Core I3 530 or PII X3 720?

[Hunt3r]

go phenom II x3 720,M4a785tyd-V evo,
memories is of your choice

 

[Kei]

Well you do have to remember that core voltages are not comparable between AMD and Intel due to manufacturing differences (SOI vs HM-K). I'm sure I've seen lynfields running in the low 0.9s somewhere on the web but don't trust me on that one. Also if I remember correctly when you turn on C&Q on the 780 chipset, it drops the cpu down to 800MHz and ~0,9v

Absolutely, that's something I never forget...otherwise I'd go insane sometimes looking at the voltages I've seen some Intel chips clocked to.

That's one of the reasons that I started undervolting my processors so long ago, I saw some Intel results and got curious as to how low I could set the voltages on my AMD rigs...a monster was born that day.

The thing I'll still never understand is how the temps in the Intel rigs manage to heat a house in comparison to the AMD rigs which on the outside appear to run on more volts lol. Of course behind the scenes I'm sure there is something that makes the Intel stuff run far hotter since they have totally different configurations and manufacturing situations. It still makes me crazy sometimes lol.

I'm every day still floored/impressed by how low you can run the voltage on a processor these days!

Kei

 

[87dtna]

The 720 is faster and a better overclocker. The IGP in the I3 series limits the amount of voltage you can put through the chip. If you don't want to go multi GPU you can grab a Phenom II 720 + mobo + 2x2 RAM for about 250. Core i3 will be about 300 if you get 4GB of RAM.

I totally signed up here just to say you are CRAZY. Right now I have my I3 530 at 4.4ghz on air (HT on), barely any 720's ever even see 4ghz on air.

Even with encoding, the I3 530 is faster than the 720.. Here, bunch of benches here, I3 wins 26 out of 31-

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=118&p2=83

As for being upgradeable, I also have an I7 860 that I swap out, I bought the I3 just for fun. The I7 is overkill for everything right now, blows any Phenom II away like it's not even on LOL.

I've also owned an I5 750 before I upgraded to the I7 860. That CPU is a beast as well, daily overclock of 4.0ghz at 1.425 Vcore....VERY fast, ridiculous fast at anything. Phenom II didn't stand a chance against it.

Trust me, I am a former owner of a Phenom II 550 unlocked to a quad at 3.8ghz. The I3 is close to the same performance, and the I7 destroys it in anything. For a daily overclock I run 4.07ghz (185x22) on the I3 at 1.40 Vcore, I didn't get a great chip apparently cuz most can do 4ghz on 1.325 or so. At 4.4ghz, it's faster than the Phenom II quad at pretty much anything.

Apparently you guys are really hardcore AMD fans here, and thats fine. But sorry to say but Intel has the goods. Since the I3's came out now, thats puts the Athlon II's to shame as far as bang for the buck and gives most Phenom II's a run for the money. I5 750 beats ALL phenom II's easily, I7 just kicks them while they are down.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Core i3 530 are nice chips no doubt have a good mix of performance and power consumption it seems. However the Phenom II processors still put up a good fight IMHO.

The 2.8GHZ X3 720 is usually ahead of the 2.93GHZ Core i3 530 in gaming with the Core i3 530 ahead in many non-gaming tasks and is comparable in gaming:

http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7488

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=118&p2=83

Also in the UK at least the H55 and P55 motherboards are around £20 more expensive than the equivalent AMD ones and even the Core i3 530 is around £20 to £30 more expensive than an X2 550BE. The X2 550BE tends to be around £69 to £72 and the Core i3 530 around £87 to £98.

The socket 1156 motherboards start at around £67 and the equivalent AMD ones at around £47.

Comparing a Core i7 to £70 to £100 CPUs is crazy since they are over £200 in the UK and from what I can gather they have a huge price premium in most countries around the world too(maybe not in the US though).

This applies to the Phenom II and Core i3 processors.

The old DDR2 only Phenom II X4 920 at 2.8GHZ is significantly faster than a Core i3 530 at 2.93GHZ in non gaming tasks:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=118&p2=81

A 3.33GHZ Core i5 661(basically an overclocked Core i3) is significantly slower than a 3.2GHZ Phenom II X4 955BE in non gaming tasks and around the same in gaming:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=117&p2=88

Hence an unlocked X2 550BE at 3.8GHZ is not slow and neither is a Core i3 at 4GHZ.

The C3 stepping Phenom II X2 processors seem to be doing around 3.9GHZ to 4.1GHZ more often than the earlier C2 stepping processors.

Anything over 1.4V is deadly for the new Core i3 based processors it seems:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-ii-x2-555,2540-4.html

Hence if the OP does go with a Core i3 be a bit careful although the Phenom II tends to take higher voltages better.

Hence for certain tasks the Phenom II processors are still a good choice and so is the Core i3.

Choose whatever fits you usage and budget better since both processors whether at stock or overclocked or unlocked will do a good job.

 

[brandonwh64]

if hes in the US i might give him a good deal on my DDR3 ram

 

[PP Mguire]

Since your video encoding i strongly suggest an i5. Well worth extra price considering.

I sold a 720 rig for this i5 rig and never regret it.

 

[Fourstaff]

I am surprised no one has suggested the Athlon II X4 620. Its not too shabby, extra core helps when it comes to video encoding compared to the X3 720, and it doesn't disappoint when it comes to casual gaming. In the near future when the Hexacores become affordabe, you can throw the X4 away with less guilt. A 8xx board will also help upgrade in 2 years.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The X4 620 is also suprisingly good for non-gaming tasks it seems and for occasional gaming!!

Here is a comparison of a X4 620 to a 2.93GHZ Core i3 530:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=106&p2=118

Here is a comparison of the X4 630 to a Core i3 530:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=105&p2=118

 

[PP Mguire]

It seems the dual core i3 takes the gain in most of the tests.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems the dual core i3 takes the gain in most of the tests.

Not in video encoding tests though as these tend to take advantage of multiple cores better. In single threaded tests the Core i3 is clocked higher and has L3 cache too. Even the Phenom II tends to be better than an Athlon II in this regard.

 

[PP Mguire]

True, but thats also why i suggested an i5, not an i3. The i3 is a dual core with HT so naturally an Athlon II with 4 cores is going to surpass an i3 which is dual core in video encoding.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

True, but thats also why i suggested an i5, not an i3. The i3 is a dual core with HT so naturally an Athlon II with 4 cores is going to surpass an i3 which is dual core in video encoding.

In the US the Phenom II X4 965 is priced too near the Core i5 750 to make any sense:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215&cm_re=core_i5-_-19-115-215-_-Product

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4959973&CatId=4731

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...103727&cm_re=phenom_ii-_-19-103-727-_-Product

At least the Phenom II X4 955 is priced a bit more sanely though on account of its lower performance:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...103808&cm_re=phenom_ii-_-19-103-808-_-Product


Anyway I am still the one with a Q6600 and all these newer processors are making it feel sad!!

 

[PP Mguire]

Which is why i tell people it makes no sense to get a 965 over an i5 considering coming from an older platform you have to upgrade mobo, cpu, and ram. Itll cost almost the same.

 

[Fourstaff]

But the 620 totally outclasses the i3 when it comes to price. Slap on a good cooler and the i3 will look like a poor buy.

 

[87dtna]

But the 620 totally outclasses the i3 when it comes to price. Slap on a good cooler and the i3 will look like a poor buy.

Umm well I have my I3 530 at 4.5ghz on air, I'll run any test against a 620 on air...probably about what 3.4-3.6ghz tops? OK. 4ghz on the stock cooler will probably bring about the same performance as the 620 at 3.4

 

[sneekypeet]

I saw it mentioned, so I figured I would chime in.

I have undervolted both of my chips. the i5 750, and my i7 860. Both play out about the same, they clock to 3.6-3.8ish on stock volts(1.25V in bios) and was able to run both at very similar clocks at just over 1.1V.

Now I know it doesnt make that much sense to undervolt, but these chips are both warm, and I was able to rid the CPUs of about 8-10 degrees by doing this.


Oh and ask the guys with the records on i7 /i5 /i3 if any of these are voltage capped by anything other than comfort levels and brassiness of there minerals

 

[Kei]

I saw it mentioned, so I figured I would chime in.

I have undervolted both of my chips. the i5 750, and my i7 860. Both play out about the same, they clock to 3.6-3.8ish on stock volts(1.25V in bios) and was able to run both at very similar clocks at just over 1.1V.

Now I know it doesnt make that much sense to undervolt, but these chips are both warm, and I was able to rid the CPUs of about 8-10 degrees by doing this.

Thanks a lot for posting this information, I think it makes a lot more sense to undervolt than it does to overvolt in my mind. Most of us with good sense buy above what we actually need anyway so we've got plenty excess speed if we don't really have to use it. In those cases we can get double benefits of having plenty of speed, and then save plenty of money on cooling because we're using very low voltage which produces FAR less heat!

If you enjoy overclocking as well you can still do that while using less voltage so you get the best of both worlds. I LOVE the fact that I can run my Phenom II X4 955 at it's stock 3.2Ghz @ 1.168v rock stable through any stress test when the voltage comes stock at 1.350v. It saves lots of heat (already not an AMD PII problem), lots of power at load, and it makes the system much quieter because of very low heat. On the stock voltage 3.7Ghz is no problem and with a very small bump 3.8Ghz is no problem all still on silent air cooler.

I've been going through these past few days and finding exactly how much cpu speed I need in order to get everything in my system that's stressful to run at optimal speed. For games of course I'm focusing on making sure I can get 60fps (1360*768 32" LCD) with all options enabled, which is easy to do for everything except Crysis of course. The other programs I'm just looking to make sure there is no percieveable slowdown when using them. That's easy to do for any programs since I'm not doing heavy encoding/converting video and stuff like that anymore. If I need to I can always bump the speed up to uber levels and finish that stuff quick then go back to normal.

Not many people seem to do that, lots just bump it to whatever the max speed they can get is even though they don't use even the stock speed as a requirement lol. To each his own, sometimes it does bring a smile to your face just to see a huge number.

Kei

 

[3volvedcombat]

I have a q9550 ATM but im thinking about moving to i3 530-p55 Chipset then upgrade to a i7 860.

While i keep my q9550 rig.

i might decidie to sell my q9550/ep45-ud3p/2gb of 1100+ Mhz ram if i sell my laptop for 200+ shiped ;D

 

[PP Mguire]

Thanks a lot for posting this information, I think it makes a lot more sense to undervolt than it does to overvolt in my mind. Most of us with good sense buy above what we actually need anyway so we've got plenty excess speed if we don't really have to use it. In those cases we can get double benefits of having plenty of speed, and then save plenty of money on cooling because we're using very low voltage which produces FAR less heat!

If you enjoy overclocking as well you can still do that while using less voltage so you get the best of both worlds. I LOVE the fact that I can run my Phenom II X4 955 at it's stock 3.2Ghz @ 1.168v rock stable through any stress test when the voltage comes stock at 1.350v. It saves lots of heat (already not an AMD PII problem), lots of power at load, and it makes the system much quieter because of very low heat. On the stock voltage 3.7Ghz is no problem and with a very small bump 3.8Ghz is no problem all still on silent air cooler.

I've been going through these past few days and finding exactly how much cpu speed I need in order to get everything in my system that's stressful to run at optimal speed. For games of course I'm focusing on making sure I can get 60fps (1360*768 32" LCD) with all options enabled, which is easy to do for everything except Crysis of course. The other programs I'm just looking to make sure there is no percieveable slowdown when using them. That's easy to do for any programs since I'm not doing heavy encoding/converting video and stuff like that anymore. If I need to I can always bump the speed up to uber levels and finish that stuff quick then go back to normal.

Not many people seem to do that, lots just bump it to whatever the max speed they can get is even though they don't use even the stock speed as a requirement lol. To each his own, sometimes it does bring a smile to your face just to see a huge number.

Kei

I just like to see that big 4.0 at boot up

 

[eidairaman1]

Huh? That's DDR2. Good price though.

8GB of DDR3 for 239 USD, New Egg has it, GSkill Ripjaws that is- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...8476 1052129233 1052329188&name=8GB (4 x 2GB)

 

[Kei]

I just like to see that big 4.0 at boot up

lol that IS a good look

 

[87dtna]

8GB of DDR3 for 239 USD, New Egg has it, GSkill Ripjaws that is- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...8476 1052129233 1052329188&name=8GB (4 x 2GB)

Umm, just order two of these-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...8476 1052129233 1052315794&name=4GB (2 x 2GB)

And save $60.......for the same thing! Just for putting 2 in the quantity box lol.

 

[eidairaman1]

reason they are kitted like that is they have actually been tested by GSkill to work with eachother without the unknown factor.

 

[mastrdrver]

If you go either PII or i3/i5 save some money and have one of the TPUers pick one up from Microcenter or Frys: Need something from Microcenter?