8

I am about to upgrade my dell machine and will getting a custom pc built soon.

There are two options that I see in my budget for the processor:

  1. AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition - Quad Core, AM2+/AM3, 3,4GHz, 8MB, Boxed
  2. Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-750 - 2,66GHz, Socket LGA1156, 8MB, Boxed m/fläkt

I will be using the PC for graphic editing, web design and some gaming. The OS I will be using is windows 7.

Which one is better for my purposes? and is there a difference between AMD and Intel, Will AMD support all of my drivers, programs etc?

Improve this question
1
  • Intel CPUs typically have a much better IPC (single-thread performance); so you can't directly compare the clock speeds (which are meaningless for comparing anyway, unless they're from the same generation).
    – Léo Lam
    Commented Aug 9, 2015 at 10:24

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
1

You haven't made any indication of the operating system, but the programs should be compatible if they are made for the OS. The 2 processors are identical except the AMD has a higher clock speed to start with. Although I'd still opt for the i5 due to it's turbo feature.

Some benchmarks here.

Improve this answer
3
  • Sorry, Windows 7 - Thanks. Would you think that would be alot faster than my current Intel Core 2 Duo E4500?
    – user15259
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 4:01
  • Without a doubt. Faster clock, 4x the cache, turbo, and the 4500 doesn't have Intel-VT.
    – user1931
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 4:03
  • 1
    Turbo? I haven't had a turbo button since my old cyrix 586 133mhz :D
    – Greg
    Commented Oct 25, 2009 at 10:02
7

I don't mean this sarcastically, but if you don't know the difference, you will probably never notice it. Compatibility is a non-issue.

According to reviews, the performance is very comparable between the two. Ignore answers about clock speed, it is not a relevant fact. You did mention graphic editing. In the linked benchmarks, the Intel i5 does noticeably better in that task.

Tech Report Benchmarks

Improve this answer
0
2

You (most likely) won't get compatibility issues with an AMD processor. As you can see, AMD provides a higher clock speed for the same or lower price.

An advantage of the Intel processor is that it supports Turbo Boost which will overclock the processor on the fly if only one or two cores are used.

Improve this answer
2

Interestingly , and granted this is an older AMD CPU (Athlon XP)than those mentioned, but some applications don't seem to like AMD comapared to Intel if they are particularly processer intensive. My PC will not run BOINC on 32 bit AMD, but an older P3 Intel is fine. Additionaly my work PC AMD X2 64 also does not like BOINC, wont even install it. So while in theory there should not be any noticeable different some CPU intensive applications written for/on Intel architecture may not work 100% correctly on AMD in a Windows operating system.

Improve this answer
1
  • 4
    ian - I have a bunch of guys running BOINC on Athlon II & Phenom II's on my folding team, who didn't have this problem
    – Sathyajith Bhat ♦
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 11:05

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .