Quote Originally Posted by Tom128 View Post
As an owner of a 2600K and a Phenom II X6, I can promise you there is a difference in the smoothness and AMD wins. I was called a fanboy when I only had my AMD system and compared it to my friends Sandy setup, but when I got my 2600K for WCG and made it my daily driver, I noticed it immediately. I am not a fanboy, I don't care who gets my money as long as the product does what I want it to do at a good price.

I don't have any rational reason why, but it is what it is. I have similar setups between my HTPC and Work system (even down to the keyboard/mouse) and playing BF3, League of Legends, TF2...you name it, it is smoother on the AMD rig. It's hard to qualify, but its noticeable for me.
Have you tried turning off hyper threading on your Sandy? Seems to help a lot in some games (BF3 for example).