The ubiquitous "My PC is showing its age" thread

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Yoblad

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 24, 2000
Messages
1,060
I have:
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton core
1GB DDR400 (mushkin el cheapo)
Abit NF7-S
eVGA 6800 128MB

After playing BF2, Quake 4, and F.E.A.R., it's become apparent to me that my system might be lacking. I really can't afford the system most [H] members are running so I need to upgrade where it counts. I'm looking at a A64 3500+ clawhammer and I need a new vidcard for the PCI-X. Should I plunk down the extra $100 on a 3800+ X2 or put that money towards a 7800GT? Basically, what I'm wondering is where will I benefit more. If someone knows of a cpu scaling chart with the latest titles and cards it would be helpful.

I would like to run at 1280x1024 (my monitor's native) with out stutter and have the effects on. Could I go as low as a 3200+ and save some money? Maybe get better ram? Suggestions are appreciated.
 
So you think the CPU is my only huge bottleneck? What do you recommend?

Remember, the video card is a vanilla 6800 not a GT or anything.
 
I have a 6800 and it runs every game I throw at it great, have you tried overclocking it or unlocking the extra pipelines? I think the CPU is probably the weak spot though.
 
if you don't want to dish out some cash just yet.. OC that 2500 to a 3200!!!!!

that's actually what i'm doing.. i probably won't do a major upgrade till next summer..
 
If you only had like $300 to spend I would get a 7800GT... but is your system PCI-E? If it's AGP then a 6800 ultra or 850XTPE are the fastest cards you can get. Anyways, so many of these new games are soooo GPU bound that getting a more powerful video card is the best performance upgrade you can get... I have a 6800GT on my older system, an AGP based XP2600 with my cpu OC'd to 2.2ghz and see lots of peeps with A64 3500+ cpus getting exactly what I was getting with the same video card (a 6800GT) on 3Dmark05... then I clocked my cpu back down to 1.67ghz and it only hurt my score a little... I was still getting over 5.5k tho... it was only a 200 point hit or so...

Anyways, I guess my point is, games are very GPU bound these days, most of the computations happen in the video card, and getting a super fast cpu does not help as much as it used to.. So just keep that in mind. I think you biggest issue is how to go to pci-e if you are still agp... because you will not be able to get a 7800 series card in agp. If you have to get a new video card + mobo + cpu, you could get a low end A64 venice core (good OCers) and an ECS SLI pci-e mobo, extremely decent for the price, and then a $299 7800GT (check the Hot Deals section for those)... for under $600 you could get into a new pci-e setup, which will be extremely upgradeable.

Blah... I need to get out of the office now... lol. but happy friday and hope that helped. :)

EDIT: I think eVGA has a SLI pci-e mobo + 7800GT deal going still also.. you could check that out too.
 
revenant said:
If you only had like $300 to spend I would get a 7800GT... but is your system PCI-E? If it's AGP then a 6800 ultra or 850XTPE are the fastest cards you can get. Anyways, so many of these new games are soooo GPU bound that getting a more powerful video card is the best performance upgrade you can get... I have a 6800GT on my older system, an AGP based XP2600 with my cpu OC'd to 2.2ghz and see lots of peeps with A64 3500+ cpus getting exactly what I was getting with the same video card (a 6800GT) on 3Dmark05...

Anyways, I guess my point is, games are very GPU bound these days, most of the computations happen in the video card, and getting a super fast cpu does not help as much as it used to.. So just keep that in mind. I think you biggest issue is how to go to pci-e if you are still agp... because you will not be able to get a 7800 series card in agp. If you have to get a new video card + mobo + cpu, you could get a low end A64 venice core (good OCers) and an ECS SLI pci-e mobo, extremely decent for the price, and then a $299 7800GT (check the Hot Deals section for those)... for under $600 you could get into a new pci-e setup, which will be extremely upgradeable.

Blah... I need to get out of the office now... lol. but happy friday and hope that helped. :)
Click to expand...


Ahh, I think you are the first one to truly see my predicament. My board is AGP and a quick jog over to pricewatch shows you that a 7800GT is only a few bucks more than a 6800GT in AGP flavor (and I currently have a 6800 so where's the upgrade?). So I guess, the input I was REALLY looking for is after going PCI-E and 7800GT, do I really need a big cpu? Would a A643200+ do the trick without being a huge bottleneck? I'd like to match the components up but I'll sacrifice 5 fps to save $100 lol.
 
eVGA had a deal going for a 7800GT and a free* sli pci-e mobo, which was the ECS mobo... it's actually pretty damn good. you should look into that for going pci-e on a budget. Maybe even call eVGA if need be. Good luck... :)
 
for a chip get the $150 opteron 144 s939. 1MB on chip and overclocks to a MINIMUM of 2.8ghz. If you get a CABNE, you will get 3ghz on air most likely.
 
I don't see that sale going on anywhere on eVGA's site. I dropped an email to [email protected]. If I'm lucky, they'll do the promotion for existing customers since my 6800 is eVGA. Too bad I found out about their step-up program after 90 days of owning my card :(
 
revenant said:
eVGA had a deal going for a 7800GT and a free* sli pci-e mobo, which was the ECS mobo...
Click to expand...
The deal was over a couple months ago and it wasnt the ECS board is was a rebadged jetway.

As far as what cpu to get, any Athon 64 will be plenty fast enough. Especially if your going to be overclocking, just get the cheapest you can find.
 
RancidWAnnaRIot said:
OC that 2500 to a 3200!!!!!
Click to expand...

It's a travesty if you haven't done that already Yoblad. It's probably the easiest overclock since the Celeron 300A.
 
yeah for a cpu even a good ocing 3000 venice would do fine. the evga sli 7800gt deal is a good bet or buy them used from a reputable trader here.
 
i disagree completely

I have a 6800 GT and a 2.4 ghz p4....when it was time to upgrade from my 5800 ultra and I had the same CPU i was in the same spot.

The CPU is fine. The videocard upgrade made my system run like a champ again.

I would say wait...there should be nothing wrong with your current setup anyway. If you feel you MUST upgrade then just wait a bit longer....no reason to upgrade right away....I have basically the same setup as you and I run EVERYTHING fine at 1024x768....with all options maxed even fear. Why do you need to run higher settings than that?
 
well, my chip runs pretty hot. I have silent cooling so I don't know even really know how much more I can crank out of it. I think it runs at 48C idle.
 
Well, I'm at 2.1ghz @1.7v

I'll see if I can push it a bit higher. I can't adjust the damn multiplier on this chip :(
 
I've been playing WoW for the last year, and have been completely oblivious to what has been going on in the PC world (since I'm sick and tired of FPS games for the most part. I'll play one, but only if it really brings something new to the table).

Therefore I'm still running:

Althlon xp2800
Radeon 9800 Pro.
1.5 GB OCZ PC-wahtever-the-hell-my-motherboard-supports
on some Abit Nforce2 motherboard.

Works just fine for me, but I know I'll have to upgrade if something I'm interested comes along.
 
Well, even with the heafty OC my performance doesn't really improve. Guess the card is dragging ass too. Tried to unlock the other pipes but it resulted in lots of artifacting.
 
i'm currently using my parent's computer, with similar system specs as the one in my sig, but the rig in my setup is pretty much DOA.

the system is a venice 3000+, and an asus a8vse, with the rest the same. even with my 3000+ which isn't THAT fast, (i don't wanna oc it because it's my parent's) my 9800 pro is really starting to show it's age....i feel bad for the ole' buddy....i remember when he was damn near top of the line for only $200!
 
He can't get a better processor, he'll have to swap out his entire system which makes it worthless to keep the card.

Listen, I have basically the same setup, except I overclocked the hell out of the Barton, then I got a 256MB X800 Pro AGP for cheap, unlocked 16 pipes, and overclocked the hell out of that too.

My system runs Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. with no problems (except soft shadows which are dumb anyway since you can't have AA with SS). I run High Quality 4xAA 8xAF and get 35-55 FPS.
 
I personally wouldn't say your cpu is the bottleneck if you play the latest games at 1280 or higher res. I tested my cpu at 2.2ghz and 2.5ghz and it showed very minimal improvement in 3DMark 2k3. Our video cards are different but yet similar in performance. I'm getting a 6800 vanilla next week to flash to 16 pipes, have you tried to unlock yours?
 
I dont think your PC is old at all?

I have an A64 3000+, 6800NU and I havnt upgraded since Christmas and ive been able to play every game 1280 x 1024 as good as it gets really...
 
I have a64 3k like the dude above me.

I ain't upgrading shit until they come up with dual core 6000+mhz.
 
I still run my old machine and the games play great. Thing is that I have it overclocked... :D
 
Spare-Flair said:
He can't get a better processor, he'll have to swap out his entire system which makes it worthless to keep the card.
.
Click to expand...
Exactly. And you can't really compare a A64 3200 to a 3200 XP. A64 spanks it based off of tomhardware's scaling charts.

I'm running quake 4 at 1024x768 medium quality. 1280x1024 at low quality is almost unplayable. Right now it stays at 60 most of the time (I have v-sync enabled) and the only time it dips below that is when there are other characters on the screen. When I "join up with a squad" I'm cooking at 30fps which is not smooth by any stretch of the imagination.

The game is perfectly playable, it's just not smooth. I'm really tapping my system out with this one. I think I'm just going to get one of those A64 3500's a $70 non SLI nForce4 board and a 7800GT. That should give me quite a boost.
 
I have almost the same system you do: AthlonXP 2400 OC'd to 3200 and a gig of DDR400. The only real difference is that I've a 6800GT. I tell you this because I'm running Quake 4 at 12x10 with high detail and 2xAA and it's perfectly smooth. In FEAR with the same settings, 12x10 with most everything maxed and 2xAA and 8xAF (no soft shadows of course), I average 35 FPS. It's not as smooth as Q4, but it's certainly playable. So really I think it's the vanilla 6800 that's slowing you down. That said, upgrading from a 6800 to a GT or even an Ultra doesn't make much sense and so you're still better off swapping out the whole lot; cpu, mobo, and GPU. I just wanted to add my two cents to the cpu vs gpu discussion.
 
Yoblad said:
I think I'm just going to get one of those A64 3500's a $70 non SLI nForce4 board and a 7800GT. That should give me quite a boost.
Click to expand...

When in doubt, upgrade. :D
 
there are some socket 939s that are dual agp/pci e. the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 is one...

You just can't go sli on them... but then you can just get cpu, mobo, and memory (depending on what you have now) and be good to go for a whiel and go pci e in a few months to spread out the cost...
 
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