Phenom X4 or Core 2 Quad?

Question

i am going to buy a new pc this month... i am thinking about these two processors: AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition (which costs $235 in newegg.com) or Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 ($329 in newegg.com). i like phenom because i know it's all for the games, 2.6GHz, should be tagged with an ATI GPU....gaming processor....and cheaper for a quadcore...the negative is that it's 65nm...

i love core 2 quad 9550 2.83GHz because it is 45nm...12mb L2 Cache compared to phenom, and already equipped with a stock fan, maybe that's why phenom is cheaper..but costs 300$..and it can be paired with either ATI or nVidia GPU...gaming cpu also..

i use computer for gaming....watching movies...downloads...storage...etc...i could say that i need a multimedia cpu...hope for your helps...thanks in advance...

Answer 1

You can use an NVIDIA graphics card with any AMD processor, you'll just experience a fairly significant bottleneck caused by the smaller L2 cache used by AMD. If you're playing at higher resolutions, though, you'll be held back by the graphics card more than the CPU.

In any case, if you've got the money, go for the Intel, especially if you're planning on overclocking. AMD makes great budget CPUs, but Intel is way beyond them in terms of overall quality and getting more performance out of fewer watts. With an aftermarket heatsink and decent cooling you could overclock the Core 2 Quad up to around 3.6 GHz or higher (with a Zalman you might even get it up to 4.0 GHz). The Phenom, on the other hand, runs fairly hot at stock voltage and timings, so you probably won't get it above 3.0 GHz and still keep it at a safe temperature.

When looking at processors, you can't just look at 45 nm vs 65 nm, 65 vs 95, etc. You also have to look at the wattages. The Core 2 Quad is a 95 W processor, while the Phenom uses 140 W. The extra wattage is what causes the higher temperatures. You need to be aware of little things like this when buying a new processor because they will make a big difference in the long run.

Having said all of that, it really depends on what exactly you need it for. If you want to play Crysis on all High settings, go for the Core 2 Quad, overclock it, and make sure you have a powerful video card (or a decent SLI or CrossFire setup). If you're not a hardcore gamer then you could go with the AMD, but I would recommend dropping down to a 2.9 GHz Athlon 64 X2 5600+. The majority of games and applications out today weren't written with multi-core CPUs in mind, so they don't support multiple threads, and most of the ones that do only support two threads. As it stands right now, you're better off with a faster dual-core processor than with a slower quad-core. Plus the 5600+ is 65 nm/ 65 W, so you should have no problems getting it up to 3.5 GHz or higher.

Basically, if you're a hardcore gamer, go with the Core 2 Quad. Otherwise there's no real reason to spend the extra money on a quad-core processor, so just stick with a dual-core and save yourself some money.

Edit: If you want a good all-purpose video card that works well for gaming, go with an Nvidia 8800 GT or 9800 GTX or an ATI Radeon HD 3870 or 4850.

Answer 2

The core 2 Quad will outperform the Phenom on most things at default speeds. The black edition Phenom will overclock well (on the right board) and overcome this deficiency.

The main reason to go for the Phenom is price (cheaper CPU, cheaper motherboards, limited to DDR2 which is much cheaper than DDR3) but the performance isn't quite at the same levels as the Core 2 Quad. In reality, though, for gaming, the GPU is the most important thing, so go for the Phenom and put the money you save into a serious graphics card.