I5 750 vs x6 1055T - With a twist

[izools]

Hi all! New kid on the block so go easy on me

Been looking all over the place for people's opinions on the Phenom II x6 1055T vs Core i5 750.

The general consensus is for video editing / encoding the 1055T and for Gaming the i5 750.

However people have also mentioned that whilst the i5 has great single-slot PCIe bandwidth due to the on-cpu PCIe controller, and here's the twist - it isn't such a good deal for SLI / Cross Fire due to the number of lanes on the on chip controller (apparently).

My rig will contain 2x Radeon 5770s in Cross Fire as this setup is a couple of pounds cheaper than 1x 5870 but slightly faster (albeit by a frame or two per second).

Keeping in mind that this would be a CrossFire system, I need to choose either:

ASUS P7P55D & Core i5 750

or

Asrock 890GX Extreme3 & Phenom II x6 1055T

I know the AMD option has an ASRock motherboard but in this instance it's a non issue as rave reviews for it. Same goes for the Asus mobo... not sure... ASRock more future proof with USB3 and SATA-3; urgh. Someone please make up my mind for me!

Thankee

 

[Fat.Clown]

i5 750 does not have on chip pcie controller, I think you have it confused with the memory controller.
Pcie bandwidth is still dependent on the board.

the asus board has 2 pcie slots, 1 that runs at full speed, (16x) 1 at quarter speed (4x)
the asrock board also has 2 pcie slots, with only 1 slot occupied, it runs at full speed, with both slots occupied, they run at half the speed.

in this case, I think the asrock board wins.

 

[izools]

For PC gamers paying close attention, there are just 16 PCI Express 2.0 lanes integrated onto the CPU die, meaning that Crossfire or SLI must use a dual x8 configuration. For other devices, such as Ethernet, that also require the PCI Express bus, they will be connected to the PCH (the new P55 chipset). In theory single graphics card performance on the LGA1156 platform will not suffer, whereas dual and triple card configurations will.

Intel Core i5 750 Processor Review > What is Different About LGA1156? - TechSpot

i5 750 does not have on chip pcie controller, I think you have it confused with the memory controller.
Pcie bandwidth is still dependent on the board.

the asus board has 2 pcie slots, 1 that runs at full speed, (16x) 1 at quarter speed (4x)
the asrock board also has 2 pcie slots, with only 1 slot occupied, it runs at full speed, with both slots occupied, they run at half the speed.

in this case, I think the asrock board wins.

Thanks for the info. So in my case (Crossfire setup) the AMD rig would be better. Good. I was erring towards AMD anyway, thanks for confirming it.

If anyone else wouldn't mind sharing some input that'd be great - this rig will cost more than I should really be paying so it'll have to last several years and I don't want to get it wrong!

 

[Puddle Jumper]

i5 750 does not have on chip pcie controller, I think you have it confused with the memory controller..

He is correct, the i5 7xx and i7 8xx series cpus do have a on die pcie controller.

The reason some boards have those pcie x4 slots is the manufacturers are cutting corners and using pcie lanes off of the P55 chipset for that slot. Any pcie x16 or x8 slots on a p55 board uses the pcie controller on the cpu.

 

[Slaymate]

alot of companies call the 4x slot a PhysX slot because PhysX doesn't require alot of bandwidth.

I would get (1) 5870. When you need more power you can buy a 2nd 5780 or a next generation card. It will be easier to sell (1) 5870 than it will be to sell (2) 5770's.

And dual cards don't alway scale out perfectly, the 5870 is going to be faster in alot of games.

 

[Fat.Clown]

ok... I learned something today

 

[izools]

alot of companies call the 4x slot a PhysX slot because PhysX doesn't require alot of bandwidth.

I would get (1) 5870. When you need more power you can buy a 2nd 5780 or a next generation card. It will be easier to sell (1) 5870 than it will be to sell (2) 5770's.

And dual cards don't alway scale out perfectly, the 5870 is going to be faster in alot of games.

TBH, given that 2x 5770's is under £240 and 1x 5870 is over £320 the choice is pretty clear especially when one considers the results of this review.

 

[Slaymate]

Good luck with that and your old review.

 

[izools]

Good luck with that and your old review.

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. Could you expand on that a little?

 

[patonb]

The review, i believe, used first gen drivers, with every driver release, things get better, and in this case, the review is almost a year old, with major updates to the drivers in that time.

The 5870 has become a much better gpu now.