8800GT with a Pentium 4

[Shadow Conception]

Good idea?

My specs are as follows currently:

- Intel P4 3.0GHz with HT
- Sapphire Radeon X1950GT
- 2GB DDR RAM

Resolution I try to play at is 1440x900. If it's not a good idea, tell me why. If it is a good idea, tell me what kind of results the combination will yield. I really don't want to upgrade my CPU, mobo, and RAM just for a new C2D; I'd rather keep any upgrades I make economical, and as low-budget as possible but with still good performance.

And hence, this is my idea: replace X1950GT with 8800GT; make no other changes.

 

[JPB]

Yea, it will be bottlenecked for sure. If you get the card, and your plan on playing at that resolution, turn on as much AA and AF as the game allows.

I used to have a GTS 640 with my current processor. I was also severely bottlenecked. But I was still able to completely max in game settings. And it ran fine.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Is that a AGP card? If not, get a $90 motherboard, a $70 processor, and $50 of ram. For $220, you're set.

If not, you could sell that DDR RAM for a lot of money.

Oh, and that would be a bottleneck for sure.

 

[Piuc2020]

You'll be good in many games except those that are very CPU-bound, Unreal Tournament 3 is particularly picky about processors... heck the Core Duo at 2.16ghz on my MBP struggles with it (and it's not a GPU bound scenario cause even at 640x480 the framerate spikes and there is lots of stuttering when turning or when many bots are on screen) which I found extremely disappointing considering UT3 wouldn't particularly strike you as a CPU demanding game, not with it's lack of particularly impressive physics effects or extremely similar to UT2004 AI routines. If UT3 ran so poorly on a Core Duo 2.16ghz I doubt it will be anywhere near playable on a Pentium 4.

A slow processor will affect you in that framerate will vary wildly and minimum framerates will be much lower, sudden changes in the game's scenery (like what would happen if you turned suddenly) will also cause the game to stutter.

 

[Blacklash]

I definitely agree with what has been said. You want solid CPU support for a card like a 8800GT and in particular if you are a fan of FPS games. AI is definitely one of the things that crunch a CPU.

I remember a fellow howling about how his 8800GTX "sucked" on another forum in the "Oblivion" city of Bravil. While looking out over the city he was getting 12FPS on a stock 3200+. From the same point I got 24FPS with a stock E6600, and 32FPS when I bumped it to 3.0GHz. I was testing with a stock 8800GTX as well and never touched its clock.

Balance your CPU|GPU choices and remember elevating resolution does not alleviate your CPU of its tasks.

Personally, I would not put a 8800GT on a 3.0GHz P4. It will work in GPU bound situations and in CPU bound situations you'll be very unhappy. You'll likely be wondering why your "GT sucks" when the culprit will be the CPU.

 

[Shadow Conception]

On the UT3 demo (maxed), my FPS hovers anywhere from 20-40FPS. But I already have the game for PS3, so I don't think I'll be playing it on PC much.

The card is PCI-e (yeah I know, socket 478 with PCI-e). My gripe with getting a new CPU w/mobo and RAM is that I'm spending money towards merely a CPU, whereas I could probably get a greater boost in games by getting a better video card. But I do agree that getting a new mobo/CPU is better in the long run, without a doubt.

Ahh, I'm lost at what to do right now. Get a video card right now, then upgrade CPU/mobo/ram later, or vice versa?

 

[evolucion8]

That CPU can bottleneck even a Radeon X800XT, it's gonna be a very bad idea since you're not gonna see a nice improvement in performance over your X1950GT, probably more eye candy, but it will dip in the low 20's for sure.

 

[grimlykindo]

Why not overclock your P4?

I had the identical CPU only on a 775 socket and got it to 3.6 on stock voltage and cooling - Its not going to solve all your problems, but it will help alot.

 

[Shadow Conception]

I've tried OC'ing, but the instant I got a BSOD when I booted XP, I sorta just freaked out...

I stopped at like 3.2GHz. Maybe I was just doing it wrong or something...

 

[Shadow Conception]

Bump.

ASUS M2N-E AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard ? Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131022
($99.99)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Brisbane 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103206
($64.00)

pqi POWER Series 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820141300
($38.99)

Total: $202.98

Right, I just built this is five minutes. Good, bad, terrible? I think the X2 4200+ is a good deal better than my current CPU, dual-core is a plus. My only problem is that it's not an AM2+ mobo, but whatever. It'd be more wise to upgrade these parts than going with an 8800GT with a P4, right?

 

[bryanW1995]

stay away from amd cpus right now. I owned them for 5 years, so I'm not biased at all, but intel is kicking their ass right now in a big way. get something along the lines of:

mobo: ds3l or ip35-e. both are about $100 and have very solid reviews.

cpu: e2160/80 these will dominate any comparable amd cpu. With a $15 cpu cooler like a freezer pro they will almost all oc to 3ghz +, too.

ram depends on whether you're ok with a mir. if not then the pqi is good. if you can contend with the mir then I receommend either crucial ballistix or corsair xms, 2x1gb of ddr2 800 and 4-4-4-12 were around $40 AR last time I checked newegg.

I'm deliberately not telling you the exact parts to get, but a LOT of people have had success with some variation on the above system in the past year.

ok, I can't stop myself:

check out this list to look at intel cpus: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...75&bop=And&Order=PRICE

the e2180 is only $7 ($83) more than the e2140. even with a lot of overclocking that's probably still $7 well spent.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...1728997&name=Intel+P35

the ip-35 e is 85 AR and the ds3l is 95 with no rebate to mess with. The ds3l is a no brainer imho on this one.

here's the list on memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...81&bop=And&Pagesize=50

the crucial and corsair are closer to $50 now, I'd get the patriot for $38 AR personally, but there are several other decent choices in there.

freezer pro is available at numerous sites, I don't think that newegg has the best price on that. try mwave or maybe td. if you can't find it cheap at one of those spots then check out the cpu/overclocking forum, those guys should be able to tell you very quickly where the best deal is on that.

let's say you spend the 83 for e2180, 95 for the ds3l, 38 for the 2x1gb, and 20 for the freezer pro, you're looking at 236 shipped for a system that will almost certainly annihilate any dual core amd system available, PLUS you have a nice upgrade path to a penryn quad core in 12-18 months.

 

[Kalsar]

and i use celeron with 8800gt lol

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: Shadow Conception
Bump.

ASUS M2N-E AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard ? Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131022
($99.99)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Brisbane 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103206
($64.00)

pqi POWER Series 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820141300
($38.99)

Total: $202.98

Right, I just built this is five minutes. Good, bad, terrible? I think the X2 4200+ is a good deal better than my current CPU, dual-core is a plus. My only problem is that it's not an AM2+ mobo, but whatever. It'd be more wise to upgrade these parts than going with an 8800GT with a P4, right?

Yes, it would be better, but I would prefer to stay with a conroe (intel) based system right now. Though, this system won't hurt you at all. As well, sell you 2gb of DDR on Ebay. DDR is fairly expensive still so that should really help to cut your costs *Remembers his DDR laying around*

 

[AzN]

8800gt with a P4 is definitely not a good idea especially where dual core is norm these days.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: Shadow Conception
On the UT3 demo (maxed), my FPS hovers anywhere from 20-40FPS. But I already have the game for PS3, so I don't think I'll be playing it on PC much.

The card is PCI-e (yeah I know, socket 478 with PCI-e). My gripe with getting a new CPU w/mobo and RAM is that I'm spending money towards merely a CPU, whereas I could probably get a greater boost in games by getting a better video card. But I do agree that getting a new mobo/CPU is better in the long run, without a doubt.

Ahh, I'm lost at what to do right now. Get a video card right now, then upgrade CPU/mobo/ram later, or vice versa?

You would get a hefty jump even if you just get a cpu mobo combo. Much as 20fps @ the resolution you want to play. All your games would benefit.

If you get 8800gt now you would need to upgrade again within few months because your CPU is only single core and at the bottom of gaming cesspool. Sure you can turn on AA @ AF to the max but you will still get 20-30fps.

 

[geokilla]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: Shadow Conception
Bump.

ASUS M2N-E AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard ? Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131022
($99.99)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Brisbane 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103206
($64.00)

pqi POWER Series 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820141300
($38.99)

Total: $202.98

Right, I just built this is five minutes. Good, bad, terrible? I think the X2 4200+ is a good deal better than my current CPU, dual-core is a plus. My only problem is that it's not an AM2+ mobo, but whatever. It'd be more wise to upgrade these parts than going with an 8800GT with a P4, right?

Yes, it would be better, but I would prefer to stay with a conroe (intel) based system right now. Though, this system won't hurt you at all. As well, sell you 2gb of DDR on Ebay. DDR is fairly expensive still so that should really help to cut your costs *Remembers his DDR laying around*

Purchase a cheap Conre system instead. You can get yourself a Celeron dual core, a cheap Gigabyte motherboard, and 2GB of Patriot RAM or OCZ all for around $200.

If you do decide to get an AM2 system, stay away from the M2N-E and get a M3A instead. A member over at Legit Reviews had a M2N-E before replacing it with a M3A, and the M3A is way better than the M2N-E