phenom II x4 955be < intel dual core ??!

[karthik316_1999]

I was planning on the phenom II x4 955be thinking it had so much of hype behind its performance but when everyone pushed me to go for an intel system instead.. just started to do some comparison online.. n came to see that the closest match (in terms of price) to the 955be was the i3 2100. just having 2 cores !
Upon seeing some benchmarks, im totally taken back by the i3 2100's performance! Though the 955be has 4 cores, it does not perform as good as the i3 2100 in games..
Is this a good reason for me to ditch the 955 be ?
I'm not sure if / how the 4 cores would actually benefit me in performance ?

Thanks !

 

[ArjunKiller]

For Gaming - Intel i3 2100 outperforms the Phenom by a large margin
For Media Encoding - The phenom will be faster because it has 4 cores.

 

[karthik316_1999]

'Media encoding' as in - playback of hd/blu ray movies Or the actual video 'building' / conversion of blu-ray video into dvd n that sort ?

I would use the system for:
- gaming
- multi-tasking as in -
. (there are atleast 40 tabs open at any time in my browser) + installing apps + hd video playback or heavy gaming + file transfers happening bt. comps connected to my home network

 

[d6bmg]

Its because of different technologies that those two use.

 

[Ishu Gupta]

'Media encoding' as in - playback of hd/blu ray movies Or the actual video 'building' / conversion of blu-ray video into dvd n that sort ?

The bold part

 

[karthik316_1999]

Okay.. so for my above listed PC usage, the i3 is perfectly fine ?
Only concern is.., maybe an year later, some games might demand a quad core.. wont the 955be win here ?

 

[gunnerwholelife]

Dude if you are looking for a rig for future use i would recommend AMD ... you can always upgrade to bulldozer [may leave a heavy dent in intel's market]

plus AMD based systems got backward compatibilty so dats + point

And i3 beats AMD at most games dats true but cmon AMD is best for cheap gaming and it delivers your every penny

 

[gunnerwholelife]

At the price of Intel's i3 2100 processor, OP can easily opt for a Phenom II X4 955 which is any day an overall better performer than i3 2100, especially in Multi-threaded tasks.

Cilius has helped me with my config check my thread
He gives you honest opinions

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/pc-components-configurations/144959-casual-gaming-config-rs-30-000-a.html

 

[Ishu Gupta]

Okay.. so for my above listed PC usage, the i3 is perfectly fine ?
Only concern is.., maybe an year later, some games might demand a quad core.. wont the 955be win here ?

Its starting to happen.

Spoiler

*media.bestofmicro.com/2/V/280039/original/Metro2033.png

Spoiler

*media.bestofmicro.com/L/O/282012/original/F12010.png

 

[Cilus]

There is nothing to be surprised of Core i3 2100's superior performance over a quad core Phenom II 955. Phenom II was actually launched to compete against the high end Core2Quad and Core2Extreme processors and performed very well on this role.
After the launch of Core2 series there are two generation of processor launched by Intel, the 1st gen Core i3/i5/i7 series based on Nehalem architecture and second generation Core i3/i5/i7 series based on Sandybridge architecture. Core i3 2100 is a Sandybridge processor and architecture wise far advanced than Phenon II series. It also has Hyper threading, resulting 4 logical cores.

But still Phenom II X4 955 is very attractive choice because:-

1. Although performance in gaming is less than i3 2100, it is not far behind and because it is an Black Edition processor, it can be overclocked to higher degree to fetch some extra performance.

2. In multi-threaded environment like Audio/Video encoding, editing or HD video decoding, due to the presence of 4 physical cores compared to 4 logical cores of i3 2100, it performs better

3. Normally games were not multi-threaded in nature and cannot take the advantage of multiple cores. But now a days, games' multi-threaded performance is increasing and upcoming games may be benefited from a True quad core like Phenom II X4 955 BE.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Points 1 & 2 might not be useful to me.. as I'm not planning on OC'ing .. nor do I use the PC for video encoding...
But point 3 does attract me :d

What is the best VFM mobo from Asus for the 955 be ? Leave alone the onboard graphics as im going with a discrete 6770 anyway. meaning.. I can even settle with a lower chipset..

Only thing is I need the board to have AM3+ support + minimum of 2 pci slots & 4 DIMM's
Budget - 4k

n of course.. it must support OC'ing..! (I hear ppl saying a minimum of 6+1 phase mobo is required for OC'ing the 955 ?)

Thanks!

 

[sukesh1090]

^^for 4k you may get all other features but not 2 pci e slots.for that you have to go for 6.9k msi mobo.there is one around for 5k but i doubt its availability and it has x16 and x4 lanes and cilus told me that for crossfire you atleast need x8 lanes.btw mobo is gigabyte ga 880g-usb3 and don't confuse this mobo with 880gm-usb3 which is having one pcie slot and supports am3 plus, available at smc for 4.8k.

 

[Cilus]

You can do CF two PCI-E X16 slots running @ X16 and X4 speed respectively but if any powerful card like HD 6770 or HD 6850 is plugged in the slot running @ X4, the card will be bottle-necked due to the very limited bandwidth of the X4 slot.

 

[vickybat]

@ karthik316_1999

Check this before making a decision.

 

[karthik316_1999]

yes, this comparison page is what made me create this thread !
but, just being skeptical about being future proof (meaning.. apps / games needing a quad core are just around the corner .. )

 

[vickybat]

^^ Down the line, you can upgrade to a quadcore or greater. Intel current boards also have future "ivybridge" cpu support. So you can always upgrade.

Amd boards also have "bulldozer" support. Considering phenom 2's old architecture and lack of newer instruction sets, its wise to opt for sandybridge now until bulldozer arrives.

Save up a bit and go for a sandybridge quadcore like i5 2400. It beats the heck out of all current phenom 2 processors.

 

[karthik316_1999]

The problem:

Being on a budget, i'm unable to afford a good mobo for the sandy bridge i3.
Budget for mobo: 4k

Took the path to 955be considering the 4 cores.But I hope everyone agrees that buying the 955be sans intention of OC'ing is foolishness. Even after making up my mind to OC it, again problem comes of not being able to afford a suitable 6+1 phase vrm mobo ! (I definitely would hate to see any component of my PC hot to the touch)

 

[sukesh1090]

^^i guess you won't find any problem in oc with a 4k motherboard.you can go somewhere around 3.5-3.6GHz without any problem.

 

[Cilus]

^^ Right. When I was having my Phenom II 955, my mobo was Gigabyte GA-MA-785GGMT-UD2H, priced @ 4.5K and having 4+1 VRM design. But Oceing the CPU to 3.6 GHz stable or 3.8 GHz sometimes with the stock cooler was not a problem.

 

[karthik316_1999]

On an alternate note,
Considering that I would not be upgrading any time in the future, can i settle down with a 1st gen
i5 / i7 CPU on an 1156 socket motherboard ? Are these still available at cheaper rates ?