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3700+DS to 4800+x2?

Nucleo

Nucleo

Nucleo

Associate
Joined
26 Jul 2004
Posts
389
Hi all

right, i've got my 3700+sd to 2.6Ghz on my comp. 2GB Ram & an 1800xt and an ASROCK DUAL (PCI-X&AGP).

I've been toying with the idea of just spending £100-£140 on a 4800+X2... I mainly play CSS and want to get Supreme Commander & Quake Wars. I've heard supcom loves dual cores, and I want CSS to run a lil smoother.

What do you think to CSS performance? just getting this X2 will be a simple upgrade, in the future i'll be going conro or better with a full upgrade, but i cba with changing RAM and motherboard, i just want a quick fix.

Cheers all
 
exacley the same problem as me, i am struggling to play more than 4 player on supercomm at once so i was think along the same lines as you.
 
you are going to find it hard to get a 4800 nowadays other than ebay where there still quite expensive, a few places well one i know of has a few opterons left mainly 165 and 170's
 
Same question as the OP, i also have a 3700+ at 2.6Ghz, and i dont really want to upgrade my Mobo and RAM for a long time yet. Would it be worth it to get an Opteron 165 (which will be clocked around 2.6Ghz also) if it cost me about £25 total? Would it also compliment an 8800GTS if i were to buy one of those as well?
 
i've just got my 3700 to 2.6ghz on 1.4v and the idle temp is 30c and around 37c under load, how much futher could i push it on the stock cooler. and how much could i get out of it with a better hsf
 
stifler said:
i've just got my 3700 to 2.6ghz on 1.4v and the idle temp is 30c and around 37c under load, how much futher could i push it on the stock cooler. and how much could i get out of it with a better hsf
Click to expand...

Mine is at 2.65Ghz on 1.5v! thats with a Zalman 9500 copper cpu cooler. You shouldn't expect anything more out of it in terms of performance, even another 200Mhz wouldn't do much.
 
I have a mate who ordered one from a competitor and it cost him around £200.

Roughly what kind of gains can i expect from games like CSS? does dual core help, even with single core games?. I'll probably push the X2 a little with overclocking anyway, just want to know if the upgrade will actually be worth it.
 
i have a 3700+ mine hits 3.1ghz on stock cooler load temps @ 56 with orthos running

dual cores allows more bacground programmes to be used while playing a game as one cpu will do the game the other the background stuff
as well when u alt tab out its much faster
 
can we stay on topic please folks, i kust want to get some views from other people if they have taken a similar plunge or not
 
Nucleo said:
What do you think to CSS performance? just getting this X2 will be a simple upgrade, in the future i'll be going conro or better with a full upgrade, but i cba with changing RAM and motherboard, i just want a quick fix.
Click to expand...

The 4800+ runs at 2.5ghz, which is slower than what your 3700+ is clocked to, so I wouldn't bother upgrading tbh unless you encode dvd's, do 3d rendering, run multiple cpu intensive apps at the same time, etc....

I don't play CSS, but afaik the Source engine doesn't take advantage of 2 cores atm, so I doubt an X2 upgrade would improve CSS at all, esp with your choice of cpu running slower than your current one, regardless of the extra cache on the X2.

Only other option imho, if you're comfortable with overclocking, is to get an Opteron 170 and hope it's a good stepping that does 2.7-3.0ghz ( assuming you have good case cooling / a pretty good cpu heatsink )

Then again, selling your 1800XT and buying a GeForce 8800GTS 320MB might give you the boost in CSS that you're after.
 
I went from a 3700+ @ 2850, to a X2 4800+ @ 2850. (i also have an X1800XT) speed/smoothness definately improved. its not "huge" but noticable. and "future proof" given that more games are DC aware now.

be aware that the late X2's seem to run cool at stock but get REALLY power hungry really fast - 2.85gig, 1.4v orthos = 57c + 61 for pwm, 3gig, 1.55v = 68+ and motherboard pwm @ >88c. so if you upgrade make sure your psu and cooling is up to it befor you start to overclock.

As for the games you mention, im afraid i dont play any of them. i noticed a boost in WoW, NFSU2, Dawn of War and normal windows use.
 
I cant see its going to help at all, and for £200 imo is a big waste of money. I wouldnt be surprised if it was worse, gaming wise, seeing as your loosing 512 Kb cache.

If gaming is your priority then stick with what youve got if your editing/encoding then get an x2.
 
I wouldn't do it for more than £60. You've already clocked your CPU faster than a 4800+ at stock, and 4800+s are not great overclockers.

I would recommend you get a cheaper model X2, one of the 512mb cache ones (they overclock better) and overclock the knickers off it.
 
Or an opteron 165 - 2.8ghz @ 1.36v here, no more than 50 degrees C under load! Not played with it any more just set it up last night and ran orthos for 4hours or so!

These CPU's go for £75-£85 second hand. :)

gt
 
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