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Is it Worth Upgrading a Northwood To A Prescott ?

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I have a northwood cpu which i believe is bottleneck for my ati x850 xt gcard. I have been deliberating over a prescott on ebay something like a 3.0Ghz/800FSB/1m/.. etc to replace my northwood of the same spec except it has 512K L2 cache and 533 (Approx, NOT SURE).

The northwood is being ran by a p4p800-8 deluxe mobo' (asus), with an ati x850 xt g'card (gpa), OCz DDR400 gamer gold extreme memory (1Gb, cas 2.0). Also the cpu is water cooled by the zalman reserator 1-plus. A tagan 480W PSU powers the system as well.

All in all the system credentials are impressive although that don't mean it outputs decent fps in online games using the source engine such as half life 2 and cs:s. :eek:

The northwood oc's quite well to 3.4Ghz but the fps is still poor when gaming on a 4mb, less than 20 latency brdband line. Therefore i have been wondering what kind of performance might i get if i upgraded my cpu ? AS I KNOW ITS CRAP AND OLD !!! :mad:

So anyone out there that might shed some light, please reply to this thread !!! :)

Thanks, also i just want to say for a abt £100.00 cpu replacement i can buy brand new mobo and chip (AMD, SKCT 754). This is what i been advised to do, go AMD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :confused: Because by experienced gamers, have told me i should see vast improvement in fps if i go amd .....
 
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prescotts aren't as fast clock for clock as northwoods, plus they get so needlessly hot, so an AMD processor is your best bet to be honest unless your interested in getting a conroe, i would get rid of the competitors name from post, cause its fairly enforced rule not to name competitors
 
Really get that competitor out now, otherwise you'll get a HEFTY slap by the dons. For £100 you could buy the AMD64 3700 and a socket 939 Mobo from here. That'd make for a killer upgrade.

Also, welcome to the forums - Read the FAQ
 
tell me about it, i keep getting this yellow thing cause of signiture, saying its more than four lines, but it was only four lines, what the hell?
 
same here, but havent had time to change my avatar. Working on it now. :).

Also, em about your processor. I would say stick with what uv got for now and wait till u have a bit more money. Then burn all the cash on a new conroe.

The reason for this is that you will see a big difference in performance. Rather than buying new parts that will give you just a llittle boost in FPS. e.g AMD 64 range of chips/boards :eek:
 
Iceberg2 said:
same here, but havent had time to change my avatar. Working on it now. :).

Also, em about your processor. I would say stick with what uv got for now and wait till u have a bit more money. Then burn all the cash on a new conroe.

The reason for this is that you will see a big difference in performance. Rather than buying new parts that will give you just a llittle boost in FPS. e.g AMD 64 range of chips/boards :eek:
Click to expand...

You Def right THERE MATE !!!!!!!!!!!!

Also sorry about the competitor post crap thingy majiggy. Didn't know about that ! its been edited anyways ! I get so wound i jump to forums, get my answer and the f off and never return ... this is me sorry i never read the rules i reckon i might make myself comfortable, here, Great PPL here on the forums and and great E-tailer what can i say !!!

A conroe does look sweet i have to admit, a short term gain in fps may not necessarily be everything in the long run. So i cannot argue with you there. I mean i have the money and everyfink i check inquirer all the time. From what i can recall and you cannot quote me for this, but aren't intel supposed to be releasing a killer chipset to suport ati crossfire platform alongside the conroe architecure. I.e a killer chipset built for gamers ... to help give intel a name in terms of gamers and gaming. ;)

The reason for the intial post is that am part of a clan so i just cannot be asked with that kind of fps anymore ... especially when i just paid close to 200 quid for the gcard of mine !!!!!!!! :mad:

I mean i am computer science graduate here at bardford uni' and tbh with ya, the reverse HT thingy on the am2 sockets makes helluva lot of sense to me personally from a cpu architecure p.o.v as well as software p.o.v.
 
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Just Want to say GUYS !!!!!!! Thanks for the replies and SOOO quickly as well !!!!!!!!!!! WOW !!!!!!!!! i usualy end waiting a day or so for a reply usualy lol ......... hauppauge and creative forums lol !!! :D

Look forward to reading some replies !!!!!!!!!
 
Which northwood CPU is it? You mention 533(P4-B), if so the chip's probably FSB saturated. The P4-C which is a northwood with an 800FSB is a pretty good performer, the 533's often came with Hyperthreading disabled, have a slow FSB.

I assume you have 2 sticks (or 4) of memory, in the correct slots, so that dual channel is active, although if its a 533 that wont help so much.

My 3.2 [email protected] is a nice performing cpu, which has no trouble handling current games, and Im still using a Geforce 6800GT@420/1100
 
I wouldn't bother, a 3.4ghz northwood is still pretty nippy even on a low FSB (I'm guessing you have either a 3.06B or a 2.8B).

To be honest your current system is reasonably well balanced. In order to get any kind of decent performance boost you would need to buy a new cpu (A64 or Conroe) which would require a new motherboard, and hence probably a new graphics card too, since there aren't many modern AGP boards on the market. You could get the ASrock board which supports both AGP and PCI-E on the S939 platform, but then in 6 months time you might regret it.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, how do i get a screenshot posted in this thread as reply .......... as i want you guys (corasik, hangtime) to check out my current cpu's stats in CPU-Z ?

If i cant get a screenshot posted, then you two guys should be able to explain what my next move should be ... i mean I don't mind buying another processor and experimenting for results ........ but with you experienced ppl such as urself, this process should be a lot quicker and smoother thanks to your experience.

I can say this, the fsb is 533 and it does have HT enabled thats for sure !!!

You mention a northwood with 800Mhz whys this the first time i have heard about this ???? :eek: For 800Mhz FSB i thgt of a prescott straight away ! fo'so' !!!

What do You mean by fsb saturated, also the dual channel is working and installed properly .................. another note i have oced this cpu a few times as pure NooBY that i am, and i have squezzed it close to 600Mhz .... :)

So this means for OC'ing this kind of chip, i need to speak to corasik ... if you don't mind me asking all these nooby questions .... :D
 
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I seem to have found two northwoods on ebay with 800FSB with ht ....

using the search term intel p4 478 > using links found on the left hand side to narrow down the results. (Ending sometime during the day of 27/06/2006)

These processors are going for peanuts more or less ... this is what i mean, i don't mind experimenting to for results ......... only way to get rid if the what ifs floating around in my head ! :)
 
The FSB is saturated any time the processor's connection to the motherboard is 100% full.

Example, Dual channel DDR PC3200 memory, is able to transfer 6400mbps, that is an exact match for an 800mhz FSB P4. The 533 FSB is only able to do 4256mbps, so the frontside bus is a bottleneck for the processor.

Northwood 'C's are available at 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 3.0, 3.2 and very rarely... 3.4Ghz, they are always 'even numbers' a lot of the 533's came in funny speeds like 2.53, 3.06 etc. Virtually all Northwood 'c's have hyperthreading enabled.

To Identify a Northwood V a Prescott, look at the cache size. Northwood only has 512 cache V Prescotts 1024. But northwood has a shorter pipeline, so it does slightly more work per clock. Socket 478 Prescotts ran very hot, northwood is much easier to run cool.

Feel free to link some pics from cpu-z, and do a picture of the memory timings page too, see if there are any noticable issues.

When intel switched from 533FSB to 800, is the same time they jumped the Athlon XP's in performance. Of course it wasnt long before AMD answered back with Athlon64.

Im using a Geforce 6800GT@near ultra speeds, and a 3.2 Northwood at 3.5Ghz, and really have had no problems with gaming on my system. My next computer will be a Conroe :)
 
Thanks for the reply, so is it fair to say a northwood with 800FSB is better than a prescott, as heat is not an issue, i run a water colling kit as well !

But by the looks of your reply, seems like a northwood is better for me ...

i dont mind purchasing one and seein if this is true but all the ones of e-tailers are 533 ........ :( ! then u know if it dont turn out as i had expected i can always retrurn it for a refund .... :p

Do you have a headset ............ please come into my clans teamspeak server, i can talk directly to you one to one. For the teamspeak server ip please goto mtgeurope.com, or even google it. ;) With someone like you in the teamspeak server i can get my head round this fps problem sooner than later .... :(

My name in the clan is {MTG}Blank[A] !!!!
 
Im at work at the moment, but for a 478 system, I prefer Northwoods. Its true prescott improved slightly when it moved to Socket 775, but I got the impression you wanted to 'improve' your current computer, and not just build a totally new one.

You have a good 'solid' performance 478 motherboard, and while AMD64's may give a higher FPS, the P4 shouldnt be too bad.

One thing you dont mention is what FPS your getting at the moment, It might be worth running through a few benchmarks, to see if your computer is about right for it's spec, or if there is a bottleneck holding you back.

While im not a fan of benchmarking purely to brag about, a couple of 3Dmark tests might well show if there are any obvious problems.

3dmark 2001 is a good test of DirectX7, and is affected greatly by the memory and frontside bus, 2003 is a decent test for DX8.
 
mmmm, well my gcard is directX 9 (ati x850 xt) ... i haven't ran any benchmarking software in like AGES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I typically play cs:s, for exmaple the dust maps, somewhere 30-60 fps ...... always around there !!!

Alhough the video stress test in the game from the main menu, shows an fps close a 100 fps.

you definately right, i just want to see if i can get more performance out of this current system before i make my mind up when vista is out. So if a northwood with 800FSB can help oc'ed as well then i will def' investigate that mate !!! :)
 
Am getting hold of 3dmark 03 right now, but what u explained earlier is def' right,
my fsb of 533 is def' going to be bottleneck ........ fo'so' :)

Heres the thing, i don't seem to be able to find a northwood of the web with 800Mhz FSB !!!!!!!!! u ?

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Just did a benchmark, and i got 12088 .... all tests were selected but res was at 1024 * 768 ...............

From the two cpu tests, it scored 692 ......

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I'll 3dmark my home system tonight, so you have something to compare with.

Buying a new northwood might be a challenge, Unless you can find someone with old stock, but they are still around on the second hand sites, and auctions. Cant post any links, as its against the forum rules, but I found a 3.2/800/512 northwood in about 10 seconds.
 
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HUhuh >? did ya ? ebay ?

if so e-mail me the link of you don't mind !!!
i check my home e-mail regularly.

I been checking ebay, i found a 3.0Ghz but not a 3.2 ......... ? :confused:

Not ebay ? then e-mail me the link to the site where u found it off then !!!

Thanks, Ibrar
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Am gonna ben heading out now, as my family run a business so duty calls, will be online later anyways, to check for replies !!!! THANKS, for replying !
 
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Well, benched mine for you to use as a reference.. I think my old 6800GT is a slower card than the ATI, but I managed 11624 on 3dmark03.

However, my [email protected] with the FSB running at 875 gave me a CPU score of 880, and I've not really bothered to tune the memory timings, or fiddle with bios settings too much.

If you had your chip running at 3.4Ghz at the time you benched it, lets try to normalise the results.

(880/3.5)*3.4 = 855, thats almost 25% faster than your northwood 'B'
 
Thanks for taking the time and benching your system for me

btl of ** cpu test score, it def' is better than, proving the difference of fsb then ......... very simple conc' ah know but cannot be asked disproving it lol. Good enuff for me lol.

i really do appreciate ... it ... so btl of things, your processor would be a good cheap and cheerful short term upgrade for my computer. Till vista comes that is.

I been looking on the usual auction site and i cannot find much ... when i do manage to get hold of one ... i prolly will be needing your assistence to help me oc it, fo'so :) !!!

First thing first i a northwood c processor ....................... can't seem to find one off e-tailers as well, reckon i might even give an old friend a ring !!! SPECIAL REQUEST kind of thing !!! will let you know either way !!! :)

You mentioned 'work', earlier on in your posts, where do you work ?
am waiting to graduate here at bradford universty, so am looking for a job as well !!!! :D
 
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