AMD Phenom II X6 1075T vs overclocked Intel Pentium G3258

[Aniallation]

So you guys might have noticed that I haven't been on that much lately, I've been getting parts to build my friend a new rig to replace his broken laptop, mostly to play League of Legends. Since I'm still waiting on the GPU and some other components that he had ordered, I thought I'd try some comparisons between this rig and mine, using the same GPU.

 

AMD system (initially built early 2011):

 

Asus M5A88-M motherboard

AMD Phenom II X6 1075T at stock (3.0GHz)

8GB DDR3-1333

750GB HDD

Antec NeoPower HE 550W

 

Intel system (new):

 

MSI H81M-E34

Intel Pentium G3258 overclocked to 4.3GHz at 1.3V

8GB DDR3-1600

256GB SSD (ADATA SP610)

XFX ProSeries 550W

 

GPU used for both: ASUS Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition, flashed to R9 270X, overclocked to 1.1GHz

 

Drivers: Catalyst 15.4 Beta

 

I tested a few games that I was willing to transfer over and felt like playing:

 

GTA 5 - 1080p, "Normal" settings

BF4 - 1080p, High settings, 2X AA

Crysis 3 - 1080p, High settings, High textures, SMAA Low

The Crew - 1080p High settings 2X AA

League - 1080p Maxed

 

Results:

 

 

 

 

-4th graph was borked whoops-

 

Conclusion:

 

As I expected, the G3258 is bottlenecking the GPU in the AAA titles that I tested. There is noticeable stuttering and frame rate drops with the G3258 that don't exist or aren't noticeable in person when playing on the Phenom. In GTA 5 when driving around the city, and BF4 and Crysis 3 when lots of shit starts blowing up. Even with V-sync on both CPUs are capable of solid 60FPS at points but the frame rate dips are definitely annoying at times.

 

In single-threaded game like League though, the G3258 definitely pulls ahead, it was able to maintain a solid 60FPS all day, while during large fights there were drops in FPS with the Phenom.

[minibois]

Nice graphs

You see the GPU is bottlenecking a bit, but you can see that dual cores don't really cut it for newer games now.

I have been looking all over for a quad or hex core Phenom I want one so bad..

[Mo5]

So in threaded apps it's better to have more weaker cores than less stronger ones. The conclusion isn't too surprising, I'm surprised the difference was actually that much. Plus it shows that the Phenom II X4 and X6 is still a viable CPU for gaming.

[Jack.EXE]

Woot woot!

I called this, BTW.

Phenom X4+ over Pentium AE in everything but mmos.

[Aniallation]

So in threaded apps it's better to have more weaker cores than less stronger ones. The conclusion isn't too surprising, I'm surprised the difference was actually that much. Plus it shows that the Phenom II X4 and X6 is still a viable CPU for gaming.

Well considering the games that I played are notable ones for leveraging 6 cores, I'd say you would notice a performance decrease with the X4 compared to the X6, even though theoretically it'd still be slightly better then the G3258 for AAA titles, but that'd also depend on the clock speed of them.

[ForsakenLive]

Thanks for the information!

I also saw several reviews of the G3258 performance inconsistency when playing games, this is one of the reasons I never recommended it with a couple of very specific exceptions (budget MMO-only rig for a friend).

 

My only critique here is that you used blue for the AMD CPU and Red for the Intel CPU...why?

 

It's such a shame that you got that specific motherboard at the time (it has only 4pin power and a weak not-cooled power delivery system), if you would have gone a little better, you wouldn't be running that Phenom at stock speeds .

[Dzzope]

Nice graphs

You see the GPU is bottlenecking a bit, but you can see that dual cores don't really cut it for newer games now.

I have been looking all over for a quad or hex core Phenom I want one so bad..

You can pick up first gen i7's for very very little these days.

[Mo5]

Well considering the games that I played are notable ones for leveraging 6 cores, I'd say you would notice a performance decrease with the X4 compared to the X6, even though theoretically it'd still be slightly better then the G3258 for AAA titles, but that'd also depend on the clock speed of them.

Maybe you can turn off the 2 cores in BIOS and post an update. Just an idea

[Sauron]

Nice! Can we get some benchmarks for the phenom II overclocked?

[nhatduy1611]

Interesting result i must say. The pentium still stand up really well though since it so affordable

[minibois]

You can pick up first gen i7's for very very little these days.

But with a Phenom I wouldn't need to upgrade my motherboard.

[D3MON]

Came here expecting to give advice, turns out didn't need to as you confirmed what i was going to say
intel fanboys be like "see amd's so far behind, the pentium keeps up with a phenom hex core" completely missing the 7 year old point that modern well made games run really damn well on a phenom x4, i3's, q6600's (with an overclock) etc and that super fast single cores while still very useful only mattered most back in the mid 2000's, the 4440 is probably the best intel chip all over for gaming bang/buck and if production is important the 5820k dominates all in bang/buck.

[D3MON]

Nice graphs

You see the GPU is bottlenecking a bit, but you can see that dual cores don't really cut it for newer games now.

I have been looking all over for a quad or hex core Phenom I want one so bad..

you can get pheom x4's in the uk for £60 and have been able to for aggeess, i got an fx8 for £60 im sorry thats an unlikely option for you, i got my ph X6 as part of a hp machine i bought for £140, the chip alone sells for £75, im now sourcing a dual core to put back in the rig to sell on. i bet you can overclock like a boss though.

[minibois]

you can get pheom x4's in the uk for £60 and have been able to for aggeess, i got an fx8 for £60 im sorry thats an unlikely option for you, i got my ph X6 as part of a hp machine i bought for £140, the chip alone sells for £75, im now sourcing a dual core to put back in the rig to sell on. i bet you can overclock like a boss though.

I have not OC'ed my CPU myself. Basically never bothered with it.

I just looked in CPU-Z and under CPU (the first tab) I see Core Voltage at 1.356V. Does that mean it is already OC'ed or is this just some general CPU-Z thing?

(Also just noticed it changes to a bit higher when I open up another program and after that goes down to 1.356V?!)

Will look into that.. But yeah, I just have to come across a good deal on a Phenom (I have a AM3 motherboard, so can't put FX chips in it) and maybe I'll look into OC'ing.

[Dzzope]

Came here expecting to give advice, turns out didn't need to as you confirmed what i was going to say

intel fanboys be like "see amd's so far behind, the pentium keeps up with a phenom hex core" completely missing the 7 year old point that modern well made games run really damn well on a phenom x4, i3's, q6600's (with an overclock) etc and that super fast single cores while still very useful only mattered most back in the mid 2000's, the 4440 is probably the best intel chip all over for gaming bang/buck and if production is important the 5820k dominates all in bang/buck.

Amd are behind but no matter how good a chip is these days, you need 4 threads / cores.

[Mo5]

I have not OC'ed my CPU myself. Basically never bothered with it.

I just looked in CPU-Z and under CPU (the first tab) I see Core Voltage at 1.356V. Does that mean it is already OC'ed or is this just some general CPU-Z thing?

(Also just noticed it changes to a bit higher when I open up another program and after that goes down to 1.356V?!)

Will look into that.. But yeah, I just have to come across a good deal on a Phenom (I have a AM3 motherboard, so can't put FX chips in it) and maybe I'll look into OC'ing.

IIRC the VID for PIIX4 is 1.325V but I guess 1.356V is in that margin of error.

[minibois]

IIRC the VID for PIIX4 is 1.325V but I guess 1.356V is in that margin of error.

Well, will look into it tomorrow. Don't have time right now to make a thread and go into my bios and stuff

[D3MON]

I have not OC'ed my CPU myself. Basically never bothered with it.

I just looked in CPU-Z and under CPU (the first tab) I see Core Voltage at 1.356V. Does that mean it is already OC'ed or is this just some general CPU-Z thing?

(Also just noticed it changes to a bit higher when I open up another program and after that goes down to 1.356V?!)

Will look into that.. But yeah, I just have to come across a good deal on a Phenom (I have a AM3 motherboard, so can't put FX chips in it) and maybe I'll look into OC'ing.

cpu vid changes by chip so no one fits all, my first fx8 had a 1.375v vid and wanted 4.5v for 4.5ghz, my current chip is 1.225v vid and only wants 1.3v (1.296v actually) for 4.5ghz.

get coretemp and see what the "cpu vid" is, its likely under 1.4v so set it to 1.4v in bios which is a safe start for most chips, turn off cool n quiet, boot and note down what your idle cpu-z voltage is.

set your ram to 1066 instead of 1333

then run a 250fsb which will make your ram run at 1333 again.

set the HT link speed AND northbridge to 2000mhz (which is a x8 multi)

then try a 14x cpu multi and see if it boots

stock

200x15.5=3100mhz, overclock's-14x250=3500mhz, 14.5x250=3625mhz, 15x250=3750mhz, run cinebench, if it passes that try amd overdrive stress test for an hour. if it passes that try another multi higher, if it fails check the voltage under load in cpu-z and if it goes below your idle voltage that you wrote down earlier increase the loadline calibration a little till it stays around the same, regardless of if you're idle or stressing it.

retest and see if it passes, if for instance you're trying 3.625ghz and 1.4v simply isnt enough, try 1.425v (so an extra 0.025v) and try again, keep an eye on volts, 1.5v is too much at any point. and up to 1.45v is gold. its kids stuff really, let me know how it goes.

 

Amd are behind but no matter how good a chip is these days, you need 4 threads / cores.

all very true, bf3 would run happily on a tri core, dual cores bottlenecked, bf4 seems to be a quad core minimum (slow is fine but with 3ghz minimum so a q6600 at 3ghz is still fine)

[Aniallation]

Nice! Can we get some benchmarks for the phenom II overclocked?

Sadly no, because the 1075T is a locked chip, and overclocking at all on this mobo would rape the VRMs

[Sauron]

Sadly no, because the 1075T is a locked chip, and overclocking at all on this mobo would rape the VRMs

 

damn it

[Aniallation]

My only critique here is that you used blue for the AMD CPU and Red for the Intel CPU...why?

 

It's such a shame that you got that specific motherboard at the time (it has only 4pin power and a weak not-cooled power delivery system), if you would have gone a little better, you wouldn't be running that Phenom at stock speeds .

lol, automatic color select in powerpoint, didn't feel like changing it

 

I didn't know anything about overclocking at the time (4 years ago) so didn't go for OC-ready parts, and I really didn't expect to keep this CPU+mobo for so long. Even if it was a better mobo though it's still a locked chip, and I have no clue how to OC using base clock

[Aniallation]

You can pick up first gen i7's for very very little these days.

I had a first gen i7 rig, I could only keep one so it was a choice between it and the Phenom, but I chose this one since I wanted to downsize to mATX. IMO, the performance difference wasn't that big, if there was any at all. Sandy Bridge was when Intel really took off.

 

Will look into that.. But yeah, I just have to come across a good deal on a Phenom (I have a AM3 motherboard, so can't put FX chips in it) and maybe I'll look into OC'ing.

I'd have no problem with overclocking on your board, it definitely looks very solid and much better then mine. If you're looking into AAA gaming definitely get an X6 1090T and overclock it, it's worth it over an X4. The IPC of Thuban (Phenom) is actually better then Vishera (FX), you actually still get very decent single-threaded performance with an OC'd Phenom II, and obviously great multi-threaded performance.

 

all very true, bf3 would run happily on a tri core, dual cores bottlenecked, bf4 seems to be a quad core minimum (slow is fine but with 3ghz minimum so a q6600 at 3ghz is still fine)

lbr all the tri core CPUs I know of can be unlocked into quad cores

[stconquest]

This is how I overclocked my locked Phenom X6 1055t, got it to a stable 3.8 GHz for years.

 

This happens to be the first time I really watched a Linus video:

 

[gojira]

Is it worth ugrading from the athlon 760k to the Phenom? I have an OEM AM2 motherboard here I'd like to use..

[Aniallation]

Is it worth ugrading from the athlon 760k to the Phenom? I have an OEM AM2 motherboard here I'd like to use..

If you have to shell out money then IMO no. Also if it's AM2 (not AM2+) then it won't work with an AM3 chip.