I'm in the process of building another PC, with the last PC I built I went with AMD and Nvidia SLI. So far everything has been great with the PC and it's never broke down but this was almost 4 years ago and it's all becoming out dated. I've hit a block in the road now with mobo's and vid cards and CPU's. Seeing Intel and Nvidia just cut a 5 year deal or something like that, so if I want to SLI and use Nvidia i'll have to go with Intel but if I still want to stick with AMD (which has been phenomenal) i'll have to start looking into ATI Radeon Crossfire. Any advice and opinions are welcome!
I need help!!! So confused and I need some advice on SLI vs Crossfire and Intel vs AMD.
- Thread starter Jpikus
- Start date
- Status
new2IT
Baseband Member
- Messages
- 81
- Location
- California
Intel boards support both Nvidia and AMD/ATI cards in SLI/Crossfire configuration. Only AMD motherboards are limited to only allow Crossfire configurations.
As for which to go with, the new Intel Sandy Bridge chips run circles around AMDs flagship 6 core processor. Not only that but they have been reported to easily be able to over clock anywhere in the 4.5-5ghz range. That's pretty impressive and will definitely help on those programs that still don't support multiple threaded applications. Even if you're only gaming the over clockability as well as Crossfire and SLI support should be a good reason to go for Intel.
If you are just looking for a purely gaming system get the i7 2500k. The only difference between that and the 2600k is it doesn't support hyper threading and its base clock is 3.3ghz as opposed to the 2600k's 3.4ghz clock rate - and it's $100 cheaper at $225
If you want to wait AMD is about to release their newest chip architecture later on this year, but if not I wouldn't buy their old line because Intel's perform much, much better. Also, keep in mind that these new Intel chips are considered "mainstream", while their "enthusiast" chips will be released towards the end of this year or early next. If these mainstream chips can perform this good, I wonder what their enthusiast chips will be like?
Here are links to the above named processors as well as a benchmark review of these chips as well as some of AMD's best:
Intel i7 2600k
Intel i7 2500k
Benchmark Tests
As for which to go with, the new Intel Sandy Bridge chips run circles around AMDs flagship 6 core processor. Not only that but they have been reported to easily be able to over clock anywhere in the 4.5-5ghz range. That's pretty impressive and will definitely help on those programs that still don't support multiple threaded applications. Even if you're only gaming the over clockability as well as Crossfire and SLI support should be a good reason to go for Intel.
If you are just looking for a purely gaming system get the i7 2500k. The only difference between that and the 2600k is it doesn't support hyper threading and its base clock is 3.3ghz as opposed to the 2600k's 3.4ghz clock rate - and it's $100 cheaper at $225
If you want to wait AMD is about to release their newest chip architecture later on this year, but if not I wouldn't buy their old line because Intel's perform much, much better. Also, keep in mind that these new Intel chips are considered "mainstream", while their "enthusiast" chips will be released towards the end of this year or early next. If these mainstream chips can perform this good, I wonder what their enthusiast chips will be like?
Here are links to the above named processors as well as a benchmark review of these chips as well as some of AMD's best:
Intel i7 2600k
Intel i7 2500k
Benchmark Tests
new2IT
Baseband Member
- Messages
- 81
- Location
- California
Intel's enthusiast chips are scheduled to be released 4th quarter of this year, these will be on socket 2011. I'm not quite as sure about AMD's Bulldozer chip but I think the last time I read they were aiming for a summer release. I believe that will be on an AM3+ socket, but I'm not quite positive on the naming, but it will be a new socket and that's about all I know.
As for Nvidia or ATI/AMD, (AMD now owns ATI and will discontinue the ATI name), this is kind of an age old question as to which one is better. ATI/AMD does have some dual processor cards that are probably the best of the best, but because they are well beyond my price range I don't typically follow up on their performance benchmarks to see if they are worth their price, or how hot they run, etc. I think mostly this is a preference thing, but if you prefer Nvidia their new 500 series are pretty good cards. I'm on the fence myself as to whether or not to spend $530 on a GTX 580 or save about $200 on a GTX 570. Supposedly they are going to be releasing a GTX 560 soon that will be more affordable and should be a pretty good mid range card. I don't follow along ATI cards too much but before deciding to go with Nvidia I was considering their newer 6970 or 6950 cards. There is actually a hacked bios that will make a 6950 a 6970...something to consider as well.
If your computer is working fine now and you can get away with just a graphic card upgrade I'd do that and hold off on buying a whole new system until all of the new architectures are released.
As for Nvidia or ATI/AMD, (AMD now owns ATI and will discontinue the ATI name), this is kind of an age old question as to which one is better. ATI/AMD does have some dual processor cards that are probably the best of the best, but because they are well beyond my price range I don't typically follow up on their performance benchmarks to see if they are worth their price, or how hot they run, etc. I think mostly this is a preference thing, but if you prefer Nvidia their new 500 series are pretty good cards. I'm on the fence myself as to whether or not to spend $530 on a GTX 580 or save about $200 on a GTX 570. Supposedly they are going to be releasing a GTX 560 soon that will be more affordable and should be a pretty good mid range card. I don't follow along ATI cards too much but before deciding to go with Nvidia I was considering their newer 6970 or 6950 cards. There is actually a hacked bios that will make a 6950 a 6970...something to consider as well.
If your computer is working fine now and you can get away with just a graphic card upgrade I'd do that and hold off on buying a whole new system until all of the new architectures are released.
Well this is what i'm running right now.
OS: Windows 7 Prof. 64 bit
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0
CPU: DualCore AMD Athlon X2 2.3GHz
Ram: 4 gig G.Skill DDR2
GPU: PNY Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT
It's either time for major upgrades or a new rig =/
OS: Windows 7 Prof. 64 bit
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0
CPU: DualCore AMD Athlon X2 2.3GHz
Ram: 4 gig G.Skill DDR2
GPU: PNY Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT
It's either time for major upgrades or a new rig =/
new2IT
Baseband Member
- Messages
- 81
- Location
- California
That's an older board so it will support SLI, most of the newer AMD boards won't though. If you were to buy a new board today and wanted SLI with Nvidia cards your only option would be to go with Intel. You've got a faster PC than I have so I don't know if you should wait or not, but I'm running an ancient dual core Intel D915 that doesn't feel any faster than my old single core P4. I can't possibly wait any longer, I was going to build a new PC last year but didn't have the money, now I do and Intel just released some nice new chips so I can't help myself 
If you can wait I would say wait for AMD's Bulldozer. I'm expecting Intel's enthusiast chips to be as expensive as a house so I probably couldn't afford one even if I didn't mind waiting, but AMD has always been very price competitive. But you would need to use AMDs graphic cards in Crossfire, but honestly I don't think there is anything wrong with that...its just a matter of preference for some I guess.
If you can wait I would say wait for AMD's Bulldozer. I'm expecting Intel's enthusiast chips to be as expensive as a house so I probably couldn't afford one even if I didn't mind waiting, but AMD has always been very price competitive. But you would need to use AMDs graphic cards in Crossfire, but honestly I don't think there is anything wrong with that...its just a matter of preference for some I guess.
I've been trying to find out if the new Bulldozer chips are going to be an AM3 socket or are they going to be making a new socket? Because if they are going to keep AM3 for awhile i'm going to jump on a motherboard right now before they sell out again.
new2IT
Baseband Member
- Messages
- 81
- Location
- California
It will be on a new socket called AM3+ . AM3 boards will not support the newer bulldozer chips. AMD wanted to avoid a new socket but it was necessary to get the speed gains to compete against Intel. MSI is already releasing their AM3+ board so either they are really f-ing early or bulldozer is just around the corner.
Sources:
AMDZone.com • View topic - Bulldozer need AM3+, not compatible with AM3 board.
The first Bulldozer supported AM3+ mobo from MSI (Big Bang Theory...I mean Conqueror) - XtremeSystems Forums
Sources:
AMDZone.com • View topic - Bulldozer need AM3+, not compatible with AM3 board.
The first Bulldozer supported AM3+ mobo from MSI (Big Bang Theory...I mean Conqueror) - XtremeSystems Forums
- Status
