A8-3850 HD6670 CF Vs Phenom II X4 840 HD6790

IrishMetalhead

OK my mate will be ordering his new comp soon for me to build but I need some advice on the final two specs I cam up with.
I basicly have a choice between a A8-3850 APU with a 6670 in crossfire or a Phenom II X4 840 CPU with a 6790.
Bare in mind the Phenom set-up will have a AM3 board and unfortunatly not a AM3+ board thanks to some budget restrcitions and I've also seen how well the A8-3850\6670 performs in games via youtube and it's quite impressive espiecally when it's technaclly a dual gpu set but theres basicly no micro stuttering (from what I heard).
I have failed to find benchmarks of one against the other so I literally dunno which is better in games so if anyone has some additional info it would be a massive help.

Thanks in advance guys =]

uberpixie

I would go with option 2 and get a cpu + 6790.
Less software bull**** to go wrong with rather than going Crossfire....


If were just going integrated gfx only, then the A8-3850 would be the way to go.

That said you could go the A8-3850 and your mate could get a better gfx card in the future if he wanted...

IrishMetalhead

aye i get where your coming from but personally i've never had problem with cf configurations via drivers (but wilth nvidia and sli thats a whole different story)
but i get what your saying and i will take it into consideration but i just really want to find out which is the faster of the two for argument sake.

good idea on adding the gpu for a later date i'll meantion that to him but tbh i think he just wants the best graphic power he can afford off the bat.
plus he has no plans to upgrade it as he wants to buy a whole new comp in a year or two.

Monotype

I think I'd go with the Llano if I was going for a small system or one that I was never planning to upgrade. Overclocking is better on the AM3/+ and we know more about the future of it. Are you sure that you can't get an AM3+ compatible board? Some manufacturers have compatibility lists e.g., http://event.msi.com/mb/am3+/

IrishMetalhead

aye defo can't afford one the cheapest am3+ board is around €43 which isn't alot but it is when you physically don't have the extra money to put into it because my friend dosn't work and all and he has other things to pay for hence the really tight budget

Monotype

It's a shame you didn't get it last week - there was a 6790 for €91 on dabs. I think I'd scale back to an X3 and upgrade the board. Maybe FM1 has a future but AMD sometimes forgets about platforms which aren't that popular. There's a big gap between the 6670 and the 6790 and even if the 3850 does do better at the moment, it will lose it in upgrades (unless new CPUs can be tied with new cards).

I think if there's any chance of upgrading processor and graphics card, then AM3+ is the way to go.

IrishMetalhead

hes not planning on upgrading it at all tho, he wants to buy the best he can afford atm so he can use the comp for a year because hes already planning to buy a whole new desktop when his educational fund comes through then