Should I start considering Intel chips?

[mikeo01]

Hi all

So been running my PHII X6 @ 4.0Ghz for a while now and things are great with it. Nice performance. However the heat, noise and power consumption when I do anything is starting to concern me a bit.

I won't lie I really do enjoy overclocking great chips but I haven't got the time nor want the time any more to be messing around with it. Stock settings it's mediocre and I figured I may not be using all cores to their full advantage.

Here's some info:
Phanteks TCP14-PE cooler
PHII 1045T
HD 7850 (130w)

Idle (with power saving, custom P-states and offset voltage) -
CPU 30c-35c, MB - 30-38c
Consumption - 100w-150w (when browsing for example. Not taking the monitor into consideration, that's 50W).

Load (gaming) -
CPU usually hits mid 40s. MB keeps the same as above.
Consumption - 450W with the monitor in mind.


Question, is it all that bad?
1 - Stick with it and wait until something else pops up
2 - Start looking into APUs (Next gen Kaveri)
3 - Stick with a 95W FX chip although worried about AM3+ life
4 - Move to Intel due to efficiency, maybe an I5

I game for a while and usually have my computer on most of the day, so even it idling draws quite a bit. Core performance is my concern for now, need something snappy and good for my HD 7850 but not necessarily huge core count.

Yes the chip is perfect and I'd love to keep the PHII but I think maybe in the future when I actually start paying for the energy bills it won't be so feasible.

Thanks all

[HalloweenJack]

spending £300 and changing to intel - you wont notice any realistic performance difference doing 90% of what you do. since you allready have a sata 3 SSD , and 40 degree`s underload is 1/2 of what the haswell chips get on stock coolers!

if you want to spend money - maybe look at a new gfx card

[Noxvayl]

I'm all for reducing energy consumption but I don't think saving 50-80W on your computers power draw will be worth the cost of an upgrade. Even if you run your computer 24 hours in a day and draw 100W more power with your current setup versus your proposed purchase you would be saving 2 units of electricity per day; if we take the cost per unit to be 20p then you save only 40p per day or £146 in a year. These are estimated values using a higher price than the average in the UK, saving more electricity than you would do if you changed from your Phenom II X6 to an i5 and using the extreme scenario of 24/7 use so I wouldn't recommend an upgrade for power saving reasons. You are far better off turning your machine off when you don't use it than getting a low power CPU upgrade, using the sleep function when you leave the machine will also do wonders for your electricity use considering it takes a few seconds to recover from sleep.

[jim]

Next-gen Kaveri could be an interesting option, especially in terms of power/noise/heat if you could switch to integrated graphics.

Do we know how the graphics chips will stack up yet? I know the 7850 is a lot better than the current generation.

[mikeo01]

Thanks for the replies. I am pleasantly surprised how little it effects energy bills. The absolute maximum I have my computer on is around 9 hours, and that's days I am in (not in University). So most days I have it on for around 3-4 hours.

Thanks for clearing things up, made me worry a lot less now I am already thinking about moving from 2 hard drives to one to cut down power and also heat.
I will scrap the Intel idea then and work more on getting my Phenom to be more power efficient as possible

As for APUs I am quite interested they are implementing GCN GPU, it'll be great to see their performance, I could well switch to one if the CPU side of things is decent. Current Trinity and Richland APUs already seem amazing for their price so I am quite excited what Kaveri will bring to the table. I have no doubt my HD 7850 will be far better, but then again it may well use less power whilst using an APU. My HD 7850 only uses around 130W full load, that isn't so bad considering the performance I get from it.

[DanceswithUnix]

Not tried a Richland but Trinity is a nice chip for general and light gaming use with a very low idle power and hence very quiet. The Athlon-II socket FM2 variants seem very good value to those of us that demand external graphics anyway.

If they had continued with their plan for a 6 core Kaveri, I think AM3+ would be dead. Seems they are only going to do 4 cores though, so who knows.

[GeorgeStorm]

I wouldn't bother switching, I'd use the money to upgrade your setup if you want (maybe monitor, keyboard, mouse etc) and then just try to tweak your setup to use less power.
Have a play with the overclock, you might you can lower it a little, drop the voltage and not notice a difference in performance, set the cool'n'quiet so it idles at a far lower clockspeed, and turn it off/put it to sleep when it's not being used.

[mikeo01]

If they went with an hexa-core Kaveri I'd jump in straight away I think I may make the switch when FM2+ boards come out. I can't see any new chips being released on AM3+ as they've come so far with their APUs. Quad core performance is all I really need at the moment.


I've already got my chip quite efficient, I have set p-state's 2-4 to run at a minimal 0.9v running at 1Ghz down to 800mhz frequencies. I can run it at 0.7v but it's a bit shaky. Funny enough I have not long replaced my keyboard and mouse. Also I've got a new monitor but that does suck 50W.


Soon I think I'll sell my Phenom and maybe some other stuff to get a bit of cash ready for Kaveri. In the hope my Phenom will be out dated by then

[DanceswithUnix]

Put the money towards some solar panels for the roof?

[Butuz]

Put the money towards some solar panels for the roof?

Now that really would be a good way to waste money!

Realistically you only need to upgrade your CPU if it is bottlenecking your GPU in games. Your 4Ghz phenom is not bottlenecking a 7850.

Save your money and upgrade the CPU/MOBO/GFX in a year or two.

Butuz

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The thing is though more games are using multiple cores,so your Phenom II X6 should be still reasonably fine for the time-being. Also you need to consider how many years it will take for you to make the money back in energy savings when you buy the new parts.

Usage patterns tend to be more important with many modern computer systems, especially as modern CPUs and graphics cards use much less power under low load.

Edit!!

Can you save OC profiles in your BIOS?? If so just save an OC profile with your current settings and put the CPU back to stock clockspeeds under less taxing usage.

[DanceswithUnix]

Now that really would be a good way to waste money!

Yeah they cost a few thousand to get installed, but do you think energy prices are going to go down in the future?
If I had the capital to get some, I would. But you need money to make money

[watercooled]

You might be able to drop power consumption by messing with a few settings. For example, check things like cool'n'quiet are enabled in BIOS, you're not using the 'high performance' power profile in Windows which needlessly runs CPU at 100% clocks constantly, even when idle, and so on.

Also, check your monitor brightness/backlight. An awful lot of monitors come shipped set to 100% brightness, which is often needlessly bright for a home environment, throws off picture quality, and wastes power. My Dell monitor is set to 25% brightness and is still more than bright enough, but uses significantly less power.

[kalniel]

Yeah they cost a few thousand to get installed, but do you think energy prices are going to go down in the future?

They don't last long

[GeorgeStorm]

They don't last long

I think when my parents had a little look a couple of months ago they were going to come with a 15 year or so warranty, that's not that short a period of time is it? With the money from the government as well, they should pay for themselves, even in England before they die.

[mikeo01]

Put the money towards some solar panels for the roof?

Or for a budget option, thousands of hamsters and hamster wheels don't worry I'd never do that really!

Also, check your monitor brightness/backlight. An awful lot of monitors come shipped set to 100% brightness, which is often needlessly bright for a home environment, throws off picture quality, and wastes power. My Dell monitor is set to 25% brightness and is still more than bright enough, but uses significantly less power.

Thanks for this, my monitor was in fact set to 100%, I must of just got used to it over time. No wonder it's a shock to my eyes when I hit a white page sometimes got the brightness and contrast right down and I must say that's much better on my eyes anyway.

EDIT: Yeah I do have OC profiles as well. Just made me think of an idea, keep the bus speeds high and drop back the frequency to stock, and leave turbo core on for 4.0Ghz profile, I should be able to get that working.