Advice needed -- Going from 3500 to 4200 X2 for SLI setup

[Nromncr]

All,

I recently made an SLI rig about three weeks go (2 7800GT cards) using an Athlon 3500+ chip.

I have come to the realization that my bottleneck lies within the CPU. So, the store I bought it from agreed to take it back and give me full credit.

I am currently looking at the 4200 X2 chip as a suitable replacement, but I wanted to find out from some others out there if you are using this chip in an SLI configuration and if it has enough horsepower to get the job done?

Thoughts?

 

[Aznguy1872]

I'd go with a X2 3800 as it is cheaper then the X2 4200 and can overclock like crazy!

 

[Nromncr]

Would the 4200 X2 be sufficient so that the CPU is not the bottleneck though?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The 3500+ would only be the bottleneck if you are gaming at lower resolutions like 800x600. I would suggest spending your money on a better monitor, upgrading the CPU will not help much.

 

[Nromncr]

Well, I'm running my games at 1600x1200 and have a Dell 2001FP.

The problem I am having is that simple things are stuttering and my 3dmark05 scores are around 9400. In a previous post, I was told that my CPU was the bottleneck and that I should be scoring around 11K with two 7800GT's in SLI mode..

 

[Hacp]

THe CPU is does not matter that much in regards to 3Dmark.

 

[Nromncr]

Interesting.

What would the advantage be then, in going from a 3500 to a 4200 X2? Besides the dual core (whcih nothing really supports right now)?

Just trying to get a feel for whether or not my upgrade is worthwhile.

 

[Screech]

a 4200 x2 is basically 2 a64 3500's.
ram?

 

[Nromncr]

Hmm, well that kinda stinks then.

As for ram, I have 2gb right now (DDR400).

So, do you guys think I would be better off going with a 4400 non-x2 chip, or should I not bother at all?

 

[tallman45]

Originally posted by: Nromncr
Interesting.

What would the advantage be then, in going from a 3500 to a 4200 X2? Besides the dual core (whcih nothing really supports right now)?

Just trying to get a feel for whether or not my upgrade is worthwhile.

I thought Photoshop utilized both processors ?

 

[Nromncr]

Perhaps it does. Unfortunately I don't use Photoshop as I am mainly using my machine for gaming.

 

[Ichigo]

OPTERON 165 FTW!!!!!!

Yeah.

 

[ctark]

I dont understand the dual core craze yet. They are slower for gaming so far. Nothing but encoding apps take advantage of it. We have 64 bit but that doesnt mean anything we use today takes advantage of it. Sure there are a few things here and there but by the time everythings been fully implemeted everybody's x2 will be obsolete. I'm perfectly happy with my 140 dollar Venice core running at 2.7ghz on air

 

[Markfw]

Nvidia makes multi-threaded drivers that make a big different in some games. Also, benchmarks don;t have 15 things running in the background like most of us do. It helps with everything else.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: ctark
I dont understand the dual core craze yet. They are slower for gaming so far. Nothing but encoding apps take advantage of it. We have 64 bit but that doesnt mean anything we use today takes advantage of it. Sure there are a few things here and there but by the time everythings been fully implemeted everybody's x2 will be obsolete. I'm perfectly happy with my 140 dollar Venice core running at 2.7ghz on air

And, uh, multi-tasking. Dual core is very nice - you can rip/encode DVD's while you play games, etc. It really opens up the possible combinations for multi-tasking; things you never thought possible.

System stutters become a thing of the past, as well.