how cpu limited am i

[dafuzzbudd]

is my card too much for my cpu? how can i test to find out

im thinking about getting 3700 amd 64,
would that be a worthwhile investment?

 

[peleejosh]

it would be a huge improvement in games.

 

[fstime]

P4 2.6 to a 3700 SD would be a huge improvment BUT, you would need to sell your current 6800 and grab a PCI-e 6600gt/6800nu (PCI-e 6800's dont unlock)

If you upgraded to an AGP motherboard, it would be pretty stupid.

 

[dbdynsty25]

Why would upgrading to an AGP board be stupid? He's already got a 300+ video card...

To me, it would be stupid to drop the card and lose money, than to just upgrade processor/motherboard and be cool for another year or so at minimal cost.

 

[CU]

I would just buy a good cheap agp motherboard, unless you can get enough from your current card to buy a pci-e card.

 

[blckgrffn]

I think that he was talking 3700+ S754, I would just go with the 3400+, that would be bang for your buck, then just get an NF3 mobo and you will be set

Nat

 

[richardrds]

I agree, this would be a huge improvement, but do it smart and it won'tcost you that much.

1. Buy a S939 AGP NF3 mobo for around $120

2. Buy a A64 3000+ Venice core for $145 (retail box w/HSF) and Overclock it from stock 1.8Ghz to 2.6Ghz. You should be able to this easily with a decent NF3 mobo, and your $145 CPU will be performing close to FX55 levels.


This should hold you over for 1-2 years. Then you will have the option of just dropping in a dual core X2 and upgrading your 6800 for an easy upgrade.

 

[blckgrffn]

That is only if you can get it to 2.6ghz. Not all chips are created equal, and mine tops out at 2.4. I would say that going 754 is your best bet, and you know when you pay ~$180 for a 3400+, it will be damn fast.

Nat

 

[richardrds]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn
That is only if you can get it to 2.6ghz. Not all chips are created equal, and mine tops out at 2.4. I would say that going 754 is your best bet, and you know when you pay ~$180 for a 3400+, it will be damn fast.

Nat

Reaching 2.5-2.7Ghz on a 3000+ Venice is not a stretch. Most people are easily reaching 2.5Ghz with the 3000+ Venice core. Heck, my winchester 3000+ runs 2.5Ghz stable with a small Vcore bump, but i run it at 2.4Ghz because it is stable at that speed with stock 1.4 Vcore. And i am using a very week OCing mobo, the Abit AV8 (Via Pro chipset) has lots of problems. If I was smarter when i bought my system i would have bought a NF3 mobo and i bet my 3000+ Winchester would reach 2.7Ghz.

Also the S939 mobo gives him an upgrade path to X2 Dual core cpu in the future.

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn
That is only if you can get it to 2.6ghz. Not all chips are created equal, and mine tops out at 2.4. I would say that going 754 is your best bet, and you know when you pay ~$180 for a 3400+, it will be damn fast.

Nat

Its probably that motherboard or your pushing the ram to far.

 

[blckgrffn]

I am pretty sure it is neither. Read on these forums, and you will see people getting crappy oc's on their Venice cores. 2.4 seems to be what you are "guaranteed" and not much more. What I am saying is that you should never count on a godly oc when figuring in your budget, especially if you are trying to keep it cheap. Buy the fastest that you can with the money you have, any OC will just be icing on the cake and you don't have to about having weak system performance. If you have loads of cash, that is when you can afford to get several different chips and find the one that works the best, or at the very least have the resources to be cross shipping. No one likes to be without a PC.

Besides all of that, he only really needs a 3200+ or so on either platform to unleash that 6800NU, any more than that is pretty much overkill in my experience. I know we all relish that here, but realistically, more is not really necessary to see a big performance jump.

And to top it all off, I find that S939 NF3 and Via boards are rather quircky by nature, and many of the socket 754 ones seem very mature and are cake to set up, especially if you don't want to spend hours stress testing and tweaking your oc.

Nat

 

[dafuzzbudd]

thanks for all your help, yea spending 320 on a 3700 doesnt seem worth it when i can get a 3400 for like 200.

ive never overclocked a processor before,

right now my 2.6 is an hp and that bios is as locked as a mo-fo. anyone know if i can change/open my current bios on an a350y?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: BouZouki
P4 2.6 to a 3700 SD would be a huge improvment BUT, you would need to sell your current 6800 and grab a PCI-e 6600gt/6800nu (PCI-e 6800's dont unlock)

If you upgraded to an AGP motherboard, it would be pretty stupid.

and throwing away a 6800 would not be?


Here, dafuzzbudd, This Motherboard runs the same CPUs as the PCI-E motherboards and you can use your current AGP card in it.

 

[dafuzzbudd]

thanks, i have skills at selling stuff though, that's not a problem

if i got a new mobo/chip i would go pci

 

[Culvin]

Just to answer a couple of your questions directly...

I have a P4 2.4C with an unlocked 6800nu and can run modern games at mid-high settings with no problems. When I unlocked my card I got an improvment of 350+ 3DMarks in 05, so I don't think the CPU is too limiting. My next upgrade will be a new computer a little over a year from now.

I also have an HP -- I have the a250 model. OC'ing from the BIOS isn't an option, neither are other useful tweaks such as setting AGP aperature. If you try running Nalu you'll notice that it's slow as hell because you can't increase the aperature size which is set at 64MB.