AMD Phenom II benchmarks out!! Goodbye Q94xx

AMD finally has a processor that can beat Intel Quad cores that are at a higher price point.

But the sad truth. Phenom II is nowhere near to core i7.

Phenom II 940 can do is compete with Core2Duo E8600 and Q9400 and Q9450.

I am looking at Extremetech and in real time tests:

1) Video Transcoding, photoshop and after effects, lags seriously behind i7 920, core2quad q9xxx series, E8600. this phenom II is running at 3GHz and is a quad core processor. In some tests, even Q6600 is able to beat Phenom II
2) PC Games:
Crysis: At near bottom of the table. better than Q6600 and Q9450
Company of Heroes: Here, it looks much better. beats q6600, e8600, q9400.
Supreme commander: no difference between any of the processors
World in conflict: beaten by every processor except q6600
enemy territory:quake wars: beats q6600 and q9450.
URT3: same as above
FarCry2: at the bottom. beaten by every other processor

Here, point to note is that Phenom II 940, running at 3GHz has AMD wholesale price of 250$. This means that it is set to compete against Q9450 and Q9400. This, it is able to achieve to perfection. With little bit of overclocking, it can easily beat Q9450 and am sure that cost to build rig around phenom II 940 will be less than that of Q9450 or 9400
Retail Price of Q9400: around $270
Retail price of Q9450: around $350
Retail price of Phenom II 940: expecting to be around $275

Overclocking:

Phenom II 940 can be easily overclocked to 3.5GHz and at this speed, it is competing with Core2Quad Q9550 and QX9770. And as far as i know, Q9550 costs 1.7x times phenom II940.

My conclusion:

Dual core: E8600
Quad core: Phenom II 940
Killer peformance: Core i7 920 or higher

Those who are thinking of buying a rig now, just wait. Intel will definitely do a heavy price cut. Their quad cores (except i7) will not stand any chance against Phenom II if they are kept at current price points..

AMD Dragon platform, comprising Phenom II, 790G chipset and HD48xx cards now is a serious threat to core2duo based platform from Intel. If you want to get a new rig that doesn't cost a bomb, this is the one to consider now. You get a processor for, say 12k and mobo for 5k and are ready for gaming. A similar performance system from intel will definitely cost much more.

Benchmark links:

*www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2338338,00.asp
*www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-ii-940,2114.html
*anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3492&p=1

G

Very impressive! I mean seriously, WOW!

This brings nice competetion to intel...let the price cuts begin...but i fear the phenom 2 will be killed by the core i5 in a few months time IF its priced the same.

Ah..lookie what i found:

Ok, I lied, Intel Spoils the Party. Rumored Intel Price Cuts

At the end of last year Intel made some minor price cuts across its product lineup. There was no reason to do anything more serious as AMD hadn't even begun to threaten anything above the Core 2 Quad Q6600.
I've heard, through reliable but very quiet channels, that before the end of January Intel will aggressively cut prices on its entire quad-core lineup. Given how Intel historically cuts prices, we could expect the Core 2 Quad Q9550 would take the place of the Q9400 and have the Q9400 move down to the price point of the Q8300, thus creating a price war; and you thought 2008 was the last of that.
If Intel were to push its prices down like that, the Q9550 would compete with the Phenom II X4 940, and the Core 2 Quad Q9400 would go up against the Phenom II X4 920 instead. If this happens, the conclusion I mentioned on the first page changes. The Phenom II X4 940 can't beat the Q9550, and the 920 can't beat the Q9400. Intel has the ability to do this; it's got faster chips that are more expensive and has just enjoyed 2+ years of unchallenged competition. The Intel from the Pentium 4 days may have let AMD launch Phenom II unchecked, but today's Intel is much more...dynamic.
The take away is that today Phenom II competes with the Q9400 and the Q8300, but by the end of this month that may change to the Q9550 and Q9400.

If that happens...could it be the same old thing for AMD?

Better The Competition Better We Are ....!!!

S

Arghh.. I hate this price cuts... Now I have to keep waiting for my new build..

If you wait you can keep waiting forever...First phenom 2 then price cuts..next they will announce core i5 and you will wait for that...meanwhile AM3 will be out...Just wait for price cut and go for it.

amitash said:
This brings nice competetion to intel...let the price cuts begin...but i fear the phenom 2 will be killed by the core i5 in a few months time IF its priced the same.

Ah..lookie what i found:

If that happens...could it be the same old thing for AMD?

Remember, AMD hasn't fully moved to the new platform. They still have AM3&ddr3 setup to bring out. Then comes the Fusion.

I still remember saying that the big thing for AMD is Fusion. They had to get the graphics, chipset and the cpu right. They got the GPU and chipsets to perfection. They are on good track now for CPU too, finally challenging the intel counterparts.

One more change and they will be ready to go for the kill. The way they did with Athlon XP, Athlon X2.

On the other side of the coin, Intel has become too powerful to be kicked down. After changing their business and design strategy, they seem to be ready for anything.

Time will only tell. Let's wait and see. And, for me, am going to upgrade in March and it will be core i7 or phenom II.

The biggest problem for AMD has been funds. They got the problem 50% solved after the booming sales of HD4850 series and by selling off few things.

Now, that they have a competitor at hand (in CPU), say atleast for a year, they can finally think of putting heavy amounts into R&D. I would say that you will see the real AMD (that we saw so long) from the year 2011 or 2012. CPGPU market will be in AMD's pocket, thanks to the asset they have named ATI.

PS: am not dreaming!!!

^I am somewhat skepticle about fusion taking on the high end market...Its just me...I dont have a good feeling about fusion.

^^ yes. it's not just about high end market. market share increases when a company campures that mid range market. Right??

If AMD get's Fusion right and they make it in a way that you get processor mobo inside 12k, and it beats Intel counterpart that costs 15k, definitely their market share will increase.

as of now, what AMD has to do is to find the right competitor to Intel's E8xxx series core2duo processor, a cpu that costs around 6k (say in India). This will increase their bank balance like anything. You already saw what ATI did to nVidia by pricing HD4850 at 11k (in the beginning) and then dropping the price to 9.5k (through manufacturers).

Before HD48xx, ATI was having a really rough time, losing market share, heat issues, unable to compete with nvidia 8xxx series cards. They reduced the gap little bit with 3xxx series and then with 4xxx they totally got it right.

Before, I felt that AMD is kind of sinking and I never thought that phenom II will compete with quad core Intel processors. And yes, Intel will answer by doing price cuts and with core i5. Now, Core i5 can't be as fast as core i7. That means AMD will have a better chance to target the mid range market if they get the phenom II into the right place. With a powerful 780G chipset in their hands, they can easily become the no.1 choice in budget gaming and in mid range market.

In the high end and extreme gaming market, Intel has already established as a force that can't be dethroned anytime soon.

^ I expected Phenom II to be more revolutionary. The thing is, AMD isnt able to do what Intel did to Netburst by introducing Core. :neutral:

Intel took one big leap and AMD is taking small strides. What Intel did with core microarchitecture is second to none. They pulled it out of thin air!!!

Best review imo

wont intel larrabee compete with fusion though.

Larrabee is set to compete with nvidia and ati gpu's right. it's not like Fusion CPU.

Best review imo

This review imo does not show real world performance benchmarks...they have older games which dont really benefit from multithreading like farcry2...surprisingly crysis warhead on core i7 gives much better performance than phenom2 on anandtech but its the other way around on this review....Anandtech appears to have the best review there.

L

sorry to say but phenom II is still not as good as it states itself in comparison with intel counterparts.

as for am3 & fusion etc etc. i dont think intel will just be sitting quiet doing nothing. plus the fact that intel have come to support nvidia gpus better even more & more.

im not any company's diehard fan or anything. im just a simple consumer like everyone else. whichever company has better technology i buy from them accordingly. But sadly as to how rumours are that phenom II are better than intel quad cores, its not actually true. intel quad cores are still much more capable than phenom II series.

^^ What makes you feel that phenom II is not as good as it looks.

Do you mean that when you compare it to core i7? or is there any specific reason. Please please explain in detail the reason why.

L

desiibond said:
^^ What makes you feel that phenom II is not as good as it looks.

Do you mean that when you compare it to core i7? or is there any specific reason. Please please explain in detail the reason why.

im not comparing phenom II with core i7. the difference is just too high to even consider comparing phenom II with core i7.

im talking of a stock speed phenom II with a stock speed of intel quad cores. the performance that you expect to have with a phenom II can also be obtained with an intel build too. sure the machine will have to be twisted expertly for the same but then the question arises, IF this is possible, why the heck should you spend for a phenom II at all? specially for those who live in india.

the difference ain't that impressive w.r.t graphics, multimedia, multi-threaded apps, multi-core usage, games such as crysis, far cry series, fallout series, call of duty 4 & 5, quake 4 engines & so on. the FPS difference is hardly that big.

but then again, all of us are entitled to our own opinions. if you have the booze, please go ahed with your dream to owning a phenom II whereas i think majority will hold on to their current rigs & if situation permits, will go for core i7 in the future instead of phenom II

bottomline: intel overall has leaped too far ahead for AMD to beat them in the race.

^^see, first of all. Phenom II 940 directly competes with Q9450 and Q9400 at stock speeds and this what it is expected to do. compete with those midrange quadcore processors from Intel.

And the dragon platform looks promising. Phenom II + 7xx chipset + HD48xx GPU looks to be a good platform for gaming and multimedia.

^I agree....and once price cuts come in then i would prefer the intel Q9550 to the x4 940....simply as it performs better and will be cheaper....As far as i see the only people who will benefit from phenom 2 AT THE MOMENT are people with am2+ boards already...Keep in mind though that AM3 boards are comin next month and if AMD can outperform Intel Q9550+P45+DDR3 with a cheaper x4 940+am3+DDR3...THEN i regeard it as a return to competetion...just not yet.

L

desiibond said:
^^see, first of all. Phenom II 940 directly competes with Q9450 and Q9400 at stock speeds and this what it is expected to do. compete with those midrange quadcore processors from Intel.

And the dragon platform looks promising. Phenom II + 7xx chipset + HD48xx GPU looks to be a good platform for gaming and multimedia.

i only use my intel rig for surfing & playing occasionally. im not a gamer or anything.

i just dont understand amd's intentions/motives behind releasing something thats still miles behind intel in the processor race. whats the point competing with intel's midrange products at this point?

and the performance of HD48xx (in crossfire mode) is still arguable compared to nvidia's monster gtx 280 (single mode or 2-way, 3-way SLI mode)

IF price is the only issue behind abandoning intel build overall then its not enough an argument FOR ME atleast. i for one will still stick to intel all the way till i have enough funds to own core i7 and the rest of the parts accordingly.

whats the point competing with intel's midrange products at this point?

Thats where the market lies dear. Mid-range is what any company should look for if on a way to capture the market. Just see that they did with HD 4xxx series? They now have enough time and money to R&D for a while.

And you said why AMD is releasing something thats miles behind intel? What do you think designing a new architecture is? making pot-pouri? :lol:

amitash said:
^I agree....and once price cuts come in then i would prefer the intel Q9550 to the x4 940....simply as it performs better and will be cheaper....As far as i see the only people who will benefit from phenom 2 AT THE MOMENT are people with am2+ boards already...Keep in mind though that AM3 boards are comin next month and if AMD can outperform Intel Q9550+P45+DDR3 with a cheaper x4 940+am3+DDR3...THEN i regeard it as a return to competetion...just not yet.

True. The real competition lies a month away. I do hope that AMD beats Q94xx and Q95xx in performance/price and performance/watt. Not that I like AMD, but that will spice up the competition and make quad cores more and more affordable.

LoRdKsHiTiJ said:
i only use my intel rig for surfing & playing occasionally. im not a gamer or anything.

Okay. Fine. In this case, you need not worry about any of this. Max that you need is Pentium Dual core with a decent motherboard and 8400GS. End of story!!!

LoRdKsHiTiJ said:
i just dont understand amd's intentions/motives behind releasing something thats still miles behind intel in the processor race. whats the point competing with intel's midrange products at this point?

hmm. you need to take marketing classes

most of the processors sold are in mid or lower price range. That's where the market is. You excel there and you get the lion's share of the market.

LoRdKsHiTiJ said:
and the performance of HD48xx (in crossfire mode) is still arguable compared to nvidia's monster gtx 280 (single mode or 2-way, 3-way SLI mode)

at what price?? If I am right, you are the first person on earth that says HD4870 crossfire setup can't beat gtx280. funny. Also, ever came to know about a GPU named HD4870X2???

Remember how much nvidia is struggling now to get back into the competition. defective chips, company stock value crash, xfx opting not to be exclusive partner..... Please read the news!!!

LoRdKsHiTiJ said:
IF price is the only issue behind abandoning intel build overall then its not enough an argument FOR ME atleast. i for one will still stick to intel all the way till i have enough funds to own core i7 and the rest of the parts accordingly.

Seriously, for surfiung and occasional gaming, you don't need core i7 at all!!!

PRICE is the biggest entity in the sales market. This is what drives a product. People want to have a product that does what they want to do at a good price and they pick the brand that provides the same at best price. Don't forget that similar pricing has made nvidia run for cover!!!

And the dragon platform looks promising. Phenom II + 7xx chipset + HD48xx GPU looks to be a good platform for gaming and multimedia.

IMHO the "dragon" platform is just a fancy name given to a combo of hardware just to promote sales as amd owns all three things there....Maybe Intel can just name corei7 + x58 + nvidia gtx as "dragon killer at twice the price" platform or something.

^^ hehe.

one name to refer to cpu+mobo+GPU

I think AMD feels that people will go "OMG!! its called Dragon!!!" and when ppl see intels long names they will go like "Its core2quad qx9xxx + intel x48 express chipset + err...Nah sounds fishy, ill buy the dragon."

^^nah. come on. earlier combination was called Spider.

Next one could be vampire

anyways, whatever the name is, when you go to SP Road (bangalore) and say I want a set of Dragon. First thing you will hear is the f word

It's just for reference. Nothing more than that. I think nobody but tech followers will ever get to know that there were architectures called nehalem, deneb, dragon etc.

PS: Dont' worry. It will take atleast another year for the dragon to blow your rig

amitash said:
This review imo does not show real world performance benchmarks...they have older games which dont really benefit from multithreading like farcry2...surprisingly crysis warhead on core i7 gives much better performance than phenom2 on anandtech but its the other way around on this review....Anandtech appears to have the best review there.

For an AMD fanboy it's the best

^lol thats true...

PS: Dont' worry. It will take atleast another year for the dragon to blow your rig

I never expected phenom 2 to come close to my rig...thats why i bought it owthout waiting for for phenom2.....In another year ill have westmere.

Phenom 2 940 is meant for compete with the Q94XX series only

As desibond is correct ,, only it is compared with the core2 duos & core2 quads

corei7 is different !!!

790G ? Would that be SB710 or SB750 board with RV710 onboard graphics ?
And it hardly looks impressive. Getting beaten by Q9x50 CPUs that easily in multimedia and gaming.
Makes me wonder if AMD has ANYTHING left at all to offer.

Jus hoping the price comes to 10k and below and 15k for mobo-procc combo of Phenom II DDR2 by April, I'm planning of buying it, unless P55 mobos comeout, then I wud definitely go for i7

L

IronManForever said:
And you said why AMD is releasing something thats miles behind intel? What do you think designing a new architecture is? making pot-pouri?

i can tell you 1 thing for sure. it didn't take intel long to intro core i7 to the world. but its sure gonna take amd atleast 2 years to even come close to core i7.

desiibond said:
at what price?? If I am right, you are the first person on earth that says HD4870 crossfire setup can't beat gtx280. funny. Also, ever came to know about a GPU named HD4870X2???

Remember how much nvidia is struggling now to get back into the competition. defective chips, company stock value crash, xfx opting not to be exclusive partner..... Please read the news!!!

Seriously, for surfiung and occasional gaming, you don't need core i7 at all!!!

no im not the first person. nor will i be the last. if you cannot find stuff on google after this post of mine i will be glad to point you the genuine review sites where its clearly shown how weak the latest HD4870 is compared to gtx 280. 1 on 1. 2 on 1, 3 on 2, 3 on 3. you name it, any combo of gpu power from both sides. gtx 280 beats hd4870 easily. Meh, forget reading reviews, i already own 3 gtx 280s in a 3-way SLI mode & i can challenge you & your hd4870s on any game, any graphic intensive application or any benchmarking software you have. i can give you in writing my build will blow the **** out of your ati build. hell i can even say confidently that even if you stacked up 4 hd4870s against my 3 gtx 280s, i'll still have far more better FPS in crysis than your gpu config. and yes, i wont even need to overclock anything just to gain an edge.

i dont disagree with all the problems nvidia has but i also dont go along with people saying the crap out of some company just for the heck of it. dont be an ATI FANBOY. learn 2 appreciate products, learn 2 give credit to things that really deserve it. whats good is good. period.

im just a hardware enthu who loves upgrading hardware as a hobby. i am very much updated with all the hardware already released so far, in process of being released and planned for release in the coming 2 years. and i know their capabilities.

as for amd's marketing strategies, time will tell who emerges as the winner.
AMD is not a bad company nor are its products bad in any way. all i say is, it doesnt have enough power when someone would compare it with intels products.

P.S: what i do with my rig is none of your business. i didnt ask for your opinion on what i should do with my rig. i am already planning on scrapping everything i have & replacing with core i7, msi x58 & ddr3 ram modules. but ofcourse im still gonna keep my treasure - 3 gtx 280s.
got a problem with that? huh?

S

^cool man... As far as I know till Nvidia released GTX 295... ATI held the title for fastest single GPU card with 4870x2... dont know about SLi's and CF's..

And people saying dont compare Phenom II's with i7.. then whats up with that naming scheme.. 920 and 940 exactly like i7.. I dont think this much coincidence can happen...

^^hmm. ATI Fanboy. hahaha. Amd using nvidia chipset mobo and ATI graphics card. So much for ATI fanboy. Right??

tring tring!!!

as per last update, HD4850 X2 beats GTX280 (while it costs less than GTX280 and for the price of two GTX 280's you can get three HD4850 X2's) and HD4870 X2 is currently the fastest card on earth (though till the release of GTX295).

And oh, for the price of one GTX280, I can get HD4850's and in triple CF config, it makes gtx280 search for cover. Don't believe it?? start reading genuine articles and start beliving in surprises!!

L

its amusing to see comparison of HD4870x2 (which actually is 2 cards on 1 PCB by logic) with an actual single GPU. anyways, im not here to judge anything here. it hasn't taken any time for nvidia to beat that too. besides, the so called "best" of ATI has its own sets of disadvantages with increased power.

tafen from softpedia news -
"The CrossFire configuration nears the 3-way SLI, although it does not outperform it, but leaves far behind all the other cards. The Half Life 2: Episode 2 puts the cards on top of the list, but Unreal Tournament 3, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Crysis do not scale up so good on them.

The power consumption goes to high values when the CrossFire configuration is used. Also, the cards run really hot, registering 90 degrees Celsius under load and 80 degrees when idling. The cooler also seems to get a little louder when the card is under load, but the noise level is similar to that of other high-end graphics cards."

gtx 280 as a single gpu mode or in 2 or 3-way SLI mode doesn't have that problems. even after i play games for more than 4 hrs, my temperature hardly crosses 80 degrees on full load constantly with simple air cooling. (considering i have 3).

taken from hexus.net -
"The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is as inelgant as it is powerful. Yes, it's the fastest board of them all, but such is the base performance of the £179 Radeon HD 4870 and £219 GeForce GTX 260, that X2 only comes into its own if you're consistently playing at resolutions of 1,920x1,200 and above.

At an educated guess, £299-£349 is going to buy you frame-rate heaven in the form of the Radeon HD 4870 X2, and, of course, it's a fundamentally niche product, populating the £300+ market. We're just nonplussed by the obvious way it goes about it, via internal CrossFire and a loud cooler. We'd rather opt for two Radeon HD 4870s and place them on an Intel or AMD chipset - they'll give you the same performance, for similar money, but offer quieter cooling and a wider range of display options. CrossFire is CrossFire, after all."

HD4870x2 still costs arm & a leg. whereas gtx280 has come down. HD4870x2 hasn't beaten gtx280 with so large a difference that it would make owners of gtx280 throw away their gpus and hog the ATI ones. HD4870x2 uses gddr5 whereas even with all these drastic improvements its still not that impressive against gddr3.
Besides, nvidia is already aware of HD4870x2 and has already introduced gtx285, gtx295. and well, lets face it, posed a competition to their newly introduced HD4870x2 that hasn't had that much long time to attempt the lion's share of the market.

@desi
i can do this with you fanboys all day if i want. you pint me your "genuine" reviews, i'll point you my "genuine reveiws".
but, the competion everywhere speaks for themselves. the market speaks for themselves. a single gtx 280 can & HAS beaten everything ATI has got with the exception of HD4870x2.
you dont believe it? its not my concern.
but if you insist on taking this argument further, im all game. bring it on. fun isin't it? and please, dont say what you CAN do. speak what you HAVE done already.

HD4870x2 still costs arm & a leg. whereas gtx280 has come down.

ROFLMAO.

HD4870x2 hasn't beaten gtx280 with so large a difference that it would make owners of gtx280 throw away their gpus and hog the ATI ones.

There you go. Thanks for accepting that hd4870x2 is faster!!

And coming to the price

In India, gtx280 costs around 31k and hd4870x2 costs around 34k
in usa, gtx280 costs 430$ to 440$ and hd4870x2 costs around 450$.

check this one for more clarity: *lynx-india.com/index.php?categoryID=201&sort=Price&direction=DESC

huh. and I am the fanboy. hehehehe.

anyways, this discussion is about phenoms and not about gpu's.

please stay away if you are in a mood to fight over a lost cause.

now, if you don't mind, let me get back into the actual discussion.

^cool man... As far as I know till Nvidia released GTX 295... ATI held the title for fastest single GPU card with 4870x2... dont know about SLi's and CF's..

And people saying dont compare Phenom II's with i7.. then whats up with that naming scheme.. 920 and 940 exactly like i7.. I dont think this much coincidence can happen...

yes. this is what I wondered first. Why the hell did amd name it that way. what happened to their four digit naming. it was pretty good.

L

desiibond said:
And coming to the price

In India, gtx280 costs around 31k and hd4870x2 costs around 34k
in usa, gtx280 costs 430$ to 440$ and hd4870x2 costs around 450$.

there you go -
and people were trying to teach me marketing tricks.

my last post concerning this stupid lost argument -
an overall amd build with ati cards cost > an overall intel build with nvidia gpu.
overall performance of amd config < = overall performance with intel config
overall performance of (latest most high-end) ati gpus =>< overall performance of nvidia gpus (not considering gtx 285 or 295)

its simple maths. apply your valuable marketing strategies on this now. which one appeals to you more? for intel fans they'll say intel. for people like you you'll STILL say amd. but for neutral masses, they'll go for whicever solution is most cost-effective. and that is where intel wins. nvidia wins. lol.

thats all my point in all of this mindless argument is.

H

LoRdKsHiTiJ said:
an overall amd build with ati cards cost > an overall intel build with nvidia gpu.

ROFLMAO

do u live on Mars or Jupiter?????

also mind lettings us know how do u even manage to pwr 3 GTX280s in tri-SLI with a Corsair TX650????

L

hardly a post worth replying to but i'll do it anyway.
backup your "ROFLMAO" with something you might have that proves i'm wrong?

im the owner of 3 cards. never said im using it in 1 machine. did i? i dont have the funds for another psu atm so the tx650 is enough for 2.

besides, ive already mentioned earlier i will be scrapping everything anyway to make way for core i7.

LoRdKsHiTiJ said:
hardly a post worth replying to but i'll do it anyway.
backup your "ROFLMAO" with something you might have that proves i'm wrong?

im the owner of 3 cards. never said im using it in 1 machine. did i?

I just can't stopping laughing at this.

PS: Am not being sarcastic.

L

seriously guys, as much as i would like to stick around for your pshycotic behaviour, you fail to say anything concrete at all which makes me enjoy this company of yours less, every passing second.

^^ more ROFLMAO.

I have five HD4870 X2's, two Q9650's, three Phenoms and five cooler master 400W PSU's.

and I am running all of them in one cabinet. seriously!!!!

L

desiibond said:
^^ more ROFLMAO.

I have five HD4870 X2's, two Q9650's, three Phenoms and five cooler master 400W PSU's.

and I am running all of them in one cabinet. seriously!!!!

and....im supposed to say....what? "oh wow , you're the man" ????

if i begin to count the piece of expensive hardware i have, it'll make you guys look like a toddler with their candy's.

the market speaks for themselves. a single gtx 280 can & HAS beaten everything ATI has got with the exception of HD4870x2.

AND the 4850x2

an overall amd build with ati cards cost > an overall intel build with nvidia gpu.

LOL...cant stop laughing.

i dont have the funds for another psu atm so the tx650 is enough for 2.

besides, ive already mentioned earlier i will be scrapping everything anyway to make way for core i7.

Where did your common sense go when you bought 3 gtx 280s and a 650W PSU...Should have bought 2 gtx 280s and a better PSU and added another gtx 280 later instead of keeping one in a show case....OR if your not biased towards a company as yuo claim to be, you should have bought 3x4870x2's at nearly the same price and better performance.

if i begin to count the piece of expensive hardware i have, it'll make you guys look like a toddler with their candy's.

go float you cash somewhere else...the point is spending cash wisely instead of throwing it around like you have with 3 cards and a pointless PSU.

LoRdKsHiTiJ said:
i can tell you 1 thing for sure. it didn't take intel long to intro core i7 to the world. but its sure gonna take amd atleast 2 years to even come close to core i7.

Core i7? Hello! Mind checking out the time Intel took to release "Core" architecture? Given your weak reasoning and lack of knowledge about all this, you may not be able to reason yourself that Core was the actual thing that Intel did, not Core i7!

Mind checking out information about the era AMD ruled? Mind checking out Athlon XP, 64, X2 release articles when Intel simply had no reply? You may not be glad to know that Intel took a lot time with 'Core', and until it came out, there was no match for AMD high ends.

And I aint an AMD fanboy. If I want a dual core rig for gaming, I'll go right away with Intel. But If I want a budget-future-proof-do-everything-PC, I'll go for AMD quads.

its amusing to see comparison of HD4870x2 (which actually is 2 cards on 1 PCB by logic) with an actual single GPU. anyways, im not here to judge anything here. it hasn't taken any time for nvidia to beat that too. besides, the so called "best" of ATI has its own sets of disadvantages with increased power.

Two cards on one PCB? I wouldnt care if it were 0.001 card on one PCB. :lol:

The fact that it wins over GTX 280 is all that matters! And I am glad that you accepted it, it has been a tough time for others to make you realise the truth.

And yeah, given the fact that you run GTX 280 in Tri-SLI on a TX650 Power supply, I'm sure you are hell bent on the power demand of cards! Why dont you get yourself a couple of Via S3 Chrome cards in multi-chrome mode. As you do not care about performance (clear from the fact that you got three GTX-280s) and you are very stringent on Power demand(your PSU); the Via combo should serve you really well. :lol:

if i begin to count the piece of expensive hardware i have, it'll make you guys look like a toddler with their candy's.

Whoa! Now its about showing who's got better hardware/who's richer!
Seriously, I can browse the web as well as any Core i7 guy can.

And though I'd like to, I dont believe you have what you are bragging about. Anybody would be fooled by the way you carry yourself and show your adamant behaviour.

Next time, do a compatibitlity research before you post any of your fake rigs.

----------------
Why dont you go to the Intel and nVidia forums and brag about all that? Looking at your fanboyism, Im sure they'll gift you an i7 rig with GTX 295 tri-SLI.
In other words, if you happen to come around again with any of your sh1tty rants, at least I'll skip reading your Post.
That would leave us AMD-fanboys-who-dont-know-anything in peace. Phew! :neutral:

----------------
I forgot one thing, puhleez, neXt time you mention any of your genuine reviews, please use BB codes to "qoute" them. That would make your worthless posts look a bit more easy on the eyes. Muhuhahaha! :twisted:

H

^^^ even i was having 2nd thoughts as to wat hardware he has.

LoRdKsHiTiJ said:
seriously guys, as much as i would like to stick around for your pshycotic behaviour, you fail to say anything concrete at all which makes me enjoy this company of yours less, every passing second.

Cut down on the ENGLISH a bit, ease up. Seriously, dun get hyper!

The Dragon Platform

AMD phenom 2 940 OCed to 3.5ghz is beating Corei7 920 with same HD 4870 on both
Only in games

But in other application 5% only faster AMD phenom 940 OCed to 3.5Ghz

H

^^^ mind giving the source.

*img293.imageshack.us/img293/234/hl2ocsv9.th.gif

*img184.imageshack.us/img184/491/farcry2ocwq5.th.gif

just 2 samples in games more of them u can see in "overclockers.com,extremereviews,tomshardware etc"

this is some more Bench marks , its only equal to corei7 920 in some cases not completely equal corei7 920 is bit faster than phenom 2 940 i agree with that

Bench marks

*www.tbreak.com/articles/37/4/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-940/Page4.html

*www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2338344,00.asp

*www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2338347,00.asp

*www.guru3d.com/article/amd-phenom-ii-x4-920-and-940-review-test/19

*www.guru3d.com/article/amd-phenom-ii-x4-920-and-940-review-test/17

^^ but what if we overclock core i7??

Man PII has the best VFM setup right now.. Also the current PII benchmarks are not 100% as PII are mainly designed for AM3 not AM2 + /.. The best part i like abt AMD that they doesn't force users to buy new Mobo like Intel does..

i7 is way costly setup ix58 would cost a bomb not lowere than 15k and same goes for i7 add another 6-8k for DDr3 chips.. and you can get 790GX at 6.3k )

I won't buy PII now as I have recently got Phenom X3 , currently running it @ 2.6 ghz will push it more once I get Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer..

^^ That is totally true. yes. Phenom II is for those on a budget of 50k for the entire rig. for more than that, it's core i7 all the way. But if Intel cuts the price of core i7 to somewhere around 11k-12k and releases a mobo that costs 9k for core i7, it's going to be trouble for AMD.

this is some more Bench marks , its only equal to corei7 920 in some cases not completely equal corei7 920 is bit faster than phenom 2 940 i agree with that

What that says is core i7 at 2.66Ghz is = or faster than phenom 2 at 3.5Ghz, thats 900mhz

^ 900MHz or not, I must say AMD is catching up well despite all those losses..

amitash said:
What that says is core i7 at 2.66Ghz is = or faster than phenom 2 at 3.5Ghz, thats 900mhz

the reviews says the following measures ?? that if AMD phenom 2 940 OC to 3.5 then it ll be equal to Corei7 920

If sure corei7 is Oced means sure beats the P2

The Gaming PC buyers under 50K is well deserved now , they r gifted !!!

IronManForever said:
^ 900MHz or not, I must say AMD is catching up well despite all those losses..

Yup, and the best part is, PII performs where it it most important, in gaming. I dun care about the rest seriously.

PH II should be cheaper.
Consider this,

PH II 920 = 14.5k
i7 920 = 15.5k

Which would you prefer ?
Only thing going against i7 right now are the boards, they are expensive.

i7 makes much more sense right now even though its slightly expensive. Still, i will pick up AM3 PH II + AM3 790FX bundle as i just cant resist the fact that PH II loves cold

^^ if you compare only the processors, i pick i7. If you ask about complete rig, i pick PII.

Only thing going against i7 right now are the boards, they are expensive.

Cheaper boards came out when phenom 2 arrived...check this out:
*www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375
x58 with sli AND crossfire for 200$..thats 9k..maybe 11k here in india...so you can pick up a corei7(15k) + gigabyte x58(maybe 11k) +corsair XMS3 3gb(7.5k) for a total of about 34k...add a 4870 at 16k and it totals to 50k.

for AMD:
P2-941--14k + AM3 mobo(I wouldnt go for AM2 for an upgrade) maybe around 8k(for ddr3 and pci-e 2.0 cfx support) + the same corsair RAM for 7.5k + HD4870 16k will total to approx 46k....IMO if thats the pricing then core i7 seems much more worth it for 4k more.

^^ What if Phenom II AM3 processor is priced at 9k and the first am3 boards are available for 5k-6k. (780G boards price from the beginning was around 5.5k). Then, you get processor + mobo for the price of core i7 (unless Intel cuts price of core i7 in the same way).

^processor is the same p2-940..why should it be priced at 9k?...I dont hear any rumours for price cuts..hell it just came out. and AFAIK DDR3 mobos are expensive to make and with all the taxes in india you can expect prices of atleast 8k for a mobo with great features and 2xpci-e x16 lanes.

the launch price will be higher in all INTEL & AMD proccy say what "corei7 launch price 18000/-inc VAT see now E.X .E8500 , Q9300 all are priced too high in the launch

See a month P2 920 will be 9K or less /-

SO what

P2 940 - 14.5 (OC to 3.5Ghz)
790G board with Crossfire- 5.5
2 X HD 4850 - 19K
12 GB RAM 1066Mhz - 9.4K

50K total Even more faster than Corei7 920

Cpu is not fully dependent on games GPU is 50% a part RAM & CPU are another 50%

The stock cooler of phenom 2 940 is gr8 with heat pipes so we can oC to 3.6ghz at last . with the good CPU cooler Even OC to 4ghz with 790G chipset .

Total =

amitash said:
^processor is the same p2-940..why should it be priced at 9k?...I dont hear any rumours for price cuts..hell it just came out. and AFAIK DDR3 mobos are expensive to make and with all the taxes in india you can expect prices of atleast 8k for a mobo with great features and 2xpci-e x16 lanes.

of course it will come down. why shouldn't it? What was the price of AMD phenom 9950 BE when released? it's price now is 9k.

anyways, let's not think about whats there in future. let's think about the market now and in coming week or two.

amitash said:
Cheaper boards came out when phenom 2 arrived...check this out:
*www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375
x58 with sli AND crossfire for 200$..thats 9k..maybe 11k here in india...so you can pick up a corei7(15k) + gigabyte x58(maybe 11k) +corsair XMS3 3gb(7.5k) for a total of about 34k...add a 4870 at 16k and it totals to 50k.

This board does NOT support SLI, it supports only CrossfireX. Also please note that not ALL X58 boards support SLI.

^^^ & Also crossfire @ 8X speed full !!

darklord said:
This board does NOT support SLI, it supports only CrossfireX. Also please note that not ALL X58 boards support SLI.

No problem. CorssFireX is not inferior to SLI to make you buy only SLI boards.

This looks damn impressive anyway.

Model Brand GIGABYTE Model GA-EX58-UD3R Supported CPU CPU Socket Type LGA 1366 CPU Type Core i7 FSB QPI 6.4GT/S Chipsets North Bridge Intel X58 South Bridge Intel ICH10R Memory Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin Memory Standard DDR3 2000+/1333 Maximum Memory Supported 16GB Channel Supported Triple Channel Expansion Slots PCI Express 2.0 x16 2 PCI Express x4 1 PCI Express x1 2 PCI Slots 2 Storage Devices PATA 1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max SATA 3Gb/s 8 SATA RAID 0/1/5/10 Onboard Video Onboard Video Chipset None Onboard Audio Audio Chipset Realtek ALC888 Audio Channels 8 Channels Onboard LAN LAN Chipset Realtek 8111D Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps Rear Panel Ports PS/2 2 USB 8 x USB 2.0 IEEE 1394 2 x IEEE 1394a S/PDIF Out 1x Optical, 1x Coaxial Audio Ports 6 Ports Onboard USB Onboard USB 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers Onboard 1394 Onboard 1394 1x 1394a Physical Spec Form Factor ATX Dimensions 12.0" x 9.6" Power Pin 24 Pin Packaging Package Contents GA-EX58-UD3R
Driver Disk
User Manual
Rear I/O Panel Shield
IDE/PATA Cable
FDD Cable
SATA Cable

And its not 200$, its 185$ after the 15$ rebate on buying. Quite VFM.

I would prefer this with Core i7 925 anyday over Phenom II 940 with a similarly priced 790FX CrossFireX board.

^my point exactly...not everyone is an overclocker..comparing p2 at 3.5g to 2.6g i7 is unfair but still the i7 is nearly equal to p2...and with stock cooler i was able to get my 920 to 3.4g easily without even changing voltages just base clock...it was stable 8hs under prime..i can easily go further but at 3.4 temps reach 75c which is safe for i7. Most people only care about stock perf in which you cant compare p2 to i7.

amitash said:
^my point exactly...not everyone is an overclocker..comparing p2 at 3.5g to 2.6g i7 is unfair but still the i7 is nearly equal to p2...and with stock cooler i was able to get my 920 to 3.4g easily without even changing voltages just base clock...it was stable 8hs under prime..i can easily go further but at 3.4 temps reach 75c which is safe for i7. Most people only care about stock perf in which you cant compare p2 to i7.

Actually, you are wrong in that part. Most people DO care about overclock headroom. Why do you think Intel E2xx0 allendale CPUs murdered most of the AMD Athlon X2 CPUs ?

But the REAL thing I am trying to say here is that Core i7 is as overclockable as Phenom II. So it would be DUMB to expect people to buy Phenom II because the fastest Phenom II AMD has to offer can beat on overclocking the slowest Core i7 Intel has on stock conditions.

AMD has let consumers down by not adding DDR3, AM3 and HT3.0 support.
They initially said that we could buy and place Phenom II CPUs in cheap old AM2+ motherboards with DDR2 memory and expect the same CPUs to work in brand new AM3 Motherboards with DDR3 memory.

But that doesn't seem to be happening soon, and when it does take place, with the launch of Phenom II 9x5 CPUs, DDR3 would already have been mainstream to offset the original gains most people expected.

But you know what, with hope that Core i7 i920 will drop in price by April 09, and maybe P55 comes for 7k, or X58 mobos price come down too, I would actually go for Core i7 but an HD5870 preferably, or an HD4850x2.

I see gigabyte motherboards with support for AM2+ and AM3 sockets. And they have 780G chipset.

^source please.

But you know what, with hope that Core i7 i920 will drop in price by April 09, and maybe P55 comes for 7k, or X58 mobos price come down too, I would actually go for Core i7 but an HD5870 preferably, or an HD4850x2.

AFAIK P55 is not coming for core i7 but only for core i5...There was a rumour that i7 is only for the high end X58 chipset.

S

Sorry for going offtopic but I just wanted to know if intel are releasing any new chips by April. I am planning to get a new rig as soon as a Dx11 GPU hits the market. Should I wait or not? It shouldn't be like, I bought a new rig,jumping with joy and the next day a Dx11 GPU comes out and I'm left with nothing but regret.
What I'm planning to get is Core i7 965 Extreme,GTX295 or 3xx SLI,3*2GB DDR3 RAM and a mobo that can handle it all. Good enough of shall I buy only one GPU?

@3xGTX280 guy,ROFLMAO using such a rig for just surfing the net is a serious insult to it. Even my iPhone does that

Man are you serious or just fooling around the forum? Next thing I hear is a lunatic coming from nowhere saying he plays minesweeper on i7,GTX295 tri-SLI.

@@Sunny, go for it. if you can afford i7+295, you need not wait (unless you want to wait for price drop). You won't see dx11 GPU anytime soon. games aren't yet mature for dx10 in the first place.

S

I'll still wait till April 1st till my exams get over and the next day I'll pick up the best hardware available for gaming.

Go for it but i feel one gtx295 is more than enough...you must have one hell of a budget...i7 965 is 50k and imo its not worth it unless you plan to reach world record clocks..and i bet the gtx 295 will also be around 40k as even the gtx280 is 30k...for mobo asus rampage 2 extreme is the best but it will atleast be another 30k..the gigabyte extreme offers nearly same perf and oc potential at 20k...corsair 6gb ram is another 16k which already brings the total to 1.4l..with monitor and case and stuff it will probably get close to 2l..imo it is not worth spending more than 70k on a rig..you can save and upgrade more frequently instead of one big upgrade.

S

amitash said:
you must have one hell of a budget

Yes,I do

but I'm gonna buy this rig in April only. Maybe better than this depending on the hardware available by then.
I'll use my Samsung 22" T220 which I bought just a month ago and G15 and MX518.
What I'm planning to buy is:
Intel Core i7 965 Extreme or better
nVidia GTX 295 or 3xx
3*2GB DDR3 RAM
2*1TB 32MB buffer SATA II
Any mobo which you recommend.
Rest are a coolermaster PSU and cabby,a Blu-Ray writer,a creative sound card and 7.1 speakers.
Total?(In April)

i7-965--50k
gtx 295 is 500$ in the US but i expect it to be around 40k as even gtx 280 was 500$ at first and it was 40k during release.
corsair XMS3 1*6GB (2*3gb tri-channel not available here)--15k
2*1 tb segate--12k
MOBO--either Asus Rampage 2 extreme at 30k(very low vfm imho) OR gigabyte GA-EX58 extreme--20k
Tagan BZ700 700W PSU--7k
antec 1200 gaming cabby--10k
blu ray writer--around 11k
creative SB X-fi etreme--5.5k
not sure abt speakers.
logitech G15--5k
logitech MX 518--2k
samsung T220--16k

The total will come upto 2.04L excluding speakers.

^^ I would say, instead of gettnig core i7 965, get core i7 920 and get 2xgtx295.

btw, am hearing lot of news that seagate 1tb drivers failure rate is very high. keep an eye on that!!!

desiibond said:
I see gigabyte motherboards with support for AM2+ and AM3 sockets. And they have 780G chipset.

Don't you get it ? AM3 CPUs fit in AM2+ Mobos but not vice versa.

So if you buy a Phenom II 920 now, it would be very obsolete in a few months because it lacks DDR3 support and HT 3.0 support. But if instead, Phenom II 925 was launched, you could enable DDR3 and HT 3.0 support in a few months after buying an AM3 DDR3 mobo.

And yeah, SB700, SB750 still stand in AM3 boards. And perhaps the inclution of SB710 may happen.

desiibond said:
^^ I would say, instead of gettnig core i7 965, get core i7 920 and get 2xgtx295.

btw, am hearing lot of news that seagate 1tb drivers failure rate is very high. keep an eye on that!!!

GTX295 is going to be sooo short lived that we'll can't oops b'fore we get it.

U see,nVidia will launch 40nm 384Shader Gfx card, which will almost equal GTX295, although a li'l down in performance, but price much lower(HOPE nVidia sees sense).

So, this is money minting season for nVidia.

^^ you mean gtx285???

No, the GTX295, GTX285 both are gonna be shortlived

Sunny1211993 said:
I'll still wait till April 1st till my exams get over and the next day I'll pick up the best hardware available for gaming.

Same here, planning on a 70k rig. But I'm determined on a Corei7, problem is DX11 hardware will come in June, but there's hope as some are saying that DX10.1 will support DX11 so hope that's true,then I'll settle for a HD4850x2 itself.

i am also planning on a core i7/phenom II rig in two months time. cpu+mobo+ram+gpu.

but for my 19", i think core i7+hd4870 will be overkill.

amitash said:
i7-965--50k
gtx 295 is 500$ in the US but i expect it to be around 40k as even gtx 280 was 500$ at first and it was 40k during release.
corsair XMS3 1*6GB (2*3gb tri-channel not available here)--15k
2*1 tb segate--12k
MOBO--either Asus Rampage 2 extreme at 30k(very low vfm imho) OR gigabyte GA-EX58 extreme--20k
Tagan BZ700 700W PSU--7k
antec 1200 gaming cabby--10k
blu ray writer--around 11k
creative SB X-fi etreme--5.5k
not sure abt speakers.
logitech G15--5k
logitech MX 518--2k
samsung T220--16k

The total will come upto 2.04L excluding speakers.

evey thing u listed is gr8 , what abt PSU 700 watts ???

Better go for ANTEC 1000 watts or CORSAIR 1200 WATTS or COOLER MASTER 1200 watts

which cost around 13K all

any way 2.25 lakhs for all , hmmm

i can get corei7 920 and OC , then i can go for 2 X HD 4870 X2 ,

Getting a rig for 2.25 lakhs is really a sh!t , it only last for 1 or 2 year !!!

instead of core i7 965, get a core i7 920 + xbox 360

S

^^
Refer to my sig. Got almost all consoles except Wii which I'd never buy as it is for noob gamers.
@Compaddict,the rig you are planning is kewl but I'm a nVidia fanboi.
Temme a rig which can handle crsysis,warhead and GTA IV at good frames with a 22" LCD.
I've already got a T220,G15,MX518 and a coolermaster 850 Real Power Pro PSU.

if u r getting GTX 295 on a single hand , go for GTX 280 in a 3 way sli more & more faster than HD 4870 X2 on crossfire

i heard that palit GTX 280 is available for 26000/-

Sunny1211993 said:
^^
Refer to my sig. Got almost all consoles except Wii which I'd never buy as it is for noob gamers.
@Compaddict,the rig you are planning is kewl but I'm a nVidia fanboi.
Temme a rig which can handle crsysis,warhead and GTA IV at good frames with a 22" LCD.
I've already got a T220,G15,MX518 and a coolermaster 850 Real Power Pro PSU.

ah okay. didn't see your sig. great then. for you I would say, GTX260 build 216. or just wait for gtx285/295.

Same here, planning on a 70k rig. But I'm determined on a Corei7, problem is DX11 hardware will come in June, but there's hope as some are saying that DX10.1 will support DX11 so hope that's true,then I'll settle for a HD4850x2 itself.

Just curious how much does a 4850x2 cost?

desiibond said:
i am also planning on a core i7/phenom II rig in two months time. cpu+mobo+ram+gpu.

but for my 19", i think core i7+hd4870 will be overkill.

Thankfully, mine will be full upgrade.

But I'm considering BenQ full HD, and HD4850x2 if no DX11 hardware comes up May end.

amitash said:
Just curious how much does a 4850x2 cost?

I don't think it's even available here yet.

Very few shops, very few, no online one yet. Importing costs about 17-20k.

^instead of paying 20k for that you can buy 2 sapphire 4850s and crossfire them for 17k

And here come's the price cuts

AMD Phenom II X4 940 is now retailing for 235$ (down from $275)
AMD Phenom II X4 920 will be retailing for 200$ approx.

that's in response to Intel's price cuts (someone was shouting that price cuts is not going to happen)

no cuts for core i7

Q9650 gets 40% price cut and is now available for $317
Q9550 gets 15% price cut and is now available for $268
Q9400 gets 18% price cut and is now available for $219
Q8300 gets 15% price cut and is now available for $187
Q8200 gets 16% price cut and is now available for $167

E7400 gets 15% price cut and is now avaiable for $117

So it all comes down to whether you will buy Q9550 30$ more expensive than P2-940 but performs around 5% faster...I still feel like consumers should wait for AM3 phenoms.

after the price cuts,

920 is in direct competition with Q8xxx and it easily beats them
940 is in direct competition with Q94xx and Q95xx and here, it's a tie.

For anything below $200 and above $300, it's Intel all the way.

amitash said:
^instead of paying 20k for that you can buy 2 sapphire 4850s and crossfire them for 17k

But CFX performance a li'l weaker and not always 100% increase.

I think that i should skip my decision to jot in Phenom 9950 BE and instead wait couple of months so that Phenom II comes down to the price of Phenom 9950 BE..

Q- Will Phenom II fit on my 2 year old AMD 690 G chipset based mobo.. the model is Jetway JM2A-692-GDG.. it currently holds 4400+ X2..

Does it have an am2+ socket?
@compaddict crossfire or sli for that matter never gives 100% performance increase as games dont scale well...4850x2 is also just 2 4850s in crossfire but occupies only one slot.

hellknight said:
I think that i should skip my decision to jot in Phenom 9950 BE and instead wait couple of months so that Phenom II comes down to the price of Phenom 9950 BE..

Q- Will Phenom II fit on my 2 year old AMD 690 G chipset based mobo.. the model is Jetway JM2A-692-GDG.. it currently holds 4400+ X2..

*www.tomshardware.com/forum/257095-28-phenom-690g-works

Thanx for the info Bond.. i think that the mobo will not become a bottleneck when i'll upgrade to Phenom II..

It certaily will!!

amitash said:
Does it have an am2+ socket?
@compaddict crossfire or sli for that matter never gives 100% performance increase as games dont scale well...4850x2 is also just 2 4850s in crossfire but occupies only one slot.

But I saw HD4870x2 perform almost 106% of a HD4870 and much better than two HD4870s in CFx all the time. So the same applies for HD4850x2, it will perform tad better than 2xHD4850 in CFx.

the same thing with 3870 cfx and 3870x2...It will perform maybe 5-10% faster but the 3k extra cost does'nt justify the perf gains....Another problem with x2 cards is that what if the game does'nt support crossfire? The x2 cards always have cfx enabled so you cannot play that game whereas you can simply turn off crossfire on using 2 cards or just remove a card...It happend to me on grid, no cfx support so i couldnt play it...I had to disable crossfire in CCC as well as turn everything to low for it to work.

As for performance increase all games do not show 100% increase...you can expect around 60-80% average increase..you will see 100%+ perf on games that are heavily multi-GPU aware and personally speaking i've had a bad experience with ATi's driver issues and cfx support....SLI performs much better so if Im going for a new dual card setup I will go to nvidia's 9800gt SLI at mid-range cfx.

The incrase is mainly due to the 2GB mem, vs 1GB for HD4870 CF.

Try HD4870 1GB CF and the difference would be next to NULL.

^+1

amitash said:
the same thing with 3870 cfx and 3870x2...It will perform maybe 5-10% faster but the 3k extra cost does'nt justify the perf gains....Another problem with x2 cards is that what if the game does'nt support crossfire? The x2 cards always have cfx enabled so you cannot play that game whereas you can simply turn off crossfire on using 2 cards or just remove a card...It happend to me on grid, no cfx support so i couldnt play it...I had to disable crossfire in CCC as well as turn everything to low for it to work.

As for performance increase all games do not show 100% increase...you can expect around 60-80% average increase..you will see 100%+ perf on games that are heavily multi-GPU aware and personally speaking i've had a bad experience with ATi's driver issues and cfx support....SLI performs much better so if Im going for a new dual card setup I will go to nvidia's 9800gt SLI at mid-range cfx.

Dun talk about HD3870x2 and HD3850x2, the HD3850x2 beat the HD3870x2 completely, beating all theory. There was something wrong definitely in the HD3800x2 series, which resulted in it not being sooo powerful and good sellers.

But now the HD4850x2 and HD4870x2 support almost all current games, and I'm sure the new Catalyst 9.1 drivers will fix everything not yet fixed.

AMD and Intel are continuing their age-old processor war. After Intel recently slashed prices of quad-core and other CPUs, AMD has also reduced prices of their top quad-core models.

Though the price list hasn't been updated as of now, the reduction was observed at their e-tailers. The prices of the recently launched quad-core processors AMD Phenom II X4 940 and Phenom II X4 920 were seen reduced at Newegg.com.

The price of the Phenom II X4 940 CPU slipped from $275 (approx. Rs. 13,200) to $235 (approx. Rs. 11,200), and this 45nm fab process quad-core directly competes with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400, now priced at $213 (approx. Rs. 10,300).

Also, the price of the Phenom II X4 920 CPU has been reduced from $235 (approx. Rs. 11,200) to $195 (approx. Rs. 9300) and competes with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300, now priced at $183 (approx. Rs. 8800).

AMD's quad-core processors are almost at par with Intel's quad-core processors. However, the major difference between them is in the thermal design power rating; power consumption under task load was found to be higher in the AMD quad-core chips.

^^^ this is on techtree

source ::: *www.techtree.com/India/News/AMD_Phenom_II_Prices_Slip/551-98025-581.html

@compaddict
whatever you say amd has very bad drivers compared to nvidia but its not their fault...nvidia pays game manufacturers to optimize games for their cards...and when i bought the 3870x2 it was the fastest card on the market even faster than 8800gt sli in all benchmarks but then newer games came out and nvidia cards performed much better...i have no regrets..im able ve play every game at the highest settings

Yes, I agree wid u totally.

But there;s hope with Catalyst 9.1, a simple google search showed HD4870x2 improving by almost 10 frames on an average.