6800GT - CPU Limited?

[dklingen]

Anandtech has a great site and people with excellent advice/knowledge. Since this is my first post, I hope someone will be able to help me in my delima. I recently got a pretty good deal on a BFG 6800GT from Best Buy ($370 including tax). However, my fastest system is an AthlonXP 2500 (not OC) with a 9700Pro. The system has been great, I can play Far Cry at 1024x768 2AA/2AF with the details on high. However, I want to max out everything on Far Cry and HL2 at resolutions no lower then 1024x768.

If I install the 6800GT will there be significant performance gained or will the 6800GT be CPU limited?

I do not want to buy a new mobo and cpu with SLI right around the corner. Particularly if I can't transer my BFG 6800GT into the SLI configuration because it is AGP. Although, I found a great "bundle" deal at Mwave (MSI KT8Neo2-F with retail Athlon64 3000 (939) for $253) if I want to stick with AGP for awhile (1-2 years). Additionally, I saw that the 6800GT PCIe (on ZipZoomFly) is $499. So a the base SLI system I would want would cost: 6800GT$500, SLI MB $200, CPU (3000) $160, then a second 6800GT in 6-8mos $350 (guess) = $1210 and it will probably be CPU limited. This consideration does not even take into accout the ~3-6 months to make SLI "bug free" before I would want to buy anything.

Sorry for the overzealous amount of information. If you can just help with the question, I will figure our the rest.

Thanks!

 

[n7]

I would say it's worth it, unless you really want to return the card & wait for PCI-e.

AGP will be around for a couple more years, & by then you'll want to upgrade anyway.

 

[dklingen]

Thanks for the input.

But will the 6800GT be marginally faster then my 9700Pro because of my CPU (2500XP)?

 

[Rhoel]

On my last system, despite all the hoopla about bottlenecks, my bfg 6800gt was worlds better than my 9800xt. It was on a stock xp2600. I played in 1600x1200 and the difference was huge. The difference was smaller at lower resolutions. Unfortunately I had a stuttering problem and I eventually returned it. But otherwise, it was an awewome card. As a matter of fact, I have a gt on order for my new system.

 

[dklingen]

Thanks for offering information with some history. I guess I will have to open the box and test it out. But at least I know that I can expect a difference.

 

[dklingen]

I need an opinion or guess. Will I be able to run FC or HL2 at 1024x768 4AA/8AF with maximum detail and a 2500XP / 6800GT combo?

 

[dklingen]

Rhoel,

What CPU are you buying on your new system?

Thanks

 

[Zebo]

Screw PCIe. And set you bus speed to 200 mhz (aka 3200 AXP) and enjoy your comp for two more years.

 

[kogase]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Screw PCIe. And set you bus speed to 200 mhz (aka 3200 AXP) and enjoy your comp for two more years.

That's kind of.... lame advice. Not every CPU can do the 200mhz. My 2500 isn't even stable at 185. Okay, well, I posted this out of spite because mine won't do it and everyone else's will. But I'm getting a new CPU and motherboard besides. It has to be done at some point.

 

[Pete]

I'm almost positive the GT will show a nice improvement over your 9800 in Far Cry, and it'll also transition well to a new A64 system. But a 2500+ is getting to be the "recommended" CPU on newer games, which means realistically you'll want something twice as fast for really fluid gameplay at the highest settings (typical gaming rule of thumb is 2x rec'd sys).

I'm guessing both ATi and nV will offer at least their next revision on AGP, so you should have a bit of an upgrade path beyond the GT.

 

[dklingen]

All,

Thanks for the advice.

I am going to try to OC my 2500XP / 9700 Pro and run all of the benchmarks. My goal is get the cpu to 2.2GHz. Then I will see how Far Cry runs. If I can get to my goal of 1024x768 4aa/8af high detail 30-40fps, I will probably return the 6800GT. If I can't, I will install the 6800GT and run all of the benchmarks. If the 6800GT performs dramatically better, I will keep it. If it does not I will have to decide:

1. Upgrade (agp-mb/athlon64-cpu) now
2. Return the 6800GT and wait for "bug free" SLI (March/Apri).

Thanks again!

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: kogase

Originally posted by: Zebo
Screw PCIe. And set you bus speed to 200 mhz (aka 3200 AXP) and enjoy your comp for two more years.

That's kind of.... lame advice. Not every CPU can do the 200mhz. My 2500 isn't even stable at 185. Okay, well, I posted this out of spite because mine won't do it and everyone else's will. But I'm getting a new CPU and motherboard besides. It has to be done at some point.

Yours isn't the only one that didn't do 200.

Mine did only 180ish stably; granted it was locked, but still, not all do 200 by any means.


Oh, & dklingen, i doubt OCing will give you the fps you want.
Try it though

 

[Rhoel]

Originally posted by: dklingen
Rhoel,

What CPU are you buying on your new system?

Thanks

I am noobie at this cpu overclocking stuff, but I ended up getting a sempron 3100+ 1.8 cause it was cheap and not a big loss if I ruined it. I got it when it was only $99 at monarch. Part of me still is bummed that I didn't get the a64 2800, but overclocked it's really fast. It's currently at 2.4ghz and it benches pretty well. And I could always upgrade to the a64 later. Unfortunately, I just sold my aiw 9700pro and have to live with a radeon 7000 until my Leadtek 6800gt comes in.



3dmark05

Sandra cpu benchmark

pic of the box

 

[dklingen]

For anyone in the same boat here is the gain. All at stock speeds:

2500XP / 9700Pro;
3D01 = 14,258
3D03 = 5014
3D05 = 2167
Aquamark= 34.81

2500XP / BFG 6800 OC;
3D01 = 14,479
3D03 = 8446
3D05 = 2710
Aquamark= 43.81


2500XP / BFG 6800 GT;
3D01 = 15,183
3D03 = 10,448
3D05 = 4574
Aquamark= 45.23

I also watched the FPS in HL2 d1_town_05. They were 40-70 on the 9700Pro at 1024x768. On the 6800GT OC they were again 40-80. The difference was I could increase the resolution all the way to 1600x1200 without a decrease in the FPS (40-80). The bottom line is I will need to buy a new mb/cpu (AV8/3200) to run HL2 and Far Cry at 1280x1024 4x/8x with FPS always greater the 60. I was going to wait and do the SLI thing, but this system should be good for at least 1-2 years. Oh well...

 

[dklingen]

BTW the 6800GT is a BFG with standard OC.

 

[uOpt]

I updated my CPU/mainboard from a Barton XP 2500+ to a Newcastle AMD64 3400+. The graphics card is a 5900XT.

The framerate in Doom3 practially didn't improve at all. That is for pretty high resolution/quality

So the XP 2500 was fast enough to drive the 5900XT to the max, although you can't tell how much headroom there was.

By extension you can conclude that it is most likely that your XP 2500 will benefit from a much better card a lot, especially if you want high resolutions. The only chance you don't see that after my result is if the XP 2500 was actually maxed out in my tests.