AMD dead ? currently

[Jim]

Everything I’ve read says Core 2 has made the current crop of AMD systems obsolete.(for gaming performance) Meaning if I’m doing an upgrade ( ram,processor,mobo)then Intels the way to go no matter what kind of bargains AMD offers .Is this accurate or am I ill informed ?

[Deathspawner]

AMD still offers great CPUs, it just happens to be that Intels are faster in some regards. As far as gaming goes, I highly doubt that you'd feel much of a difference on either, as long as you have a nice model.

If you had to go run out and buy DDR2 as well, you might as well suck it up and just buy an Intel at the same time. Why? Personally I find them far more fun to overclock, especially with ram. My 4600+ X2 can't even support DDR2-1200 speeds on the ram, but with Intel it's like the sky is the limit.

[sswilson]

As it stands, my advice to anybody who's doing a mobo/cpu/mem upgrade/new build is to go with intel unless money is an issue.

I suggested to somebody in here that the only reason to stick with AMD currently would be if the money saved could be put into an improvement on the vid card front, otherwise the C2D's are just tooooo kickass compared to AM2 AMDs.

[Babrbarossa]

Apparently after the price cuts happen in two weeks, AMD will be about on a par for price/performance scale at least for the lower and middle range, but Intel still is a better overclocking chip- that might change with the Barcelona, but we'll see.

AMD's stock has taken a beating since Intel revealed info on their upcoming architectures, as AMD has been largely silent about future plans which has people worrying.

[Jim]

As always never a lame answer at HWC,thanks. I've $700 cnd to spend , wonder if I should pull the trigger or hold off for awhile,the only app/game that runs on the one tower in bf2...hmm

[Babrbarossa]

$700 for a new cpu, or for an upgrade in general? Either way I'd definately wait until the scheduled price drops- some of AMD's are said to be around 40%.

[sswilson]

Depends on how long you want to hold off.

Playing the waiting game is almost never a win situation when it comes to computer gear. There's always some greener grass just the other side of the fence.... :)

That said.....

This might be one of those times when it's worth it.

Not only are we waiting on new AMD & Intel offerings, we've also yet to see if there's an ATI card going to be released in the near future.

Add to that the possible price war once the new offerings are out and it might be a "perfect storm" as far as getting the best bang for your $700.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

$700 for a new cpu, or for an upgrade in general? Either way I'd definately wait until the scheduled price drops- some of AMD's are said to be around 40%.

toward the mobo ,ram,cpu

[Jim]

Originally Posted by sswilson

Depends on how long you want to hold off.

Playing the waiting game is almost never a win situation when it comes to computer gear. There's always some greener grass just the other side of the fence.... :)

That said.....

This might be one of those times when it's worth it.

Not only are we waiting on new AMD & Intel offerings, we've also yet to see if there's an ATI card going to be released in the near future.

Add to that the possible price war once the new offerings are out and it might be a "perfect storm" as far as getting the best bang for your $700.

Right, if I put the cash towards a vid card wouldn't I likely see it bottleneck on my current rig ? thinking 8800 something

[sswilson]

Yeah, you'd definately see a bottleneck, but the card would carry you forward when you upgrade the rest of the gear, & you'd still see a major improvement with your current rig.

You could also consider upgrading critical components (like your PSU.... :) ) which could be used with the current setup until the dust settles.

If it were me, I'd try (not too sure how successful I'd be.... ) to convince myself to invest in some good DDR2 ram & a PSU for future considerations.

It hurts like hell to spend money on something like the DDR2 which can't be used right away, but it saves on the outlay when you're finally ready to take the full plunge.