A64 3000+ an upgrade over P4 3.0Ghz?

[VirtualLarry]

A friend of mine is going to upgrade another friend's system, from a 3.0Ghz P4 (Prescott, I think, not sure), to an A64 3000+. I argue that such a move is more of a sidegrade, really, and not really justified. What do you all think? After all, a 3000+ rating is supposed to be equal to a P4 Northwood @ 3.0Ghz, and according to this thread, they should benchmark around the same as well.

Granted, OCing the 3000+ would probably push things in that direction, but I'm just asking about non-OC performance.

 

[Canterwood]

Definitely a bit of a sidegrade tbh.

The AMD might be a few frames quicker in games, and the P4 would probably be slightly better at video encoding, but nothing major either way.

I doubt your friend would see much of an improvement tbh, and its probably more hassle than its worth, even if its free.

 

[MarcVenice]

s939 or am2 ? he must be getting a new mobo, no-one in his right mind wouldn't want to spend 80 bucks on a x2 3800+ at 2ghz, which will be quite an improvement.

 

[A554SS1N]

Originally posted by: Canterwood
Definitely a bit of a sidegrade tbh.

The AMD might be a few frames quicker in games, and the P4 would probably be slightly better at video encoding, but nothing major either way.

I doubt your friend would see much of an improvement tbh, and its probably more hassle than its worth, even if its free.

Agreed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, the upgrade was going to be free.

Let's add something new - what about if the A64 3000+ is OC'ed to 2.4-2.5Ghz or so? Would that change things to a "definately worth it"?

(I don't know how far this chip will go, but just for argument's sake. This person plays a lot of WoW, btw, on a GF FX5700LE video card too.)

 

[RussianSensation]

If the upgrade is free I definately would do it for the following reasons:

1) At the very least you know if you overclock the performance difference will be more significant;

2) Option for dual core A64 - > faster than dual core P4.

3) The processor runs cooler

4) If we ignore gaming, a lot of every day tasks computer users encounter are extracting/compressing files (winzip, rar) and opening documents (excel, word). A64 with internal memory controller and lower latency should make the desktop feel "snappier" while extracting files will be faster as well.

A64 3000+, P4 3.0ghz, etc. performance summary

Of course there are other incentives, like the ability to pick up a PCIe motherboard and perhaps upgrade the graphics card at the same time.