AMD Athlon FX-53/55 VS Intels top dog VS gaming

Making a gaming computer and trying to choose AMD vs Intel. I know AMD chips are better for gaming and itel's for mutlimedia, rendering etc. But the game I play the most is EverQuest2 and they advocate it runs better on intel. Any truth to that? If I was going to go with an AMD I was looking at the Athlon FX-53/55, I am not sure whats Intels competing chip thats the equivelent of that is. If anyone could offere some advice and shed some light on this for me it would be much apriciated, thanks.

Also can anyone expain the mojor differences between the AMD FX 53 and 55?

go AMD for sure. And seems like $ is no object then definitely go SLI (2x 6800ultras). This will give you a huge performance in any game out right now and SLI is only available in AMD Nforce 4 motherboards right now.

Major differences between FX-53 and FX-55 :

FX-53 : stock at 12 x 200MHz = 2.4GHz
FX-55 : stock at 13 x 200MHz = 2.6GHz

both have all multis unlocked and 1024kB 2nd level cache.

Important difference: The FX-55s core is built with strained silicon at least in some major parts of the core. This allows the FX-55 to reach higher clocks and this makes overclockers happy .

Overclocking (this may vary of course)

FX-53 : ~2.6-2.7GHz on Air
FX-55 : ~2.7-3.0GHz on Air

For overclocking the FX-55 is far superior, as most of them reach 2.75GHz, while some FX-53 won't do even 2.6GHz.

Bottom line: both are made of the 130nm clawhammer core, but the FX-55 includes strained silicon, which leads to far better clockspeeds.

edit: I've just realized, that there's only one major difference, but I guess the post is still rather informative.

edit2: OCDetective just started a thread, that the FX-55 will soon be available based on the new san diego 90nm core. I'd recommend to hang tight and wait 2-3weeks until it's clear which FX-55 is the best. I think this time is well spent regarding the funds you want to put into one of these babies .

thanks for info, I will keep my eye ont he market and the 90nm cores