(First Off Don't knock the fact that I used a mild overclocked X2 4400 vs a stock E6600. I will update with an E6600@ 3.4GHz soon, I know most or everyone here hopefully overclocks and don't run our setups at stock. But the average consumer is not going to overclock or even think about it )
Hi to all. I would like to first start off by saying I am truly a performance junkie/ fan, and I am not loyal to any brand in particular once there is performance to back up the marketing hype I will purchase it. I myself manage my own business, which consists of PC Repairs, Custom Built PCs, sale of PC Components, and a Gaming LAN Café, I find myself at the front line of technology specifically so I can guide my customers in the right direction based on their individual habbits and what they need their pc to do.

I have been in this business full-time for over the past five years. I have built computers with AMD and Intel during this time period. AMD have indeed come a long way for a small company, and over the last 3 years have shown themselves capable of producing very competitive products that have always seemed to edge the performance over Intel especially for users who use their pc’s primarily for gaming purposes and therefore need raw horsepower. Intel cpu’s on the other hand have been superior with their multi tasking, and video encoding capabilities. Thus making a clear cut decision what you use your pc for primarily one would decide whether to go Intel or AMD.

Since the AMD Athlon64 came on the scene they have dominated Intel up until August 2006 with the release of Core2Duo. I myself have recently purchased an E6600 since I was due for an upgrade for quite a while, since I usually upgrade with a new PC setup at least once a year. I thought it only fair to give AMD X2 a try before my complete system overall, so I did a minor upgrade by replacing my single core Opteron 148 which I had running daily @2.86GHz, with an X2 4400 which I of course overclocked to daily run @ 2.67GHz. I immediately noticed the difference in multi-tasking but felt a slight slowdown while gaming, since very very few games use dual core power presently, and my Opteron was superior of course when it came to gaming since it had higher clockspeeds than what I was able to achieve with the X2.

Seeing that I have tried both sides of the camp (Intel & AMD) I can give a reasonably unbiased review and comparison of the Core2Duo and AMD X2. I choose the most recent release of futuremark which is 3DMark 2006 to prove my point. Gaming is by far the most intensive work a PC can do, because it uses all parts of your computer simultaneously.

Gaming uses;
1. Processor
2. Hard Drive
3. Ram
4. Graphics Card
5. Sound Card


Now to the facts;

PC users with overclocked AMD64/ X2 chips, would not feel much of an increase in performance by getting a Core2Duo chip particularly in the area of gaming or regular daily tasks. The Core2Duo chips excel in video encoding/rendering which I can strongly vouch for, especially a highly overclocked one will tear a similarly clocked X2 to shreds in this department.

PC users with Pentium4 / PentiumD processors would notice a huge increase in performance by upgrading to a Core2Duo processor in all aspects of daily computing because of the inferiority of the Pentium 4 processors compared to AMD64 /X2 and Core2Duo overall.

Thus the reason why Intel fans and AMD fans need not to be down each other’s throat about who has the better cpu. If you never used a PC with an AMD64 /X2 cpu then you have no claims or knowledge whatsoever about how much superior the new Core2Duo is over AMD64 especially in gaming/ basic daily computer usage, especially a highly overclocked one. (Unless of course if you are a review junky, but personal experience always beats a review) Intel have took the performance crown back from AMD, and that is why I have an Intel setup presently because I am a fan of performance and not branded and/or loyal to any particular brand of anything.(besides nVidia gfx cards ) Being that I have owned both setups I can clearly state that running a stock E6600 @2.4GHz compared to my previous X2 4400 @ 2.67GHz the performance difference in gaming is minute if there is any. To prove this theory we will use 3Dmark06 for comparison, since it measures GPU & CPU performance separately. Using my faithful 7900GT @ 650/870MHz for both setups.

Test setup #1
DFI NF4 SLI DR
AMD64 X2 4400 @2.67GHz
2x1GB PC4000 @534MHz
eVGA 7900GT @ 650/870Mhz forceware 91.47
WD 250GB 16Mb Cache HD


Test setup #2.
ASUS P5W64 Pro
E6600@ 2.41GHz
2x1GB SuperTalent PC6400@800MHz
eVGA 7900GT @ 650/870Mhz forceware 91.47
WD 250GB 16Mb Cache HD


AMD SETUP RESULTS

Graphic Tests
1. Return to Proxycon 22.388 fps
2. Firefly Forest 24.902 fps

CPU Tests
CPU1 Red Valley 0.647 fps
CPU2 Red Valley 1.039 fps

3Dmark Score 6,562

SM 2.0 Score 2837

SM 3.0 Score 2686

CPU Score 2050

INTEL SETUP RESULTS

Graphic Tests
1. Return to Proxycon 21.358 fps
2. Firefly Forest 23.642 fps

CPU Tests
CPU1 Red Valley 0.662 fps
CPU2 Red Valley 1.047 fps

3Dmark Score 6,340

SM 2.0 Score 2700

SM 3.0 Score 2576

CPU Score 2081


As we can clearly see the performance difference between the 2 different setups is very small in CPU tests which was 31 points. Surprisingly though the performance in 3Dmark Score / GPU tests was in favor of the AMD setup, showing a difference of 222 points increase over the Intel setup. The facts are there, and prove that either the Nforce 4 chipset is superior to the Intel 975 chipset or the chipset drivers still need maturing as far as gaming is concerned , or that the AMD X2 is giving some type of unseen performance boost in the department of gaming, even though it scores less in the cpu tests. At this point it is clear that if gaming is your primary concern then purchasing either a Core2Duo setup or AMD X2 setup will do enough justice for you, and all that matters really is price. On the other hand if doing video encoding and/or 3d renders and you want the absolute best available right now then there is no choice but a Core2Duo setup. I know all the AMD fans out there wish that they could push their X2’s to the speeds at which Conroe’s are getting on air, and close the gap in performance. We’ll just have to sit back and see what new goodies the beautiful year of 2007 will bring for us enthusiasts.

There you have it folks, you be the judge and please do post your thoughts and feedback. Happy gaming and benching.

Cheers
OverclockersTT - TreeZ B)