Phenom II 955 Versus Core i7 920: Gaming Value Compared

Page 5 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
I read one page of comments, and I'm happy to say they are mostly good.

The article was very well written and I'm glad the author filled in lots of holes. I feel better that I built my friend a phenom II 940 build. It definately seems like the best mid-high end option right now. mid-end still belongs to core2, and high end still to i7.

But ya the first page of comments posted to this article reflect how well the article was made ^^. (ignoring the retarded comments that have been mostly removed.)
 
[citation][nom]CypherX[/nom]People are mentioning that this article concludes the Core i7's "landslide victory" in gaming. Did you look at the 1920 x 1200 gaming benchmark numbers from the PII 955? In most gaming benchmarks under stock CPU conditions, the PII 955 frames per second scores were on par and marignally succeeded the stock Core i7 in performance. Since 1920 x 1200 is the sweetspot for my gaming, and lesser resolution performance (or pure speed) is inconsequential. It's because of this article I have to seriously evaluate my plans for my Core i7 build.[/citation]
and did you realize that different video cards were being used? the phenom II does so well at 1920 by 1200 because of the faster gpus you can buy from the money saved over core i7, not because it is such a fast cpu. I imagine that you do other things besides gaming on your computer (you do don't you?)
 
[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]I disagree. Hard drives aren't a huge game performance variable, and we're not talking about standard HD vs. Intel's latest SSD here. These are two standard drives with almost identical benchmark results according to SiSoft Sandra.It's not going to make a single FPS difference.[/citation]

Which is ok. We are compairing a corvette to a mustang. They are different companies so this will have to do.
 
I like how the only defense for ATI and AMD fanboys is that they are compairing apples and oranges. If ATI where in the lead, they would NOT defend Nvidia in such a way.
 
[citation][nom]jaydeejohn[/nom]It took guts to first call out AMD, but even more to come back, as you did, and show that your first impressions were not only wrong, but apologized as well. [/citation]

Thanks man, that is very kind of you to say.

I never pretended to be perfect. I make all kinds of mistakes, that's part of being a human, and when I'm wrong I'm happy to admit it and try to clear things up.

Really though, thanks to all of you guys who politely let me know that I should re-check my original data and subsequent conclusions. It's important to keep the lines of communication open for this kind of thing.

Peace out!


 
Good review, and I don't think the results are any different then what I would have expected. I would have done some things different, but at least you can see how the two systems compare.

I tend to lean toward AMD for myself, as I'm not looking for bleeding edge performance.. I buy more in the mid-range, so most of the times the AMD platform works best for my needs/budget. But I don't think that you can deny that Intel has the performance edge when it comes to comparing their line-up to AMD's line-up.

To compare the actual processors, though, I think that I would rather of seen the entry level i7-920 vs the entry level PIIx4 810. They are both the entry level (quad cores) in their respective family of processors and they are both clocked relatively the same ( i7-920 = 2.66GHz, PIIx4 810 = 2.6GHz). They both use the newer sockets from their respective companies (AM3, LGA1366), so can both use DDR3 memory. I think that also the same graphics card setup in each machine would have been nice. I think this way you would truly see the differences of the processors.

I realize that the i7-920 would come out ahead in this type of test, but this test as described above would at least let you see how different the two CPU's are from each other.

 
[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]are you stupid ?[/citation]

That depends what you categorize as stupid.

For example, some people might categorize it as a person who spells almost every second word incorrectly on an internet forum. 😉
 
[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]i would definitely consider some one stupid when they can't tell the difference between a typo and a mis spelling ???? [/citation]

...hmm. This is awkward... but you are aware that typos cause misspellings, right? 😀
 
Great article. Just shows how with specific budgets you can choose different routes and still get to the same place. AMD is a strong competitor, which is always good. Basically, if you feel you need more graphics power for the games you're playing, go with AMD. If you want a better CPU, and get get a low to midrange GPU then go with Intel. Both are great, and most likely you'd get either very close, or dead on similar FPS in games.
Excellent article, I really enjoyed it.
 
Is this a Tech site? Is this THG?
Look, learn how to do a proper AMD setup before you test. First Phenoms like low latency, if you dont know, shame on you. So the memory here was inadequit for a real test. Second a 3.7 OC is also a joke esp for a 955. most 940s are good for 3.8 or more. Here is my 8 gigs runing at 1120 - 5-5-5 at 3.93 on air, 800rpm fans. 24/7 on my cripple "980" M4N82 with one 285GTX and I have two more slots to fill and a 965 on the way. Learn to do a proper AMD setup! Freaken NoobS! BTW I love the Intel Hardware, we all love it. But its kind of insulting to have to read thru some of this...a second time. I dont think its bias, its just lack of knowledge or familiarity. Nice try though.
 
[citation][nom]playerone[/nom]First Phenoms like low latency, if you dont know, shame on you. So the memory here was inadequit for a real test. [/citation]

Latency was exactly the same for the intel and Phenom II systems. Are you suggesting we spend more money for the Phenom II RAM and remove the graphics card advantage?

Nice try yourself. 😀




 


With the caveat that you don't plan to do anything with it other than game, maybe.
For other CPU intensive tasks, I wouldn't agree.
 
[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]Latency was exactly the same for the intel and Phenom II systems. Are you suggesting we spend more money for the Phanom II RAM and remove the graphics card advantage?Nice try yourself.[/citation]
No, what I suggest is learn how to do a proper AMD build/Tuning. Phenoms run better on lower latency, known fact on this planet. But Ok, so you used loose timings and got some great numbers on speed...but then crippled it with low NB and HT!!! WTF? Please... Shakes head and walks away...
 
My X3 built with two 4850 in Crossfire are running at 46 FPS average at max with 4XAA 16XAF without any overclocking in World of Conflict.

So really... two 4890 and a 955 for a mere 8 fps... same with the i7 and two 4870 for 10 fps... why bothering...
 
[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]Latency was exactly the same for the intel and Phenom II systems. Are you suggesting we spend more money for the Phenom II RAM and remove the graphics card advantage?Nice try yourself.[/citation]
I should have added that is a really dumb statement, would be like someone setting up the I7 with low speed low latency stuff and saying the same thing - Your just stupid Cleeve, and you are making THG like MaxPC kiddie tech...
 
[citation][nom]playerone[/nom]No, what I suggest is learn how to do a proper AMD build/Tuning. Phenoms run better on lower latency...[/citation]

...for which you have no way to acquire without spending more compared to the i7, and losing the graphics card advantage - which has more of an impact.

Sorry I didn't gain that half an FPS for the low latency RAM and lose 5 FPS by choosing lower-end graphics cards...

Nice try #2! :)
 
I am sorry Cleeve, personal atack wasn't fair, and I am sorry, I am the stupid @$#@ for saying it. Am just frsutrated at your efforts that dont take advantage of the hardware, as I was trying to say like putting slower low latency on the I7 system and posting the poor results as some sort of reality of maxed I7 performance. Yo u write great articles, good methods etc, you just could use some help with AMD systems.
 


Awwwwwww.... did I bother little playerone until he had to use his hurtful words?

Heheh. I get off on it when I can goad internet experts like yourself into name calling. :kaola:
 
[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]With the caveat that you don't plan to do anything with it other than game, maybe. For other CPU intensive tasks, I wouldn't agree.[/citation]

Define demanding... unrar a file 5 miliseconds faster? Running Prime95?

Seriously, I am using Cadence, Matlab, photoshop, Simulink and other extremely high demanding engineering software and they don't need this... so important power resources. You are speaking about 0.01% of the population who should invest into a server with dual cpu instead of a desktop.

I was calculating coefficients for some numerical filters to be implemented into an equalizer on DSP, and I was doing that with a Core 2 Duo. Just go into any engineering school and you will see that most of the university still use Pentium D.

The only real thing that matter for everybody (unless you are freaking rich) is the cost...
 


Apology accepted.

Dude, check the 1920x1200 results, the Phenom II did just fine as a gaming rig. What more did you want? How much could have been gained by lower latency, a higher HT... a percentage point, maybe two? Do you honestly think the spirit of the results would be completely diferent?

Look, man. The Phenom II proved it's a fine gaming machine. It might not be the perfect AMD setup, but neither was the i7 a perfect Intel example.

I think you might be exaggerating the impact of that in the grand scheme of things.
 


Encoding video or audio would be the primary ones, not such a rarity in the home nowadays.
Other than that, background tasks like AVG.

The point is, at the same price point, why wouldn't you want that?

At a slightly lower price point, IMHO, the Phenom II X3 is the best all-round choice, with a third core for the apps that can utilize multithreading, and cheap like borcht.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom