965 or 955 Phenom II?

[Jaarh]

Which would people recommend? Worth spending an extra ~$20 for an extra .2GHz clock speed? Basically which is best performance:dollar wise?

[Asera]

At this point, it's pretty much spending $20 for a chance to have a chip that overclocks better than the cheaper one.

[Squall13]

If you have no plans whatsoever to overclock. The 965 would beat your 955 (assuming all other components are on the same range) by about 5-8 fps in WoW.

If you can overclock, you can even buy an x3 and risk an unlock + overclock.

[Coquine]

/agree with asera.

as far as unlocking your x3 to a quad core and overclocking. unlocking that last core is not always guaranteedt. and sometimes if it unlocks it wont be stable. AMD locks that last core down from the factory because it somehow doesnt meet their specs, clock/voltage/temps/broken or whatever. id imagine overclocking on an unlocked cpu would be pretty limited. its possible everything will be fine, but its a gamble.

[Squall13]

That's why I said "risk".

AMD also locks down the last core just to meet a quota.

[Deleted]

They are the same chips, no real differences in overclocking capability.

[Jaarh]

5-8 FPS won't really make a difference to me. Looks like I'll probably take the 955. Should suit my needs.

[Asera]

5-8 FPS won't really make a difference to me. Looks like I'll probably take the 955. Should suit my needs.

You can just set it to match a 965 or even a 970's speed too.

[Jaarh]

You can just set it to match a 965 or even a 970's speed too.

I've never OCd a computer before so I'm really not sure how I'd go about doing that. Running a 6850, 1 HDD, 2x2GB ram and a 955 OC'd to 3.4, would a 550W PSU handle it? (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004 - PSU, btw) I'm intrigued with that solution though.. I wouldn't mind saving a few bucks and getting a little more performance

[Deleted]

Your current setup doesn't even use half of your PSU's wattage while gaming.

[Jaarh]

Your current setup doesn't even use half of your PSU's wattage while gaming.

This answer makes me happeh. Definitely picking up the 955 then. If I'm only OCing by .2-.3 would I need to pick up a different CPU cooler or would the stock one be okay?

[Kyocere]

They are the same chips, no real differences in overclocking capability.

This exactly. They are the exact same cpu. The 965 is factory set 200mhz higher. Save the $20 and set it to 3.4ghz and forget you ever changed anything.

[Jaarh]

This exactly. They are the exact same cpu. The 965 is factory set 200mhz higher. Save the $20 and set it to 3.4ghz and forget you ever changed anything.

So glad I decided to post stuff on this forum before I went and ordered my parts. Especially my CPU. This place is so damn helpful haha. Thanks a bunch guys/gals.

[Deleted]

The coolers on 955 and 965 are identical aswell, you can happily increase the multiplier with the stock cooler.

[Coquine]

They are the same chips, no real differences in overclocking capability.

to say that theyre the same chip is pretty fair i think. they probably share almost all of the same components.

to say they have no difference in OCing capability is a little bit more of a stretch. when manufacturing precision parts, not all parts will come off of the production line equal. there is going to be a range of performances. as their prodcution process gets refined theyll slowly get more and more higher performing parts coming off the line. in this case the 955 was released months later 965 and even after that 970.

can you oc a 955 to match a stock 970? probably. can you do it on a stock cooler and stock voltages? probably. the difference comes in when you start overclocking the 970 or 965 as well. the 955 will keep up to a certain point, but im willing to bet youll need more voltage, and it will run hotter than either of the other two.

i mean you can think about it practically too. if the chips were really all the same they could sell them all as 965's or 970's. the fact is the 955's didnt reach whatever specs AMD had when it came off of the line.

of course none of this really matters if youre just going for conservative overclocks.

[Jaarh]

to say that theyre the same chip is pretty fair i think. they probably share almost all of the same components.

to say they have no difference in OCing capability is a little bit more of a stretch. when manufacturing precision parts, not all parts will come off of the production line equal. there is going to be a range of performances. as their prodcution process gets refined theyll slowly get more and more higher performing parts coming off the line. in this case the 955 was released months later 965 and even after that 970.

can you oc a 955 to match a stock 970? probably. can you do it on a stock cooler and stock voltages? probably. the difference comes in when you start overclocking the 970 or 965 as well. the 955 will keep up to a certain point, but im willing to bet youll need more voltage, and it will run hotter than either of the other two.

i mean you can think about it practically too. if the chips were really all the same they could sell them all as 965's or 970's. the fact is the 955's didnt reach whatever specs AMD had when it came off of the line.

of course none of this really matters if youre just going for conservative overclocks.

Yeah, I hadn't planned on going anything over 3.5ghz. If I end up doing more than that though I'll pick up the Coolermaster 212+. What do you think I could OC to comfortably if I pick up that 212+?

[Kyocere]

Yeah, I hadn't planned on going anything over 3.5ghz. If I end up doing more than that though I'll pick up the Coolermaster 212+. What do you think I could OC to comfortably if I pick up that 212+?

I have my 955 on the 212 atm running at 3.8ghz stable. I haven't updated my cpu-z yet. I haven't really tried to push it any further but I am sure I could go a bit more.