multitasking and CAD

i know this question must have cropped up many times, but ive been trying 2 decide for a long time whether to stay with intel or go with amd.

i know that intel is supposed to be better for multitasking, but which is better for CAD programs, 3D rendering programs, creative suite (photoshop, illustrator etc..)? how superior is the better cpu? i would like to stay with intel, but if i get the new chips then im gona hav to change my mobo, my ram, and my video card.i need to change my video card anyway but i want to keep my ram.i suppose i would have to change my mobo if im going amd but i just need someone to guide me or even tell me.

i have been debating this issue for sometime. my real question is the difference between the two worth picking one over the other in terms of performance with the applications listed above?

i have heard that the new amd cores have had great success with happy customers and great overclocks. amd looks more inviting but i just dont know.

i wont be up grading until august so theres a couple months from now.

another thing is that i will most probably be getting a vapochill, so which would fair better under a vapochill?

long post i know, and thanks t oevery1 who has taken ther time to read and hopefully give advice, and sorry bout the shorthand.

Lots of tough answers....

I usually read the reviews in Maximum PC and the likes for ****s and giggles to waste time. It seems as though Intel and AMD generally rock back and fourth between whom is better then whom for all of these tasks.

Id say overall though the AMD 64bit porcessors are better for cadding and photoshop. They have the advantage because of the onboard memory controller. Both photoshop and Cad eat up memory and like it. Haveing that onboard memory controller helps. Inel usually reigns with the likes of premier though but then again in general with movie editing more mhz=faster times. In my experience AMD generally does a better job with 3d. Also many of the higher end CAD programs take advantage of SSE and 3dnow. The newer AMD's have access to SSE, SSE2, 3dnow, and 3dnow+. 3dnow makes a HUGE difference in direct 3d rendering.

As for the Vapochill... I don't have much experience or knoweldge with these. Id have to say look into both chips and see which flavor of each is a good OCer and get that one from either family to take full advantage of that vapochill. Then again you might want to ask this in the cooling section too as people would know a lot more in there.

Also when looking at a vapochil take into consideration you're probably going to be overclocking heavily on that chip. If you get an Intel to 4.0ghz+ that onboard memory controller with AMD might not mean as much so you might want to look at that more too. I gave my answers presumed on stock speeds.

I think you'd be very happy with a fast dual opteron box -- if it's in your budget.

I do a lot of multitasking and CAD, and have recently built a dual xeon system. It handles most things nicely, and I would recommend it. However I only went this route because of budget constraints, and I will be looking to upgrade to a dual-opteron system when it becomes affordable.


I'm not sure on the current cost of vapochills, but I would definately say skip that and put the money towards some sort of dual-processor system.

why not Intel Smithfield dual-core for cheap ? you will get best performance/money ratio with those...

why not G5s?