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I7 or AM3

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Hi guys,

I've got a bit of a conundrum to sort out here.

I'm upgrading my existing motherboard and processor at the end of the month and i cant decide on wether or not to cross over to the I7 or to go with the AMD Hexa Core 1090T. Keeping in mind that i use my system mostly for play games or watch videos.

I'm wondering which provides the best value for money & if the 1090T is a better AMD choice than intels similarly priced processors such as the 920, 930 and 860.

I'm also attempting to keep it future proof so that when the likes of the I9 or the AMD Bulldozer come out in several months time i'll be able to switch directly onto the new architecture. From what i understand when the Bulldozer comes in its apparently going to be AM3 socket and make short work of most of Intels line up from what i can gather but then there is the I9, call me skeptical but i can't see them being cheap.

anyway, cheers for the points of view and any advice you can give me on the matter.


Myth.
 
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Personally I'd go for i7 as they still seem to be doing better than AMD x6 (i think). Also I'm not sure there are that many situations where you can utilise 6 cores? Although if AMDs new Bulldozer tech is going to be on the same socket that does sound interesting, because we all know intels won't heh.
 
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Have look the price between i7 and AM3 as I find Intel are wee expensive than AMD also Intel is about to replace the 1366 by using new Socket R (LGA 2011) by next year and yes AMD Fusion new 8 core as it still same as Socket AM3 so it would be much saving money than waste too much money - I started using Intel from 1995 until 1999 and then changed to AMD and Im still using AM3 with X6 1090T that pretty nicely run on my A4N82 Deluxe..
 
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I've thought about the I7, specifically the 920 on a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R as it seems to be the best value for money at the minute but its the AMD bulldozer that i'm keeping my eye on. That thing looks like it's going to be one beast of a processor. Certainly the I7 does seem to produce better bench mark test results across the board but the benchmark results for the 1090T seem to be better in a general sense if you can ever find software that does utilize the full multi processor capabilities of the 1090T.
 
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thanks braveheart, i didn't realise that. i was under the assumption that the I9 were going to be 1366 based. I used intel when i began upgrading again back in about 2003 but that was only core 2 duo stuff then the prices began to go insane and lets face it, you're not going to get a 6 core processor from intel clocked at 3.20Ghz for less than 300 quid.
 
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I was in a similiar position as yourself and went with an i5-750.

the 1090t uses a lot more power than the intel chips but the possibility of upgrading and not having to buy a new motherboard does sound good.

the negligible difference in terms of gaming peformance between the i5-750 and the more expensive 1090t swayed it for me.
 
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Hmm.. the I5 750 seems to score better benchmarks buy and large than the 1090T but the one thing that puts me off the 750 is that it is only on the 1156 socket. In terms of future proofing that socket seems to me to be already redundant. I actually question intels logic on releasing a cut down version of the 1366 socket after they released the full fat I7's. It does'nt make sense to me to take one step forward and then two steps back.

Atleast AMD have remained consistant with their support of the AM3 socket. The slight worry that i have with the AMD Bulldozer is will all of its features be usable with current AM3 motherboards if they don't change the socket? If i remember right, before they were released that was also a concern with the AMD Hexa Core processors.

The three things that are currently swaying me towards the AMD at the minute are:

1: price/performance ratio
2: continued support for the AM3 socket
3: I love the look of the Asus Formula IV Board

I think the AM3 Hexa Core is what i am going to buy, couple that with the Formula 4 and a thermal rigth True copper cooler and it should be quite a good rig.

I still like the sound of being able to run 12GB memory in tripple channel mode on an I7 platform though its just that intel seem to continually change the socket and produce high quality processors at continually rising prices.

Who, realistically speaking, is going to spend £900 on an intel Hexa Core just for gaming and watching media?
 
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  • I'm upgrading my existing motherboard and processor
  • i use my system mostly for play games or watch videos
  • I'm wondering which provides the best value for money
  • I'm also attempting to keep it future proof
Hello mythrandyr,

may I ask what is your existing motherboard and processor? . . . also what is your middle and max budget for your proposed system overhaul? :)
 
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well, i was speaking solely of the processor itself rather than all of the upgrades combined and for the reviews of what it can do then that board seems like it is well worth it.

The reasons i wouldnt have an I5 as i said earlier is that it is 1156 solely and is already redundant rendering future proof pointless, i also don't want to be restricted to a choice of one or two decent processors and the problem is with the I7 that even a budget X58 board, the Gigabyte X58 UD3 board is £150ish in the same ball park as the Formula 4 for a basic board, where as the formula 4 for the same price is a top end AMD board and with any luck the formula 4 will be bulldozer ready when they are released where as intel seem to constantly change their sockets so in a sense the AMD boards are more value for money than an Intel one as they will, or should, last far longer.

My current budget is £500 give or take a tenner.

The current motherboard and processor is the AM3 Gigabyte UD5 and a phenom 2 955.

the reason why i am upgrading from the components at the minute is that the phenom 2 crashes whilst playing multithreaded games such as dragon age origins, bioshock 2 and the sabateour and comes up with a BSOD so i am hoping that the dynamic properties of the 1090T solve this as i currently have to set the processor in dual core mode through MSconfig if i want to play multithreaded games. Although there are programs out there that i can use to regulate the processor affinity with they are a constant ball ache having to setup before i can play the games that i want to.

The motherboard i am upgrading for the main reason that their is something wrong with the sata transferre speeds on this board which is unsatisfactory and their is no current bios update to fix this so i am suspecting that it is the onboard sata controller itself. I'm hoping that the formula 4 has much better sata support. The reason why i know something is wrong is because i have an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD and its not even reaching half of the proposed write speeds even in AHCI mode which is somewhat dissapointing, and i really really like the look/feel/capabilities of the Asus Formula 4 board.
 
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  • current motherboard and processor is the AM3 Gigabyte UD5 and a phenom 2 955.
  • the phenom 2 crashes whilst playing multithreaded games such as dragon age origins, bioshock 2 and the sabateour
  • i am hoping that the dynamic properties of the 1090T solve this
  • constant ball ache
  • something wrong with the sata transferre speeds on this board
  • i am suspecting that it is the onboard sata controller itself.
  • I'm hoping that the formula 4 has much better sata support.
  • i know something is wrong is because i have an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD and its not even reaching half of the proposed write speeds
  • i really really like the look/feel/capabilities of the Asus Formula 4 board
Hey mythrandyr,

Hmm it seems you already have a stonking set-up? . . . however it's not working as you would want? . . . . I would be seriously trying to iron out these issues instead of splurging £500 :confused:

A PhII-955 should work flawlessly in every game without crashing etc etc, I've not heard about anyone else having to mess about with setting processor affinities and stuff like that? . . . is that overclocked or stock?

I can't comment on the OCZ SSD issue but again I've not really heard of anyone else having a problem with an AMD/SSD combo?

Have you got an exact model number for this Gigabyte UD5 board? . . .what chipset does it use?
 
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its a great little setup considering how much has been spent on it but its these few little issues that compromise it. I didn't think at first that it was the processor causing the games to crash but after several days reviewing the appropriate forums i concluded that it was, reset the affinities or disabled the cores from running and all went smoothly. I can't work it out myself but atleast i have a temporary solution to it.

I was also mistaken about the processor, it's not the 955, its the 965 i just realised after restarting my pc due to installing a piece of software and its set to stock. I'm only using the stock cooler so ive not bothered trying to oc anything yet as i didn't think it was wise.

no, I've not got the exact model number for the UD5 board , i'll open the case up tomorrow and have a look. Its a bit late to mess with now, and i think if i remember right its the AMD 790FX chipset.

this is a similar issue to what i have had with dragon age:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/1925108/1
 
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I don't think upgrading to the 1090T from a 965 is worth it, especially if you are not looking to overclock it. Well, I did exactly that, but only because I couldn't find a Black Edition 955 or a 125W 965, and I sold my 965 to a friend.

I would try a new AM3 MOBO if you can't sort out those issues with your current one, but would keep that 965. If you won't be overclocking, you can get a new MOBO for quite little money and still have room for future upgrades
 
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amd is better price per performance and sockets dont die so quick,

i ordered am3 corsshair formula 4 and 1090t arriving this monday

Crosshair 4 and 1090T? that's not really "better price per performance" considering an
i7 920/6gb memory/ga-x58a-ud3r/h50 is £525 and a Crosshair 4/1090T/4gb memory/h50
costs £595 for something marginally better than a 920 when they are both OC'd to the
same clock speed and with HT turned on. I seem to remember reading somewhere that
Intel will release a budget 6 core 1366 socket processor. Although it will most likely fall
behind AMD's Bulldozer, Mythrandyr says he will spend ~£500 when he already has a
decent system suggests than when Sandybridge comes out; if it out performs Bulldozer
then he might consider buying it lol :D I love being an Intel fanboy !

-Edit- I completely forgot about what the OP was about at this point :D Time to look
at it again :D Mythrandy what games specifically are you playing? It seems that the
AMD 1090T would be the most logical choice, since you already have suitable memory.
Though even you current settup should give very acceptable results in gaming for the
next 2-3 years, perhaps it's best to take some more time trying to resolve your current
problems and wait until both Intel and AMD's new processors drop in price.
 
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lol, by the time the processors from either intel or AMD drop in price a new processor will be just around the corner. And you are right to an extent. On single threaded games and applications most benchmark/review magazines suggest that the 965 will beat the 1090T but mostly because of the higher core clock speed. On single threaded apps, the Intel I5 up to the intel Gulftown ahnialate the AMD offerings. However the 1090T beats or draws with some of Intels I5/I7 processors in multithreaded apps and can even beat a lot of the Intel I7 line up when overclocked to 4.1Ghz if i remember right.

As i said in one of the comments above, i am trying to play dragon age origins, the sabateur and bioshock 2. There seems to be a clock cycle issue of some kind when playing them on a quad core processor. Either managing the CPU affinity to Core 0&1 for these games seems to cure it or going into MsConfig and setting the processor to boot using only 2 CPU's, essentially turning the system into a 3.40Ghz dual core system.
Thats the real killer for the performance of AMD Quad core processors on multithreaded games, essentially i'd be just as well when playing these kind of games just buying a core 2 duo.
 
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i5 and i7 is at a decent price atm and those cpu's will last you a good few years whether the socket dies or not, but if you want to have cheaper upgrades in the near future with little hassle, go the AM3 route.
 
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you say it crashes while in games, what psu have you got? have you check what volts it running at? what temps are they? for BSOD make sure its not just a driver issue.
also for ssd problem have you got these disabled defragmentation, superfetch, readyboost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching.
You mite want to look into see if you ocz ssd drive needs a firmware update.
 
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