Best bang for the buck gaming 939 processor?

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blane

Member
Mar 18, 2006
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I have a Gigabyte nForce4 SLI motherboard with an ATI 512mb X1900XTX video card and 3GB of RAM. My current CPU is an AMD 3700+ 64. OS is XP Pro.

I only care about games and Oblivion has caused me to think about getting a faster processor. I know I can get the best FX or X2 processor and spend $1000 or more easily but I was just curious what you guys think is the best deal right now? What CPU is going to give me the best dollar to speed ratio for playing hardware intensive games? Thanks for any suggestions.
 
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SynthDude2001

Lifer
Mar 19, 2003
18,289
2
71
Opteron 165/170 or X2 3800+, all of which should be around (or just above) $300, and all of which overclock pretty well. Does Oblivion make use of dual processors(/cores)? If it doesn't, you won't see much of a performance increase with a dual-core CPU, but even so, that's basically your only upgrade option (since you already have a fast single core CPU). Dual-core/SMP support for games is still slow to show up, but a few games (most notably Quake 4) see gains from multiple processors. As I mentioned, I don't know about Oblivion specifically.
 
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Munky

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2005
9,372
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I've seen only limited improvements in gaming from switching to dual cores. Some games actually run worse, and I'm forced to set the affinity to one core only. If you can overclock that 3700, that would be my first choice. For multi tasking and video encoding dual cores are great, but for gaming I wouldn't bother switching.
 
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blane

Member
Mar 18, 2006
30
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I do have the 3700+ overclocked and it's responded nicely. I'm just getting some slow downs in the game when I have to fight several oponents at once.

Is it worth it to bump up to, say, a $600 or so processor? I would love to get this game running with no bogging down.
 
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SynthDude2001

Lifer
Mar 19, 2003
18,289
2
71
Originally posted by: blane
I do have the 3700+ overclocked and it's responded nicely. I'm just getting some slow downs in the game when I have to fight several oponents at once.

Is it worth it to bump up to, say, a $600 or so processor? I would love to get this game running with no bogging down.
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I don't think it's at all worth it to spend $600 on a processor, when you can overclock a $300 dual core and get the exact same result. But you should try to see if the game in question even makes use of multiple processors; if not, then you won't see any gain from your upgrade at all.
 
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Munky

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2005
9,372
0
76
Originally posted by: blane
I do have the 3700+ overclocked and it's responded nicely. I'm just getting some slow downs in the game when I have to fight several oponents at once.

Is it worth it to bump up to, say, a $600 or so processor? I would love to get this game running with no bogging down.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's not the cpu that's limiting it. Try turning down some graphical details and see if it helps. For example, is you turn off HDR or AA or turn down the resolution, and the slowdowns go away then the graphics card is the limit. Some games just run bad even on high end cards.
 
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malvare1

Member
May 11, 2005
133
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anything faster than 2.6 will not give you a better gaming experience, this has to be your video card, i have downclocked mine to 2.3ghz to prove this theory (I read this also on another site) and right on the money no difference in gameplay, it's all about your gpu and ram hdd combination.
 
Ika

Ika

Lifer
Mar 22, 2006
14,264
3
81
Most games are GPU limited (except HL2). the 3700+ should perform very well, especially if it is the San Diego core. Overclocking will make a difference if the game really is CPU limited.

BTW, if load times are slowing you down, try investing in a faster HDD solution, like RAID 0 or WD Raptors.
 
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blane

Member
Mar 18, 2006
30
0
0
How can I tell if my CPU is a San Diego core?

I have dual striped raptors currently.
 
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hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
20,212
18
81
for just gaming, i'd say the 3200+ woudl be the best bang for the buck. it is like $120 and shoudl be as fast as the x2 3800 which is $300 in just games.
 
Zap

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
7
81
Originally posted by: blane
How can I tell if my CPU is a San Diego core?
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You do. Looking up your CPU shows only two possible socket 939 chips rated at 3700+ and both of them are 90nm 1MB cache 2.2GHz cores, differing only in E4 versus E6 revisions.
 
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Mogadon

Senior member
Aug 30, 2004
739
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0
Your CPU's fine, the whole system is fine.

If you're getting slow downs, look at what you have running in the background etc.

Also I take it you're running either 3*1GB or 2*1GB and 2*512MB of RAM. You may find you'd actually get better performance running only 2*1GB as you should be able to run at a command rate of 1T and probably tighten up the timings or overclock it higher. Try it out and see, I know I would, there aren't any games out there that will be making use of your 3GB, 2GB is plenty and some.
 
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blane

Member
Mar 18, 2006
30
0
0
Originally posted by: Mogadon
Your CPU's fine, the whole system is fine.

If you're getting slow downs, look at what you have running in the background etc.

Also I take it you're running either 3*1GB or 2*1GB and 2*512MB of RAM. You may find you'd actually get better performance running only 2*1GB as you should be able to run at a command rate of 1T and probably tighten up the timings or overclock it higher. Try it out and see, I know I would, there aren't any games out there that will be making use of your 3GB, 2GB is plenty and some.
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Thanks. I spent a day playing with the RAM, trying everything with 2gb and 3gb (2x1gb, 2x512mb) and I couldn't get a performance imrprovement no matter what I tried. To be honest 80% of the time there is 2GB in there but sometimes I will run 3 if I'm working with video and huge image files. 2 or 3gb appears to have identical performance in this machine.

 
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CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,660
762
126
I think if you're getting a lot of slowdowns in games, a faster processor isn't really going to help at all. You may want to look into getting another X1900 card and a crossfire motherboard instead, which should provide massive improvements if it fits into your budget.
 
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evenmore1

Senior member
Feb 16, 2006
369
0
0
It think that what you have is good enough. Maybe you can get another graphics card like CP said. Although personally I think it's not a good idea. Just keep what you have and upgrade when the new stuff comes out ;)
 
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nyker96

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2005
5,630
2
81
Man I guess for me a best bang for buck means about a 100 dollar piece of CPU. But if you can afford 300+ dollar piece get a single core Opteron will be the best way to go. That 1MB cache gonna rock the games.
 
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TrevorRC

Senior member
Jan 8, 2006
989
0
0
Originally posted by: Mogadon
Your CPU's fine, the whole system is fine.

If you're getting slow downs, look at what you have running in the background etc.

Also I take it you're running either 3*1GB or 2*1GB and 2*512MB of RAM. You may find you'd actually get better performance running only 2*1GB as you should be able to run at a command rate of 1T and probably tighten up the timings or overclock it higher. Try it out and see, I know I would, there aren't any games out there that will be making use of your 3GB, 2GB is plenty and some.
Click to expand...

Command rate has almost no affect on performance; whereas having to load data onto a HDD has a TERRIBLE performance loss because it is so much slower.

:p
 
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malvare1

Member
May 11, 2005
133
0
0
The thing is that he is not CPU limited at all. He will upgrade CPU to find himself in the same situation. I had similar problems until I replaced my video card and went with sli setup :), no more slowdowns or hickups. Do not waist your money on a new CPU as this will not solve your problem. Do this,
1.go to your game settings and lower your options on the graphics side and see if this solve your problem, if not
2. use only 2x1gig sticks@ 1t for your ram. <----although I do not think the performance hit will be that big to show slowdowns and hickups during gameplay but I'm willing to bet it is your GPU hurting you, giving that your not using a 5200 rpm hdd on your rig.

Good luck
 
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Roush2960

Junior Member
Nov 6, 2005
21
0
0
Originally posted by: malvare1
anything faster than 2.6 will not give you a better gaming experience, this has to be your video card, i have downclocked mine to 2.3ghz to prove this theory (I read this also on another site) and right on the money no difference in gameplay, it's all about your gpu and ram hdd combination.
Click to expand...

Thats would have been my responce. The GPU may not be able to redraw the poly count for all characters on screen at once.

1. Up grade video card,
system memory 1GB will suffice any game out.
Honestly HDD would be a last ditch effort.
 
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Bull Dog

Golden Member
Aug 29, 2005
1,985
1
81
Originally posted by: guoziming
Most games are GPU limited (except HL2). the 3700+ should perform very well, especially if it is the San Diego core. Overclocking will make a difference if the game really is CPU limited.

BTW, if load times are slowing you down, try investing in a faster HDD solution, like RAID 0 or WD Raptors.
Click to expand...

But before you do that make sure you have 2GB of ram.
 
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