Review of best budget CPUs
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Where did you get these charts from Cat?
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
yasssss, i just installed the x3 445!
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Thanks for this thread, Cat.
I'll have to look into AMD next time :)
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
I'm glad I got an Athlon II X3 435 for the HTPC then! But it does seem a little overkill as it won't be used for gaming... Oh well, I have an i7 920 and haven't really gamed since uni started haha.
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
One problem with this review is that it doesn't look at all at overclocking. In that segment the G6950 is the best for gaming with the caveat that the game is doesn't utilise more than 2 cores, which is pretty much most games!
Bit-tech did a review of the G6950 comparing it to the x3 455 and came to the conclusion that the intel was a better processor.
You don't need particularly fancy cooling or a massively expensive motherboard to manage the overclock they got.
Although I do consider that it would be slightly more expensive than a system based around the x3 455.
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
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Originally Posted by
Terbinator
Xbit labs?
:O_o1: I really must learn to read all the words in the original post
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
c.ruel
Can you guarantee that every G6950 will reach 4.62GHZ or did Bittech get lucky?? How long will the CPU last with such a huge overclock?
Toms Hardware overclocked a G6950 a similar amount and it went kaput half way through testing.
Did Bittech try unlocking the X3 455?? A friend of mine did a build a while back and unlocked their Athlon II X3 to a Phenom II X4.
TBH,you cannot guarantee any overclock or unlock 100% so trying to base your CPU selection on potential performance is not a good strategy IMHO.
For instance I have a Q6600 G0 which has a high VID which means its not the best overclocker although many were really great overclockers. The same goes with mates who have had high VID E5000 and Q9000 series processors which were crap for overclocking although many people had good examples which were great for overclocking.
OTH,I have an E4300 which could be overclocked from 1.8GHZ to 3.1GHZ and it was fine for normal usage.
Also, saying that most games don't support more than two cores is debatable. The Athlon II X3 with three slower cores is beating a Phenom II X2 dual core which is at the same clockspeed and has more L2 cache and 6MB of L3 cache in the XBit labs review.
The two games Bittech have tested also don't scale well with more than two cores it seems. The Athlon II X3 at a 3.85GHZ had a better average framerate than the 4.62GHZ G6950 in Crysis so only in X3:Terran Conflict does the G6950 have a victory it seems.
Another factor is that CustomPC/Bittech tends to be more biased towards Intel processors anyway. Having said that they don't even recommend the G6950 over an AMD Athlon II X2 for their el-cheapo gaming build anyway and the Athlon II X3 processors are only a few quid more than an Athlon II X2 and are faster in many games.
A G6950 is £70 on Scan whereas the X3 450 is £58. The cheapest H55 motherboards are around £60,are mATX and they only have two RAM slots. The Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H used by Bittech is around £68.
You can get an AM3 ATX motherboard like the MSI 870-C45 for around £47 which has 4 RAM slots and all solid capacitors.
Basically that is around £25 in total. That would be the difference between an HD5750 512MB and an HD5770 1GB or an HD5770 1GB and a GTX460 768MB.
At £70 the G6950 is very poor value as a Core i3 540 is around £81 on Scan. The Core i3 540 is clocked higher,has more L3 cache and has HT too.
If the G6950 was around £50 then it would make more sense.
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Also alot of people don't like overclocking as well ... but then some people don't mind it! My point wasn't that the 455 shouldn't have won it was that xbits completely wrote off the G6950, in much the same way that bit-tech/custom pc write off any amd chip (I have noticed this also).
I reckon that you can probably get a very stable overclock of 4.3~ghz on a G6950 with that gigabyte board (68quid ain't that much) and i reckon the G6950 would still outperform an overclocked 455 (which would also need a half decent mobo), in most games and certainly single threaded tasks.
But at stock volts I can't fault the xbits review the 455 is best. Then again this is the case with most competing amd and intel chips, at stock voltages there isn't much to chose between ... as soon as you overclock intel pulls out ahead.
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
c.ruel
Also alot of people don't like overclocking as well ... but then some people don't mind it! My point wasn't that the 455 shouldn't have won it was that xbits completely wrote off the G6950, in much the same way that bit-tech/custom pc write off any amd chip (I have noticed this also).
I reckon that you can probably get a very stable overclock of 4.3~ghz on a G6950 with that gigabyte board (68quid ain't that much) and i reckon the G6950 would still outperform an overclocked 455 (which would also need a half decent mobo), in most games and certainly single threaded tasks.
But at stock volts I can't fault the xbits review the 455 is best. Then again this is the case with most competing amd and intel chips, at stock voltages there isn't much to chose between ... as soon as you overclock intel pulls out ahead.
Again you are ignoring the fact that the Athlon II X3 processors have the possibility of being unlocked to an Athlon II X4 or a Phenom II X4. My mate unlocked an Athlon II X3 435 to a 2.9GHZ Phenom II X4 with 6MB of L3 cache. Why does Bittech not try core unlocking then??
How many of the AMD overclocking reviews are done properly then?? How many reviews also overclock the CPU-NB??
The MSI 770-C45 and 870-C45 are still capable of getting a decent overclock with an Athlon II X3.
The Intel motherboards are more expensive for the same feature set anyway and often most of the cheaper sub £80 Intel H55 and P55 motherboards are mATX.
Socket 1156 motherboards start at a higher price point than the AM3 and socket 775 motherboards.
Another point is that more and more games are going to scale well onto more cores in the next few years anyway. This is because console CPUs have very poor single threaded performance and have to rely on multiple cores instead. Many of the newer games engines are multi-platform as are many games. Even CryEngine 3 is multi-platform as is Crysis 2.
Four of the five games in the XBit labs review are multi-platform games.
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
Again you are ignoring the fact that the Athlon II X3 processors have the possibility of being unlocked to an Athlon II X4 or a Phenom II X4. My mate unlocked an Athlon II X3 435 to a 2.9GHZ Phenom II X4 with 6MB of L3 cache. Why does Bittech not try core unlocking then??
How many of the AMD overclocking reviews are done properly then?? How many reviews also overclock the CPU-NB??
The MSI 770-C45 and 870-C45 are still capable of getting a decent overclock with an Athlon II X3.
The Intel motherboards are more expensive for the same feature set anyway and often most of the cheaper sub £80 Intel H55 and P55 motherboards are mATX.
Socket 1156 motherboards start at a higher price point than the AM3 and socket 775 motherboards.
Another point is that more and more games are going to scale well onto more cores in the next few years anyway. This is because console CPUs have very poor single threaded performance and have to rely on multiple cores instead. Many of the newer games engines are multi-platform as are many games. Even CryEngine 3 is multi-platform as is Crysis 2.
Four of the five games in the XBit labs review are multi-platform games.
exactly
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Got myself an athlon II x3 445 too :)
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
Again you are ignoring the fact that the Athlon II X3 processors have the possibility of being unlocked to an Athlon II X4 or a Phenom II X4. My mate unlocked an Athlon II X3 435 to a 2.9GHZ Phenom II X4 with 6MB of L3 cache. Why does Bittech not try core unlocking then??
How many of the AMD overclocking reviews are done properly then?? How many reviews also overclock the CPU-NB??
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTN
Despite our best efforts, we could only overclock the X3 455 from 3.1GHz to 3.85GHz, using a vcore of 1.55V and setting the chipset, HTT and Southbridge to 1.3V. We set the HT Link and memory controller frequency to 2,565MHz and the memory to 1,520MHz.
HT ref. clk = 248; not great. (effectively this is the FSB for old timers).
memory controller frequency (CPU-NB?) to 2,565MHz = very good
HT Link to 2,565MHz = very bad
They seem to have covered alot of aspects. I believe you can lower the CPU-NB multiplier and or the HT link on locked chips so not to limit your OC. Not sure what thier limiting factor was but my guess its either that or the HT Link (which they don't make an effort to lower as its known to degrade performance a little once OC'd).
No foul play imo. This seems an okay setup; would have thought they could have got closer to 4ghz on c3 chip.
Could an AthlonII owner say whether the HTlink and CPUNB are multipliers are locked and/or linked; thanks!
TBH though the G6950 @4.5ghz is a bit of a contender. I still like the i3's and think these of the x3 Athlons are the chips of choice atm. Interstingly; once you get a good cooler and mobo I suppose the differnce in price between OCing two chips is not so bad. Kind of negates the OCing and you might as well look at the higher tier chips and run them at stock.
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
AFAIK i can tell on my Athlon II X2 245 NB/HTT can have its multiplier reduced but not increased past stock which is x10 IIRC.
Re: Review of best budget CPUs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Domestic_Ginger
HT ref. clk = 248; not great. (effectively this is the FSB for old timers).
memory controller frequency (CPU-NB?) to 2,565MHz = very good
HT Link to 2,565MHz = very bad
They seem to have covered alot of aspects. I believe you can lower the CPU-NB multiplier and or the HT link on locked chips so not to limit your OC. Not sure what thier limiting factor was but my guess its either that or the HT Link (which they don't make an effort to lower as its known to degrade performance a little once OC'd).
No foul play imo. This seems an okay setup; would have thought they could have got closer to 4ghz on c3 chip.
Could an AthlonII owner say whether the HTlink and CPUNB are multipliers are locked and/or linked; thanks!
I was saying in general with many review websites as the Phenom II X6 with CPU-NB overclocking gained something like 10% extra framerates in games in an Anandtech review.
Having said that 1.4V is the maximum a G6950 can endure. The same goes with the X3 445 as 1.55V is quite high.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Domestic_Ginger
TBH though the G6950 @4.5ghz is a bit of a contender. I still like the i3's and think these of the x3 Athlons are the chips of choice atm. Interstingly; once you get a good cooler and mobo I suppose the differnce in price between OCing two chips is not so bad. Kind of negates the OCing and you might as well look at the higher tier chips and run them at stock.
They needed a Titan Fenrir for overclocking with both chips. TBH, you maybe able to get reasonable overclock with the stock cooler which the G6950 is supplied. However, with the money saved from the cheaper AMD motherboards alone you could an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7. Motherboards like the MSI 770-C45 and 870-C45 are not bad for overclocking 95W TDP chips.
Again,if a review is going to modify chips to establish value then core unlocking and cache unlocking needs to be at least tried. People who bother to read more than Bittech or CustomPC would know this but there are enough people who just read CustomPC alone who would not know of this.
Having said that you are right about just spending the money on a better CPU.