Phenom II X4 955 BE or i7 920?

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madass

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Whats better for gaming-Phenom II X4 955 BE or Core i7 920? Which ones more futureproof? I need the processor to last at least 3-5 years....will AMD processors then be AM3 compatible? And will Sandy Bridge be compatible with LGA 1366?
 

The Third Level

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For gaming you probably won't see a big difference between either. The 955 is AM3 compatible, and idk if SandyBridge will be LGA1366.

Both of them are pretty much brand new sockets so upgradability should not be a huge issue. Core i7 is slightly better on normal tasks, but overall you should be fine with either of them for gaming.
 

Gin Fushicho

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Jeez Soldier37 whats your problem? and he was making fun of ATI not Nvidia , and even if he is an Intel fanboy you sound like an AMD fanboy since your protecting AMD with such fervor!
 

Gin Fushicho

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Agreed. +1
 

Dustpuppy

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I'd swing the i920, if you're interested in anything beyond games. If it's just games/internet then flip a coin between the two. I like AMD because they've done right by their customers by letting the new chips be back compatible with old motherboards. Since I always upgrade & tweak my rigs over time, amd's attitude jives well with me at the moment.
 

Helloworld_98

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^ nope if you want the fastest consumer available processor then get the i7 975 EE, and a phase change cooler.

@soldier37, the 955 doesn't own, you just have low expectations when it comes to gameplay.
 

meatwad53186

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While I agree he seems to be a pretty big AMD fanboy, this site needs a few people like him to balance out the very high amount of Intel fanboys. Honestly, the difference between the two is so tiny and the only place you're going to notice it is audio/video encoding, and syntehtic benchmarks and that has been proven time and time again. If you aren't one of those people who has to spend about $100-$200 more for your proc/mobo just to win in synthetic benchmarks and be able to say that you have the very best (even if it is only by a little), then the PII 955 might be for you. but if you are one of the afforementioned people, then sure, get the i7 920 and be happy with it. I just can't stand people telling everyone that they need to spend the extra money so they can have the "very best" intel proc when the AMD works just as well in everything except audio/video encoding and synthtic benchies (which shouldn't even be a big deal anyway, I mean what's the point? It's a SYNTHETIC benchmark, it doesn't reflect real life tasks at all so I don't see why you have to have the top score), and has been recorded outperforming the i7 920 in gaming multiple times. Right now, if you don't use audio/video encoding on your computer on a daily basis, the PII 955 is a much better value.
 

mcnuggetofdeath

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The Phenom has Hyper-threading? AMD invented? AMD invented Hypertransport ( QPI ), meaning they put a memory controller on the die which ran at a seperate frequency from the northbridge, allowing it to access the CPU to access the RAM w/o going through and waiting on the northbridge. As much as I want to believe in AMD again, the phenom has the same underlying architecture introduced in the Athlon 64x2, just adapted for four cores. throw in a focus on L3 ( vastly slower than L2 ) cache meant for use with multiple applications rather than singular intensive apps IE gaming and you've got a CPU that will be easily beaten game wise by a Core 2 Quad at the same frequency ( Focus on large amounts of L2 cache, same underlying structure as the i7, just w/o hyper-threading ) Intel adapted ideas AMD implemented and did it better. Adding 200mhz does not a flagship make.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-threading
 

Gin Fushicho

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*Facepalm* Thanks for correcting me. But be careful with your words as you are starting to sound a little like a fanboy.
 

mcnuggetofdeath

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lol. maybe a little. I just miss the old AMD, they went corporate and stopped chasing the performance crown. Add the loss of market share to the mix and you get less capital, and therefore less money for R&D. So they also lost the lower power segment when Intel hit 45nm a full year before AMD. They're trying to play catchup now and i hope they make it because nothing drives the market like competition. Its just hard coming back from years of choosing to settle for second. An unlocked multiplier and new manufacturing process dont make an old chip into a title contender overnight. Offhand i cant recall the codename, but AMD supposedly has a brand new micro architecture slated for 2010.
 
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