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Intel or AMD - crystal ball time!

Soldato
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Ok I was all set to build a 1090T based rig but with recent i7 prices I'm having a hard time convincing myself to stay true to the cause :eek:

So which has the most life in it an i7 build or a an X6 considering both sockets will be superseded in early 2011?

My current thinking is the headroom on an i7 will last for more cycles of new graphics cards...
 
Soldato
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Way I see it might as well wait till the offical benchies are out, surely only a good 1-2 weeks to go before that happens.

From what ive seen from amds pricing its similar/less then the Core i7-930, so its like its saying its only just gonna compare around the same performance of the Corei7 chip or less. Will find out obviously soon but thats my thoughts on it.
 
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Personally I've decided to go AMD. As I know that in a few months they won't bring out a socket and chipset to replace the one I intend to get with an NVIDIA type rebranding and no added functionality.
 
Soldato
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Personally I've decided to go AMD. As I know that in a few months they won't bring out a socket and chipset to replace the one I intend to get with an NVIDIA type rebranding and no added functionality.

Afaik Bulldozer, out early 2011 is on a new socket so any current AMD setup won't take those new cpu's. I could be wrong of course! I'm be persuaded that i7 may last me longer...
 
Associate
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They will have a new socket soon enough.. maybe not in a couple of months but by the end of the year, and will probably be backwards compatible like the AM2+, with a new AM3+ and the AM4 or something new altogether, AMD have several new sockets planned for next year.

Newer Intel chips.. i5, i7.. even the i3's run faster than the AMD chips that are higher or more cores in terms of FPS because AMD hasn't upgraded the architecture, you will probably notice about 2% increase with a 6x over a 4x

By the time AMD catch up with Fusion Intel will have something new.. both with new sockets
 
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The socket isn't the only problem for me. It's the functionality. Seriously. No USB3 or Sata 6Gbps on current or upcoming Intel chipsets? And with 5850 in xfire, I don't really have to worry on the gaming front. AM3 with 890FX will probably be a horse I flog to death. By the time I need to upgrade, AMD will have released Fusion and be on to something else. Maybe by then Intel will have decided to use USB3.
 
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Well you could go Intel and upgrade the socket everytime you need an upgrade, Next year when AMD release 'bulldoser' however they will no doubt release new sockets and new features for it. Out of benchmarks the AMDs perform close to the i7s, the benchmarks are normally highly Intel optimised so basically handicapping AMD from the start.

In the real world I'd say if you have the money go for an Intel chip that is if your gaming. If you know your going to use the 6 cores then I'd get the 1090T, seems like a pretty cool chip aswell.

Personally I was thinking how good Intel and was thinking about getting one until I heard about what kind of company they really are. Having secret compilers to get one over AMD and there was some stuff about handicapping the graphics cards because Intel wanted there own GPUs to perform better.

You hear countless stories about how AMDs have improved by 66% compared with only 25% for Intel when using the same archietechture, how Phenom IIs come within 10% of the i7 and how Intel chips are oh so much faster. At the end of the day though people will always defend there purchases, 2-3 more FPS with a chip that costs £50 more just to get more FPS than another chip, take that money and buy a better graphics card :D

If I had the choice out of the 6 AMD or an i7 920 or 930 I'd pick to 1090T simply because I perfer AMD as a company and just thinking of the possibiltys you could do!

Don't forget Intel boards cost a lot more than the AMD boards. Theres a nice Asus Republic of Gamers board for the 6 cores.
 
Soldato
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Id go AMD, the performance is close enough, but Im betting that if you get a 6 core now you will be able to drop it into whatever socket AMD have next year. AMD have a history of backwards compatability, Intel dont :mad:
 
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Thuban will most likely not perform as well as i7, i7 would be better to get :)

It would, but I think this debate is getting silly, the performance difference isn't going to be that noticible with the upper end AMD or Intel chips, the Intel will be better, but GPU is more important than CPU for gaming. Intel has triple channel ram, AMD has dual, AMD are cheaper, neither are fully future proof, only for the next year or less.

Apples or Oranges.. take your pick
 
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It would, but I think this debate is getting silly, the performance difference isn't going to be that noticible with the upper end AMD or Intel chips, the Intel will be better, but GPU is more important than CPU for gaming. Intel has triple channel ram, AMD has dual, AMD are cheaper, neither are fully future proof, only for the next year or less.

Apples or Oranges.. take your pick

It really is a simple case of apples vs oranges.

Thuban is just phenom 2 with an extra 2 cores and what games even fully utilize 4 cores yet?

The fact is that if you have the money, intel would be the one to go for.
 
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I`ll be going Intel I7 980x this year and when I decide to upgrade to Sandy Bridge, the I7 980x won`t go to waste as i`ll be popping it into my laptop.
 
Soldato
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I guess the real question is which one would become cpu limited first with future graphics upgrades? At that point it would be time for a platform upgrade.
 
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I know these aren't equivalent.. but they are the closest that I can think of

Phenom II X2 = i3
Phenom II X3 = most i5's?
Phenom II X4 = i5 750
i7 is above mainly due to hyperthreading and triple channel ram..

X6.. Phenom II vs i7.. i7 still has triple channel ram, and hyperthreading up to 12 threads, and better OC, AMD... just an improvement on a X4, like a i5 with 6 cores?

EDIT: I bet people hate this comparison..
 
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Don't forget that not everyone overclocks. The AMD chips are better than the i5 at most things apart from single core operations.

Looking at charts the 6 core i7 really does give an advantage over the quads. Tbh its not actually worth the extra money for what it really gives you. I think the AMD 1090T will be on par with the i7s at most things.

The only real difference is core archietechture, its amazing how AMD have improved so much on it without moving onto a new one.

If it was me i'd save the money and put it into getting a 5970 or something its what a hardcore gamer would do :).

If Intel has a lower cost 6 core CPU then i'd say get that, but simply for bragging rights the 6 core will be sweet lol... I can see it now.... "I got an AMD 1090T 6 core".."So, i've got an i7"..."I've got more cores than you :p" haha. Unless your insane and buy the 800 quid 'extreme edition' gulftown CPU.

Anyways, back to the original question "Which will last the longest?" I'd say the i7 as its already pretty dam fast coupled with tri-channel RAM which AMD will have next year probably, It just simply will last the longest. Dual channel is now fading out slowly but surely.
 
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