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General discussion

AMD Processor Question

Jul 4, 2005 1:55PM PDT

I cannot decide whether or not to spend the money on an AMD fx-55 or go with something cheaper, like the 3800. Is there a lot of difference between the two (worth the extra $)? I will be using it for some games and will have an sli system.

Discussion is locked

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if you have money, buy fx 55 or fx 57
Jul 4, 2005 2:01PM PDT

personally, the 3800 would be fine unless you have money and are a hardcore gamer

konny

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get 3800
Jul 4, 2005 9:35PM PDT

Buy that and use the extra $ for something else. [Like a video card.]

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a note
Jul 5, 2005 1:20AM PDT

the Athlon64 3800+ is the "desktop version" of the Athlon64 FX-53 (which was the fore runner to the FX-53 and the 2nd in the FX line)

In terms of how much performance you'll see between the FX-55 and the 3800+, considering the cost differential (it's at what? $350 vs $890?) the 3800+ is far and away the better buy

this is Tom's Hardware's interactive CPU charts
http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html?modelx=33&model1=57&model2=61&chart=26


a few notes on those charts (yeah, their already outdated)

A) when it says Athlon64 3700+, it means the Socket 754 ClawHammer version, not the Socket 939 San Diego version (the 939 is better than the 754 version)

B) It is basing the 3800+ tests on the Newcastle cored 3800+, not the current Venice cored 3800+ (the Newcastle is still avliable, both cost $366)


hope this helps...

oh, another CPU worth consideration is the Intel Pentium D 820 and 830 (the 820 is around $250 the 830 is around $320) they are the two lower level Intel dual cores (AMD's aren't near that cheap, they start at closer to $500)

those Intels won't match a 3800+ in gaming (well, they might actually, i'm not 100% sure either way on that) but they will provide you with 64-bit (the 3800+ has that) and dual core (which the 3800+ does not have)

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AMD Processor Question
Jul 5, 2005 3:37AM PDT

Even thought the FX AMDs are realy fast the Big $$$ is a draw back. When you could get 2 3800+ and 2 MB for the cost of the one FX and one MB it is somthing to think about!
It's your money so spend it wisely. John