What's my bottleneck? And how do I upgrade?

Dayvon

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 6, 2004
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Case: Ahanix MicroATX Tower Case
CPU: 3.0 GHz Pentium 4
MoBo: MSI P4M880 Socket 478
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR400 PC3200
Video: ATI Radeon X800 XT PE - 256MB Ram
Audio: Creative Extigy - External USB Soundcard
Internal DVD/CDRW Drive: Lite-On via IDE
Internal HDD Drives: 250GB-IDE | 160GB-SATA Maxtors
External HDD Drives: 80GB-IDE (via Firewire) Maxtor in enclosure
External DVD~R/RW Drive: Lite-on LightScribe via USB2.0
PSU: SilenX 350W MicroATX
Input Devices: Logitech MX700, ATI Remote Wonder II
O/S: WinXP Pro SP2


Alright. I want Core2Duo. I do tons of video encoding via MeGUI/x264 of DVD's to .MP4 for HDD storage. So I really could use the performance boost of C2D over my Prescott. Overclocking a E6300 is what I'd like to do. A reasonable overclock of 2.4-3.0Ghz is what I would hope for. So that is one upgrade I want to make. Secondly, I can run Oblivion well, but not quite upto the quality I'm looking for. I'd love to run these settings @ 1366x768 (for HDTV), with 50% slider on grass, and 2xADAA Quality. I want to remain MicroATX if possible. Right now, I run the above settings, @ 1366x768 with 50% grass, Bloom, and no Tree Canopy Shadows. With these settings, I run about 20-30fps. I think my GPU is my Oblivion bottleneck, then I want to upgrade to a X1950Pro, as it is $200, and should be able to run the options I'm looking for.
I would like to do this all at as minimum a cost as possible, as honestly, I can afford none of it, but I am kinda fed up with the encoding in particular.

Those are the goals. I have a few options.

Option1: There are a couple C2D MoBo's (link, link) that have AGP slots and also run DDR-PC3200. So I could go for that, buy a E6300 and a MoBo. However, if my GPU is bottlenecking my Oblivion performance, than I would still be SOL on Oblivion performance. Significantly (2.4Ghz and up) overclocking the E6300 wouldn't be necessary with this option because I would be using this as a transition system also as opposed to a "final solution". This would potentially give me the encoding performance, and later I could upgrade to a PCIE, DDR2, mATX MoBo that can clock to the moon. (COST ~$220)

Option2: Buy a E6300, a mATX Mobo, DDR2, and a PCIE card. If I were to do this, I would want something that I could surely overclock the E6300. I would be looking at a X1950Pro eventually, but I would love the MoBo to have integrated graphics so that I could buy the PCIE card at a later date. If I did this, I would look to sell my current CPU, MoBo, GPU & RAM so I could afford this option. I've been looking at this board for this option. (COST ~$640 less current system sale)


Questions that need answered:
What is bottlenecking my Oblivion performance?

Which of these options would you recommend?

What MoBo would you recommend for the option you recommend?


Thanks for any help you can give me!!
 
Well, the GPU you're currently running is probably the root of your oblivion bottleneck. It's a good card, but not at higher resolutions in that game, with good settings.

I think the P5B-VM is the best mATX C2D board out right now... It's really not all that nice...


It'd be better to get a cheap mid-tower case, a p5B deluxe, and some new RAM if you really want the upgrade.

It should help your encoding *quite* a bit if you were to get into the 3ghz range...
 
Arcygenical said:
Well, the GPU you're currently running is probably the root of your oblivion bottleneck. It's a good card, but not at higher resolutions in that game, with good settings.

I think the P5B-VM is the best mATX C2D board out right now... It's really not all that nice...


It'd be better to get a cheap mid-tower case, a p5B deluxe, and some new RAM if you really want the upgrade.

It should help your encoding *quite* a bit if you were to get into the 3ghz range...
Anything other than this sloooow 3Ghz Prescott. Having a 1.86Ghz Core2Duo I would expect about 100% speed improvement at least because of 2 cores.

I too think that the GPU is the bottleneck, but damn, it is a 16 Pixel-Pipe card. If it wasn't for all the shadowing in the game, it could take it. Do you think that having a faster CPU with a nearly identical speed sub-system would show Oblivion improvement?
 
You would probably gain some improvement but nothing to the degree of what you're looking for (100%). Unless you game at 1024 x 768 with low-mid eye candy, you won't notice a big difference. Out of curiosity, is your ram 2x1G or 4x512? For graphics performance, consider your video card to be your prime upgrade requirement. I think it's worthwhile for you to go the C2D route though. If you ever decide to shift out of the mATX/SFF route, consider the AsRock 775Dual-VSTA, I hear it can do moderate OCs and uses both DDR1 and DDR2 as well as both AGP and PCI-E 4X.
 
I to am searching to upgrade my desktop early next year, see sig #2.
Possibly building a mATX to replace it. I'd also like C2D also but am finding
the options somewhat limited and scarce. From what I've read around here
lately don't expect Intel to do any better for mATX.

I'm not an OCer, I stopped a while back as the benefits are minimal,
but want a top notch performer.

To answer your options, here is my 2 cents
Forget AGP going forward, it's over. Any C2D will limit an AGP card and your
performance would suffer. Using a cheaper PCIE video card now, will at least
let you upgrade in the future. So I'd go that route.

You second option makes more sense but there are no good Intel options to OC.
One board mentioned the Asus P5B-VM seems to be the best but has several issues
including RAM issue. Looks like the AMD folks have lots better choices.

Read this on RAM issues & such for P5B-VM
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1113146
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1098362

Keep in mind that Vista is around the corner and you want something that will
eventually handle that also. I know I do eventually.

Here is my current thinking.
This motherboard which is about 1" less in size then a full ATX board spec
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813128012

And this case
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811112505

Total size together is slightly larger then a mATX, but you have all the ATX upgrade options
at roughly the same or better price. OCing this system would not be an issue.

Either way figure on replacing most of what you have. Your current power supply is also
a very weak area.
 
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