3000 vs x2 3800

johnnqq

Golden Member
May 30, 2005
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i have to delay my rig AGAIN for the p150 ;). i was first going to buy a 3000. then i hear all this good news about the x2. i planned for two upgrades for this gaming computer in a year or 2. i was eventually going x2 and getting a new video card. my reasoning for not buying an x2 from the start: an x2 won't really help in games for the money. a graphics card would be a better decision. besides the new drivers coming out (by the way another question. do the new drivers help if the game is cpu limited, or do they help games in general?), i'm starting to wonder. if i DID get a 3000 for $150, going x2 would have to be less than $200 if i were to make any kind of savings. i just can't see that happening anytime soon...and when the times comes, m2 will be out and i won't even want to upgrade. so i'm not asking you x2 owners to tell me how fast it is (believe me, i know the x2 is way better), but rather how cheap the x2 might eventually get.
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
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Are you plannong on doing things like video encoding??? If not, then don't bother with the X2 as its price/performance in games is def not worth it.
 

johnnqq

Golden Member
May 30, 2005
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i'm not doing anything serious besides gaming. i'm using a p3 with 384mb of ram and i want my new toy to be as fast as it can be for a grand. ( was going to get a car...but 4 grand doens't exactly get me the supra i was going for. another 3 grand :\ so i'm going the computer toy route)
 

Doug117

Senior member
Oct 30, 2000
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Id go 3000+ now and you can spring for the x2 later (which is probably what I'm going to be doing as well). As Hacp stated, if you dont do hardcore video editing, etc then the 2 cores arent THAT much better. Save some money for now as the x2s will definately come down in price as time goes on.
 

johnnqq

Golden Member
May 30, 2005
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i know they will come down in price, but once i get the x2 i will throw away the 3000. buying both processors will costa round $350 which is the price of buying one now...
 

phantom404

Golden Member
Nov 2, 2004
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I think the x2 is worth it because Im sure in the background your also going to have a virus scanner running, firewall and I also like to have a web browser up and download stuff as well. I was even able to rip a dvd to my HD and play bf2 at all high settings with no problem. So if you know your going to multi task then yes i would get it. But if not then the 3000+ would probably work.

Ohh I know games that are coming out now are starting to take advantage of the dual cores.
 

obeseotron

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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There will be benefits in responsiveness no matter what, keep the task manager in the tray, do you ever max it out outside a game? Any time that happens dual core will benefit. If all you do is game, spend the money on the graphics card, which is a lot more important.
 

johnnqq

Golden Member
May 30, 2005
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at most, i'll have im, a scanner, itunes, firefox, and word open...will all of that steal over 10 fps from my games with a 3000?
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
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No it won't steal 10 fps unless your fps is exteremely high. Btw, you can always trade old processors for $$ :).
 

johnnqq

Golden Member
May 30, 2005
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na that'll never happen. i've never bought/sold anything to another person over the internet and i just don't trust it...
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
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Well, if your going to throw it away anyways, might as well give it to someone then (like me) after your finished with it :)
 

johnnqq

Golden Member
May 30, 2005
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i guess i woudl give it away in a year or so...unless i built a winnie computer for soembody else
 

obeseotron

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Forgot to mention it earlier, but some people are getting some pretty nice boosts from the nvidia 81 drivers with dual core chips. ATI says it has multithreaded drivers on the way also if you're going that way. Still keep in mind that a $140 CPU is usually 85-90% as fast as a $400 one, while a $140 graphics card is probably 40% as fast as a $400 one. Spend your money where it counts. A 3000+ with value ram and a 7800gtx will mop the floor with a 3800 x2, high quality RAM and a previous generation video card. People complain about the prices of video cards, but you actually do get almost twice as much performance by spending twice as much - something you'll never get from any other component.
 

imported_OrSin

Senior member
Jul 15, 2004
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Don't mean to high jack the thread but my question is similar.
I have an AMDXP 2800. Should I just wait for the M2 to upgrade.
I do mostly gaming and my video card right now is fine. I going to get a new system but I not sure that a 3000 or 3200 would make much diffenence in games. Do you think it would upgrading just go from a 2800 to 3200 AMD64?