AMD Athlon 2 X2 vs X3

[saadzaman126]

Hey Guys,

My build looks like:

PowerColor HD 4830 512 mb
G-skills 4gb of gddr3 1333 Ram
AMD Athlon 2 X3 445 3.1 Ghz
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE MOBO

I just wanted to know for medium level gaming, SC2 and some other games along with just regular word processing and internet surfing is it worth while to get X3 i won't be OC'ing and I'm just curious whether the third core will make a difference? And how hard is it to unlock the 4th core?

Thanks

 

[streetfighter 2]

You might want to consider consolidating your threads a little bit.

The benefit of going from 2 to 3 cores is probably not that noticeable with regard to daily use for an average user. I say this because not all programs will actually utilize the extra core. On the other hand some applications and newer games take full advantange of the extra core and the difference could be quite substantial.

tl;dr- Word processing and web browsing shouldn't be particularly consuming for a modern day CPU so the difference between 2 or 3 cores should be unsubstantial; Games could be a different story...

Unlocking depends on the motherboard but it usually involves nothing more than setting the "ACC" feature to "automatic", or something quite similar.

EDIT: It appears that the ASUS M4A78LT-M LE supports ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration). Here's a nice guide to unlocking cores.

 

[ShiBDiB]

id stay with the x2 and put whatever money you save into a better video card


edit: hooray 2000th post

 

[saadzaman126]

i was gonna upgrade the vid card later after playing sc2 for a while. whereas processor i dont wanna upgrade for a while unless absolutely necessary. I do do photoshop and programming occassionality and on average have like 20 tabs open on google chrome

will the 2x vs 3x effect movies and whether they lag or not when i play them?

 

[Mussels]

without OCing or a better CPU, a faster card isnt worth it.


get the x3, learn to overclock.

 

[ShiBDiB]

i was gonna upgrade the vid card later after playing sc2 for a while. whereas processor i dont wanna upgrade for a while unless absolutely necessary. I do do photoshop and programming occassionality and on average have like 20 tabs open on google chrome

will the 2x vs 3x effect movies and whether they lag or not when i play them?

blah blah im hungover and tired and cant think right now. For a new build, the 4xxx series is last last gen. Why buy old now when you said it yourself your gonna upgrade in a short while anyway.

But processor wise, i went from an e8400 (Dual core) to the q9550(quad) and havent noticed much if any improvement.

without OCing or a better CPU, a faster card isnt worth it.


get the x3, learn to overclock.

Didnt even think of that, how slow is the athlon 2 if its maxed out by a 4830

 

[Mussels]

movies have almost nothing to do with a video card. a mere radeon 4200 can handle 1080P video playback through DXVA, and the skys the limit if you're using the CPU to render it.

CPU is usually key with movie playback, but any modern dual core can handle 1080p so long as you use modern codecs.

as to your edit: athlon II's are phenom II's with low clocks and no L3 cache. they're decent OCers, which is where you get the price/performance out of them.

 

[saadzaman126]

yah but the x3 does have l3 cache and it has 3.1 ghz

 

[Mussels]

yah but the x3 does have l3 cache and it has 3.1 ghz

i'll look up its specs


edit: no, it does not have L3 cache. only 1.5MB of L2

 

[ShiBDiB]

Problly move this to system builders

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz...

Get that chip instead, with an ACC board or whatever theirs a good chance it unlocks to a quad

 

[saadzaman126]

ok how about transfer rates? cause im always trasnferring movies to my xbox or large projects onto usbs? is any of that processor based?

 

[Mussels]

ok how about transfer rates? cause im always trasnferring movies to my xbox or large projects onto usbs? is any of that processor based?

no. hard drive.

 

[saadzaman126]

this might sound like the newbest question ever but I was just wondering if a 3.1 to 3.2 ghz would change anything? It's only like a 2-4 dollar price difference between the x3 445 and x3 450

 

[BraveSoul]

was just wondering if a 3.1 to 3.2 ghz would change anything?

wont notice,, but for the peace of mind go with it
,, whats your monitor resolution?
_______________________

antec1200 filter mod | 4x4 Best off road games

 

[ShiBDiB]

the x3 445 to AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz...

will be a huge difference

 

[Frick]

My x3 445 unlock both cores and level 3 cache.

 

[ShiBDiB]

My x3 445 unlock both cores and level 3 cache.

ya but the odds of getting a chip with the L3 unlockable arent something id bet $70 on. From what ive read, most dont have it.

 

[Dent1]

the x3 445 to AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz...

will be a huge difference

Huge difference in the X3's favour.

 

[Dogshitjoint]

My x3 445 unlock both cores and level 3 cache.

ya but the odds of getting a chip with the L3 unlockable arent something id bet $70 on. From what ive read, most dont have it.

I were one of those that were unlucky on unlocking...

So I jumped on teh speedwagon & got me a nicely recommended 965BE & I don´t l00k back It´s soooo fast

@TS I dont rec. ya teh x3 go x4 instead with L3 cache u won´t regret it, but hey its´s your cash/decision

//Dog

 

[eidairaman1]

Get an AMD Phenom 2 X4 or AMD Athlon 2 X4 and a Radeom 5850, 4 Gigs of Ram, Windows 7 (Not Home Editions) a SSD and a HD,
790FX Motherboard, Sound card optional and a cool case

 

[saadzaman126]

If you can unlock the 4th core on an X3 is it a permanent solution? or like is it very unstable and you can only do it for a short amount of time like overclocking. I ask this because I'm going away to school in September so if o do unlock the core and leave it will it crash on my parents while I'm gone?

Also the 790FX chipsets on a mobo, what does the chipsets do?
And what's an SSD? -_- (retard question, I know)

 

[Dent1]

If you can unlock the 4th core on an X3 is it a permanent solution? or like is it very unstable and you can only do it for a short amount of time like overclocking. I ask this because I'm going away to school in September so if o do unlock the core and leave it will it crash on my parents while I'm gone?

Also the 790FX chipsets on a mobo, what does the chipsets do?
And what's an SSD? -_- (retard question, I know)

Yes you can possibly unlock the 4th core on the X3, cache or both. But it's not 100% guaranteed. I wouldn't buy any processor just for that reason alone.

There is no guarantee that a unlocked core on the X2 or X3 will work to a level that's stable.

If it's unstable the chances are the computer will lock up or render you a blue screen of death or some other nasty, but not all unstable CPUs behave the same, some will happily run for hours without issue but will suddenly crash, you might play Crysis for 10hrs without issue but crash within 2mins of Battlefield Bad Company 2, unstable CPUs are really unpredictable which is why you have to torture test it in Prime95 to make sure its stable just like with an overclock. You can attempt to put some extra voltage through it to stabilise it, if that doesn’t work you'll probably have to turn the unlock off via the bios.

The chances are that your parents browsing the internet or using Microsoft Office or something else that’s mundane is unlikely to be enough to expose an unstable processor.

I'm not going to go into what a chipset does, you can do a Google search that will explain it better than anyone here. 790FX is a good chipset, but its getting old and its pretty expensive, I would look at the 880G/GX or 890GX/FX.

SSD is a solid state hard drive. It's basically a hard drive with no moving parts. One advantage is that there is no noise and another is better access time. But they're expensive and aren't going to improve performance enough to justify the price if all you're doing is medium gaming, word processing and browsing the web.

 

[ShiBDiB]

Huge difference in the X3's favour.

how? more cores isnt faster in this case. the 445 doesnt have L3.

 

[blkhogan]

I went from a x2 250 to a x3 445. I noticed a pretty good increase in gaming. There is an upside to adding cores. Im running a bit of a stronger gfx than you are at the moment.

 

[saadzaman126]

I went from a x2 250 to a x3 445. I noticed a pretty good increase in gaming. There is an upside to adding cores. Im running a bit of a stronger gfx than you are at the moment.

Funny you mention that, those are the two im deciding between, the X2 250 and X3 450.