amd phenom II 940

[matthewwerhoff 0]

I havent seen much from the board on this cpu, AMD phenom II 940. just wondering how good it is in comparision to intel. I know that the intel i7 cpu will walk away from it. would like to here from those that may be using it. I have a tighter than expected budget, just trying to get the best bang from my buck I have about 1,300. for a new system, my old is 6+ years old and i'm unable to upgrade. plan to use fs 9 with xp. would appreciate any feed back thanks matt

[ramprat 8]

I havent seen much from the board on this cpu, AMD phenom II 940. just wondering how good it is in comparision to intel. I know that the intel i7 cpu will walk away from it. would like to here from those that may be using it. I have a tighter than expected budget, just trying to get the best bang from my buck I have about 1,300. for a new system, my old is 6+ years old and i'm unable to upgrade. plan to use fs 9 with xp. would appreciate any feed back thanks matt

Hi Matt,FWIW I just ordered a Phenom 2 x4 940 retail from Newegg ($229 including 3-day UPS shipping.) That seems like a lot of bang for the buck to me. Though, as you state, the 940 is less powerful than the i7 965. However from what I have been able to read on the topic the AMD 940 seems to be pretty close to the i7 920 in price and performance. And for those of us who are upgrading, the Phenom 940 will work with any AM-2 socket motherboard which really makes this an attractive upgrade. I will report the results when I get it next week. But hopefully somebody will jump in with more info before then.

[ramprat 8]

Hi Matt,FWIW I just ordered a Phenom 2 x4 940 retail from Newegg ($229 including 3-day UPS shipping.) That seems like a lot of bang for the buck to me. Though, as you state, the 940 is less powerful than the i7 965. However from what I have been able to read on the topic the AMD 940 seems to be pretty close to the i7 920 in price and performance. And for those of us who are upgrading, the Phenom 940 will work with any AM-2 socket motherboard which really makes this an attractive upgrade. I will report the results when I get it next week. But hopefully somebody will jump in with more info before then.

Ok, here's the report. First the details. I replaced and AMD Phenom 9600 Quad-Core processor with an AMD Phenom II 940 Quad-Core as indicated above. I conducted three tests under controlled conditions before and after the swap using the parameters set forth by the Petraeus Index. One was at Edwards AFB according the the Petraeus format and the others were at another airport with other aircraft as listed.The results:Default Lear Before = 44 FPS After = 89 FPSFlight 1 PC-12Before = 25 FPS After = 46 FPSPetraeus IndexBefore = 48 FPS After = 72 FPS

[mjrhealth 820]

Hoping to pick one up next week. Be nice I hope.

[ramprat 8]

Hoping to pick one up next week. Be nice I hope.

You should see a significant improvement. You have more horsepower in the video card and the harddrive. The only difference between our machines that might not be in your favor is I am running Vista 64. I am still amazed at the huge improvement this processor gave me. I can now run road traffic, sea traffic, and AI at levels yielding 20-30 FPS that would have choked my system to a slide show before. And even in areas like Los Angeles with settings that drag the FPS down, the sim is still smooth. I never expected such a huge improvement. Those who claim FSX is very processor dependent are apparently correct. I hope you get similar results. It is exicting to see FSX run they way it should....even for an old fart like me.

[Guest JamesT]

Compared against the i7 though?

[McCrash 3]

Compared against the i7 though?

What FSX really needs is MHz!

[sightseer 895]

I'm just wondering how things are going for any users of the AMD Phenom II 940. (or Phenom II DDR3 AM3)An AMD setup is a lot cheaper than i7. I'm tired of trying to save money.I now have a case, PSU, a video card, an OS and a DVD burner. All thats left is for me to decide which way (i7 or Phenom II) is better considering price and performance. Ive always used AMD and Ive been happy.what I have so far:EVGA 9800 GT 1GigCorsair TX650WVista 64 HomeLite on DVD burner SATA WD 250 Gig 7200 16meg cache SATAIII could get an ASUS M4A79 deluxe with a Phenom II 940 BE and 8Gigs DDR2 800 for less thanm $500.An i7 920 would run around $700.

[frankla 44]

I'm just wondering how things are going for any users of the AMD Phenom II 940. (or Phenom II DDR3 AM3)An AMD setup is a lot cheaper than i7. I'm tired of trying to save money.I now have a case, PSU, a video card, an OS and a DVD burner. All thats left is for me to decide which way (i7 or Phenom II) is better considering price and performance. Ive always used AMD and Ive been happy.what I have so far:EVGA 9800 GT 1GigCorsair TX650WVista 64 HomeLite on DVD burner SATA WD 250 Gig 7200 16meg cache SATAIII could get an ASUS M4A79 deluxe with a Phenom II 940 BE and 8Gigs DDR2 800 for less thanm $500.An i7 920 would run around $700.

Yes but the 17 920 is more over clockable and allows for more bandwidth with the DDR3 triple channel memory.

[sightseer 895]

I'm not one to overclock. Im looking for reliability and stability with good performance.Im aware that, on paper, the i7 is much better than the Phenom II 940 but Id rather hear personal experience stories.The AMD setup is a good deal less expensive and Im sure it would be miles ahead of my current setup.(see sig)According to THG, the AMD AM3 CPUs overclock better than DDR2 only CPUs. That makes me think that they might be better constructed in some way. Thats why I included AM3 in my original question. I dont really understand why AMD had made a DDR2 only CPU as their current top of the line model. If they plan on coming out with a faster DDR3 CPU then I might get one. They might be letting the overclockers of the world let them know how far they can safely push their own CPUs. Nothing beats real world experience.Id love to get an i7 system. Im just not convinced its worth the extra expense. (to me)"money's tight, nuthin's free" SRV

[Guest Alphahawk3]

I'm just wondering how things are going for any users of the AMD Phenom II 940. (or Phenom II DDR3 AM3)An AMD setup is a lot cheaper than i7. I'm tired of trying to save money.I now have a case, PSU, a video card, an OS and a DVD burner. All thats left is for me to decide which way (i7 or Phenom II) is better considering price and performance. Ive always used AMD and Ive been happy.what I have so far:EVGA 9800 GT 1GigCorsair TX650WVista 64 HomeLite on DVD burner SATA WD 250 Gig 7200 16meg cache SATAIII could get an ASUS M4A79 deluxe with a Phenom II 940 BE and 8Gigs DDR2 800 for less thanm $500.An i7 920 would run around $700.

You said you were looking for personal experiences. I have the 920 and have it clocked to 3.5Ghz. I did not believe in clocking either until I got this chip. My cooler is the V1 Ax and it is not the best but it keeps it fine at 3.5ghz. If you are not going to clock you better go with the AMD chip. The 9800GT will be a bottleneck for you with the 920 and I would think so with the Phenom 2 also. I know because I tried one....to be specific the 9800GT+ 1gig...which is clocked higher. I am very happy with my setup...6gig DDR3 1600 Ram...9600GT VC....two HDD...one dedicated to FSX. Now I know I need a new VC...even though I tried the 9800GT+ it made no difference from my 9600GT. I was kind of shocked and as I read more about those cards it became clear. There are quite a few posts about it also...using the i7 series and what video cards will give you a bottleneck with that series of chips....and even though there is nothing about the AMD Phenom 2 I suspect it would be the same. I do 95% of my flying using FTX series of scenery and airports from Orbx. My rig handles it very well....evn YMML which can kill a machine due to the detail at that airport...I have no problem. I also use the app some call FSX Optimizer which is the Frame Rate Limiter. It makes a world of difference in the smoothness of flight...evn though I have the overhead with my setup....it still smooths things out so much so I will not fly without it. Once again if you truly do not want to clock you might be disappointed with the 920 and the i7 940 would be OK but that is a lot more money. Best of luck whatever you do. Regards

[sightseer 895]

Hi - thanks for the info :)Im kinda regretting buying that 9800GT. I got it when I fully intended to get an E8500 system and as I was saving money for the CPU, MB and memory, the i7s came out and I started wondering if I could save that much money.Originally I was going to use my previous case, power supply, hard drive and DVD but Ive since decided to build a new box which set me back. Then the Phenom IIs came out.There is never a right time to upgrade! :)