# Athlon II X4 620 vs Phenom II 720 BE



## haldex (Feb 16, 2010)

Hi everyone, i´m new here and i´ve been reading lots of reviews about this 2 processors. Aparently, the 720 BE seems to be the winner in this fight, at least in games. I want to replace my 7850 BE because i want more performance in games, specially in FSX, which depends a lot of the CPU. I know that probably the best choice would be an i7, i5 or X4 965 BE, but i have a M2N68 AM SE mobo, which only supports 95W TDP, and i don´t want to spend too much so i will stick with my mobo and memos. 

My specs are:
-Athlon X2 7850 BE
-Asus M2N68 AM SE
-XFX 4770 
-4GB DDR2 Kingston

Sorry if my english isn´t very good

Thanks in advance!


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## Necrofire (Feb 16, 2010)

I'm not sure if you're asking what our opinion was, but I would have to agree with you on this one. Not enough games are threaded for 4 cores, so despite having one less core, the phenom ii wins since it has a higher clock and an L3 cache.

Plus, unlocking these things is pretty easy, and has a pretty good chance of working.


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## ERazer (Feb 16, 2010)

go for x3 720 BE best for games and easy to OC


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## assaulter_99 (Feb 16, 2010)

By the time games will use more cores, it'll be already time for another upgrade! I'd go with the 720 too.  pretty unfair though, nobody wants the 620! For the money, its a real good performer.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 16, 2010)

save a little bit on cash and upgrade both the CPU and the GPU.


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## sweeper (Feb 16, 2010)

Here's some info on the two CPU's. 

 HERE 

Athlon II X4 620: $95.00 RETAIL (Microcenter)
Phenom II X3 720: $101.00 OEM (Newegg)


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## TIGR (Feb 16, 2010)

haldex, welcome to TPU!

I agree with others that the X3 would be your best option for gaming. But you really can't go wrong with any of these; they're all good options for their prices.


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## Fourstaff (Feb 16, 2010)

Gaming, X3 720BE wins by a bit, others X4 620.


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## richardbel (Feb 16, 2010)

+1 on X3, its my choice for gaming..


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## sweeper (Feb 16, 2010)

I'd take the Athlon II X4 620 personally, but, it also depends on the price. IMO 4 cores @ under $100 is better than 3 cores over $100 and OEM at that. The X3 is getting phased out with X4 now on the scene. I just did a build and have a thread about it. I went with the X4 Athlon over the X3 Phenom and it runs everything excellent hands down. It also runs VERY cool @ 32C-35C idle with stock HSF and 53-55C under load. Very fast. Very cheap for a 4 core CPU. IMO: better bang for the buck.


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## werez (Feb 16, 2010)

To be honest , with your video card you wont see any difference between the x3 and the x4 . Both take full advantage and push that video card to it's maximum potential . The cpu raw power shows up only when gaming in really low resolutions like 800/600 with low settings . Nobody games in those resolutions having a newer generation video card . When you crank up the settings a bit the performance will be leveled .
And don`t let the numbers fool you , a 2 fps +/- is not actually noticeable . If you do want to upgrade that CPU , you should go for the Athlon x4 ( cheap quadcore , helps multitasking ) .


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## haldex (Feb 16, 2010)

Thanks to all for your answers. The thing is that in my country (Argentina), the 720 BE costs *u$s 200*, that is to say, u$s 50 over the X4 620. The Phenom performs much better because despite having only 3 cores, it has 6MB of L3 cache and higher clocks. But i would like to know if the X4 will be better in Flight Simulator. I know 720 BE has to be my choice, but does it worth the difference in price?


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## werez (Feb 16, 2010)

50$ over is too much ... save a little and try to upgrade your video card .


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## CJCerny (Feb 16, 2010)

Microcenter currently has both the X4 630 and the X3 720 for $99, plus $30 off the AMD mobo of your choice. If you are a gamer, the 720 is the way to go. If you are all about desktop apps and video transcoding, then the X4 630 is the way to go.


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## sweeper (Feb 16, 2010)

Well he's in Argentina so the Micro Center deal is out. Bummer. But, I agree with 'werez' , $50 more than the X4 Athlon is to much for the small amount of increase. The two CPU's are really neck in neck. I understand the L3 with 6MB of Cache but it doesn't increase the CPU's overall performance. If you read that link I posted then you would see the X4 out performs the X3 in most applications, even gaming. Try and upgrade your video card and wait a bit to get a X4 Phenom later.


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## pantherx12 (Feb 16, 2010)

The x4 can overclock to 4ghz so higher-clock speed on the phenom is no reason for getting it.

They perform around the same level and ones cheaper, seems obvious to me.


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## sweeper (Feb 16, 2010)

pantherx12 said:


> The x4 can overclock to 4ghz so higher-clock speed on the phenom is no reason for getting it.
> 
> They perform around the same level and ones cheaper, seems obvious to me.



+1


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## JrRacinFan (Feb 16, 2010)

I know someone a few posts up if that it is for more than gaming (photoshopping/video editing) the extra thread helps. I crunch on my rig and take it from me, I wish I had the extra thread. One thing I would like to mention, successful unlocking of the 720BE. 720BE's have a low successful unlock rate, so if your looking for a bonus core then you may want to look somewhere else, X3 435 or X2 550BE. 

The 435 has a very very high unlock rate along with the 550BE. So a possible bonus with either chip and your gaming still won't suffer if neither do unlock. One other thing, if your looking for an easy 3.2Ghz-3.5Ghz, 720BE is for you.

EDIT:

How high of an overclock have you obtained with that 7850BE?


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## xrealm20 (Feb 16, 2010)

for 150$ I'd get the x4. 

The phenom II x3 isn't worth $200.  I agree with Werez, get the x4 and save a little cash to put towards a new video card later.

My 2 cents.


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## haldex (Feb 16, 2010)

JrRacinFan said:


> How high of an overclock have you obtained with that 7850BE?


I went to 3.2 GHZ without raising vcore, with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 heatsink. Maybe i could go up to 3.4 GHZ, but i didn´t try it yet.

I think i'll keep my 7850 for a while, because i was looking at the specifications of my mobo (M2N68-AM SE) and i'm not sure if any of these phenom II or athlon II are supported. The only thing i know is that my mobo supports 95W TDP. I searched in http://www.asus.com/ProductGroup2.aspx?PG_ID=mKyCKlQ4oSEtSu5m (nvidia 7050/nforce 630a) but i couldn't find this model.

EDIT: sorry for double posting....


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## haldex (Feb 17, 2010)

Well, i finally bought the X3 425, which i guess was a good choice, because it costs $40 less than the 620, and according to some reviews like this one http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Athlon_II_X3_425/10.html it performs very well, close to the 620 and 720 in some cases. I haven´t installed yet, i hope it will work on my mobo. Thanks for helping me


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## Necrofire (Feb 18, 2010)

Well, if it's either of these
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=2UWzsrOiRbMPGYpw
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=N9gfnjYUinlROPLf
then I wanna say yes, it will work, since both those motherboards support AM2+, which the athlon ii x3 is backwards compatible with.

EDIT: Well, check out the CPU support list on those mobos. Both show that cpu.

If you attempt overclocking, be sure to keep us updated on how that goes.


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