maximum overclock. The PII X2 550 is perhaps one of the easiest and most tolerant processor for overclocking that I've seen since the days of the Celeron 266. My own unit hits 3.7GHz at stock voltage.

I'd also like to see how different memory types affect the Phenom II and Athlon II processors differently. I went with a Phenom II with its huge L3 cache because I kept my DDR2-800 5.0-4-4-10-2T memory from my last system. I was worried that my slower memory speed might have impacted system performance more with a proc that lacked an L3 cache.

Meanwhile, some people have suggested that the low timings of my memory might actually make it better than faster sticks of DDR3-1333 memory with higher latency timings. So, I'm wondering if I made a mistake going with the PII X2 over an AII X4...
 
Intel is such a monstrosity of a corporation I would pick AMD without hesitation if the price-performance is even. Luckily AMD is even better than Intel in this low end category.
 
hmm indeed , seeing Intel's OC capability sounds really interesting especially if u are upgrading an older 775 system that is running an OC'd CPU
 
Cleeve, greatings from Norway , great article, but please do one more thing in ur follow up.

Include a i7 920, for comperisaion, also add AA and AF. Why u can ask, becouse we actually can, couse we are close or over 60 FPS in most of the games ur testing, even some games over 60, and still i doubt that any buy a 100 hz lcd screen in this priserange.

Actually i become a Toms reader again after yrs not reading Toms, quality articles like this i really like reading, gives the info a good computer builder need.

And i really would love to see an articel abaut cpu scaling on 5850/70 on 19xx * 1xxx. With max settings on the grapics, this in order to see how low u can go to with cpu in order to take advantage of this new great cards.
 
@ohim,

A CPU's lifetime is up to 10 to 15 year on stock speed(s). I dont think anyone in here is using the same CPU in 10 to 15 years are they?
 
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