cpu or video limited?

T

tjwilco

n00b
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Sep 22, 2004
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I currently have a 2400+ xp and I believe my FSB is 266mhz. I have 1gig of pc2700 ram and my video card is a geforce 5600ultra. I'm trying to determine where the biggest bottleneck is in my system for gaming. I'd like to get 2 or 3 more months out of this system before I build an entirely new one, but I can pick up a 3000+ xp for a pretty reasonable price and would like some opinions on what kind of improvement if any I might get in my framerates.
 
I would say both of them, but between those two your videocard is the bottleneck. Especially for gaming...
 
I'd wait until the next crop of mid-range vid cards arrive on the market. ATI's X700 and nVidia's 6600. Graphics cards are more portable to a new system, so if you are planning on a new rig, I'd get a vid card.
 
thanks guys. I was leaning towards the gpu as my bottleneck but wanted to make sure.

The 6600 is what I've been planning on using for my next system. If they were available in AGP I'd pick one up right away. Are they're any details on when they'll arrive in AGP form?

I may be able to get a 9800 pro used for around 65 w/ shipping. With that and a 3000+ for a total of 160 I may have a lot more life left in this system than I originally thought.

Are they're any major performance differences between a 128meg pro and the 256 meg version? I'm not sure which version the card is yet.
 
The only socket A procs currently worth buying are the mobile ones. The 2400+ mobile chips are the cheapest ones with 512kb of cache. They are multiplier unlocked, and you can reasonably expect a 2.3 Gig clock out of it. How high does your memory clock go?
 
try for a 14 multi. Or more if you can overvolt and overclock your memory. A 200 FSB is nice. In fact, I run my 2400+ at just under 2.3 gig speed. 10.5 x 217 You likely don't need to upgrade. Just overclock it. Run the Prime95 torture to test for stability.
 
sorry to ask the question here

how much differences are the mobile to the desktop one... like the price point... and also... I thought the pins on desktop and mobile is different...
 
The mobile procs have an unlocked multiplier and a lower stock voltage. This makes them excellent overclockers. They are Socket A chips. This means that they have the same pinout.
 
Thanks. I'll grab the vid card and hold off on the cpu till I've done some research.
 
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