Phenom II X4 or Core i5 or Core i7

[stuck]

I am trying to decide between the above for gaming and future upgradability and would be grateful for some second opinions

Phenom would be by way of flashing bios to a beta bios on my current motherboard, an asus m2n32 sli deluxe, so would be the cheapest by far, but i don't know about stability of a beta bios

i5 or i7 would be by way of a new motherboard

Look forward to hearing what you guys think

Thanks

[Blackmage]

I would buy a cheap p67 and get a 2500k overclock it and it should last you a few years!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If the beta BIOS is stable a Phenom II X4 955BE would be a big upgrade over a Athlon 64 X2 4600+ IMHO.

Also,AMD is releasing Bulldozer in the next month or two. HardOCP is having a preview event with Bulldozer on the 16th of July IIRC.

[Doherz]

Listen to CAT and blackmage.


Simply put:
Phenom II is the cheapest but non the less effective method. Dead end platform though.

Sandybridge is much more powerful even compared to the phenom II and gives you ivy bridge as an upgrade path but at an increased cost.

Bulldozer could be the spanner in the works that messes up the whole equation.

[stuck]

Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz is the best one available with the beta bios. From looking around the forums it doesn't seem entirely stable... there seems to be a reasonable amount of talk of crashes and experimentation from people who sound like they know what they are talking about (I don't!)

Is the bulldozer likely to push prices down or is there another reason to wait for it? Could it beat the i7?

[Blackmage]

Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz is the best one available with the beta bios. From looking around the forums it doesn't seem entirely stable... there seems to be a reasonable amount of talk of crashes and experimentation from people who sound like they know what they are talking about (I don't!)

Is the bulldozer likely to push prices down or is there another reason to wait for it? Could it beat the i7?

Personally, I think bulldozer will have an impact on Intel CPU prices, Performance is hard to tell at this point.

I think in single threaded performance, Bulldozer won't be as fast as sandy bridge, but multitasking I expect it to be right up there/close to Sandybridge.

Though this is my personal opinion based previews, rumors and bad stepping Bulldozer CPU's, if you can wait then I would.

[stuck]

thanks for the input. I've read a bit about Bulldozer, it does sound quite intriguing and enough of a different approach to be worth hanging on for. Is that fair to say?

Does gaming class as single threaded or could it be either?

[Blackmage]

thanks for the input. I've read a bit about Bulldozer, it does sound quite intriguing and enough of a different approach to be worth hanging on for. Is that fair to say?

Does gaming class as single threaded or could it be either?

Yep wait if you can, Bulldozer is something new. These modules are new to CPU's, will be interesting to see how they function compared to a full fat core.

Todays gaming is multithreaded; most games use two or more threads.

[Domestic_Ginger]

With Blackmage; the single threaded and performance will (I think) probably be lower with BD than the current SB.

Whats your GPU and what kind of games do you play?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Until reviews are out we cannot say good the single threaded performance of Bulldozer is TBH.

[Blackmage]

Plus I feel AMD are going to have a 2500k beater, I mean that's what they need right now; So I don't think they are sleeping on the idea of one.

If they do produce one at a similar price point, Intel will be in trouble as the 2500k seems to be the Golden CPU at the moment.

[stuck]

My current GPU is 4870, looking to upgrade this too

Games I play are FPS, want to be ready for BF3 and wouldn't mind a look at Assassins Creed and some other action type stuff.

Seems the Bulldozer is a different direction entirely, so a risk for AMD but perhaps one they need to take. So will be interesting to see what the outcome is. If the concept works better than expected, it could take a while for Intel to get back up to speed!

[dfour]

Intel wont be in trouble they will just slash there prices to under cut AMD. Wouldnt that be a turn arround

A 5850/5870/6870/6950 would be a stonking upgrade to the 4870. My 5850 was massivly faster than my old 4890.

[Blackmage]

Intel wont be in trouble they will just slash there prices to under cut AMD. Wouldnt that be a turn arround .

Something we know they can do already, oh Intel and there price monopoly

[shaithis]

I just built a Phenom II x4 955BE system for a freind, can't say I could notice any discernable differences in game performance between it and a 2600k system I built for another freind recently (both had 6950 GPUs).

If you really want an upgrade now, I would stick with AMD for the cheapness and see what happens...if you want future upgradability, well, seems like AMD have that sewn-up completely.....we have already seen too many different non-compatable "Core" sockets from Intel, yet AMD keep trying to make sockets and CPUs that overlap.

[stuck]

trouble with the amd upgrade is the beta bios i would need to move to. from reading the forums seems like a lot of hassle. perhaps for people who are excited by a blue screen that would be fine, for me i like simplicity and something that works without playing around with settings to find something stable!

also you think amd is a good upgrade path? someone said earlier they think there is no upgrade path with amd and intel gives the best with sandy bridge -> ivy bridge