AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+, is it worth it?

ozy · 25 Mar 2006 at 21:01

Hey,

Is it worth buying a 4800+ over the (substantially cheaper) 4200,4400 or 4600+? Each successive CPU seems to be a serious price hike, what sort of performance gains am I likely to see across the range when paired with a ATI 1900-XT GFX card (possibly two in the future)?

Cheers,

Chris (ozy)

Amp34 · 25 Mar 2006 at 21:04

I just played overclock with my 4400 (the step is supposed to be bad one)with 2 gigs of corsair value and got 2.4 (4800) easily.

Chris19 · 26 Mar 2006 at 04:05

If you fancy overclocking go for the 3800 ones they seem to be clocking fairly well got mines to 2.7 on air at 1.58V

ACESHIGH · 26 Mar 2006 at 07:35

imo the X2 4400+ is the best to go for (as it has the extra L2 cache over the X2 3800+) & they also overclock pretty well.

Havana_UK · 26 Mar 2006 at 11:01

ACESHIGH said:
imo the X2 4400+ is the best to go for (as it has the extra L2 cache over the X2 3800+) & they also overclock pretty well.

Agreed.

Mine does 2.6GHz on air

Hav

4Qman · 26 Mar 2006 at 12:11

Id go 3800X2 for Price/Performace when OC. The the 4400X2 if you have the extra cash. I wouldnt get a 4800X2 IMO when its simple to get the speeds from these 2.

smids · 26 Mar 2006 at 12:35

I agree. Actually the more recent X2 4400+'s (Week 42 onwards, 2005) are clocking really well. Mine is doing 2.8ghz on 1.49v on water. These are the puppies to get

.

Bradmax57 · 26 Mar 2006 at 22:53

just bought one to shove under my mach 2, hopefully will do ok

ozy · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:12

Thanks for the responses

hmmm, I've been looking into dual core processors, and apparently the 4800+ is no quicker than a single core A64 4000+ for games (which makes sense, one core is idle)

As this is going to be primarily a gaming machine, it seems to makes sense to perhaps go for this 4000+ single core chip, as its a clear £200 cheaper!

Just wondering though, currently dual core processing really seems to take effect in the realm of multimedia, video/audio editing etc or for those who like to run their antivirus scan while playing a game (multitasking aint my thing

). In the future, will future games begin to use both cores of a dual processor? Would you guys recommend a dual core chip as a future proofing purchase?

Just for the record, i'm not looking to overclock the cpu in any form. Not yet anyway. With this in mind, does the 4000+ single core chip seem a more sensible choice for a gaming machine?

Cheers

Chris (ozy)

Bradmax57 · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:18

ozy said:
Thanks for the responses

hmmm, I've been looking into dual core processors, and apparently the 4800+ is no quicker than a single core A64 4000+ for games (which makes sense, one core is idle)

As this is going to be primarily a gaming machine, it seems to makes sense to perhaps go for this 4000+ single core chip, as its a clear £200 cheaper!

Just wondering though, currently dual core processing really seems to take effect in the realm of multimedia, video/audio editing etc or for those who like to run their antivirus scan while playing a game (multitasking aint my thing ). In the future, will future games begin to use both cores of a dual processor? Would you guys recommend a dual core chip as a future proofing purchase?

Just for the record, i'm not looking to overclock the cpu in any form. Not yet anyway. With this in mind, does the 4000+ single core chip seem a more sensible choice for a gaming machine?

Cheers

Chris (ozy)

helps in 3dmark06

lol

squiffy · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:22

I guess it depends. Half Life 2 spots the 2 cores, dunno if it uses both. Battlefield 2 is supposed to use 2 cores and Quake 1.05beta also (just Intel dual core support?) I guess you could buy a single core for now if you're going to build a HTPC later that SC chip can go into that, then buy uprade your gaming system with a dual core CPU (same CPU socket obviously) I have a dual core 4400+, mostly play games but I guess the dual core helps when I do heavy windows work. A DVD shrink took 5 minutes, both CPU meters were at 100% so I would guess it should be faster than a single core of the same ghz.

Bradmax57 · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:23

squiffy said:
I guess it depends. Half Life 2 spots the 2 cores, dunno if it uses both. Battlefield 2 is supposed to use 2 cores and Quake 1.05beta also (just Intel dual core support?) I guess you could buy a single core for now if you're going to build a HTPC later that SC chip can go into that, then buy uprade your gaming system with a dual core CPU (same CPU socket obviously) I have a dual core 4400+, mostly play games but I guess the dual core helps when I do heavy windows work. A DVD shrink took 5 minutes, both CPU meters were at 100% so I would guess it should be faster than a single core of the same ghz.

I guess more and more games may start to utilise it aswell

ozy · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:35

I think you're right Bradmax, dual core may well be a shrewd future investment.

OK. Assuming I bought a dual core 4400, and wanted to up it to a 4800, would I be able to do it with 2GB of Corsair Value Select memory (CAS3), or would I need better memory?

BTW, The CPU cooler will be a Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower Cooler

Cheers

Chris (ozy)

squiffy · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:43

I managed to get my 4400 to 4800 with stock AMD heatpipe/heatsink/fan, but with that's with Corsair XMS CAS 2 memory but I had to set it to CAS2.5 instead of CAS 2. But I didn't fiddle with all settings, just manual voltage, CAS and Tras.

I would give the supplied AMD cooler a shot. It's the highest quality stock HSF I've had, the usual bundled ones are just aluminium heatsink/fan only (no heatpipes)

smids · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:48

You can use a divider with the worst RAM so yes, it is possible with even poor RAM. Pretty much all 4400+'s will hit 4800+ easily.

ozy · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:50

Squiffy: I thought about it, but someone told me the stock coolers are quite noisy. I'm not too fussed about paying a little more for a quiet cooler, which should in theory give better cooling than the stock cooler.

That just leaves the question on the memory, I don't want to be caught out by buying the wrong stuff again (bought 1gb of PC2700 for my last system, boy was that a mistake lol)

Cheers,

Chris (ozy)

ozy · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:51

Ahh, smids you beat me to it. Question answered.

smids · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:57

ozy said:
Ahh, smids you beat me to it. Question answered.

Still, make sure you get at least PC3200 this time

.

squiffy · 27 Mar 2006 at 00:02

ozy said:
Squiffy: I thought about it, but someone told me the stock coolers are quite noisy. I'm not too fussed about paying a little more for a quiet cooler, which should in theory give better cooling than the stock cooler.

That just leaves the question on the memory, I don't want to be caught out by buying the wrong stuff again (bought 1gb of PC2700 for my last system, boy was that a mistake lol)

Cheers,

Chris (ozy)

I wouldn't worry about the noise, the videocard I have is far noiser so one or two dB saving isn't going to do much. I'm about 3' away from the CPU, the case is open type (810 stacker) with the side window facing me. I just put the FPS 2000 speakers a bit louder to compensate.

As for memory, Corsair 1GB DDR XMS4400C25PT TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2.5 (TWINX1024-4400C25PT) (MY-068-CS) is correct type for the
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS)

ozy · 27 Mar 2006 at 08:56

Squiffy: When you say "correct type of memory", in what respect exactly? I'd assume the system would run ok with stock 3200 memory, and that 4400 would only be needed for overclocking ?

Chris (ozy)