intel sandy bridge or amd?

utkarsh009

utkarsh009

In the zone
hey guys! i've still not upgraded my computer. now i am thinking about which one is better, an intel i3 (2core) sandy bridge or an amd athlon2 or phenom 2 with 4 cores for gaming purpose? also tell me about the prices of various UPS available in india with at least 15 min backup.
 
vickybat

vickybat

I am the night...I am...
sandybridge i5's are excellent. i3's are also good but are dual cores and pricey. fill in the pc questionnaire template.
 
desiibond

desiibond

Bond, Desi Bond!
I suppose you are aware of issues with Sandybridge and Intel recalling the chipsets. Better wait till this is fixed.
 
OP
utkarsh009

utkarsh009

In the zone
ok! amd athlon2 x4 + ati radeon 5770= 11 k and intel sandy bridge i5= 11k. which of the 2 possibilities is better? also is AMD planning to bring something like sandy bridge?
 
T

The_Man

Broken In
for what purpose?Gaming?You don't need 4 cores for gaming.
You should go for the Athlon II quad+HD5770 combination.
 
vickybat

vickybat

I am the night...I am...
utkarsh009 said:
ok! amd athlon2 x4 + ati radeon 5770= 11 k and intel sandy bridge i5= 11k. which of the 2 possibilities is better? also is AMD planning to bring something like sandy bridge?
Click to expand...

amd athlon 2 x4 is no match for sandybridge i5 and they are not comparable. My i5 750 is also not comparable to sandybridge i5 and forget athlon 2 x4.

As desiibond said sandybridge is having motherboard sata 3 problems and intel has stopped production of p67 and h67 chipsets. Buy them in march or april when b3 revision arrives. Sandybridge cpu's are fine but the mobo has having issues and that too only sata 3 ports. If you use only sata 6, then its good to go. But wait for revised boards.
 
vickybat

vickybat

I am the night...I am...
^^ i am also talking about gaming and all perspectives. athlon x4 cannot be compared with sandybridge. The latter is very superior.

It depends on what you can get in your budget. Don't compare with sandybridge. There is nothing that can beat it as of now.
 
Ishu Gupta

Ishu Gupta

Manchester United
Athlon with GPU > SB without GPU.

Although SB is a much better choice if you can/will add a graphic card later.
 
sunny4691

sunny4691

Fell Off the Asembly Line
IMO for a gamer, any cpu be it athlon or pentium or celeron with a good gpu is way better than a cpu without gpu.I had a celeron 420 with 9400gt and I have played crysis on it, my friend have a core2quad but he wasn't able to play it even in the lowest setting
 
T

The_Man

Broken In
@vickybat
You don't need a sandybridge for playing games.Even a core 2 duo is enough.

Gamers: Do You Need More Than An Athlon II X3? : Why Pay More?

Average FPS Benchmarks: Single Radeon HD 5850 : Gamers: Do You Need More Than An Athlon II X3?

I agree that sandybridge CPUs are superior but how many people need it?
You should have a discrete card if you are a gamer.

It's better have an SB chip if you plan to buy a gx card with it.
Utkarsh is looking for a gaming PC.So he should go for config with a discrete card.
Utkarsh,you wont be able to play any complex games with this HD 2000/3000 because it's not designed for high-end gaming.An athlon quad is more than enough for you.Go for the Athlon+5770.
By the way,which Athlon II X4 model are you looking at.
 
OP
utkarsh009

utkarsh009

In the zone
ok! so you mean i can run all the games on my celeron D @2.4 GHz single core processor if i get a graphics card. if so then i think i should purchase a graphics card and a decent psu (if required) before getting my processor and other components upgraded! do you all agree with it? also, do amd and intel rigs have to use differnt graphic card or i can simply change from intel to amd anytime keeping the same graphics card? also tell me if there are any softwares to overclock my processor because my mobo (intel D845GVSR) doesn't support overclocking!!!!:-(

@the_man: i am looking to purchase athlon II x4 635 @ 2.9 GHz.

@the_man: i am looking to purchase athlon II x4 635 @ 2.9 GHz.
 
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T

The_Man

Broken In
no no.Celeron is an old CPU.That wont do the job.You will get bottlenecks buddy.Your CPU wont be able to keep up with the cards pace.
Edit:And your motherboard wont support any graphics card either.
You should get a better CPU+motherboard first.Then think about the graphics card.
You don't need to buy separate graphics cards for different CPUs.
There's no point in overclocking that CPU of yours.
 
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OP
utkarsh009

utkarsh009

In the zone
ok, but one more question. do no.. of cores really matter for a gaming machine or is it the speed of a single core which matters more? in that case which one is better, amd phenom II x2 black edition or amd athlon II x4 . i heard somewhere that black edition means easily overclockable!!!!!! also tell if l3 cache in phenom II help to improve the gaming performance. and what do having more cores exactly help in?
 
T

The_Man

Broken In
No of cores doesn't really matter when it comes to Gaming.Most of the games that are in use today don't use more than 2 cores.The speed and performance of a single matters a lot.See here

The Sandy Bridge Review: Intel Core i7-2600K, i5-2500K and Core i3-2100 Tested - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Notice the fps that i3 achieves.
Cache memory is very important for gaming.I'm not getting into the details but that's how it is.A CPU with a bigger cache will be a good gaming CPU.

Multiple cores are used by multithreaded applications ie software that can use multiple no.of cores.Majority of the software that we see today aren't multithreaded.
Photoshop,3DS Max,Maya etc are examples for multithreaded apps.
Will check the specs of those 2 CPUs and will post my view here.And multiple cores can be used for multitasking.I mean you can run many big applications in the background at the same time.

Athlon doesn't have L3 cache which is an issue.And I think you can unlock the Phenom to a quad which will be great.Even if you don't, you will get better gaming performance out of the Phenom.
 
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Ishu Gupta

Ishu Gupta

Manchester United
Very little chance of unlocking (luck). And Crysis is old, BC2 uses 4 cores and Crysis2 will use 8 cores.
 
T

The_Man

Broken In
um...but then he should think about a better gx card too.Many people have unlocked it.So I wont say that there's little chance.There's a chance.Maybe 60%.
You decide Utkarsh.
Here's a link AMD's New Year Refresh: Athlon II X4 635, Phenom II X2 555, Athlon II X2 255 & Athlon II X3 440 - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News


See the results and decide.In my opinion,that's what you need.Go for the Phenom.And to play the most modern games that use 8 and more cores you will need a better GPU.So don't worry about it now.
Phenom 555 BE and the Athlon II X4 635 cost the same.
 
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