AMD processor question

[marklaur]

I am think of upgrading my motherboard and processor in the next few months.
This time I am thinking of getting an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition.

Now thew local PC shop that normally assembles mine are trying to convince me that AMD processors do not last as long as Intel. Since this will probably be my last XP PC I would want it to last as long as possible.

Is there any truth in what they tell me that AMD processors have the habit of burning out. So far I have never had an intel processor fail. I have had a few motherboards fail due to bad capacitors but never a processor chip fail.

Are there any AMD users here who may be able to give some advice?

Also from memory BoBII can use multiple processors so I thought the new AMD 6 core would be better than an intel i7 quad for about the same price.

The most intensive programs running would be IL2 1946, FSX and BoBII.

One last thing my local assembler informs me that I may not see much difference in an upgrade from an intel E8500 dual core to the quad or 6 core AMD for games. Everyone I know only have dual core PC's and bench marks use what to me look like not realistic tests so not sure on that either.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards MarkL

[JamesB]

I can't really comment on any performance advantages of 6 core compared with quad core as I'm still running a dual core. I would say though that I have been running AMD processors for the last 10 years and have never had any problems with them although like you, I have had a couple of mother board failures. I find it hard to believe that there are any serious issues with the reliability of AMD processors and will almost certainly use on again in my next PC build.

[marine]

I am think of upgrading my motherboard and processor in the next few months.
This time I am thinking of getting an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition.

Now thew local PC shop that normally assembles mine are trying to convince me that AMD processors do not last as long as Intel. Since this will probably be my last XP PC I would want it to last as long as possible.

Is there any truth in what they tell me that AMD processors have the habit of burning out. So far I have never had an intel processor fail. I have had a few motherboards fail due to bad capacitors but never a processor chip fail.

Are there any AMD users here who may be able to give some advice?

Also from memory BoBII can use multiple processors so I thought the new AMD 6 core would be better than an intel i7 quad for about the same price.

The most intensive programs running would be IL2 1946, FSX and BoBII.

One last thing my local assembler informs me that I may not see much difference in an upgrade from an intel E8500 dual core to the quad or 6 core AMD for games. Everyone I know only have dual core PC's and bench marks use what to me look like not realistic tests so not sure on that either.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards MarkL

Marklaur

I have used AMD cpus for yrs,and never had a failure once,probably used them for about 8yrs.(only just changed to the intel E8400,as they overclock great,and it's just that my mobo uses intel cpu's.)probably that shop likes to deal only in intel cpu's,they all have their preference.

For what you need it for,like playing sims,BOB etc.i think the AMD Phenom will be overkill,besides the fact that it will cost over £200s for just that amd pcu i believe,never mind the cost of a new mobo as well,and as the shop say's,you probably won't see any difference with the dual core E8500 in playing the sims,that is a good cpu,especially as it can be overclocked to around 3ghz-3.8ghz,depending on a good CPU cooler.

You are right about the capacitors,but nowadays they use different ones that don't fail like the old ones did.
For what you will have to pay out for a new mobo,and CPU,i would keep what you have for what you need it for,but there again that's a personel choice,hope that helps.

[marklaur]

Thanks for the replies. It could be that the shop just prefers Intel. I gather some are given discounts as well if they only sell one brand.

I have been looking at some more reviews and it may be hard to justify the upgrade. May not be worth it. For me FSX still does not run smooth enough and I can not run BoBII with all settings maxed out. BoBII does run good enough so I may just go back to FS2004.

Looks like I will put the upgrade on hold a bit, but glad to here AMD are OK for consideration.

Presently I am using XP 32 bit. I have 4 gig system memory and a Nvidia GTX280 card with 1 gig memory. Since XP 32 bit can only see about 3.5 gig I wonder if the video card memory is being fully utilised. 1 gig memory chips are now only $30.00 each so I may buy a matched pair and swap out the 2 gig sticks and see what happens.

Does anyone know how XP 32 bit handles memory when you have over 3.5 gig that it can use?

I will look into it a bit more.

Regards MarkL

[MTFDarkEagle]

Hi,

AMD processor's are fine (I have the 955 overclocked), go for a quadcore and you'll be fine. Get a decent cooler, and you can overclock it really nice!
True, Intel processor's are faster than AMD ones, but for the bang for buck.. damn, intel's are expensive if you want equal performance.
I just had a look on a dutch tweakers website: the e8500 is 50 (somewhat) euro's more expensive! but the amd is faster.

Second: Get Windows 7 64 bit!!! Dont ask why, just do it

[JJB17463rdBombGroup]

I've never had a problem with either Intel or AMD CPU's.Generally CPU's have a very long lifetime unless they are highly overclocked.It's usually power supplies (especially cheap ones (avoid)),motherboards or hard drives that fail first.
I would hold off on building a new system just right now because Intel will release their new Sandybridge CPU's in a few months and AMD is expected to have new Bulldozer enthusiast CPU's a few months later than that.Bulldozer is expected to match i7 performance (or possibly better).

[marine]

Thanks for the replies. It could be that the shop just prefers Intel. I gather some are given discounts as well if they only sell one brand.

I have been looking at some more reviews and it may be hard to justify the upgrade. May not be worth it. For me FSX still does not run smooth enough and I can not run BoBII with all settings maxed out. BoBII does run good enough so I may just go back to FS2004.

Looks like I will put the upgrade on hold a bit, but glad to here AMD are OK for consideration.

Presently I am using XP 32 bit. I have 4 gig system memory and a Nvidia GTX280 card with 1 gig memory. Since XP 32 bit can only see about 3.5 gig I wonder if the video card memory is being fully utilised. 1 gig memory chips are now only $30.00 each so I may buy a matched pair and swap out the 2 gig sticks and see what happens.

Does anyone know how XP 32 bit handles memory when you have over 3.5 gig that it can use?

I will look into it a bit more.

Regards MarkL

Marklaur

From what i gather,winxp32 will only see 3.2 of system ram,and if you have 1gb of Vram on the v/c,it will use the Vram first,so that leaves you with 2.2gb of system ram,so the other system ram is wasted.In other words,as you say,it might pay you to ditch the 4gb of ram,(if it is cheap,which it is these days)and get 2x 1gb modules/mem,(it will make it dual channel then)you might see a difference,as you should be able to play BOB at max with that pc you have.

[MTFDarkEagle]

Or you can get a 64 bit OS

[marklaur]

I've never had a problem with either Intel or AMD CPU's.Generally CPU's have a very long lifetime unless they are highly overclocked.It's usually power supplies (especially cheap ones (avoid)),motherboards or hard drives that fail first.
I would hold off on building a new system just right now because Intel will release their new Sandybridge CPU's in a few months and AMD is expected to have new Bulldozer enthusiast CPU's a few months later than that.Bulldozer is expected to match i7 performance (or possibly better).

Yes that sounds OK. I think I may wait till Christmas and see what comes out. I could get better value for money with these new chips.

Regards.

[JJB17463rdBombGroup]

[quote=
Yes that sounds OK. I think I may wait till Christmas and see what comes out. I could get better value for money with these new chips.

Regards.[/quote]
My guess (just an opinion) would be that the new Intel CPU line will be available sometime in Feb. 2011.I also agree with the others though ditch XP and get Windows 7 Pro 64 bit or Ultimate (use the 64 bit version).

[Bader]

Does anyone know how XP 32 bit handles memory when you have over 3.5 gig that it can use?

I will look into it a bit more.

Regards MarkL

I stumbled into a limitation of 32 bit XP recently. I was getting hardlockups when running one game (Company of Heroes) with very large maps and highest settings. Turns out that XP mirrors your video memory in RAM. After a certain amount of time, if you run a video card with high memory, you will run out of RAM and get a lockup. The solution is to run a 64 bit OS or a later OS, or llower game settings.

This does not apply to any flight sim I have experienced.

[MTFDarkEagle]

Just get windows 7 64 bit
All of the problems regarding memory of any kind will be over: theoretical limit of 16 exabytes = 16 million terabyte

Practical limit of about 128 gb I believe. So yea, memory wont be an issue any more with a 64 bit os

[waco1937]

I had BoBII running on an XP Pro 64 bit and 3way SLI with an AMD quad core AM2+ socket and was stunned how great the graphics were. Then the rig took a dump on me and I still haven't sorted out what brought it down. I'm not going back to 32 bit on any gaming rig. Altho there's an ASUS mobo out that will run dual SLI cards at 16X each that's beckoning me.

[brianjgregory]

In answer to marklaur's question, maybe l can help him somewhat with his decision. My son's PC recently fell over terminally (M/B SATA controller); so I decided to upgrade mine & transfer the guts of my existing one to my son's case.

My new system is running an AMD X6 1090T Black Edition with 8Gb of Corsair 1600MHz DDR3 under a Windows 7 64-bit OS on an MSI 870A Fuzion motherboard. This has a Lucid chip that purportedly allows "mix-and-match" GPU's (even ATi/ nVidia combinations). Currently I am running a Radeon HD4890 Vapor-X as the master GPU; with a 5770 Vapor-X as the "slave".

Can't honestly say that BoBII framerates have been noticeably affected; as my 60Hz Iiyama monitor is the bottleneck. Once a decent 24" 120Hz 1920 x 1200 monitor is available; I'll undoubtedly be getting down on bended knee & begging "'er indoors" to let me buy one!!

What I have noticed with the Lucid dual-GPU setup is that the scenery tearing that afflicted BoBII quite badly on my previous rig (AMD X4 965BE/ Radeon 4890 Vapor-X with same O/S; 8Gb of DDR2 on an Asus M4A78Pro) seems to have mysteriously disappeared. This is strange as the Lucid chip allegedly needs a game profile to apportion the workload between the GPU's & so far as I know BoBII isn't yet amongst the games for which a profile has been developed.

As to the longevity of AMD CPU's, so far (hopefully not tempting providence); echoing some of the other postings; I've been running AMD based systems for over a decade & I've had motherboards, PSU's, GPU's, HDD's etc fail but NEVER to date a CPU. BUT, I seldom overclock anything except the GPU; & game moderately - a lot of the time my PC is used for mundane word-processing etc..

Hope this helps, marklaur

Rgds, Brian Gregory
AMD X6 1090T BE; MSI 870A Fuzion M/B, 8Gb Corsair 1600MHz DDR3, Radeon HD4890 Vapor-X/ Radeon 5770 Vapor-X Lucid Hydra setup, 2 x 1Tb Samsung HDD's in RAID1 configuration running Windows 7 64-bit

[marklaur]

Well I definately need wait till after Christmas now. The vacuum broke down after only 18 years, and you guessed it the wife thought it more important than a new PC. She picked one that cost over $1000.00, a Dyson.

But from the replies I now know I can look at AMD as well as Intel.

Regards MarkL