question - amd3 vs intel i5/i7

[Tecate]

Hi All,

I am currently looking to build a new rig as my last 2yo one died, and i decided to gut everything and start again.

im looking at the following

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Hex Core (3.20GHz)
Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3 Motherboard
XFX Radeon HD 5870 - 2GB GDDR5 - (850MHz, 4800MHz)

I thought it looked like a good setup, for what i could find here in Aust, it looked like i was on the right track, however i did some research and it looks like the i5 and i7 trumps the amd hands down on the clocking side of things, and generally out performs in most tests and reviews.
So now im thinking maybe running nvidia setup would be a better option, maybe 470 or 480 in sli.

This would be mostly for gaming, either fps, bad company 2, mw2 and also some wow.

Can i get some info that could help me narrow down my choices.

Thanks.

[GeneralAdmission]

I've got a 1055t and could not be happier running triplehead resolutions with my 5850. The hex family chips also overclock very, very well. No direct experience with the Intel chips, but in the raw power department they are on top (though this comes with a higher price).

Keep in mind that you are comparing Ferraris and Lamborghinis here--either way you are getting awesome performance.

[Tecate]

thanks for that.

Do you think that the card i have mentioned will be good enough for running 3 screens of viewing pleasure? I saw a review on the card and it looked sweet as, but i am seeing alot in the forum of people running crossfire and sli. im still a bit uncertain.

[Paradigm Shifter]

It really makes little difference either way. I don't notice any "less" performance on either my 1090T (at stock) versus my i7 920 (either at stock or at 3.8GHz) in games. I do notice a significant loss when comparing them when video encoding, however - there the i7 (HyperThreading enabled) wins hands down; particularly when overclocked.

I'd stick with just one card for now - you can always get a second one later... but some of the issues that arise when using CrossFire and EyeFinity together just aren't worth it if one card can cope.

[Tecate]

excellent!! Thanks mate.

[skrubol]

For gaming (especially at extremely high resolutions,) the video card is usually the bottleneck, not the CPU. You may want to wait another couple weeks on the vid card, as the 6900 series (5800 replacements) are supposed to come out.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Hm...

After saying that Core i7 wins hands down when encoding... I tested out my 1090T (stock) vs. i7 920 @ 3.8GHz w/HT (RAM speeds are the same: 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 timings, so it's not RAM-influenced beyond bandwidth of triple vs. dual channel) and the 1090T is marginally faster in a 'real world' encode, with other settings being equal. Haven't timed it though - need to run some proper testing I think.