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fhohj
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AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Sat Dec 14, 2013 2:30 am

Hi there,

I was wondering if someone could explain to me the disadvantages of the AMD platform to the current Intel stuff.

So far, as I know you have mainly

No PCIE3 support
No USB 3.0
PCIE is not on-chip
Lower SATA performance

I am considering AMD, and most of these things don't seem to important to me. The main one that I do not understand is the PCIE not being on chip. Why is this bad?
 
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Sat Dec 14, 2013 6:16 am

The only one of those that I'm bothered by is the slower SATA. The USB is slower too and that's annoying but not as important in my opinion. Given that the SATA is slower and AMD processors are slower, I've been recommending Intel for the last few years. But the AMD platform is still decent and if that's what you end up choosing you'll be fine
 
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Sat Dec 14, 2013 7:23 am

fhohj wrote:
No PCIE3 support
No USB 3.0
PCIE is not on-chip
Lower SATA performance

The main one that I do not understand is the PCIE not being on chip. Why is this bad?


I use a 990FX motherboard. Of course you get USB 3.0, but some people say it is slower than the intel solution. It seems to work OK for me when I hook up usb 3.0 external hard disks, giving over 60MB/s in real-world transfers and being much faster then USB 2.0. This probably saturates the HD 2.5" bandwidth but I can't tell whether the intel solution does better. The PCIe 3 does not seem to be that important for high-end graphics cards (http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/07/ ... qxHGOIV9DI). The advantage ranges from +3 to +10% in most titles. Do note however that the 990FX gives way more PCIe lanes, if that matters to you. The SATA performance does seem to be inferior in the AMD platform. If you plan on doing a lot of IO using SSDs then you are going to see a difference according to some reviews. In real life, my Samsung 840 gives numbers that quite OK (500MB/s vs 540MB/s theoretical read and 324 MB/s vs 330 MB/s theoretical write). I really can't tell why the PCIe on-chip would matter. I suppose it's more for power consumption purposes (system-on-a-chip) than for performance advantages.

In the end if you need ECC or many PCIe slots, AMD is probably cheaper solution (an alternative Intel would be a costlier workstation motherboard). If you need the fastest SATA and USB, Intel is the better solution. I suppose you can't go wrong with any of those, but be careful to choose the model that suits you. As an example, I would choose between ASUS P9D-WS for Intel ($230?) and ASUS Crosshair IV (also ~ $230).
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Sat Dec 14, 2013 7:49 am

The only reason I've found to buy AMD recently was for something low-budget with ECC support - I didn't fancy moving up to a server chipset with a Xeon

If you're not overclocking, the difference in heat and noise output of the chips is staggering.
If you are overclocking, one would assume it is for performance reasons - and then Intel are laughing all the way to the bank.

If you add heat, noise, and power consumption to your PCI3, USB3 and SATA performance considerations - yet still don't care, then I genuinely have no reasons to point you away from AMD.
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fhohj
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Sun Dec 15, 2013 6:46 pm

Chrispy_ wrote:
The only reason I've found to buy AMD recently was for something low-budget with ECC support - I didn't fancy moving up to a server chipset with a Xeon

If you're not overclocking, the difference in heat and noise output of the chips is staggering.
If you are overclocking, one would assume it is for performance reasons - and then Intel are laughing all the way to the bank.

If you add heat, noise, and power consumption to your PCI3, USB3 and SATA performance considerations - yet still don't care, then I genuinely have no reasons to point you away from AMD.


Thanks for the replies, all.

And thanks for that link to the pcie review. I'd been looking around before for a good comparison, or just any kind of information of the differences between pcie2 and 3 and that's the best layout of it I have seen yet.

And yeah budget is a concern for me. Otherwise I'd just slap a 4570k in some z87 board and forget about it. Or conversely if it was all about not using Intel I'd just put an 8350 or 9370 or something the best 990FX board, flip off the air in Intel's general direction and be done. But budget is a factor here. I'm just building a budget box.

This will be my first build. Originally I was considering a 6300 against an i3 3220, but when the Haswell i3s hit, suddenly the 6300 made less sense. But then, these past weeks, Newegg had that sale on for the 8320 at $135, and that made me start considering them. I was surprised when that $135 sticker came back after the sale had ended, and then came back again even after cyber Monday. Seems they sold well enough or AMD just really can't part with these 8320's I dunno. They have remained lower in their prices even just regularly than before that sale. Where I am in my budget now, I'm considering a bit more than I was, and was thinking going i5-4430 or 3330 in a h77 or h87. These 8320s on sale were what started making me consider them again. I was previously not considering 8core AMDs because then you have to worry about what the board can handle, the cooling situation with the case and the heat sink you're using. And also, I have been mainly considering the gigabyte 970ud3 board, and going to 125w makes think about that a bit, but it's 8+2 so I guess it's ok, and from what I've seen the 8320 at stock clocks respects its tdp. Though at that pricepoint you could just get an i5. But with these new prices they will save me a little money.

So that's where I am in my thought process about it right now. There is also the fact that I don't really like the idea of using Intel. Looking at this stuff as I familiarize myself with all of the stuff, for a while, has really turned me off Intel. Another thing, because this will be my first build, I do like the idea of having it unlocked just so I can tweak it a bit.

One thing I haven't concerned myself with too much is heat and noise. I mean, I am concerned about heat. You hear as many times that these FX 8 cores run hot as you hear they run cool. I was considering a tx3 or 212+ to go along with it, but then that just adds to the price tag where the stock cooler would do it for Intel. It's harder to get information on heat and noise because, you know, you just don't find many reviews that do that stuff in any kind of depth, nothing like performance metrics, and also noise is very subjective and hard to quantify in any kind of hard data without expense for microphones and quiet environments and whatnot. But I'll try to go on youtube and see what I can find out about the noise and look more into the temperature situation. One nebulous area is exactly what the AMD stock coolers can do with regards to the 8 core. I have no clear answer on that.

So thanks for the replies. But back on topic, I forgot to mention the SSD caching, also read about that in the most recent guide, so I do know about that too. If anyone else has anything else to add that might be getting overlooked about how the 900 series compares to Intel's 7 and 8, then it would appreciated. Thanks again.
 
DPete27
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Mon Dec 16, 2013 10:49 am

I don't know if you live near a Microcenter, but I just helped a friend build a new system on Black Friday sales. He got an i5-4670K and MSI Z87-G41 for $230 plus tax. Microcenter also sells i7's for ~$200 from time to time if that's your fancy. They have good prices on AMD CPU+mobo combos too.

Have you heard the rumors that AMD will not be refreshing their FX lineup? Not sure how much truth there is to that, but if you buy an 8320, you're essentially buying last year's CPU with no foreseeable upgrade path....Not that Intel is any better. If you get an i5 now, you'll likely have to buy a new mobo ~4 years down the road when you upgrade your CPU.
Main: i5-3570K, ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, MSI RX480 8G, 500GB Crucial BX100, 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4, 16GB 1600MHz G.Skill @1.25V, EVGA 550-G2, Silverstone PS07B
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Mon Dec 16, 2013 12:26 pm

diesavagenation wrote:
Has anyone ever actually upgraded their CPU without having to buy a new motherboard since the good old socket A and 939 days?

Yes, my Asus M3A78-CM (Socket AM2+) motherboard lasted through two CPU upgrades, ending with a 1090T. That was a fantastic little motherboard.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Tue Dec 17, 2013 1:59 pm

Yep, and Socket 775 was a multi-gen trooper as well.
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Tue Dec 17, 2013 2:27 pm

diesavagenation wrote:
Has anyone ever actually upgraded their CPU without having to buy a new motherboard since the good old socket A and 939 days? AMD is a little better than Intel about this these days but I wouldn't buy a motherboard and worry about the upgrade path.


Absolutely. In fact, in each of the last 3 rigs owned by my brother (except for his current), my g/f and myself, there has been at least 1 CPU upgrade.

For example, my brother once had an Intel e8300 with a very good Asus mobo. When he was able to get a Q9550 cheap, why spend the $$ on a new mobo when he already had a quality, full-featured mobo?

Heck, my g/f's system has gone from Athlon X4 630 -> 1055T -> FX8350.

Even my laptop has gone from a T7270 to a T9300.
 
fhohj
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:11 pm

I don't think any of that will be around anymore. Unless AMD decides to roll out a Steamroller for their AM3+ platform but I doubt that. I'm thinking the next FX will probably be FM2+ or whatever succeeds that. But maybe they might.

I've read somewhere that Haswell Refresh/Broadwell-K won't be backwards compatible with current Intel stuff. And that Haswell isn't compatible with the new motherboards that will suport the new chips. There's nothing making Intel offer upgrades and they weren't even going to release Broadwell in anything besides soldered to the motherboard.

So it seems that that kind of thing is gone now. And you may not even have any upgrade options even within one series after Haswell Refresh. That was the read that I got from it anyway.
 
fhohj
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Fri Dec 20, 2013 4:04 am

DPete27 wrote:
I don't know if you live near a Microcenter, but I just helped a friend build a new system on Black Friday sales. He got an i5-4670K and MSI Z87-G41 for $230 plus tax. Microcenter also sells i7's for ~$200 from time to time if that's your fancy. They have good prices on AMD CPU+mobo combos too.

Have you heard the rumors that AMD will not be refreshing their FX lineup? Not sure how much truth there is to that, but if you buy an 8320, you're essentially buying last year's CPU with no foreseeable upgrade path....Not that Intel is any better. If you get an i5 now, you'll likely have to buy a new mobo ~4 years down the road when you upgrade your CPU.


Perusing the forums again, I realize you put a lot of effort into sourcing this so I'll reply. I didn't reply at the time as I didn't have anything to say.

No I don't live near a MicroCenter, I am in Eastern Canada

And yeah I've been following the AMD situation with AM3+. A lot of people make a lot of that but I don't see the importance. Unless the 900 boards already don't have features you need then there's not much difference. Apparently there's no upgrade path with Intel either and given that there's no competition to drive prices down, the older chips don't devalue, and instead they stay the same or more (in case of SB) as the new ones that just slot into their own pricepoints. So it makes little sense to buy an old i5 as it's the same or more as the new i5 and the new architectures have speed increases. It's not good really.
 
DPete27
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Re: AMD 9 Platform vs Intel 8 Series

Fri Dec 20, 2013 1:55 pm

fhohj wrote:
I realize you put a lot of effort into sourcing this so I'll reply.

No worries, I feel like that happens a lot. I provide useful hyperlinks in all my posts to validate my claims, but since they're "in-text" (to keep things clean) people probably think they're bogus advertisement links and don't click them.
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