Is AMD (really) getting more popular?

[BeepBeep2]

Was at a small LanParty last week and I was the only AMD there...

Q8400 @ 3.6
E8400 @ 4.1
E7300 @ 3.7
E5200 @ ???

And some others, then there was my 5600+ @ 3.3.

The guys kinda went "eww, AMD"...and then we tripped a power breaker! :rofl:

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

funny because I personally wouldnt use any of those processors over the AMD pricepoint equivalent :rofl: and I use both intel and AMD, more intel actually.

[demonkevy666]

Was at a small LanParty last week and I was the only AMD there...

Q8400 @ 3.6
E8400 @ 4.1
E7300 @ 3.7
E5200 @ ???

And some others, then there was my 5600+ @ 3.3.

The guys kinda went "eww, AMD"...and then we tripped a power breaker! :rofl:

core2DUD.

X2DIEhard.

phenomenal Fail or phenomenal flop...

I think if you been in the news section you'll know

[BeepBeep2]

Then I asked the guys about the Phenom II's and they were looking at me going...uhh, well...Core i7 is the best upgrade path, why upgrade to something slower?

I shut up.

[zanzabar]

i would have gone ew am2, amd is coming back but there is only so much market that they can get since most people think that amd is some cheap low quality off brand. and if there are people buying the q8400 they dont know anything about how cashe would play with gaming

i7 is not faster than the p2 in everything, the p2 has better IO bandwidth so it will do gaming better especially as the ati cards get p2 optimization

[HuffPCair]

I like both I have a laptop that has AMD and then my desktop has Intel. I personally do not get why people dis one another I just think its cause they are insecure with knowing they may not have the best stuff out. I think both companies are doing great jobs I mean look how far both have come in under a decades worth.

[YukonTrooper]

i7 is not faster than the p2 in everything, the p2 has better IO bandwidth so it will do gaming better especially as the ati cards get p2 optimization
Contrary to the numerous benchmarks that show i7 faster than PII overall in gaming? :rolleyes:

[VoodooProphetII]

Contrary to the numerous benchmarks that show i7 faster than PII overall in gaming? :rolleyes:

Maybe when gaming at 800, 1024, or 1280 but as soon as you go higher up the picture changes a little.

[PoppaGeek]

Peer pressure sells alot of CPUs, GPUs too I am sure but I wonder just how many people are afraid of what you got? The "eew AMD". "No NO my OTHER PC is an Intel, it's uh in the shop!" :rofl:

[Banderazz]

why care what the box says?
Go with the best price/pref ratio.
I got a core2duo laptop, and my x3 720be came in the mail to day.
x3 720be + GA-MA770T-UD3P + Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 2GB, CL9 (will change this to something faster later) was about 30usd under a i7 920 cpu.
Still a nice upgrade from my trusty opty 170.

I know the urge to buy the latest and best, but in the end it's a waste of money

[WSP]

amd is definitely gotten in to me :D

my last amd were Athlon3000 s939. trying AM2 but gotten dissappointed, and jump ship to intel (E2140, E4300, E6300, E7300, E8200, Q6600, Q6700)

but now, I choose AMD. because it offers competitive price and more performance than intel at the same price point.

and amd chips now overclock well too ;)

[richierich]

"You're not cool if you don't have an Intel processor"

[Sparky]

"You're not cool if you don't have an Intel processor"

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/SparkyJJO/smileys/tear.gif

[psyconut713]

after working with a few AMD chips, and finding out my $200+ MoBo was now garbage because AMD scraped the socket 939 and the 940 after a short time, I moved to Intel simply for the continued ease of upgrading, as i am not made of money. However, I see a lot of people who upgrade everything one or more times a year, for them, switching sides is no problem, but for now, i'll stick with my Intel

[Mechromancer]

AMD does pretty well in gaming and other tasks for a non-SMT CPU. Also, if AMD was EXACTLY like Intel in performance, where would the fun be in anything? They make some pretty mean GPUs these days too so you can't knock this company. My only wish is that AMD join the SMT wagon because that functionality should be part of every modern CPU. Every other CPU manufacturer, except for VIA, has an SMT application with 2 to 4 threads per core (only 1 being x86 of course). I hope AMD includes it in their next gen CPU.

[EniGmA1987]

"You're not cool if you don't have an Intel processor"

:eek: Im a loser... :'(

[Sparky]

after working with a few AMD chips, and finding out my $200+ MoBo was now garbage because AMD scraped the socket 939 and the 940 after a short time, I moved to Intel simply for the continued ease of upgrading, as i am not made of money. However, I see a lot of people who upgrade everything one or more times a year, for them, switching sides is no problem, but for now, i'll stick with my Intel

how ironic though that now both AMD and intel changed their sockets again (although at least the AM3 CPUs work just fine in AM2+ with DDR2).

[trans am]

Was at a small LanParty last week and I was the only AMD there...

Q8400 @ 3.6
E8400 @ 4.1
E7300 @ 3.7
E5200 @ ???

And some others, then there was my 5600+ @ 3.3.

The guys kinda went "eww, AMD"...and then we tripped a power breaker! :rofl:

you shoulda told them they're living in the past and prob bought them before the phenom II's came into trend.
I recently changed to AMD gaming rig for the 1st time since 939 A64 ddr1 bh5 days.
I think you will see more and more gaming rigs with inexpensive AMD cpus, putting the rest of the cash into heavy duty 3d cards.
who was fragging the most? you I hope. ;)

[breakfromyou]

I worked in sales at a retailer that sells this stuff, and yeah. they are definitely more popular. Sure i7 sells, but the AMD chips just out of nowhere, are selling like hotcakes.

I'm not complaining. I bought one myself, and i'd take this X3 over my Q6700 any (summer) day!

[charged3800z24]

The 940BE has been out of stock twice That I saw this summer on NewEgg.com. I'd say that is a sign they are becoming more popular.:yepp:

[64NOMIS]

If anyone hadn't figured it out yet, I really like AMD processors. I am biased, be warned.

If you want the case to go green, here it is. If not, go take the blue pill and you can forget you ever thought about it...

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition: For $115 this processor is unlocked, has three capable cores great for multi-tasking or multi-threaded games, and for about $125 you can get a 790X board like the GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P and you are set, you would be hard pressed to do a side by side where you could actually feel the difference between this box and anything else in the market unless you tackled 8 thread workloads for long periods daily. And only 95W TDP, which means idle will be very low and full bore is usally within 10% (below) stated TDP.

AMD Phenom II X4 940 (Standard Edition): For $165 you get all the features of a 965 but your OC is limited to FSB. That's fine, If you bump it up 30 at the stock 15X multi you could potentially attain 450GHz above stock. At 1920x1080 gaming framerates are top knotch, and everything else save the extremely nutty loads runs insanely fast. Or just scour the earth and get one of the Black Editions still out there....

AMD Phenom II X4 965BE: More power but lots of headroom. Pair it with a 790X or a 790FX at $169 (FXT-UD5P) or $139 (ASUS M4A79T Deluxe @ TheEgg Shizite!) or a Crosshair III ($199) and you can run with the pro's in gaming or overclocking.

Key difference between the 790X and 790FX is that the 790FX supports 4 GPU's, the 790X 2. So if you don't need the expandability and if you don't need the other MB bells and whistles...you can save some change.

And all of these are going to work just fine with a DX11 GPU or two....

Frankly, when I go to a lan I am used to people showing up with some pretty old hardware. Most people can't go out and drop a couple grand on a PC, much less a cool grand on an unlocked CPU. Think how many games, graphics cards, or apps you can buy with the difference?

[Dopamin3]

I moved to Intel simply for the continued ease of upgrading, as i am not made of money.

So you bought an i7 940? :rofl:

[Nintendork]

JAJAJA, ironic in his own way.

[ajaidev]

Aree get the VIA Nano best chip amm well price to performance is not bad... :confused:

Actually now a days the PII does make more sense than a i7, hell a i5 makes more sense for gaming anyways. So it really comes down to the cash you have and what you plan to do with the computer. PII's and i5's maybe the best thing for gaming in a certain budget but they cant kill the i7 in HPC, etc.

The i5 vs PII fight is a vey very interesting one i must say specially the 750 vs 955 one.

[dinos22]

i know a lot of retailers in Oz

after speaking to a few recently i found out that AMD is still as good as dead down under

not a good sign

i think AMD just needs more time and it will slowly start to gain popularity though

[MacClipper]

I have a Q9550, a i7 920 but bought 4 x 550BE chips which give way better cost performance for their asking price esp. when unlocked to 3/4 cores and o'ced. Besides, they run real cool too so definitely it's AMD for me for now. :D

[NaMcO]

i know a lot of retailers in Oz

after speaking to a few recently i found out that AMD is still as good as dead down under

not a good sign

i think AMD just needs more time and it will slowly start to gain popularity though

Same is happening here in local shops. Only people with less budget buy AMD. We all know the difference is short, but it's there and whoever has the €uros goes with the best.

[informal]

We all know the difference is short, but it's there and whoever has the €uros goes with the best.

In these (financially) harsh days,those who have "€uros" are small in numbers. The majority of the market rests in mid range and AMD is competitive the most in this segment(heck they compete well in mid-high segment too,but that's not the point).

[Particle]

"You're not cool if you don't have an Intel processor"

Sadly, I think this is the actual attitude of a lot of people.


after working with a few AMD chips, and finding out my $200+ MoBo was now garbage because AMD scraped the socket 939 and the 940 after a short time, I moved to Intel simply for the continued ease of upgrading, as i am not made of money. However, I see a lot of people who upgrade everything one or more times a year, for them, switching sides is no problem, but for now, i'll stick with my Intel

To be fair, Socket 939 was viable for over two years. Socket AM2 is still viable even with AM3 CPUs. If buying a new motherboard twice in a five year span feels pushy to you, I'm not sure what I can say really. I know many enthusiasts like myself who are likely to swap boards that many times in a year, at least.

[possessed]

Same is happening here in local shops. Only people with less budget buy AMD. We all know the difference is short, but it's there and whoever has the €uros goes with the best.

I get exactly the opposite idea:eek: What I see is people saving 50-100€ on cpu-motheboard combos and use it to get a better graphics card. When I bought my 955BE most of the guys where I work were sceptical because how the first phenoms performed, but since all I had to do was change my X2 5000+BE to the 955BE I immediatly saved on memory and mobo (that I got one year before). Now those who intend to but a new system are very inclined to get something like the 720BE for a cheap but powerfull gaming rig or get an powerfull htpc with integrated 790gx and a athlon II.

btw, it's not all amd for me, I also have an intel on my laptop

[charged3800z24]

I had a couple guys at my office wanting some help this week getting a build together. They wanted more perfamance for less money (of course). We are all I.T. guys, but non of them have a hardware sense to them, sadly. I brought 2 of my systems in, the 955 and the 550. We get a really nice HP discount on systems. Everyone uses Intel at my company and AMD is actually a bad name. I am the only one that has quoted any AMD systems. Any ways, I let the guys test drive my system. I let them play with OCing (which non of them have done before) and they were shocked at how easy it was. I had Win 7 64bit running on both systems. We had some HP work stations getting ready for deployment at a client that were equiped with single Xeon X5570 CPUs 6GB RAM and Down graded to XP Pro 64bit. Only one of the guys liked the HP system ( He has a grudge with AMD, from like 10 years ago..Not sure what exactly). They all did web browsing, basics apps etc, but no benchmarking was done. They all liked the feel of my two systems and the extreme ease of OCing them (they were both BE systems of course). I know that the HP Z600 would have owned mine in all multi threaded apps but no one cared about that fact. The 2 guys that wanted new builds are getting AMD based systems. I sent them to the Egg to and found some nice combo deals. One got the 720BE anf the other the 955BE. I was shocked really, And i didn't even have and Bias comments. AMD is not a bad choice, nor is Intel. I am just Glad there is a valid choice in the market that most buy in.

[JumpingJack]

The enthusiast/DIY market is actually a very small portion of the market, the real nut jobs like us who hang out in forums and argue endlessly over a piece of silicon is even a smaller portion of that already small proportion.

In the end, perceptions take a long time to swing one way or the other. After 3 years of C2D/C2Q, and only a short time of Phenom II, the perception and build base is still favoring Intel at the moment. I think you will see AMD pull back some popularity after awhile. They are bent on recapturing that attention, most all of their boxed processor releases are intended to woooo the DIY crowd in general.

[RussC]

Um,
By last qtr finacial results, AMD lost market share to INTC again in CPUs, but gained a tiny bit of share against NVDA in GPUs(mostly due to MB intergrated graphics chipsets).

AMD really needs to downsize some more and focus on CPU desgn. To me they don't even need to concentrate on smaller geometrys so much, but really need to beef up instructions/clk and die size. Case in point is INTC puts 2MB more L3 cache on a die thats 30% smaller. If they can atleast get near equal there, they would own the middle market. That would create real buzz and sales.

Well know if any buzz is creating sales in the next qtr report on Oct.

RussC

[NaMcO]

I get exactly the opposite idea:eek: What I see is people saving 50-100€ on cpu-motheboard combos and use it to get a better graphics card. When I bought my 955BE most of the guys where I work were sceptical because how the first phenoms performed, but since all I had to do was change my X2 5000+BE to the 955BE I immediatly saved on memory and mobo (that I got one year before). Now those who intend to but a new system are very inclined to get something like the 720BE for a cheap but powerfull gaming rig or get an powerfull htpc with integrated 790gx and a athlon II.

btw, it's not all amd for me, I also have an intel on my laptop

Yeah but i for one wouldn't touch AMD with a barge pole. There's a series of "issues" i rather avoid and don't want to start discussing here or we'll have another flame war soon, so i just go with what i know will work as announced, no matter if i have to pay a tad more. Same reason why i have Nvidia where i play and need things to work and ATI where it doesn't really matter because it's cheaper and still performs.

[demonkevy666]

Yeah but i for one wouldn't touch AMD with a barge pole. There's a series of "issues" i rather avoid and don't want to start discussing here or we'll have another flame war soon, so i just go with what i know will work as announced, no matter if i have to pay a tad more. Same reason why i have Nvidia where i play and need things to work and ATI where it doesn't really matter because it's cheaper and still performs.

I can only think you play mostly nvidia coded games.
those games tend to not be crossfire friendly I've noticed.

[jaredpace]

I like the denebs. Just as good as an E8400, Q6600, or Q9550.

only thing i'd take over a 955 BE would be an i7 920, q9650, or maybe an e8600

[WSP]

after working with a few AMD chips, and finding out my $200+ MoBo was now garbage because AMD scraped the socket 939 and the 940 after a short time, I moved to Intel simply for the continued ease of upgrading, as i am not made of money. However, I see a lot of people who upgrade everything one or more times a year, for them, switching sides is no problem, but for now, i'll stick with my Intel

FYI, socket 940 is AM2/AM2+ is still laying around the market, and you can put AM3 cpu on AM2+ mobo, so I think AMD trying to stick with current socket design (apart from AM3 which is introduced to support DDR3).

IMO....and I must say, Intel's policy with current socket design makes confusing for some people. let's say, if you already got the top-of-the-line Core i5 7xxx, you can upgrade to Core i7 8xxx. but how about people who already bought Core i7 8xx? where is the path they should take if they want to upgrade the cpu? going i7 9xx? nope. you must buy an X58 mobo, and triple channel memory kit if you want to maxed out Core i7

[beta]

socket 940 is not am2, it was used on server boards for old opterons. the pinout is the same though.

[afireinside]

Yeah but i for one wouldn't touch AMD with a barge pole. There's a series of "issues" i rather avoid and don't want to start discussing here or we'll have another flame war soon, so i just go with what i know will work as announced, no matter if i have to pay a tad more. Same reason why i have Nvidia where i play and need things to work and ATI where it doesn't really matter because it's cheaper and still performs.

Huh? I was a long time supporter of the "nvidia works" thing. Every single catalyst update broke my computer somehow and took some finagling to get them to work where as I had never had an issue with nvidias drivers. Recently I bought a GTX 260 for my brothers computer because "it works" and well, it didn't work. Driver issue with his 24" westinghouse monitor. Was more of a pain than any ATI issue I ever had. Oh and now all ATI drivers work fine for me.

And if you won't touch AMD with a barge pole, why are you posting in the AMD section?

[CmB]

FYI, socket 940 is AM2/AM2+ is still laying around the market, and you can put AM3 cpu on AM2+ mobo, so I think AMD trying to stick with current socket design (apart from AM3 which is introduced to support DDR3).

IMO....and I must say, Intel's policy with current socket design makes confusing for some people. let's say, if you already got the top-of-the-line Core i5 7xxx, you can upgrade to Core i7 8xxx. but how about people who already bought Core i7 8xx? where is the path they should take if they want to upgrade the cpu? going i7 9xx? nope. you must buy an X58 mobo, and triple channel memory kit if you want to maxed out Core i7

The X58, P55 split makes no sense to me. So reminiscent of AMD 939, 754. Ugh. Anyway, AMD has to be at least be gaining mindshare, if not overall marketshare.

[Nintendork]

Maybe they should work with some nintendo marketing guys.

Wii owning like mad the PS3/360 even with a trully ancient hardware, but games and then fun that everyone likes and loves. During the gamecube era nintendo/sony was like amd/intel.


RussC

By last qtr finacial results, AMD lost market share to INTC again in CPUs, but gained a tiny bit of share against NVDA in GPUs(mostly due to MB intergrated graphics chipsets).

When in that market share they include things like Atom that numbers are unfair. It should be divided in mobile/desktop/netbook.

Also in that situation we will see that AMD gained marketshare in the desktop in which their powerhouse resides.


Few people buy Turion based notebooks, Phenom II are more popular than i7 and core2 in my country (not brand pc's).

[demonkevy666]

Maybe they should work with some nintendo marketing guys.

Wii owning like mad the PS3/360 even with a trully ancient hardware, but games and then fun that everyone likes and loves. During the gamecube era nintendo/sony was like amd/intel.

sony is horribly overrated.

[possessed]

Yeah but i for one wouldn't touch AMD with a barge pole. There's a series of "issues" i rather avoid and don't want to start discussing here or we'll have another flame war soon, so i just go with what i know will work as announced, no matter if i have to pay a tad more. Same reason why i have Nvidia where i play and need things to work and ATI where it doesn't really matter because it's cheaper and still performs.

I always liked the "amd issues", back in the days about 13years ago when I got my first pc I chose to go with a K6 AMD and even a computer related discipline asked me "does all the software works?" which I answered, "yeah, why not?" :shrug: , response "it's not an intel pentium":shocked:. All these years and I still have to get an non oc related problem with an amd cpu. (same goes for intel ones). It's pretty much more common sense to an overall good hardware config (not cheap crap ass components, specially $30 mobos without bios support) and keeping the OS tidy.

[FlanK3r]

Maybe they should work with some nintendo marketing guys.

Wii owning like mad the PS3/360 even with a trully ancient hardware, but games and then fun that everyone likes and loves. During the gamecube era nintendo/sony was like amd/intel.


RussC


When in that market share they include things like Atom that numbers are unfair. It should be divided in mobile/desktop/netbook.

Also in that situation we will see that AMD gained marketshare in the desktop in which their powerhouse resides.


Few people buy Turion based notebooks, Phenom II are more popular than i7 and core2 in my country (not brand pc's).

right, desktop AMD has now about 30%, its not bad, whorse is it with mobile platform...

[Tomasis]

Amd can sell a lot in India and China. It is very big market ;)

[michta35]

I use both Intel and AMD. However, my main rigs now have a 955 BE and the centOS box has an amd 810. Very happy with both for what I need them for on a daily basis.

It came down to price/performance vs. what I would be using them for and found that I got the most bang for my buck using the new phenom chips since alot of what I do would find an i920 underutilized and about $300 more overall for an entire build.

Now if I were just going for the "screw it I want the biggest baddest beast out there regardless" then I would have bought the higher end Intel hardware/mobo/ram combos.

[imamage]

Well it's getting popular in Hong Kong (DIYer market)
Phenom II Overclock and the "Unlock" core news did help

[64NOMIS]

Maybe they should work with some nintendo marketing guys.

Wii owning like mad the PS3/360 even with a trully ancient hardware, but games and then fun that everyone likes and loves. During the gamecube era nintendo/sony was like amd/intel.


RussC


When in that market share they include things like Atom that numbers are unfair. It should be divided in mobile/desktop/netbook.

Also in that situation we will see that AMD gained marketshare in the desktop in which their powerhouse resides.


Few people buy Turion based notebooks, Phenom II are more popular than i7 and core2 in my country (not brand pc's).

Exactly. AMD share of desktop is huge right now, and mobile is about to transition to new generation platforms (Tigris & Congo).

[wuttz]

Exactly. AMD share of desktop is huge right now, and mobile is about to transition to new generation platforms (Tigris & Congo).

imagine how much bigger it would be with a desktop/AM3 iteration of istanbul. just tweak the IMC for DDR3. ;)

[Sparky]

Huh? I was a long time supporter of the "nvidia works" thing. Every single catalyst update broke my computer somehow and took some finagling to get them to work where as I had never had an issue with nvidias drivers. Recently I bought a GTX 260 for my brothers computer because "it works" and well, it didn't work. Driver issue with his 24" westinghouse monitor. Was more of a pain than any ATI issue I ever had. Oh and now all ATI drivers work fine for me.

And if you won't touch AMD with a barge pole, why are you posting in the AMD section?

Yeah that's the point I bring up. When someone says "I won't buy X because a long time ago X's drivers didn't work so X's drivers are all crap, I buy Y now and they always work" I just point out that there are those out there who have had the exact opposite, where Y didn't work ever and X always perfectly.

For what it's worth, I've not had major driver issues from either ATI or nVidia.

[demonkevy666]

imagine how much bigger it would be with a desktop/AM3 iteration of istanbul. just tweak the IMC for DDR3. ;)

if you had a choice of an MCM shangjai or one Istanbul which would you take

MCM shanghai can get quad channel threw NUMA and Istanbul can only be dual channel ddr3.

I be the board makers would get pissed off though cause they would all need new bios.

I suppose that's why a new socket will come.

[Smartidiot89]

imagine how much bigger it would be with a desktop/AM3 iteration of istanbul. just tweak the IMC for DDR3. ;)
not much bigger. Would cost to much and not clock aswell etc. etc. also the high-end market is small.

[WSP]

not much bigger. Would cost to much and not clock aswell etc. etc. also the high-end market is small.
maybe that's why AMD not releasing $300 cpu.they concentrating on $100-250 price segment, where the market share is biggest.
I see AMD has learned their lessons

[ownage]

AMD doesn't have anything high-end, so its not popular ATM. Simple as that.

[BeepBeep2]

AMD doesn't have anything high-end, so its not popular ATM. Simple as that.

Are you saying the 955 and 965 are just "middle of the road"?

A CPU that's around $200 and another around $245 that do nearly what an i7 920 does is high-end enough for me...:shrug:

[Frontl1ne]

Also, high-end is not what determines whether a company is popular...

[Mechromancer]

AMD isn't getting the word well out for some reason. I talked to a person today that thought AMD only made up to Tri-cores and didn't have quads. I quickly explained they've had quads for sometime now and I run a Phenom II X4 940, etc. He was amazed. He also called the Core i7 a Pentium i7, I LOL'd internally (not really an LOL but you get the point).

AMD needs to get the word out to the "regular" folks better.

[BeepBeep2]

AMD isn't getting the word well out for some reason. I talked to a person today that thought AMD only made up to Tri-cores and didn't have quads. I quickly explained they've had quads for sometime now and I run a Phenom II X4 940, etc. He was amazed. He also called the Core i7 a Pentium i7, I LOL'd internally (not really an LOL but you get the point).

AMD needs to get the word out to the "regular" folks better.

I think it would help if they actually tried some commercials...Dell and intel are working hard it seems to put AMD down...

[Daveburt714]

BeepBeep2: You might be too young to remember, but even when the A64 X2's where beating the Pentiums in every benchmark (except Superpi :shrug:), Intel still had the lions share of the market based on name recognition alone....

I've never actually seen an AMD commercial on TV, but I've seen plenty from Intel.
You could be onto something there "Young Jedi".... :D

It would be cool if you could get your hands on an "unlockable" X2 550 for your next Lan Party... You might be able to change their minds. :up:

The performance crown has gone back and forth between Intel and AMD for quite some time. Intel has held it since the release of C2D, but theres no doubt in my mind the crew at AMD will be able to turn it around again.

Even though there will still be people who buy Intel, just because it's Intel...

Just like I buy AMD, just because it's AMD... :yepp:

[BeepBeep2]

Thing is, my next upgrade will be to a Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P and maybe a PH II 550...I'm just wondering if it's worth the money to get a 955 if there is a good chance at getting an unlockable 550...
from what I've seen it's actually more probable to unlock a 550 than 720...

I'm so tired of hearing the same "bum, bububumbumm" and now "Sponsors of tomorrow"...

And all those Pentium 4 Extreme commercials from when I was like 4...but they weren't good for anything but making toast.

[demonkevy666]

BeepBeep2: You might be too young to remember, but even when the A64 X2's where beating the Pentiums in every benchmark (except Superpi :shrug:), Intel still had the lions share of the market based on name recognition alone....

I've never actually seen an AMD commercial on TV, but I've seen plenty from Intel.
You could be onto something there "Young Jedi".... :D

It would be cool if you could get your hands on an "unlockable" X2 550 for your next Lan Party... You might be able to change their minds. :up:

The performance crown has gone back and forth between Intel and AMD for quite some time. Intel has held it since the release of C2D, but theres no doubt in my mind the crew at AMD will be able to turn it around again.

Even though there will still be people who buy Intel, just because it's Intel...

Just like I buy AMD, just because it's AMD... :yepp:

I've only seen one an it was on youtube lol

[Daveburt714]

Thing is, my next upgrade will be to a Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P and maybe a PH II 550...I'm just wondering if it's worth the money to get a 955 if there is a good chance at getting an unlockable 550...
from what I've seen it's actually more probable to unlock a 550 than 720...

Very good choices man! I have the XT(DDR3) version of the UD4P and it's the best Phenom board I've ever owned (and I've had quite a few!)...

I'm really happy with my 550, unlocked to X4 and it still does 3.9Ghz w/2600 NB on water. If you have the $$$ and you want to go with a 955 I wouldn't blame you! I'm sure you've done your research, if I was going to buy a 955 I'd look for date codes close to the unlockable 550's...

If you could find a 955 with a week/batch # of 0922APMW I would have to think it would be a killer chip (binned higher than the 550's)... ;)

Good Luck with your new rig, as much as I ragged on GBT for the DS5 (actually swore off of them!). The UD4P has made me a believer again... :p:

[MrMojoZ]

I recall the commercials for AMD when 3DNow! was their buzz word. Seems like a long time ago.

[doxology83]

Contrary to the numerous benchmarks that show i7 faster than PII overall in gaming? :rolleyes:

this is a good read and shows while the i7 is a little faster its not a good deal for the extra money because its a small difference. i would guess this difference would maybe put the Phenom II's ahead in gaming over the i5's because the i5's have fewer threads than the i7's but thats just speculation on my part.
http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=794&page=13

[WSP]

Thing is, my next upgrade will be to a Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P and maybe a PH II 550...I'm just wondering if it's worth the money to get a 955 if there is a good chance at getting an unlockable 550...
from what I've seen it's actually more probable to unlock a 550 than 720...

I'm so tired of hearing the same "bum, bububumbumm" and now "Sponsors of tomorrow"...

And all those Pentium 4 Extreme commercials from when I was like 4...but they weren't good for anything but making toast.
if you think only for a number of cores, off course it is not worthed to get a 955/965. but if you look at it as a whole package (processor only), then 955/965 is way much better that 550. better IMC, better binning, better OC headroom...

IMO, 550 is more like a faulty 955/965...

[BeepBeep2]

Yes but I'd rather buy 2 unlockable high-leakage 550's than a 955, as some just won't meet the 125w TDP spec on the 955's.
Then again, the 955 (I can't at all afford the 965 or the 955 right now for that matter) is a 100% guarantee.

When you realize I'm on a 3.5 year old CPU, which would get trounced by the 550 anyday anyway, let alone at ~4Ghz...the 550 looks awful hot.