Worthwhile Sct 939 upgrade?

[Scania]

Hi all, I have currently an aged sct 939 based system consisting of an A64 3000+, ATI 1950 pro AGP card & 2.5GB of DDR400.

I am having issues with my newly purchased copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe (FSX) namely, an impressive FPS average of about 8!

Would this AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego (Socket 939) - OEM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego (Socket 939) - OEM
give me any increase in FPS? or would I be far better off looking for a dual core X2 939 chip from the bay or MM or the like?

The 4000+ chip is under £36 from OC/UK currently and I am tempted given the price.
Would this help me significantly in FSX? or, am I simply putting off the inevitable upgrade to a C2D system (yes, I know I am!)

I am assuming the 4000+ would help me get the best from my 1950 pro which incidentally is just the job for the other two games I run in the main which are FS2004 and Battlefield 2, both of which run great @ MAX settings with lots of AA & AF etc.

Currently, with hindsight I wish I'd spent the £100 odd which FSX Delux & Just Flights "Lancaster" add-on cost me on hardware rather than software...

Oh well, you live & learn I guess!

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Pulse]

Looks around and you might be able to pick up at X2 4200 for not much more, would make much more sense then going to another single core CPU.

I'm still running my X2 4200 @ 2.7GHz, 2GB ram and X1900XT and it's still working fine a year on from when I first got them.

 

[Amonlym]

getting something like a 4200, 4600 or even 4400/4800 if you can source should give a good boost from your 3000+

you can always try the 4000+ and overclock the danglies off it, but its not likely to help that much... (even if you get it to twice the frequency of your current cpu thats only 16fps)

i note you say socket 939 and 2.5gb of ram... is that 2*1gig + 2* 256mb? if not i doubt your running dual chan which could be hurting things. if it turns out you have only 3 ram slots: you have a s754 cpu not a 939 and upgrading is almost a non starter.

 

[Scania]

getting something like a 4200, 4600 or even 4400/4800 if you can source should give a good boost from your 3000+

you can always try the 4000+ and overclock the danglies off it, but its not likely to help that much... (even if you get it to twice the frequency of your current cpu thats only 16fps)

i note you say socket 939 and 2.5gb of ram... is that 2*1gig + 2* 256mb? if not i doubt your running dual chan which could be hurting things. if it turns out you have only 3 ram slots: you have a s754 cpu not a 939 and upgrading is almost a non starter.

Interesting stuff.

Yes, I have 2x1GB & 2x256MB, my motherboard reports that its running in dual channel though - the 1GB sticks are identical as are the 256MB ones....


Second hand X2 939 time it appears, thanks for clearing this up for me.

 

[elmuzzy66.]

Yea go for a cheap x2, i went from a 3700 sandy to x2 4800 and did notice a difference.

 

[J.D]

Another vote for the X2. I had the X2 3800 in my rig before this one and overclocked up to 2.8Ghz. At 1600x1200 (which I usually game at / 2048x1536 capable) I hardly feel a difference between my rig now (in sig) and my rig then. Other parts consisted of 1gb of DDR400 overclocked, DFI Ultra-D.

Try and source a proven clocker if you can. I would have sold you my old one but I stuck it into my mums PC.

Good luck.

 

[Uriel]

939 X2 if you can find a cheap one. Make sure you weigh up the cost though. You could spend a lot when it wouldn't cost much more to upgrade to Core2 or AM2.

 

[Hesky82]

FSX loves dual cores, don’t bother with that single core san diego grab an opteron 165 or 170 toledo dual core for 30~ second hand

 

[Scania]

FSX loves dual cores, don’t bother with that single core san diego grab an opteron 165 or 170 toledo dual core for 30~ second hand

I have read much about FSX & dual cores, seems the more cores the better.

Right then, who's got one for sale at a good price then?

Cheers for the input guys, dual core it is.

 

[sir-les-mp]

i agree dual core is the way to go if your into overclocking the opteron's the best bet as by all accounts the 165 and ups clock near or past 3 Ghz without to many issue's

 

[Hesky82]

With the right stepping and a decent board a 165 can hit 3GHz, but was pretty rare though, they do go for peanuts second hand so I would definitely look out for one.
r124 is running 2x1GB & 2x256MB so overclocking maybe an issue with all ram slots populated.

 

[Scania]

With the right stepping and a decent board a 165 can hit 3GHz, but was pretty rare though, they do go for peanuts second hand so I would definitely look out for one.
r124 is running 2x1GB & 2x256MB so overclocking maybe an issue with all ram slots populated.

Surprisingly, I have been able to overclock my existing cpu, currently its running on an fsb of 230 rather than 200 std.

 

[matt100]

i seem to remember even FX60 prices hit the floor when C2D was released, you might be able to get yourself a monster chip off the bay for very little.

 

[-iceblade^]

just get a dual, and OC, then add another 2x1gb ram to that if you can

no point in staying with a single if you don't have to

 

[Hesky82]

i seem to remember even FX60 prices hit the floor when C2D was released, you might be able to get yourself a monster chip off the bay for very little.

Chances are the old FX duals will still be selling for a decent whack which really isn’t worth it, probably be able to snap up an equally priced new Intel quad!

Surprisingly, I have been able to overclock my existing cpu, currently its running on an fsb of 230 rather than 200 std.

R124, you need 333FSB to get an opty 165 to 3GHz!!

If your current processor is based around the venice core and 230mhz is you max FSB you can really see how running 4 stick of ram effects your overclock. the Venice cores have pretty decent on die memory controllers when compared to the early winchester 3000+'s but they still struggle to maintain a good overlock with more than 2 sticks of ram.

 

[Steeps]

went from a 3200+ (winchester which wouldn't clock) to a 3800+ x2 and it's sitting at 260fsb with 4 sticks of ballistix as happy as a pig in poo. Most of my games are single threaded but they still run better as things in the background use the other core.

 

[Scania]

Chances are the old FX duals will still be selling for a decent whack which really isn’t worth it, probably be able to snap up an equally priced new Intel quad!

This is the dilemma I have, a new board, cpu & RAM are only a tad more than some of the listed prices.

R124, you need 333FSB to get an opty 165 to 3GHz!!

- I'm only saying what I've set my fsb to, it seems to be running at that...

If your current processor is based around the venice core and 230mhz is you max FSB you can really see how running 4 stick of ram effects your overclock. the Venice cores have pretty decent on die memory controllers when compared to the early winchester 3000+'s but they still struggle to maintain a good overlock with more than 2 sticks of ram.

Interesting, I've simply set my fsb to 230, booted up & used it thus ever since.... (its probably doing nothing then! )

 

[neon.uk]

Just find a cheap 939 X2. I put a 3800+ X2 939 (2.0ghz) in January into my brother's PC and there was significant improvement. OCuk used to do that chip, just shop about you might be able to find one.

He is an avid flight simmer aswell, spent a fortune on addons for FS2004 much to my parents' horror.

 

[Trunks9486]

Tryu overclocking with just 2GBs of RAM, if you can reach a high enough overclock it may be worth to sell the 512MBs as 2GBs is pretty good for 32 bit OS systems.

 

[miceormen]

Indeed, avoid upgrading to another single core. I had an 939 a64 3500 and upgrade to a 4000 but there wasnt a noticeable difference in fs2004. Using a dual core now and the difference is substantial. I'd suggest looking for the x2 4400 on the bay, or saving a little and upgrading to one of the e2xxx series of c2d chips.

Your current graphics card is certainly adequate to use fsx, having used a similar pci-e version of the card with my previous setup.