Intel E8400 And AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE Gaming Performance

Hi guys.

I had definitely decided on getting myself a Phenom II X4 940 BE the coming week. However today I noticed some gaming benchmarks in which the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 came out on top over the Phenom II 940.

By getting the Phenom will I be compromising on gaming performance? I'm buying the new processor as I don't get very playable frame rates in Crysis / Assassin's Creed with my XFX 9800 GT as I'm still using a Pentium 4 2.93 GHz.

Thanks.

Either chip will do fine in gaming. The big question is what type of motherboard do you currently have? If it is one that supports the e8400, I would just go that route and save money. Otherwise you would have to buy a new motherboard to go with the phenom. The e8400 is also very overclockable, I have mine at 3.8ghz for 24/7 use, and my mb is what is holding it back. If you need to buy a new motherboard regardless, you can't go wrong either way. Most games today won't fully utilize more than 2 cores, but future games may use more cores. I would even suggest even looking at a q8400/q9400 if your motherboard supports them.

They are both good processors, and they will both do well. They trade performance wins.
Do whichever is cheaper I say. I like the Phenom II X3 720 though.

My motherboard currently will not support any of the above mentioned Intel processors. So in any case I would have to buy both. I read a few reviews on Dual Core Vs Quad Core Gaming and found that a quad would not make much of an impact. My main objective is gaming so I'm trying to figure out which processor would be best suited.

Also a friend happened to mention that some of the older games might have issues with a quad core CPU. Is that true?

Will be waiting for more inputs. I intend to make my purchase on the 3rd of August.

Thanks.

Hi Ritwik,
the reason your seeing that is most games do not make use of more than 2 cores. there are exceptions like crysis which seem to prefer 3 cores. as the next gen of games are released they will more and more make use of 2+ cores, and the extra cores of the 940 will make a difference in gaming. having the extra cores right now will benefit you in multi tasking, rendering , video, etc. consider this benchmark review, it among others puts the 940 up against the E8400, and you will see what i mean. also notice my processor, the X3 720, it runs a dead heat with, and actually a few frames faster than the I7 920 in all of the game benches, obviously the I7 is a much more powerful cpu, but games at this point use only 2 cores ***with a few exceptions*** you will also see that in all of the non game benches, the x4 940 vastly out preforms the E8400, as it should obviously. hope this info helps

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-phenom-ii-x4-810-and-x3-720be-review-am3/1

****oh and HK, you were right about the x3 720, im running one in this thing right now, and its fantastic

Red you amd fan kid lol joking.

IMO either processor would do you fine, even the intel cpu will last you for a while. I'm definately using my 4 cores doing production work in my spare time. I'd put the amd chip ahead if the 8400 is your only other choice. I'm sure you'll do fine with either.

Thanks everyone.

@Red: Any reason that I might want to pick the X3 720 over the X4 940? Do tell me. I know I've been asking around a lot. But come Monday I'll be buying.

For the purpose of saving money oppose. In most people's eyes I think it comes down to how much you pay divided by how much of the product will actually get used to determine if its worth it or not. I do a lot of video encoding in my spare time, and on a blue ray burning rage atm. If you're just gaming the 720 will do you fine, it has a good price point for what it can do.

Yeah. I'll not be doing any content creation. My main objective would be gaming on this rig. I had considered the the 940 BE within my budget. But depending on what you all say I might consider the X3 720.

Thanks.

By supermashbrada:

LOL ..i am not! as the bumper sticker says...." my other computer is an Intel quad extreme" :haha: