Intel or AMD?

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fanwashere

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Nov 26, 2009
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I read somewhere that Intel CPUs are much better than AMD's CPUs. But now I'm preparing to build a custom rig, and AMD CPUs are MUCH cheaper. Is there any drawbacks on an AMD processor? And is Intel worth the extra money?
 
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over and over again.
look at it like this:
- same performance cpu amd is cheaper
- i7 (and even i5, i3) unmatched by amd, intel is simply better at this lvl
- if u overclock, intel cpus are usually the better choise. only get AMD black editon cpu for this.
 
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If you are looking to build a gaming rig on a budget, AMD offers great performance and is the best bang for the buck.
If you are looking at building a machine for more professional applications or want a top end machine, nothing can best an Intel i7 or i5 CPU.

What kind of budget are you looking at and what do you want to do with your machine?
 
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It is simple and relies on your budget!

If you have $200 or more to spend you go Intel, and it is WORTH the premium.

If you have under $200 to spend on a CPU then you go AMD. You will have the best upgrade paths and price/performance *when budget is under $200 for CPU* with AM3 CPU/mobos.

Anything quad core i5 and i7 are superior to anything AMD, and is worth the money for the performance increase (unless you aren't doing anything CPU intensive, which would make it overkill). As for gaming the i5 and i7 will give you the same gaming performance as AMD on most graphics card setups today, but they will carry you into the future into newer and more powerful graphics cards. Pretty much they are overkill for now, so they will provide good future-ability.

So... is AMD good? Yes, AMD is awesome.

Is Intel's performance worth the price premium? Yes, very much so, unless it is obviously overkill for you and you will never need its uber powah!
 
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No,no,no. Don't trust the search bar, use Google search (with the "site:tomshardware.com/forum/" parameter if you want to find stuff here only). The search bar will pull up 2004 threads with meaningless rubbish and then I'll have to close those threads that get their graves dug up.
 
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This pretty well sums it up other then the i5 / PII 965. The i5 and PII 965 are very close in performance and trade some blows but i5 has more wins than the PII 965. Also I would never suggest a PII 965 considering the PII 955 cost much less and is only set 1 multiplier lower. If we know your price range and applications we can tell you what you would be best with.
 
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When I was building my first rig in November, AMD was the better deal. Especially the black edition chips. Coupled with the fact that a vast amount of 720 triple cores were able to be unlocked to 4 core Denabs, I couldn't pass the off up. For a first time builder, AMD seems to be the best choice because of the price/performance ratio. If you want to build the best and most expensive rig, then Intel would better suit you.
 
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MASSIVEFacepalm.jpg




I will die one day of all this moronness... Anyways, Phenom II X4, AMD's flagship line will easily best any Intel processor (up to $280) in many applications and gaming. The above mentioned I5 is slower than the Phenoms and doesn't have a clear upgrade path meaning you will probably have to dump your entire setup in a few years time to get a new CPU. I7 is superior and worth the money only if you do really Intel optimized stuff and heavy tasks like rendering and encoding. So, AMD is on par, and even better for the same or lower price. That is it's advantage. Nobody is saying these CPUs will beat the $1000 dollar I7 975 monster, but will come close and in everyday use there will be no difference.

PS: I laughed hard at the I3 thing.
 
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offending me might make u feel better, but it won't change the fact that in recent years intel is simply ahead of amd.
 
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Offending you is not my intention here, but there is a reason Intel has "clearly" been ahead of AMD in past recent years.

1. They did not play nice and operated under monopolistic behaviors thus limiting AMD to a very select few OEM customers and on top of that, the customers were limiting AMD supplies per Intel's incentives.

2. Intel gets a ton of business and $$$ due to said monopolistic behaviors listed above in option 1

3. Intel spends said $$$ listed in option 2 on R&D.

There are MANY cases (literally & figuratively) against Intel's methods of business and they basically admitted defeat in handing over 1.25 Bil to AMD

God i love my Q6600! (check my sig) I feel so dirty when i sleep at night...
 
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Hey guys I had no means to cause a flame war, it was late at night and I wanted some answers before sleeping.

So far I gather AMD = Intel at gaming (which is what the rig I'm building is for). But at a much cheaper price. I'm not looking for some overkill setup or even overclocking. I'm on a P4 HT 3.0GHz right now so my expectations are minimal.

So any suggestions? I looked up the cheapest Intel CPUs that'll get me by. If I'd go Intel, I'd be able to buy something along the lines of Pentium Dual-Core or low end Core 2 Duo in the 2.5GHz-ish range because it is really budget project, and that'd run me ~$100. I have nearly no knowledge on AMD CPUs cause up to this point I've been pretty pro-Intel, but now I want best performance for my money and not the brand. Which AMD CPU would give me around the performance I need and at what price?

Thanks.
 
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With a CPU budget of $100ish, you would defiantly be better off with AMD.
I would recommend either the Phenom II x3 720 BE for $105 or the Athlon II x4 630 for $109.
Pair either with a decent ASUS or Gigabyte AM3 motherboard and 4GB of DDR3 and you will have a quite nice and very overclockable gaming rig.

If you feel like posting your full budget, screen resolution and which parts you will be reusing, we could help you piece together an entire system.
 
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Against an old P4, anything AMD has from its current generation will provide notably better performance. The last generation Intel offerings you're considering are not worth the money, locking you into a dead socket (LGA775) or limiting you to increasingly costlier DDR2 RAM. Their latest Pentium dual cores on LGA1156 are out-performed by AMD offerings as well. Intel owns the high-end (ignore Cryslayer, he's a fanboi), but doesn't match up on performance/price at the budget end. Take a look at the chart here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu,2520-7.html for relative performance. You'll want a Phenom II or Athlon II; the older Phenoms aren't worth it. Black Edition CPUs overclock easily, if/when you'd like to try it. I suspect you'd be very happy with a $90 to $100 CPU; something like a X2 550BE or X4 620.
 
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Yes, there is nothing wrong with LGA775 CPU's.
They generally perform a little better clock for clock when compared to AMD's latest Phenom II CPU's.

That being said, why would you now purchase a more expensive platform that will have extremely limited and increasingly expensive upgrade options?
It would be much better to get an AM3 platform, which gives you similar performance and costs less, or a similarly priced but faster LGA1156 setup.
Unless you are looking for a cost effective drop in upgrade, LGA775 is essentially dead.
 
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This is well understood ..... I think! MOst people will still get good to great use out of a s775 machine for a while to come. Upgrade options dont mean squat when technology advances as fast as it does nowadays. By the time s775 is totally dead and no parts are available Then will be the time to say it is truly dead! There are still enough parts left now and for some time to come for the s775 to stay alive and there are ddr3 s775 boards. I will not go against the fact that the s1156 is better or that it is faster. I am merely saying dont count out s775 yet!
 
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Under $200 amd is the best bang for the buck. The boards will also cost you slightly less. If you put out a budget for the cpu, motherboard and ram, we can give you a better idea of your options. Right now you could get a PII 955 for $160 which will blow away anything in that price range and the board will cost less than an intel board. As stated above the 550 and the 620 are good chips in the 90-100 range.
 
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