Need reccomendation for CPU

O

ohgod

Gawd
Joined
Mar 4, 2004
Messages
620
I recently acquired a 7950 GX2 video card and was thinking my Venice-cored 3200+ might be holding it back. The 3200+ is overclocked to 2.4ghz with a 1:1 ratio with my RAM. I was thinking a dual-core cpu would be awesome and was wondering what you guys thought. Cheers!
 
Centauri said:
I really can't see the logic in pairing a $600 GPU with a $100 CPU.
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If you're a gamer that's actually a very wise decision, especially compared to buying a $600 CPU and only spending $100 on a GPU.

ohgod: If you're main interest is gaming then your present CPU is more than adequate. Use a memory divider to slow your memory down and then see if you can overclock a little higher. 2600 MHz should be doable with your present CPU at around 1.55 v to 1.60 v.

The single core CPUs produce less heat and generally overclock slightly higher than the dual core chips. With a 7950 I can't think of too many games that you won't be able to play at high resolution with plenty of AA / AF.

The dual cores from AMD will be dirt cheap starting on Monday so if you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket and there are some professional apps that you need to run then pick up a reasonably priced X2 chip like the 4600. For gaming though, you won't see any difference compared to what you presently have.
 
unclewebb said:
If you're a gamer that's actually a very wise decision, especially compared to buying a $600 CPU and only spending $100 on a GPU.

ohgod: If you're main interest is gaming then your present CPU is more than adequate. Use a memory divider to slow your memory down and then see if you can overclock a little higher. 2600 MHz should be doable with your present CPU at around 1.55 v to 1.60 v.

The single core CPUs produce less heat and generally overclock slightly higher than the dual core chips. With a 7950 I can't think of too many games that you won't be able to play at high resolution with plenty of AA / AF.

The dual cores from AMD will be dirt cheap starting on Monday so if you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket and there are some professional apps that you need to run then pick up a reasonably priced X2 chip like the 4600. For gaming though, you won't see any difference compared to what you presently have.
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Thats exactly what I needed to hear thanks! Would there be that much of a difference between a CPU with 512kb of cache and one with 1mb of cache?
 
come on, just make sure and get a CPU that can hit over 3ghz...... single core or dual doesnt matter... find a used opteron 146 or something that you know can hit 3. then be done with it :)
 
You don't need that junk... get a Pentium 3 1.4 Ghz Tualatin. It rocks :) Look at my sig? Also, get rid of that card and just get a 6200...

on a serious note... what you have is fine.
 
noobtech said:
You don't need that junk... get a Pentium 3 1.4 Ghz Tualatin. It rocks :) Look at my sig? Also, get rid of that card and just get a 6200...

on a serious note... what you have is fine.
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Thanks I just hit 2.6 with this thing, it just keeps going! :)
I wonder with a better heatsink if I can hit 2.8 on air... :D
 
ohgod said:
Thanks I just hit 2.6 with this thing, it just keeps going! :)
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I'm using an AMD OEM heatpipe cooler which I found for $8.99 on EBay.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=CMHK8-8I22A-A2

It's made by CoolerMaster and you can sometimes find them by searching for part number:
CMHK8-8I22A-A2.

1yu6.jpg


With a cool running single core Venice chip, the regular AMD cooler is adequate for a surprising number of MHz and a lot of volts. What sort of temps and volts are you running?

Sounded like 2600 MHz was fairly easy. How about 2700 now.
 
ohgod said:
I recently acquired a 7950 GX2 video card and was thinking my Venice-cored 3200+ might be holding it back. The 3200+ is overclocked to 2.4ghz with a 1:1 ratio with my RAM. I was thinking a dual-core cpu would be awesome and was wondering what you guys thought. Cheers!
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Dude wait for the price war to start and after that wait for the reviews of the new smaller L2 cache Proceesors reviews to come out and then buy the new processor.

You never knoe that AMD might have an ace hidden.
 
2.6 was running a little warm at 1.6 volts, I think i'll get a cooler for it and see what I can do. Thanks for all the help!
 
ohgod said:
2.6 was running a little warm at 1.6 volts, I think i'll get a cooler for it and see what I can do. Thanks for all the help!
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So how hot is too hot? For comparison the fan in my old Inspiron P3 laptop doesn't even start spinning until 70C. My single core Athlon64 runs rock solid stable at 60C without any complaints.

People tend to worry too much about heat. If your CPU runs reliably then overclock away. If it complains, buy a bigger heatsink and fan.

The guy I bought my heatsink and fan from on eBay has another one for sale today.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200010889882&category=42001&sspagename=rvi:1:1

He's been selling these things for quite a while now. Click on my previous link if this item is sold. The AMD OEM heatpipe cooler is great for the price.
 
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