AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE. Good contender to i7?

[bojangles]

bit-tech.net | Review - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU

Read that up guys. It looks like we have a very good price/performance contender to the i7 at hand. I just may go AMD this summer.

What do you guys think?

[werty316]

The results were no surprise and the price vs. performance ratio is much better but the i7 is still much faster, especially when theres heavy multimedia use involved but that doesn't really apply to most users.

Its all about whether you want the best performance at a higher price or great performance at a better price and since I don't have an endless amount of green backs at my disposal, great performance at a better price wins for me.

[Realityshift]

lmao, sorry I had to laugh when I saw that, the 955 is still the same as a 940 but clocked higher and has a DDR3 controller. BUT the controller limits it to DDR3 1333 @ 4 dims, or DDR 1600 with 2 dims.... I expect this cpu to get to the same heights as the 940 did, maybe 2% more performance with DDR3, thats about it, theres no way this chip will come anywhere close to the i7s in performance. PLUS the 955 is slated to sell at $45 USD more then the Q9550! THis CPU wont be able to take on a Q9550 except when both CPUs are at stock, and even then its a very slim margin going from the 2.8 ghz C2Q to the 3.2ghz AMD cpu.... AMD has not come near enough to the performance crown for me to look at anything BUT their x3 720 budget CPU.....

[snoosebum]

I think your probably better off staying with Intel they way I read that review.

[snoosebum]

I'm curious if the 955 overclocked even competes with the 940 overclocked. From the few reviews I browsed through sounds like the 955 is hung up at 3.8 GHZ. Makes the 940 for $230 more appealing I think.

[sswilson]

Nothing new there. Still more attempts to compare price/performance to i7 when it compares more to higher end S775 procs. AMD has closed the price/performance gap with S775, but I'm not convinced it's the best way to go if a person is going to overclock their chip.

[werty316]

Overclocking on the 955 doesn't seem to be all the much better than the 940. I don't see why it would be.

I don't really see a good reason to get a 955 over the 940 since there isn't much difference.

[bojangles]

Originally Posted by sswilson

Nothing new there. Still more attempts to compare price/performance to i7 when it compares more to higher end S775 procs. AMD has closed the price/performance gap with S775, but I'm not convinced it's the best way to go if a person is going to overclock their chip.

I completely agree with you there. I wish that bit-tech had done some OC tests against some of the chips in the same price range. I already know that AMD has the LGA775 price/performance battle won, but I still think this chip can be compared more towards the i7 now. I know that once the i7 is overclocked, there's no comparison, but for around $60 less you get more than adequate performance with the 955 BE, and on top of that a lot of money saved on the motherboard. The DDR3 and small increase in frequency does help out a bit. It's not staggering, but it does prove a point that DDR3 is the way to go now.

I know that HWC is an enthusiast forum, and even I am part of that too. I'm always looking for something to help me out whenver the funds come along. However, I think that if we look at stock for stock performance, this chip is pretty darn good. That's just my thoughts. Don't start a flame war please. At least have some good points.

[snoosebum]

Your right stock for stock performance... its a great chip. And the DDR3 controller it may last a bit longer than buying anything with DDR2 right now. I think most people buying "black" or unlocked edition processors have other plans than stock however.

[FiXT]

Q9550 vs i7 920