Which Processor is better?

[Goshivan]

Can someone please tell me which one of these processors is better for gaming?

AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition Dual Core Processor AD785ZWCJ2BGH - 2.80GHz, Socket AM2+, 2MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s)

AMD Phenom 9500 Processor HD9500WCGDBOX - 2.20GHz, 4 x 512KB Cache, 1800MHz (3600 MT/s) FSB, Agena, Quad-Core, Retail, Socket AM2+

I have the Phenom right now and bought the Athlon hoping to speed up game performance but the problem I was having turned out to be the Graphics card I was using! If the Phenom is better I will send the Athlon back for a refund seeing as it has never been opened!

[Luke_Uk_Baggy]

You need to give us a little more information.

- Can / would you be willing to overclock either / both of the Processors?
- What sort of gaming - is it really heavy stuff ?

At the moment, I would say the Athlon would be better at gaming. It is 600GHZ faster clock speed, which will give you a bit more of a performance boost.

The main difference is the 2 cores of the Athlon vs. the 4 cores of the Phenom.

Most of the games out there at the moment utilise 2 cores. However, the games in the past few months, and future games, will probably take advantage of Quad core CPU's. Also, generally, the Quad core will be able to handle more general load as well.

The Phenom's classicly have allways been able to be overclocked quite heavily, so you could probably increase your performance to at least the level of the Athlon (although dont quote me on that one as I have never personally used your Phenom type before)

Also it depends when you are going to upgrade next, or what you are happy with. They are both AM2+ processors so no decision to be made on that front..

If you arent going to upgrade at all (ever or for ages), you wont / dont want to overclock and you just want a boost for the foreseeable future, I'd say keep the Athlon.

If not (and probably my choice) I would send it back, overclock the Phenom a little and stick with that.

Let me know the answer / if you want any more info / opinions.

[Goshivan]

Right now I am playing Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 and since I added the new Video card it seem to be running quite well. I just wasn't sure if I should keep the darn thing or just stay with what I've got because I know when I upgrade again I am probably going to have to get a new board which means a reformat and I didn't want to do that right now! As long as the newer games don't require more than 2.4ghz which is what i have my phenom overclocked to right now I guess I should be alright!!

[Luke_Uk_Baggy]

Yeah you should be fine. You could squeeze more out of the CPU safely if you wanted.. As long as you know what your doing.

But yeah, I would send it back, keep the money, and save for an AM3 board / upgrade when you can / want to. It will be more future proof, and will be able to handle some of the newer / faster CPU's.

Your current system is fine anyways. Recently did a cheap gaming build Dual 2.6GHZ, 2 GB of RAM, As long as you dont bulk it down with loads of other stuff, and arent on MAX settings, you can get away with it.