Phenom II x4 965 Black

[demechman]

What is the general consensus about this processor vs something like an i7 or i5 as the heart of a gaming system?

 

[GibsonEX]

In gaming they are pretty much the same, unless you're planing to run multi-GPU setup, in that case i7 will start pulling ahead - that is the general consensus. How is it going to be with new gen cards (GT300, 58xx) remains to be seen. For mainly gaming you can't go wrong with either one.

 

[anime4u]

From what I have read the Intel i7 does better in overall performance vs the Phenom 2 965BE. I have not seen much of any real world comparisons but I think the i5 and the 965BE should match each other well.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

From what I have read the Intel i7 does better in overall performance vs the Phenom 2 965BE. I have not seen much of any real world comparisons but I think the i5 and the 965BE should match each other well.

wrong.. actually there is very little performance difference between the i5 and i7.. proving that hyperthreading is once again completely useless.. the only advantage the i7 has over the i5 is the memory bandwidth.. take a look at the performance preview in the news section.. (btw, before i read the preview i thought the same thing since the i5 wasnt going to have hyperthreading or triple channel DDR3 but the QPI technology used by intel makes up for both of those)

the 965 is an overclocked 955 processor which is why its a 140w chip.. there really is no added performance which the 955 can easily be clocked to the same as the 965.. it wont be til we see a revision of the 965 that puts it back to 125w TDP.. once they do that.. then we may see some better overclocking numbers..

multi-gpu wise the sweet spot for the phenom II's is 3.4-3.6ghz or higher and for the i7 its 3.2ghz or higher.. anything lower then those numbers starts causing cpu bottlenecking.. but single card performance there is little to no difference between the i7 and phenom II processors in games.. the i7 may have a slight advantage in games that use cpu phsyX but almost ever game dev has moved to gpu physX or Havok..

 

[anime4u]

sirmonkey1985 wrote:

wrong.. actually there is very little performance difference between the i5 and i7.. proving that hyperthreading is once again completely useless.. the only advantage the i7 has over the i5 is the memory bandwidth.. take a look at the performance preview in the news section.. (btw, before i read the preview i thought the same thing since the i5 wasnt going to have hyperthreading or triple channel DDR3 but the QPI technology used by intel makes up for both of those)

the 965 is an overclocked 955 processor which is why its a 140w chip.. there really is no added performance which the 955 can easily be clocked to the same as the 965.. it wont be til we see a revision of the 965 that puts it back to 125w TDP.. once they do that.. then we may see some better overclocking numbers..

multi-gpu wise the sweet spot for the phenom II's is 3.4-3.6ghz or higher and for the i7 its 3.2ghz or higher.. anything lower then those numbers starts causing cpu bottlenecking.. but single card performance there is little to no difference between the i7 and phenom II processors in games.. the i7 may have a slight advantage in games that use cpu phsyX but almost ever game dev has moved to gpu physX or Havok..

I am wrong? The i7 does show better overall (not just games) performance than the AMD Phenom II 965 in just about every reasonable test vs the PII 965. I do not think there is a lot of data available comparing the i5 against the 965 so I don't see that the i5 is better overall performer vs the 965 yet. Needless to say, there will have to be some more i5 testing to make me decide the i5 is definately better than the 965BE.

I did see better performance benefits in gaming with multi gpu gaming systems with the i7 over the 955 and since the 965 is just an overclocked chip, I do not think the 965 will overcome the i7 in multi gpu gaming. In single gpu systems, the i7 had small to no real performance muscle over the 965 other than a select few games like Crysis. This is one of the main reasons (the other is overall cost of the platform) I choose the AMD 955BE over the i7.

I am very aware the 965 is just an overclocked 955. I therefore do not put much faith in this model (due to the fact I can just overclock the 955) until the re-spin in late 2009.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

sirmonkey1985 wrote:



I am wrong? The i7 does show better overall (not just games) performance than the AMD Phenom II 965 in just about every reasonable test vs the PII 965. I do not think there is a lot of data available comparing the i5 against the 965 so I don't see that the i5 is better overall performer vs the 965 yet. Needless to say, there will have to be some more i5 testing to make me decide the i5 is definately better than the 965BE.

I did see better performance benefits in gaming with multi gpu gaming systems with the i7 over the 955 and since the 965 is just an overclocked chip, I do not think the 965 will overcome the i7 in multi gpu gaming. In single gpu systems, the i7 had small to no real performance muscle over the 965 other than a select few games like Crysis. This is one of the main reasons (the other is overall cost of the platform) I choose the AMD 955BE over the i7.

I am very aware the 965 is just an overclocked 955. I therefore do not put much faith in this model (due to the fact I can just overclock the 955) until the re-spin in late 2009.

thats what im saying.. the i7 was better then the phenom II 955 in every performance test.. if you go back and look at the i7 performance tests vs the i5.. there is almost no or very little difference between them.. and the i5 has no hyperthreading and no triple channel ddr3.. so theres no way the phenom II 965 would be any where close to the i5.. the architecture in the i5/i7 is far superior to AMD's architecture.. even though the i5/i7's saving grace is the QPI technology used.. which completely dominates the current hypertransport used by AMD..
which is depressing damnit.. but still wouldnt keep me from buying AMD.. i like the ability to do drop in upgrading.. screw this having to build an entire new platform just for a processor..

 

[anime4u]

sirmonkey1985 wrote:

which is depressing damnit.. but still wouldnt keep me from buying AMD.. i like the ability to do drop in upgrading.. screw this having to build an entire new platform just for a processor..

Thanks for the clarification. You're right that the i5 shows great promise. I just would like to see an equal to or better AMD processor for bragging rights!