Intel i5-2500K vs Phenom II x4 965

[Dropshock]

Hi, I'm having a little problem. I really like the Intel i5-2500K, but the Phenom is good too. Thing is, the i5 puts me over my budget.
How much of a performance difference would there be between aan overclocked Phenom II 965 to 4 GHz vs an i5? With a 6950? If I were to play Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, Black Ops, Crysis, etc., how much FPS difference will there be? Thanks for any help.

 

[esrever]

The i5 offers very little performance gains over the phenom. You'd be hard pressed to notice performance difference with a 6950 as the gpu during gaming. OCing the i5 doesn't really do much as you will almost always be gpu limited even at stock.

The 965 at above 3.6 ghz has no problem with a 6950 and you would be perfectly fine to have it and stay within your budget.

All the people pushing you to buy the i5 don't seem to get the budget and the performance difference. The difference in gaming would be maybe 1-2 fps in all the games you listed as they are all GPU bound games. The phenom is more than capible pushing 60fps in all of them with enough gpu power.

You really should consider as much GPU as possible in a budget gaming setup and the i5 2500k might be the thing to cut down if you are really tight on your budget.

 

[nekulturny]

That crawling bug avatar drove me nuts the first time I saw it. :lol:

And to interested parties, Its was a 30 dollar price difference between the 2400 and 2500k, its my significant other's system that he had a local shop build for him, he had a strict budget and the 2500k did not fall into it, most of the money was spent on the GTX 460 card which at the time was over 200 dollars. Which is as esrever pointed out where you need to go heavy in a budget gamer, and those who know what they're talking about understand.

The mention of the 2 systems was merely meant to provide perspective from one who has both systems.

 

[nekulturny]

You have benchmarks but you have no understanding of them, your computer can send over 1000 FPS to the monitor, its limited to displaying 60FPS. And any game that can sustain anything over 40FPS is completely fluid and playable. Maybe you have lots of money to buy any CPU you want, if you do.. Good for you, not everyone has 220 bucks to shell out for a processor.

60hz monitor=60FPS, anything above that and the difference is entirely "on paper".

 

[esrever]

really??? I have benchmarks that state otherwise OP.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626/ivy-bridge-preview-core-i7-3770k/9

Notice the 2500k doubling the fps of a 975 Phenom and that's at stock speeds.

Now let's compare the 965 and the 2500k overclocked.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/overclocked_cpus.html

Notice the Phenom 965=4,500 points, where as the 2500k almost doubles the performance of a 965 in the 8,500 point range.
So what was your argument again?

and what gpu are they using??? Please understand what you read before you post. Also keep the synthetic benchmarks out of things, they are as pointless as random numbers generators for gauging real performance in game.

 

[nekulturny]

Now what? I think Tomshare should do a more thorough age verification before allowing people to post on the forum....

By the way.. thats not "double". Overall rank (based on your claim) 205 vs 265, what percent difference is that? Math isn't my strong point, but I know its not 50 percent. 😗

 

[esrever]

@sean76 now you missed the point and make yourself look stupider.

 

[nekulturny]

OP stands for "Original Poster"... esrever is not the original poster of this thread, nor am I. *walks away giggling*

 

[rdc85]

I Think just partial benchmark is not valid, The pc marathon wih 750$ budget The i5-2500k + 6870 pc , Vs 965 + 6970 pc is the one we looking for.

(even it not full cover the addon benefit u get from the mobo)........

 

[nekulturny]

rdc85,

Unfortuately the problem we run into on here is the issue between Intel and AMD gets heated, often its caused by a handful of young people, or immature adults who understand very little about computer performance, look at a chart and automatically assume because one is better, that the other is completely useless.


Of course the 2500k is a better CPU, at nearly double the price of a 965 it damn sure better be. The question at hand that needs to be looked at per the OP is, "will the cheaper CPU be enough to meet my needs?", in respect to the OP's stated needs the answer is yes.

 

[nekulturny]

A. In stock and guaranteed to be shipped in 3 days anywhere in the Continental US: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

B: $220 dollars, same guaranteed shipping time applies:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0354589
Priced at $170, however in my experience MicroCenter adds 10 dollars shipping and 6 percent sales tax to my order where Newegg does not effectively making the total $190. '

In America, you have the freedom to purchase whatever you want. Good luck with it. Do read up on monitor frame rate limitations.

 

[esrever]

also would be nice if he read up on manners and how to discuss things like a civilized person.

 

[nekulturny]

Yeah... but I'm not here to teach manners, if someone wants to make themselves look immature, I'm not interested in taking up the job their parents clearly did miserably at. Thats what we have Proximon for. 😀

 

[rdc85]

Some people will always like that, without them it will be much borring....

Back to topic:
-I5 is very good, 965 is very capable chip so nothing wrong with them especialy when u O.C.
-is droping 6950 unlocked for 6870 in favor of i5? NO....
-Is adding 100$ worth it to get both? hell YES if u got money to burn...
-Is i have to work extra hour or wait till next paycheck? NO..... (how much u value your time?) It better to upgrade small each year vs go to the most advance each couple of year.

Again This is my opinion.

Edit: I found this intresting

"i5 2500k vs Phenom II 965 = Lionel Messi vs Fernando Torres (Even though he scored a hattrick)"
Fernando is the one who seal the barca fate with his goal...... (Yup Chelsea beat barca, i'm still cannot belive it)
It good example like football/soccer, it is the team (whole system) that make the different, not the individual (one component) ..... just 2 cent

 

[sarinaide]

With the FX 8120 now at $165 and if you are sporting a AM3+ motherboard then the FX 8120 is the way to go. If a $220 chip is over your budget then there is no point in discussing it when a i3 or Phenom II with a good enough graphics will play BF3 easily.

 

[RussK1]

Anyone that said there's little improvement with the 2500K over the PII... is just crazy. You can hit 4.5ghz with voltage set to "auto" with the 2500K and have to jump through numerous hoops with gobs of voltage just to get the PII close to 4ghz.

 

[nekulturny]

Thank you for that.. The link was sufficient. The long ass picture wasnt.

I won't speak for anyone else, but the point I was trying to make, (as that unnecessary picture confirms) is that despite being almost half as much in price, for gaming the P II is sufficient for smooth gameplay at max settings when paired with an appropriate video card.

And I will say that you are absolutely WRONG that it requires any difficult effort to get a Phenom II x4 to 4.0GHZ. If you actually owned one, perhaps you would know that. I'm running stock voltage, and all I did was turn up the clock frequency to get 4.0GHZ. It took all of 10 seconds. Seriously, your profile says you're 34 years old, why haven't you learned by now to not make such incorrect claims that cant be substantiated?

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2316227

 

[sarinaide]

Thank you for that.. The link was sufficient. The long ass picture wasnt.

I won't speak for anyone else, but the point I was trying to make, (as that unnecessary picture confirms) is that despite being almost half as much in price, for gaming the P II is sufficient for smooth gameplay at max settings when paired with an appropriate video card.

And I will say that you are absolutely WRONG that it requires any difficult effort to get a Phenom II x4 to 4.0GHZ. If you actually owned one, perhaps you would know that. I'm running stock voltage, and all I did was turn up the clock frequency to get 4.0GHZ. It took all of 10 seconds. Seriously, your profile says you're 34 years old, why haven't you learned by now to not make such incorrect claims that cant be substantiated?

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2316227

When you go from Intels 1 click overclocking to AMD, anything looks complex. Intel noobs. And Ditto, the Phenom II's are very much still gaming grunts, or would they like to see me play BF3 on youtube to clarify this.

 

[nekulturny]

Apparently LOL.

Edit: I don't think putting it on youtube would do any good. Too many people talking out of their behinds who dont actually own these processors and yet they "know" all about it.

 

[nekulturny]

Metro 2033, which is reportedly a very CPU intensive game. Perfectly playable at fully maxed settings (yup, even with my crappy 550 TI Amp Edition) on my machine.

FRAPS overlay in bottom right hand corner, screenies taken at 10 second intervals. 25FPS was the lowest I saw it dip, and only for a second, and it didn't hinder the game play one bit.
http://imageshack.us/g/836/metro203320120426134749.png/

 

[sarinaide]

To much anti-AMD sentiment going around, once you own a AMD it is a love affair of sorts, including a FX which is still a intriguing chip. But I can say this because I own or have owned just about every intel or AMD CPU (or sort of)

 

[SinisterSalad]

Well, since my 1st response up above, I made the move to an i5 2500k. I was a bit shocked. While I expected a gain in FPS, I wasn't expecting a 25%-30% gain in BF3 with the same GPUs and RAM. It made me a believer, that's for sure.

 

[esrever]

Well, since my 1st response up above, I made the move to an i5 2500k. I was a bit shocked. While I expected a gain in FPS, I wasn't expecting a 25%-30% gain in BF3 with the same GPUs and RAM. It made me a believer, that's for sure.

you must remember that 2 6870s are much more powerful than what the OP would be running. As well as you did not OC your phenom much at all. If you only had 1 gpu, you would see much less improvements.

 

[SinisterSalad]

you must remember that 2 6870s are much more powerful than what the OP would be running. As well as you did not OC your phenom much at all. If you only had 1 gpu, you would see much less improvements.

Good idea! I'll yank out one of them and see how much difference it makes. 😀

I'm also currently running everything @ stock speeds right now.

EDIT: Actually, just disabling XFire should be enough to test that, right?

 

[nekulturny]

Yes, disabling Xfire should be sufficient for the testing purpose.

I'd ask you though, when you say the FPS difference is 25-30% exactly what kind of FPS rates are we talking here? 40-60 vs say 60-80?

 

[SinisterSalad]

Yes, disabling Xfire should be sufficient for the testing purpose.

I'd ask you though, when you say the FPS difference is 25-30% exactly what kind of FPS rates are we talking here? 40-60 vs say 60-80?

In XFire, I went from BF3 @1080p HIGH settings from 45-50fps to 60-70fps. I also went from 28-30 FPS in Eyefinity (LOW setting) to playable in MEDIUM settings. I used Fraps' benchmark tool to track it on a Firestorm map with 50+ players.