Which is best? Athlon or phenom

Asked By spider01 10 points N/A Posted on - 08/04/2011

Hi people! I have a question and I hope you can assist me on this one… I am a gamer and planning to buy a high-end video card but I'm thinking what processor is the best but affordable? My friends are telling me that both processors are good (PHENOM AND ATHLON) so I don't know which one to choose.. I am looking for a second opinion, please give me an advise.. Thanks!

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Answered By ChrisJo 0 points N/A #98547

Which is best? Athlon or phenom

Phenom is much better than Athlon. It performs better and is better built for gaming purposes and is much more cheaper. An example is the Phenom II  X2 550 (3.1GHz @80W) is a dual core with 6MB L3 cache and it costs about $99. While the Athlon II X4 630 (2.8GHz @95W) is a quad core and costs about $113. So you will be paying $14 more for a computer that not only runs slower, but consumes more electricity. Performance wise and cost, many gamers prefer using Phenom. It gives them maximum performance and less strain on computers. You can also consider using Intel, for a considerably higher cost. Hope that this will clear out any confusions.

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Answered By Patrick b 0 points N/A #98548

Which is best? Athlon or phenom

Hello Spider01.

• The main difference between Phenom II and Athlon II is that Phenom IIs have an L3 cache.  This L3 cache improves performance a little bit in games.
• You can look at it this way:
• Phenom II = Maximum performance
• Athlon II = better performance to cost ratio
• One interesting thing to note though is that if you overclock an Athlon II, it can almost reach Phenom II performance levels (comparing both processors with the same number of cores of course).
• If you can afford it, go for the Phenom.  If you want to save on cash and know how to overclock, go for the Athlon.
• Here's a comparison of an Athlon with default clock settings, a Phenom and an overclocked Athlon.
• http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/athlon2_620/14.htm

 

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• Posted on - 09/15/2011
• Question Category: CPU Processors