Athlon II X2 250 (3GHz dual core) or Phenom 9500 (2.2 GHz quad core)

[Checkitout]

Which of these two is in your opinion better choice for gaming? Mainly for Tera Online. I already have both CPUs, but one of them is unused and I want to know which to put in and which to sell. GX card Radeon 6870, OS XP. I'm not a gaming hardware expert and am too lazy to benchmark them.

[zNek]

go and buy a x4 phenom 945 round about 80€ best system for your grafikkart

[Jafa!]

I'd go with the phenom cuz its quad core. Its 2x3ghz vs 4x2.2ghz, do the math.

[K1ngFiasco]

Get an AMD Phenom II x4. I have the 960 Black edition, it has two hidden cores (meaning its actually a 6 core processor) and i ocd it to 3.8ghz and have heard of people going as high as 4.2ghz

[Vynn Tage]

go with the phenom. Don't bother selling the other as its 2 or 3 generations old now. use it for a personal media server instead. Thats what i did with my old computer when i upgraded.

[Vainez1191]

@K1ingFiasco

i have a Amd Phenom II x4 965 BE, this is a quad-core so it has 4 cores.
the 960 edition cant have 6 cores, cause Amd Phenom II x4 960 BE is a quad-core.

pls, get your info right before giving your oppinion to ppl what to buy.

ps. if you dont believe me, here is a link:
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Phenom%20II%20X4%20960T%20Black%20Edition%20-%20HD96ZTWFK4DGR.html

[Vainez1191]

@K1ingFiasco

Btw.. this is a Amd Phenom II x6 Processor.
only this type of CPU has 6 cores.

Link:
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Phenom%20II%20X6%201100T%20Black%20Edition%20-%20HDE00ZFBK6DGR%20(HDE00ZFBGRBOX).html

[ZeekAncient]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Vainez:

@K1ingFiasco

i have a Amd Phenom II x4 965 BE, this is a quad-core so it has 4 cores.
the 960 edition cant have 6 cores, cause Amd Phenom II x4 960 BE is a quad-core.

pls, get your info right before giving your oppinion to ppl what to buy.

ps. if you dont believe me, here is a link:
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Phenom%20II%20X4%20960T%20Black%20Edition%20-%20HD96ZTWFK4DGR.html

Actually dude if you go on your own link and then scroll down and click on Zosma under Architecture, you will see that the 960t(zosma) processor is implemented using the Thuban, or six core die, with two cores disabled...so it is possible to unlock the hidden cores thus making it a six core...so King Fiasco is correct if he has unlocked his cores....

btw the PII x4 965 BE is the Deneb die(quad core) which is what most Phenom II X4 are, but a few like the 960t and 970(E0 revision) is Zosma die which is just the Thuban(hexa core), with two cores locked....just an fyi

1100t(Thuban) @ 3.8 ghz user (will attempt to go past 4 ghz stable as soon as I change heatsink)

[Checkitout]

I ended up putting the Athlon inside. The Athlon x2 250 is actually newer technology than phenom 9500 (45nm vs 65nm), In addition to that, I recall that 9500 and 9600 had some cache issues (which were fixed by 9550 and 9650). Also, it looks like while Tera is multithreaded, it tends to max out one of the cores and only have a lower load on the others (I remember seeing the same thing with WoW before). Also, on my other machine with Phenom II X4 955 BE (same video card), quad core, Tera rarely, if ever, goes above 50% total CPU usage. So a faster dual core should perform better than a slower quad core. As Tera is the only thing my wife seems to play that requires gaming hardware, I think I'll stick with this combo.

Thank you for your replies.

[ZeekAncient]

Yea the Athlon II is much newer tech(and better) than the old Phenom, the Athlon II is pretty much the Phenom II with the L3 cache removed...so yea I would have went with the Athlon..

but hey I assume the Athon II and MB is AM3 socket so if you have a few dollors to spend and really want a quad core, you could get an Athlon II x4 640 or something like it for $80 or less and your wife will be able to play Tera and other games like it at better quality...

just a thought...enjoy

[_I_]

get a phenom ii x2 or better
they are quad core with 1 or 2 cores locked

im using a pii x2 545 unlocked to x4 and overclocked from 3.0 to 3.4

odds to unlock and overclock will not always result that good
i have a pii x2 560 (3.2) that does not unlock and only oc's to 3.3 before having issues


what board are you going to put it in?
a good read so you dont kill the board
http://www.overclock.net/a/about-vrms-mosfets-motherboard-safety-with-high-tdp-processors

[ZeekAncient]

Diposting pertama kali oleh _I_:

what board are you going to put it in?
a good read so you dont kill the board
http://www.overclock.net/a/about-vrms-mosfets-motherboard-safety-with-high-tdp-processors

wow, that was a pretty good read, overlook a alot of that stuff about motherboards when overclocking....
Im glad I spent a little more and got an ASUS board with OC features, Asus boards appear to be better OCers with more OC safety precautions than MSI or Gigabyte....I also been hearing about Biostar MBs doing pretty well, I don't think they were on that list either...

[Michael Murphy]

I would actually recommend getting an FX-4xxx. A lot of you might disagree, but my benchmarks don't lie, I've owned Athlon X2 64s, Athlon IIs, Phenoms, Phenom IIs, and have used a few FXs, FXs come out on top in benchmarks and reliability every time, and they offer a smoother, much more responsive interface. You can always get the 4.2Ghz FX-4170, it's decently cheap, or spend some extra on a cheap FX-8120. My FX-8120 already runs circles around my Phenom II X6s, especially in x264 video encoding, whereas X6 might get 5FPS, my FX-8120 is getting 14FPS (I run batch encoding with the same batches and x264, same OS, no discrepancies). Rule of thumb is to never buy outdated hardware like Athlon II, Phenom II, Phenom especially.

[ZeekAncient]

I don't do video encoding but from what Ive seen the IPC of the current FX series doesnt quite match Phenom II's IPC...I have a Phenom II x6 1100t @ 3.8ghz and even at stock speeds most benchmarks Ive seen in gaming show it beating AMDs current flagship FX-8150...I don't see bulldozer being much of an upgrade if you already have Phenom II x4 or x6..

I love the Phenom ii 1100t, it has performed great, but when I do upgrade, there is nothing that AMD has currently that would be a step up, I would love to stay with AMD but I will most likely be going INTEL, either Ivy Bridge or better...

Dont get me wrong, I think that FX are great and at a great price, just not much better than Phenom II in my opinion, more like a step to side with better efficiency...but just an opinion, to each his own..

tho I was just recommending that Shurdeek buy something cheap that he wouldn't need to change MB, if he has AM3 socket type, he wouldnt be able to buy an FX without buying a board with AM3+ socket type

[Michael Murphy]

Actually, a lot of fiasco about IPC is overexaggerated. It's already solved by the processors ability to clock better. Testing my Phenom II X6 at 3.8Ghz as well (seems to be the average wall), and my Phenom FX-8120 at 4Ghz with 0.1 volts less than stock voltage, on average the FX-8120 was 30-50% faster in the majority of programs, and only 5% slower in single threaded programs. Combined with the better instruction sets in FX (AVX, XOP, FMA4), any programs compiled with these in mind will run 50-100% than Phenom II at the same clock. If you run Linux, you are already seeing the benefits, if you run Windows, only a handful of programs actually support modern instruction sets, x264 supports AVX, XOP, and FMA4, which is why I am seeing that 3x faster speed. Rather than a step to the side, it's more like a big step in the future. There are few faults with FX, but they will all be fixed by the time steamroller comes around.

[_I_]

i agree with zeek

the phenom ii is more for gaming
the fx is more for server or mutti thread video encoding

fx is not a replacement for the phenom ii