6800GT/X800Pro and AMD XP2500+

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boredomjockey

Junior Member
Jul 21, 2004
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I have an Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton/333FSB) on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe with 1GB of good RAM running dual-channel. Wanting to upgrade from Radeon 9200 to either 6800GT or X800Pro (leaning toward 6800GT at the moment).

Two questions, the first being my main interest, the second being somewhat OT for this forum and perhaps too vague to answer in a meaningful way:

1) How likely am I to be CPU bound with my current setup running one of these cards and playing games like Far Cry/HL2/Doom3? (I know, little info yet on the latter two.) Most reviews I've seen of these cards are conducted on high-end AMD64 / P4 rigs and therefore don't shed much light on my question. I don't need record-setting performance, just good playable framerates with the pretty AA/AF stuff turned on.

2) If my CPU is going to limit me significantly, would I get much mileage out of dropping $180 on an XP 3200+ or would an AMD64 and a new mobo (ouch) be the best way to avoid the problem? (I'm hoping this won't be an issue and that my current CPU will suffice.)

I'll get one of these video cards either way...I'm just wondering how limited I'll be, if at all.

Thanks!
 
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Sonic587

Golden Member
May 11, 2004
1,146
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You'll probably end up CPU limited at lower resolutions(1024X768,1280X1024) even with a top-end AMD64. You're fine where you are. A 2500+ is not going to kill you gaming performance.

As a suggestion, why don't you pick up a mobile barton, OC it, then sell your 2500+? Much cheaper upgrade there.
 
K

Killrose

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 1999
6,230
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81
Welcome to the AT Forums, anyway's, the most important thing is to get rid of the 9200 and move on to some real GPU power! I would squeeze some more out of the 2500+ if you are'nt doing that already. I would not want to pay today's prices for either the X800pro or the GT, but the GT is the better of the two cards IMHO.
 
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piesang

Member
Jun 23, 2004
80
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Should be severly CPU limited although you will see a great performance leap over your current card. The performance will probably be a bit better than the Radeon 9800XT on your PC. Get a mobile 2500 and overclock it to 3200+ spec and save some money.
 
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boredomjockey

Junior Member
Jul 21, 2004
4
0
0
Thanks everyone for the great info so far! (Especially klah -- just the links I needed.) Looks like the 2500+ should be adequate enough to hold me for a while. I'll do some reading about whether I can squeeze much of an OC out of my 2500+ -- I haven't looked into it, to be honest. (Heresy, I know! *hides stock heatsink behind back*)

I would not want to pay today's prices for either the X800pro or the GT
Click to expand...

Agreed -- I'm planning on waiting a month or two to see how much they'll come down in price (especially those from the better manufacturers).
 
ponyo

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,688
2,811
126
You can easily overclock with the stock heatsink. I used to use stock heatsink on mine and had my 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ for a year no problem and temps weren't that bad.
 
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Marsumane

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,171
0
0
Yea u should be alright with your current cpu. Something to remember: in all cases all components except for one will be bottlenecking that one component. Its just how severely it bottlenecks it. Your bottleneck is not severe enough not to warrent the purchase of a GT, esp if u oc that proc.
 
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Johnbear007

Diamond Member
Jul 1, 2002
4,570
0
0
Originally posted by: boredomjockey
I have an Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton/333FSB) on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe with 1GB of good RAM running dual-channel. Wanting to upgrade from Radeon 9200 to either 6800GT or X800Pro (leaning toward 6800GT at the moment).

Two questions, the first being my main interest, the second being somewhat OT for this forum and perhaps too vague to answer in a meaningful way:

1) How likely am I to be CPU bound with my current setup running one of these cards and playing games like Far Cry/HL2/Doom3? (I know, little info yet on the latter two.) Most reviews I've seen of these cards are conducted on high-end AMD64 / P4 rigs and therefore don't shed much light on my question. I don't need record-setting performance, just good playable framerates with the pretty AA/AF stuff turned on.

2) If my CPU is going to limit me significantly, would I get much mileage out of dropping $180 on an XP 3200+ or would an AMD64 and a new mobo (ouch) be the best way to avoid the problem? (I'm hoping this won't be an issue and that my current CPU will suffice.)

I'll get one of these video cards either way...I'm just wondering how limited I'll be, if at all.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


You don't mention if you have it OC'ed

My 2500+ runs rock solid at 2.3GHZ and it is not a mobile, you don't have to have a mobile to overclock, many of the original 2500+ are great overclockers like mine. There is no way is worth the money imho to move to athlon 64 from this at CURRENT prices.

I think the 2500+ overclocked is still by far the best value in processors right now. I would wait a year to upgrade your motherboard and processor, and try to overclock the one you have.
 
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