E8500 to Phenom II x4?

[HedgeHocker]

Is the AMD Phenom II x4 955 (or 965) much if any upgrade to an Intel E8500?

I've got the E8500 right now.

The charts on the Toms are nice but I find it difficult to draw any real world performance conclusion ..maybe it's just me. The samples appear limited but yeah they give you an idea.

When I benchmark my E8500 on Lavaly's Everest Ultimate it shows the Phenom II x4 slightly ahead but only slightly. The deal here is do i want to totaly switch platforms for this Phenom? I don't know yet. The way I see it if I can't get the i7 I want for the price of the Phenom II x4 then I don't want the Intel. I really want to save cash also. This is primarily a game rig upgrade. I do prefer the AMD cpu install method to the Intel one, what a bitch.

Anyway that AMD Phenom build to an Intel i7 build with comparable features can save hundreds.

I'm having a tough time desciding what to do.

I own this:

Abit IP35 Pro
E8500
Tons of very clockable DDR2 (I really do not want to buy gamer level DDR3 right now) ..Buffalo Firestixx, Mushkin D9, redline, Blackline, etc.
I use RAID 0 but will need the upgrade board to be able to do RAID 5 with a minimum of 5 hard drives.
IGP is also required because I need to get some futureproofing in my purchase. This would go to HTPC when I upgrade boards later.

So IDK what the heck to do. There aren't many good G45 Intel boards anymore to reuse my E8500 on if I choose to keep it instead of going AMD. I refuse to buy a crippled i3/i5 and very expensive gamer level DDR3.

AMD is making more and more sense. I just got my first Xbox 360 last Christmas so I'm not as interested in sinking so much cash in a PC game rig ..but I want to be competitive online and have more than adequate framerates regardless.

 

[Upendra09]

the Phenom II will give a good difference


it is a good alternative to the i7 less money and about the same performance but if you just get a ATi 5xxx GPU you won't see any difference at all and it might work better

 

[HedgeHocker]

That is exactly what I was just thinking before I opened this forum page again to read comments.

Thing is will an ATI HD 5970 bottleneck on the E8500 (overclocked to 3.8GHz) or the DDR2 for that matter?

I was going to start another thread to ask about the bottlenecking.

 

[Upendra09]

the e8500 will definitely bottleneck the 5970, a lot

go with the phenom II or even the i7

what do you want to spend and will you be doing any future upgrades after this?

if you go phenom II then get the most an ASUS or gigabyte mobo go with gigabyte cuz they have the thicker boards so it has better heat distribution but if they are too expensive you can go with ASUS too they are both really high quality and very reliable

 

[HedgeHocker]

I priced out an AMD system with the ATI HD 5870 (no 5970--no no, lol) and it was jaw dropping cheap. The 5970 would be overkill and all reviews I have seen say it's just too much for most peoples needs.

Would the 5870 bottle neck the E8500 OC? That is what I meant, sorry.

 

[HedgeHocker]

I don't want to change platforms if I don't need to right now just to go AMD, you know. If needed then I will.

 

[havok85]

You will get a good performance increase going with the PII. 2 cores vs 4

Also Im not sure 100% but I think the 5850 is better value. 5870 seem very expensive and not a massive fps gain over the 5850

 

[loneninja]

Personally I would drop a C2Q onto your motherboard, cheaper than getting a Phenom II and AM3/AM2+ motherboard.

 

[HedgeHocker]

No an ABIT IP35 Pro, P35 Express chipset. Mine won't do anything above 3.8GHz stable but I'm probably overclocking wrong.

I can't remember the exact models of my RAM but its all very capable ..I mention it all above.

Suggested settings are welcome. I havent ever asked for help overclocking it. I game at 1080p on a 46" Samsung LCD TV so I don't know if a single HD 5850 would manage it all that well, maybe. That would be nice. I have read that HD 5850's in crossfire do not use as much power as the HD 5870, not even under full load.

May have something going bad on my system keeping me from OCing to 4Ghz. My coolers is a Thermalright cooler made for the Core2Duo Conroe's. The C2D 6600 I used to run. The temps seem alright, never going over 35C if I remember right. Not at all sure why I can't reach 4GHz.

Edit: What is wrong with the G35 though?

 

[HedgeHocker]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136049

Makes one want to buy matching green RAM, lol.

This is cheap enough but never bought the brand before. I'm familiar with them. I've got to consider what I get for $129.00 vs my IP35 Pro.

Nothing really except PCIe 2.0 lanes. Am I right?

 

[Wisecracker]

Is the AMD Phenom II x4 955 (or 965) much if any upgrade to an Intel E8500?

I've got the E8500 right now.

~~~~~


..but I want to be competitive online and have more than adequate framerates regardless.

You don't 'play' Everest.

With your e8500 at 3.6GHz+ you are pretty damn good --- even with a Radeon HD 5970. Don't let the Quad Nazzis convince you otherwise.

I'm not quite as mehh as others about s775 but I think that DFI mobo is more of a sideways move. You can snag a Phenom 945 If you are not interested in keeping your current mobo, cpu and all those RAMs: sell, sell, sell !!

Here is a combo for the 95w Phenom 945 and 2x2Gb of DDR3 1600 for $230 AR.

For an IGP, toss in an AM3 790GX or single-slot PCIe x16 785G and away yah go ...

 

[roofus]

I doubt you will have any difference you can notice if you are gamer-centric going from an e8500 to a P2. 3.6 and above on your dual core will take up any slack of not having additional cores spare a VERY few games. Wisecracker advised you well.

 

[C00lIT]

As much as I like and recommend the phenoms, you already have a great CPU.

Yes I think you would gain and notice a good deal of performance as a Quad Core will give a solid performance boost specially if you alt tab out of games like a madman.

But your 8500 @ 3.6Ghz is already solid, considering that you have an XBox, you do not need to upgrade till most games take advantage of multithreaded applications... only when your PC does not run everything smoothly you can upgrade for newer and better parts...

For now, it's not necessary.

Keep The 8500/Mobo
If you have to, upgrade videocard.

In 6 months to a year, rebuild a new computer with your best existing harddrives and videocard...

Make the E8500 your HTPC by simply throwing it a Radeon4650... they work beautifully well with the HDMI + Sound out and cost pnuts.

 

[apache_lives]

i went from an E6600 @ 3.2 to a Q6600 @ 3.5 - i did notice the differences even with an 8800GT, and GTAIV i noticed the most change but excluding that, dual cores are finnished, if you want to back that new card up go Quad - perhaps an i5/i7 1156 even?