Smart upgrade???

[SWT4ai]

I am thinking of upgrading my rig from a p4 2.8c to a athlon 64 3000+ 90nm. Will I see a big difference in performance??? I would like a good gaming system for games like HL2 and Counter-Strike Source.
My current rig:
p4 2.8c with m0 stepping
P4S800d-e
1 gig of HyperX DDR500 (2x512) in dual channel
36gb raptor
ati 9800pro with vga silencer
antec 450 watt power supply

I tried overclocking the p4 but the motherboard was holding me back.
What I am thinking of buying is:
Athlon 64 3000+ 90nm socket 939
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
and the rest of the parts would be from my old p4 rig.

I am going to do some overclocking with the athlon to the 2.4-2.6 range.

Will I see a big difference in performance???

 

[tallman45]

You would see a bigger change by going to a better vid card, the 9800Pro will cause you to be GPU bound on either system.

Next get a second HDD and put games on that one

 

[uOpt]

You will see no change in the games at all with your current card.

You need a better graphics card to improbe these games.

 

[SWT4ai]

So basically you guys are saying to keep my current rig until I upgrade my vid card correct??

 

[Vee]

That old Northwood 2.8C is still a real darling. Keep it! And I'm saying this, even while considering myself mainly an AMD person these days.

 

[syconub]

i might suggest researching that motherboard, you might find some unwanted suprises.

 

[Elvis2]

look around on the b/s/t forum and pick yourself up a nice 6800 gt and an asus p4c800e deluxe and rock and roll. my 2.8c on that mb hum's along at 3.45 ghz. (247 fsb) on stock voltage. sell that 9800 pro and mb and get some of that upgrade $ back. i've had my 2.8 for a year and a half and still haven't seen a combo offering a performance boost worth the cost of the upgrade. i'm definitely going AMD64/N4 SLI but probably not for at least another six months. i've had it with being a beta tester for bleeding edge technology.

 

[ScottFern]

I have a 2.8c and it OCs nicely, just get a new mobo, I heard the DFIs OC the best, but my Asus P4C800 deluxe gave me a nice 500Mhz OC from 2.8->3.3

That CPU performs awesome with the right mobo/chipset.

 

[stevty2889]

going from a 2.8c to a 3000+ would not give you much of a differance. My 2.8e is prime95 stable at 3.5ghz on my asus p4p800, so you should be able to overclock it fairly well with a differant motherboard, and they you could go for a better video card, like maybe a 6600GT or a 6800NU. If you got that thing to 3.2ghz or more, and wanted to dish out the cash, a 6800gt would go nicely.

 

[MadEye2]

Definitely get a second hard disk like tallman said - just a cheap 40gigabyte one you can put all your system files on to. That way you can keep your swapfile on a spare drive, and keep all your games and backed up stuff on your other drive - it'll save you the hassle of backing up everything and formatting your boot drive should you need to

 

[gorcorps]

I'm telling you right now, your cpu is going to hold you back. The major factors in games like HL2 are processor, vid card, and memory. Your vid card is pretty good for HL2 now, as most of the cards out aren't a huge jump from what you have. What I've found out is that most people are being limited by their processor, meaning that and upgrade in a vid card would show no improvement. I think you'd see some, but I'd upgrade the processor before the vid card.

 

[Insidious]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
I'm telling you right now, your cpu is going to hold you back. The major factors in games like HL2 are processor, vid card, and memory. Your vid card is pretty good for HL2 now, as most of the cards out aren't a huge jump from what you have. What I've found out is that most people are being limited by their processor, meaning that and upgrade in a vid card would show no improvement. I think you'd see some, but I'd upgrade the processor before the vid card.

I couldn't disagree more :thumbsdown:

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
You will see no change in the games at all with your current card.

You need a better graphics card to improbe these games.

Now there's some realistic advise. :thumbsup:

-Sid

 

[stelleg151]

Originally posted by: Insidious

Originally posted by: gorcorps
I'm telling you right now, your cpu is going to hold you back. The major factors in games like HL2 are processor, vid card, and memory. Your vid card is pretty good for HL2 now, as most of the cards out aren't a huge jump from what you have. What I've found out is that most people are being limited by their processor, meaning that and upgrade in a vid card would show no improvement. I think you'd see some, but I'd upgrade the processor before the vid card.

I couldn't disagree more :thumbsdown:

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
You will see no change in the games at all with your current card.

You need a better graphics card to improbe these games.

Now there's some realistic advise. :thumbsup:

-Sid

I would have agreed with you before HL2. HL2 was postponed for a year I believe because the CPU's at the time couldnt handle the load. Look at how easily the new graphics can handle the game. My roomate has 2.8e and it is painful to play, and have seen many others complaining about their P4. I think if this guy wants to play source, he should think about upgrading soon. He could wait a while though, as the winchesters are still evolving in the early stages. If he overclocked to 3.5 or so, he would probably be ok for a while, but I would still recommend going a64 soon, as an a64@ 2.4 or 2.5 will smash on a P4C@3.5. But yeah, I would wait for for NForce4 to start taking over, as it might drop the prices of NForce3, unless you are looking to upgrade your vid card as well. But the transition will help in source, as it is BRUTAL ON CPU, NOT GPU. And you can always turn the graphics down to 1024x768.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
going from a 2.8c to a 3000+ would not give you much of a differance. My 2.8e is prime95 stable at 3.5ghz on my asus p4p800, so you should be able to overclock it fairly well with a differant motherboard, and they you could go for a better video card, like maybe a 6600GT or a 6800NU. If you got that thing to 3.2ghz or more, and wanted to dish out the cash, a 6800gt would go nicely.

I agree

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
I'm telling you right now, your cpu is going to hold you back. The major factors in games like HL2 are processor, vid card, and memory. Your vid card is pretty good for HL2 now, as most of the cards out aren't a huge jump from what you have. What I've found out is that most people are being limited by their processor, meaning that and upgrade in a vid card would show no improvement. I think you'd see some, but I'd upgrade the processor before the vid card.

Highly disagree.

The Real Deal

HL2 CPU Performance
Starting with the first page I linked and on....the lowest average framerate on a P4 2.8E system is 46.08 frames at 1280x1024 4AA/16AF with average performance between the levels being 65.97 frames. This is with X800XT.

Now, Performance with 9800Pro is more like a slideshow at those settings with A64 4000+.

Maybe your friend only has 256mb of ram on his system.

For 99% of all games, unless you still have P4 2.0ghz, videocard is more important.

"And you can always turn the graphics down to 1024x768." - You are even contradicting yourself. With higher resolutions and image detail, the workload gets transferred from the cpu to the gpu. By turning down the resolution to a lower setting, you are easing the workload on the gpu. Which is why graphics cards are more important. See you even said it yourself

He can always overclock that 2.8E to 3.4ghz.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
You will see no change in the games at all with your current card.

You need a better graphics card to improbe these games.

:thumbsup:

 

[MadEye2]

Edit: n/m

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: stelleg151

Originally posted by: Insidious

Originally posted by: gorcorps
I'm telling you right now, your cpu is going to hold you back. The major factors in games like HL2 are processor, vid card, and memory. Your vid card is pretty good for HL2 now, as most of the cards out aren't a huge jump from what you have. What I've found out is that most people are being limited by their processor, meaning that and upgrade in a vid card would show no improvement. I think you'd see some, but I'd upgrade the processor before the vid card.

I couldn't disagree more :thumbsdown:

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
You will see no change in the games at all with your current card.

You need a better graphics card to improbe these games.

Now there's some realistic advise. :thumbsup:

-Sid

I would have agreed with you before HL2. HL2 was postponed for a year I believe because the CPU's at the time couldnt handle the load. Look at how easily the new graphics can handle the game. My roomate has 2.8e and it is painful to play, and have seen many others complaining about their P4. I think if this guy wants to play source, he should think about upgrading soon. He could wait a while though, as the winchesters are still evolving in the early stages. If he overclocked to 3.5 or so, he would probably be ok for a while, but I would still recommend going a64 soon, as an a64@ 2.4 or 2.5 will smash on a P4C@3.5. But yeah, I would wait for for NForce4 to start taking over, as it might drop the prices of NForce3, unless you are looking to upgrade your vid card as well. But the transition will help in source, as it is BRUTAL ON CPU, NOT GPU. And you can always turn the graphics down to 1024x768.

Can I buy some ganja from you?

 

[wdcoolwater]

Originally posted by: SWT4ai
What I am thinking of buying is:
Athlon 64 3000+ 90nm socket 939
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
and the rest of the parts would be from my old p4 rig.

Wouldnt you need new mem too since MSI mobo supports only up to DDR400???