AMD Phenom II X4 955 and 965

[chiknbane]

Hi,

I'm building a gaming/general use pc and will be using an Phenom II X4. I was told by two people to get the 955 not the 965 and this thread also recommends it.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/283759-10-best-gaming

Why not the 965? its only £15 more is it just not worth it for the extra 200Mhz?

I probably will get the 955 because my budgets already stretched but just wanted to be sure.

thanks

 

[4Ryan6]

Get the 965 Black Edition.

 

[chiknbane]

The 955 and 965 is 95% identical, Id say get the 955 and save $15.
Since the multi is unlocked on both, the only step to make the 955 into a 965 is raising the multi by 1 in the BIOS.

So I can just get the 955 and add 1 to the multiplyer? Will this be ok on the stock cooler?

 

[4Ryan6]

The 955 is a BE too FYI.

Duh!

If he decides to go the overclocking route he will get further with the 965 BE than the 955 BE, so that justifies my recommending it regarding BE, if he doesn't overclock it at all he has another 200mhz stock clock for L15.

And there is no solid guarantee all he has to do is raise the multiplier by 1 to reach the 965 level at 3.4G, maybe, maybe not, you cannot guarantee that, it depends on the M/B and rest of his hardware, and at this point you don't have that information available to you in this thread to make that statement.

 

[HansVonOhain]

Get the 955 BE, great processor, just same as 965, just down on the multiplier by one notch.

 

[4Ryan6]

Because you specifically mentioned "Black Edition"

Theres a 95% guarantee as to if he could change multiplier settings on his mobo, he can hit 3.4Ghz.

Also, is the whole 955/965 binning true? That 965s are the top notch Denebs and have more OC headroom than 955s. Ive seen 955s hitting 4.0Ghz on air, while the 965 gets stuck on 3.9Ghz on the same Mobo, and both C3 with 212+s, but that could be a case of YMMV.

I mentioned the Black Edition, but not anything about overclocking you first threw in the multiplier raising, assuring the OP he could do it, but now you say its 95% guaranteed.

Also, is the whole 955/965 binning true? That 965s are the top notch Denebs and have more OC headroom than 955s. Ive seen 955s hitting 4.0Ghz on air, while the 965 gets stuck on 3.9Ghz on the same Mobo, and both C3 with 212+s, but that could be a case of YMMV.

Lets see some links to back what your are saying.

I've had my 965 to 4.3G on air, there's been no problems overclocking it at all!

But the OP never in the beginning mentioned overclocking, and paying an extra 15 for an additional 200Mhz is almost a No Brainer IMO.

By the way?

Theres a 95% guarantee as to if he could change multiplier settings on his mobo, he can hit 3.4Ghz.

What if his M/B doesn't allow a Vcore change, and he needs to increase his Vcore to get the 1 multiplier stable, there goes your 95%

Also FYI

Because you specifically mentioned "Black Edition"

AMD only released Black Edition 955s and 965s, so whatever the OP decides to buy if its a 955 or 965 it will be a Black Edition CPU!

 

[Martin 71]

Hey, I went through the same thing you did... I decided to go for it and buy the 965... truthfully, I'm blown away... it's an amazing CPU, boosted FPS in all my games, (I was running an Athlon x2 6400+ really cpu limited) and it's only 40% utilized in Battlefield Bad Company. It came with a sweet cooler, 4 heatpipes, and runs at about 40C idle, and 45C-55C @ load... and that's with the stock thermal paste. Get some Arctic silver instead of the stuff that comes with it, I'm gonna order some, and you should get some better temps... Dude, just go for it... plus, you get the bragging rights of having the best Phenom II x4!

 

[4Ryan6]

Why links? I was asking about what you said:

If he decides to go the overclocking route he will get further with the 965 BE than the 955 BE, so that justifies my recommending it regarding BE, if he doesn't overclock it at all he has another 200mhz stock clock for L15.

That still doesnt answer my question if the 965 has more OC headroom than the 955, its just different chips with different limits and you happen to have one that happy to hit 4.3Ghz, or is 965s easier to push higher than the 955s overall due to binning.

Also, theres rumors going around of the 965 are higher binned chips with more OC headroom, They should be the same die, but the binning makes sense too, so Idk.

This is quoted from your last post in the OPs link, where you ended it with IDK, you should at least be able to figure out for yourself that AMD is going to set aside their highest quality chips that they'll guarantee for 3yrs to be able to run the default clock they're marketed for.

That's plain marketing strategy for them, doesn't take a genius to understand they'd save the best for last.

The 955 and 965 is 95% identical, Id say get the 955 and save $15.
Since the multi is unlocked on both, the only step to make the 955 into a 965 is raising the multi by 1 in the BIOS.

So far you are providing false information because the OP has no guarantee he can do what you said he could, and also admitting you don't know, so where do you want to go from here, you still haven't corrected your misinformation to the OP regarding, the raising of the multiplier and backing it down to a 95% possibility?

And actually if I had better cooling than the air I'm running, I could get more than 4.3g out of my 965, but maybe I'm just flat lucky right.

 

[Martin 71]

Dude, I'm with 4ryan6 on this, but this conversation is getting a little too aggressive... just buy the CPU you want with the money you have, and take what we've said into consideration. I'd buy the 965 if I were you, It's a great CPU, but then again I've never used a 955. Either way, you're going to see a lot of performance... If this was an Intel vs AMD conversation I'd be getting a little more aggressive! Good luck, and happy building.

 

[4Ryan6]

For the 95% probability, can you please give me an example where an 955 can NOT hit 3.4Ghz on a Mobo that can raise multiplier settings? Thank you.

That was not your original statement, your original statement was made not knowing what M/B the OP even has, or whether it has overclock ability at all, and you still don't know what M/B he is intending on buying.

 

[4Ryan6]

Thus 95%
I doubt the OP would buy a 740G for a 955/965.

You don't know what the OP would do!

 

[4Ryan6]

Give me a board that supports a 125W CPU like the 965 and cant OC then.
I think now is the time to be logical.

Well you have a point there, any M/b that can handle a 125w CPU, should be overclock able to some extent.

Hopefully the OP has done his homework and knows he needs a 125w M/B.

 

[Haserath]

I just wanted to point out that if a Phenom is being used on a 32 bit OS it is able to be overclocked higher then on 64 bit. So that phenom 965 4.3ghz overclock most likely wouldn't work under 64 bit(I saw you're using XP with 3GB ram, so I assumed 32bit).

 

[4Ryan6]

I just wanted to point out that if a Phenom is being used on a 32 bit OS it is able to be overclocked higher then on 64 bit. So that phenom 965 4.3ghz overclock most likely wouldn't work under 64 bit(I saw you're using XP with 3GB ram, so I assumed 32bit).

I'm dual booting WinXP Pro 32bit and WinVista Home Premium 64bit

 

[4Ryan6]

Hi,

I'm building a gaming/general use pc and will be using an Phenom II X4. I was told by two people to get the 955 not the 965 and this thread also recommends it.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/283759-10-best-gaming

Why not the 965? its only £15 more is it just not worth it for the extra 200Mhz?

I probably will get the 955 because my budgets already stretched but just wanted to be sure.

thanks

Sorry this thread went the way it did, which ever CPU you decide to go with, they're both good CPUs, sometimes if the budget is extremely tight, it totally determines our options as to what we can get, but however we decide we don't want regrets later down the road.

In your original post you never mentioned a thing about overclocking and this thread is not posted in the overclocking section anyway, as far as completely stock settings you just have to decide if the extra 200mhz base clock difference of the 3.2G 955 vs 3.4G 965 is worth the extra money to you.

To me for the money with no overclocking the extra 200mhz would definitely be worth it, but you'll have to make the final judgment call on that yourself. Ryan

 

[Martin 71]

Sorry this thread went the way it did, which ever CPU you decide to go with, they're both good CPUs, sometimes if the budget is extremely tight, it totally determines our options as to what we can get, but however we decide we don't want regrets later down the road.

In your original post you never mentioned a thing about overclocking and this thread is not posted in the overclocking section anyway, as far as completely stock settings you just have to decide if the extra 200mhz base clock difference of the 3.2G 955 vs 3.4G 965 is worth the extra money to you.

To me for the money with no overclocking the extra 200mhz would definitely be worth it, but you'll have to make the final judgment call on that yourself. Ryan

Way to be the bigger man. That's what I said a while back