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Last upgrade for the S939...

gort

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gort

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Joined
27 May 2003
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1,661
Rather than create two posts; one in here and other in Gfx cards.....

Currently running an Opteron 144 @ 2.7Ghz and an overclocked Radeon X800 GTO2 with 16 pipelines mod on my DFI Ultra-D S939 board (2gb DDR)

As my last upgrade for this board, would it be worth swapping over to:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (to overclock)
OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI

Have found that newer games seem to be lagging a bit too much for my liking now (monitor is only 1280x1024.)
 
I'm no graphics expert, so I'll let someone else answer the GFX card question. Hopefully I can help a bit on the CPU though :)

Basically, yes. The 3800+ X2 will probably do around 2.6Ghz on stock volts and then up to 2.8Ghz and possibly beyond with a bit more Vcore. (Obviously this is going by recent results and I can't guarantee anything!)

In dual/multicore apps the 3800+ will wipe the floor with your 144. You won't believe the difference until you see it.

The games issue is an interesting one. As above, in dual core games the 3800+ will fly. In single core games it gets a tad more complicated. The 144 has 1mb cache per core whilst the 3800+ only has 512kb. Whilst this means a drop in performance, it also means the CPU will clock higher and run cooler.

With all of the A64 series, raw clock speed is what gets you a bigger performance gain than anything else. Therefore, in a single threaded game, the highest clocked CPU will almost always win out. To put that as an example, your 144 @ 2.7Ghz will beat the 3800+ X2 @ 2.6Ghz if the game/app/whatever is single threaded.

But as I said, if you're willing to stick a bit more voltage through the chip than at stock, and if your cooling system can handle it, you'll be able to get the new 3800+ X2 to around 2.8-2.9Ghz. In that case, it will beat the 144 in almost everything you care to throw at it.

Jon
 
From my personal experience the actual speed of the CPU is no where near as important as the speed of the Graphics card.

More games are becoming multi threaded so a cheap dual core and a good GPU will see you through until they release some cards that can really do DX10 for a lot less than £200

AD
 
If you are already getting 2.7ghz out of your opteron then I really see no point in switching to an X2 3800+ which has less cache and at most will give you 200-300mhz more with overclocking if your lucky. I'd save your money if I was you on that front.
 
Drukk said:
If you are already getting 2.7ghz out of your opteron then I really see no point in switching to an X2 3800+ which has less cache and at most will give you 200-300mhz more with overclocking if your lucky. I'd save your money if I was you on that front.
Click to expand...

And a whole other processor for dual core apps ;)
 
Cheers guys for the input.

I'll get the gfx card then and see how it goes, if I'm happy I'll leave it.

However, what about duel core supported games like Geforce has stated, the X2 3800+ would make a difference wouldn't it?
 
It would make a considerable difference in applications that support dual core and another benifit would be a much smoother windows!
 
gort said:
owever, what about duel core supported games like Geforce has stated, the X2 3800+ would make a difference wouldn't it?
Click to expand...

Yup, any dual core chip will wipe the floor with an equivalent single core in a multithreaded app or game ;)

Jon
 
if you go for second hand cpu and gfx, you may well manage to get something like a 3800+ and an X1800XT for the price of 1 or the other component new..
 
Headache over, just bought an Opteron 165 CCBBE 0610DPMW from Killboy_UK for £50 so that's that sorted.

Just about to buy the OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB for £93.99inc, a little bit miffed I just I missed out on the "TWO" price!

Thanks a lot guys for the advice!

Long live the S939
 
Opty 165 sitting at 2.8Ghz (311x9) on Vcore 1.375v under a SI-120. Temps a bit too high if I up it much further. Definately noticably faster than the 144 in most things.

X1950pro installed and I played Bioshock and MOH Airborne demos, I was almost speechless with the GFX. I know it's not much to most people on here but this is the most powerful card I've ever used and I've never played on an XBOX 360 or PS3 so it was only the X800GTO2 I could compare it to.

Am chuffed at the moment. Total of £151 well spent!
This will do me for the next 9-10 months or so I reckon!

Thanks all!
 
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