Phenom II is about the same speed as a core 2 - Edit 1
Before modification by Roland00 at 07/04/2011 04:29:34 PM
For example see this
Phenom II 910 which is 2.6 ghz, 2 mb l2 cache, 6 mb l3 cache (quad core) compared against
Core 2 Quad 6600 which is 2.4 ghz and 8 mb l2 cache (quad core)
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/85?vs=53
Note the processors are about the same performance, the AMD phenom II wins the most by a hair (but it has an 8% clock speed advantage.)
Now a Core i series and the Core i series second generation (sandy bridge) consistently beats the AMD phenom II at the same clock speed and the same amount of true cores. They can also beat the AMD even if the AMD has more cores due to the fact that most software is not optimized well enough to use more than 2 cores (and a large amount of software can only use 1 core.)
That said Phenom II is about the same speed as a core 2 generation whether it is Conroe or Penryn.
Edit: Forgot to put up the 910 and the q6600 are both quad cores so that will be less work for you if you are unfamiliar with either processors.
Phenom II 910 which is 2.6 ghz, 2 mb l2 cache, 6 mb l3 cache (quad core) compared against
Core 2 Quad 6600 which is 2.4 ghz and 8 mb l2 cache (quad core)
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/85?vs=53
Note the processors are about the same performance, the AMD phenom II wins the most by a hair (but it has an 8% clock speed advantage.)
Now a Core i series and the Core i series second generation (sandy bridge) consistently beats the AMD phenom II at the same clock speed and the same amount of true cores. They can also beat the AMD even if the AMD has more cores due to the fact that most software is not optimized well enough to use more than 2 cores (and a large amount of software can only use 1 core.)
That said Phenom II is about the same speed as a core 2 generation whether it is Conroe or Penryn.
Edit: Forgot to put up the 910 and the q6600 are both quad cores so that will be less work for you if you are unfamiliar with either processors.