intel p4 ee or amd 64 fx - Tech Support Forums

c44151 · November 29th, 2003, 09:43 PM

if you had money to burn which would you chose for the better preformance.What I would not like to get is "a better bang for your buck" I want to now was out of the two which would be better for gamming.

samwichse · November 30th, 2003, 01:35 AM

Athlon64 FX for gaming.

**Martoch** · November 30th, 2003, 01:37 AM

Maximum PC's latest just tested those chips (+ a MAC G5) against each other...I have a copy here if you'd like me to scan in some reviews.
I'm tired though, may have to wait until morning...

*yawn*

Dputiger · November 30th, 2003, 04:56 AM

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=434

My own review. Gaming is probably the area AMD dominates most thoroughly--in a toss-up between them and Intel's P4EE, I'm going to have to say the FX-51 all the way, no question.

And even in the few games where the P4 does surpass it, it doesn't surpass it by $300 (the difference in cost) or anywhere near it. I think about the only game the P4 wins is Quake 3--and that by a nose.

slinky · November 30th, 2003, 05:14 AM

in this case, the FX.

Urban_Squrill · November 30th, 2003, 05:15 AM

AMD 64 FX!!!!

Starfury_2260 · November 30th, 2003, 10:42 PM

you shouldn't really compare the g5 and the amd and intel processors.

the p4 ee was an attempt by intel to catch up to amd's athlon 64 but it didn't quite do it

i wouldn't get an fx-51 yet anyway, as they are planning to change the pin # from 940 to 939 and so the current fx hardware might not work with the next one and the price is bound to go down eventually.

originel · November 30th, 2003, 10:55 PM

I voted for the FX as well...in the benchmarks i've seen it really is faster. But i would recommend waiting till the next FX comes out. the long reason is here: http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1884

To make things short...they are changing the pinout on the FX for their next version from 940 (opteron) to 936, so there are only going to be a select few mobo's that support the current FX and they won't have time to work the bugs out on this line.

The 64 shows a huge amount of promise, and i would get a 3200+ in a heartbeat if i could afford it...but i'd be a little wary of the FX. unless of course you're the type of person that will keep the FX for a while and your next upgrade will include a mobo AND proc. then you've got no problem

EDIT: beat me to it

Dputiger · December 1st, 2003, 04:10 AM

There's no reason to avoid Socket 940 because of a short Athlon FX lifespan. Remember that every Socket 940 board also supports Opteron and Opteron 1xx and the Athlon FX are equally priced.

Furthermore, there's some reason to think that future Athlon 64 CPU's will only have a 512K of cache. The breakdown might look like this:

Opteron (Socket 940) : Dual channel memory, 1 meg L2 cache.

Athlon 64 FX Series (Socket 939): Dual Channel Memory, 1 meg L2 cache, always one speed grade ahead of all other Opteron / Athlon 64 CPU's)

Athlon 64 (Socket 939): Dual Channel Memory, 512K L2 cache.

AthlonXP (Yes--AMD IS retaining the AthlonXP name): Single-channel memory, 512K L2 cache, 32-bit ONLY--but note that this IS a Socket 754 processor.

AMD has NOT committed to doing this, but it is a product distribution pattern they are considering. The reason is obvious--it allows them to protect the "value" of the 64-bit state of the processor and charge a premium for it.

The bulk of CPU's shipped would be Socket 939 Athlon 64 chips. AthlonXP would be an ultra-budget line and these chips would never be referred to as 64-bit capable (to prevent problems).

Perfomance, I'm guessing would look something like this--using Opteron as a base 100%.

Opteron: 100%.

Athlon 64 FX: 105-115%.

Athlon 64: 85-90%.

AthlonXP: 70-80%.

That's my guess on how performance would arc down. Regardless its still too early to tell.

I've wandered a bit from topic. My point is this--buying an FX-51 today is not a problem for future upgraders--as long as they are aware that it'll cost another hefty chunk to upgrade again. AMD has no plans to change or remove Socket 940.

originel · December 1st, 2003, 06:51 PM

Quote:

I've wandered a bit from topic. My point is this--buying an FX-51 today is not a problem for future upgraders--as long as they are aware that it'll cost another hefty chunk to upgrade again. AMD has no plans to change or remove Socket 940.

This is true that there will be future 940 boards. But they will be geared towards the server environment. This means that things such as overclocking will be missing. It will not be an enthusiasts board. Also prices will be considerably higher because server boards demand a level of stability not present in consumer boards.