Core 2 Duo E8500 vs Phenom 9950 BE

[a_zidane]

I am debating whether I should get:

Core 2 Duo E8500 with ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

or

Phenom 9950 BE with ASUS M3A78-T AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard


I will be using 8GB of OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066, Sunbeam Core Contact freezer heatsink, and GTX 260 Core 216 video card.

Which of these will be better for me if I intend on overclocking them both, and for good gaming (ie goo for crysis) ... and will quad core be used more in the near future? Thanks

 

[serpent1202]

E8500, especially if your planning to OC.

 

[Onus]

Check the CPU charts for the applications you'll use, but it looks like the e8500 is considerably ahead of the 9950BE in Crysis.

 

[a_zidane]

Do you think that with the e8500 setup that crysis will run at atleast 30fps on high settings?? are there any suggestions for better motherboards? Thanks

 

[a_zidane]

I was also thinking of getting a quad core intel... maybe the q6600 or the q9400... but I am open to any suggestions for core 2 quads and core 2 duos

 

[jerreece]

If it were between the E8500 and any AMD chip (quad or not) I'd go E8500. Intel is just simply superior right now.

If you're considering any Intel Quad Cores, I'd agree the Q6600 is a good option.

 

[jerreece]

Do you think that with the e8500 setup that crysis will run at atleast 30fps on high settings?? are there any suggestions for better motherboards? Thanks

You certainly should. I play Crysis 1.21 @ 1440x900 granted, but with Very High settings. I have my Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz, and run an overclocked 8800GTS (512MB) video card. I can usually run in the mid to upper 20FPS depending on where I'm at in the game.

I saw a benchmark/review sometime back in regards to Crysis that suggested that video cards seemed to open up a bit if your CPU was @ or above 3Ghz. So if you get a new CPU, either overclock it to 3Ghz or higher (which is easy) or get something that's above that stock (spendy).

 

[a_zidane]

What motherboard would anyone suggest for the E8500 or Q6600 (for overclocking purposes as well)??

 

[wilsonkf]

Unless you are going to let your computer do many background tasks when you are playing Crysis, go for Intel.

 

[Guest]

A good motherboard choice for this E8500 chip is the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P. It has been running about $115US after rebate and is very highly rated by enthusiast sites.