Opinions on a worthwhile upgrade...

BAAL · Post by **BAAL** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 10:02 am

Currently running a p4 2.4b (no hyperthreading 533FSB).

Looking to make an upgrade but dont really want to change my vid card yet (AGP). Which to you think would offer more performance gain...I have been looknig at the Athlon64 3500+ (939pin) and using hte MSI K8N deluxe board. Other option i was considering was the P4 3.4E (i think)...but the decent boards i have found all use PCI express for video now....i dont feel like shelling out 600+dollars for a card that supports that yet.

What you think would offer the best performance increase?
Please no flaming or platform trashing...

Vertigo · Post by **Vertigo** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 1:06 pm

I strongly suggest to wait it out until you CAN afford yourself a PCI-E card.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 2:41 pm

Right now there is very little, if any, difference in performance between an AGP and PCI-E video card. If you don't plan on SLI'ing them, then don't bother with a PCI-E card right now. Furthermore, the boards I've seen still offer AGP as an option. Given how long it took to get rid of ISA, I don't see AGP going anywhere anytime soon. Go for the Athlon 64 if you can.

BAAL · Post by **BAAL** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 5:24 pm

I agree MD, and i am leaning towards the Athlon64 3500+ and MSI k8N deluxe FIR board...coupled with 2x512 of OCZ EL ram. Haven't been in the loop much recently regarding pc hardware tho, and as such was wondering about the differences between the 64 and the P4e processors. I know the P4's have hyperthreading, but does the amd have a similar feature?

Anyone running either type of system that can share their opinions, positive and negative?

STRESSTEST · Post by **STRESSTEST** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 5:57 pm

On a side note, thought about overclocking that P4?

Probably get something like 600~1000 MHz out of it.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 6:28 pm

No, AMD does not have HyperThreading, but the Athlons solidly beat out the P4s in gaming anyhow. HyperThreading just isn't impresive from my gaming perspective.

BTW, what video card do you have? If you're going to go putting a Ti4200 on a 3500+ you're not going to see much of a boost. An ainchent video card is going to hold the whole thing back.

Also, you can get afordable PCIe cards these days. A 6600GT can be had for $180, and it's matches or beats a 9800XT depending on what game you play. Nice card for a reasonable price.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 7:09 pm

The P4E has 1 MB L2 cache IIRC. This improves it's performance a lot.

BAAL · Post by **BAAL** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 7:36 pm

well i am not into the latest games all that much and my current video card reflects it. Still using my Ti4600 i bought when they were the hottest thing around.

Stress, I have it clocked to 2.9ghz now...cant really go up much more without going to a liquid cooling option.

Also a lil foggy on the differences in the AMD chips. I know sempron is the Celeron equivalent and is the budget amd chip. What are the main differences between the Athlon64 and the AThlon64 fx (and fx-53, 54, 55)???

Which platform gives better video ripping/encoding performance?

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 8:35 pm

IIRC the FX series are the better chips.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 5:22 pm

Athlon FX has dual channel DDR400 and 1MB of cache, Socket 939 Athlon 64 has dual channel DDR400 and 512KB of cache(except for the 4000+, which has 1MB of cache. It's exactly the same as the FX-53), Socket 754 has single channel DDR400 and 1MB of cache. Only diffrences between the diffrent lines is cache size and memory system.

The FXs are fastest, but they also cost $800+. A socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+ will still game damn fast but will only set you back about $300. The socket 754s perform a bit under the 939s, but might be a little less expensive. If you do get a Athlon 64, check to see if the model you want is available with a 90nm core instead of a 130nm one. 90nms run considerably cooler then the 130nms, and a good retailer shouldn't charge more for one.

You'll have to read some benchmarks at Anandtech, Tomshardware, or XbitLabs and see what fits your needs best, wether it's A-64, A-FX, or P4. Read each site's take if you want a more balanced idea.

BAAL · Post by **BAAL** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 4:50 pm

Thx Mr. Perfect. This is the type of reply i was hoping for. Clears up a few issues and as such i think i am leaning towards the socket 939 3500+ AMD-64.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 5:09 pm

Well, at least someone gets some use out of all the stuff I've memorized.

Glad to help.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 6:20 pm

BAAL - make sure you only get a motherboard with the nForce 3 250GB chipset for that Athlon.

Yeah - Express video card would be a nice option - but not yet available on the socket 939 platform - and as previously stated - no *perceptible* different in performance between the two standards as yet.

I'm looking at X700 Pro or 6600 GT for graphics.

Buy bog-standard DDR433 or DDR 466 for that bad boy. Don't worry about getting low latency RAM for the Athlon: you'll want the MHz headroom DDR433 or DDR466 will allow you in overclocking that beast.

Remember - the on-die memory controller of the Athlon 64 lowers memory latency quite a bit - to the point where spending big dollars on low latency RAM is a waste. If you have extra cash for low latency memory - put that money towards a GFX card, or more RAM.

You'll be wanting AT LEAST 1GB of RAM.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 1:02 am

A gig of OCZ DDR466(cheapest namebrand DDR466 Newegg has) is $255.
A gig of low latency 2-2-2-5 Corsair DDR400(cheapest namebrand low latency DDR400 Newegg has) is $251.

There's no money saving picking one over the other, so it comes down to one thing: are you overclocking?

If so, grab the DDR466 and have a blast. If not, get the low latency memory for the exact same price(OK, $4 cheaper

), and you will see a performance increase. Sure it's a small increase, but like they say in this latency benchmark, "Our Athlon 64 system picked up almost 6% encoding Windows Media Audio, almost 3% encoding DivX video, and 1.5% encoding WMV. Those improvements are analogous to buying the next fastest CPU." You did say you do a lot of encoding, right?

Or just buy ★■◆● ram and the next highest CPU.