The difference betwwen the 4 Ghz FX Cpus

[Sony190]

How much difference overall is the FX4170 and the FX6200

 

[trents]

Depends entirely on the application you are running. If you're application is thoroughly multi-threaded then the two extra cores will be a decided advantage. If not, the four core running at a higher clock will do better and at the same clock then they will be about the same. If you do a lot of heavy multi-tasking then in that case the 6 core will be better.

 

[Sony190]

So the Fx6200 is more of an investment thing than a applcation thing at this point.

 

[Cigarsmoker]

No, it's more of a bragging thing. "Hey I got 6 cores...." With computers, there's no such thing as investment. By the time software routinely need/uses 8+ cores, the hardware will be pushing at least 8+ cores that are faster, cheaper/core and likely more efficient than anything we have today.

Buy something that will serve your needs today and possibly over the next 2-3 years. If like me a system is still useful after 5 years, consider yourself lucky.

Having said that, even though I'm an AMD fan, I'm looking at an Intel system for my next personal PC build. Just read up on any Bulldozer vs Intel review or any of Tom's Hardware recommendations. "Bragging" right is nice but efficiency per clock cycle is where it's at.

 

[thevipper]

same with me thinking of doing intel for my desktop and amd apu for a low budget laptop for gaming on the fly but right now im just searching and looking at prices saving my money and waiting on piledriver/ivy bridge and some more of the nvida 600 gtx series to come out to see pricing of the "old" stuff and benchmarks for the new stuff for my new desktop

 

[ShadowPho]

same with me thinking of doing intel for my desktop and amd apu for a low budget laptop for gaming on the fly but right now im just searching and looking at prices saving my money and waiting on piledriver/ivy bridge and some more of the nvida 600 gtx series to come out to see pricing of the "old" stuff and benchmarks for the new stuff for my new desktop

I'd recommend the other way: amd for desktop and intel for a low budget laptop. Current intel chips blow AMD out of the water for power efficiency, giving you a longer battery.

 

[manu2b]

It actually depends on what you do and on which level (leisure, amateur, pro...), and on your budget.

In terms of gaming, any 4 cores cpu will do a great job. Almost no difference between a Phenom II running@4GHz ($100) and an i7 3960X@5GHz(10x$100...).

If you do heavy encoding (on a pro level), you will benefit of extra cores as they will cut by 2,3 or 4 the time needed.
Same for image manipulation.

As said earlier, there is not such thing as "investment" in this world.

Grab what you need at the best current price, and change in a couple of years, same way... You'll save money!