Decisions...decisions...

[Sithtiger]

I'm upgrading from a P4B 2.8GHz O/Ced to 3GHz (533 FSB), Gigabyte 8PE800 (i845PE chipset), 1GB 2x512MB Kingston PC2700 RAM CAS 3 with a Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB) video card.

I'm moving to either a A64 4000+ (San Diego core Rev E) or a A64 X2 4400+, MSI Neo4 Platinum (nForce 4 Ultra chipset and it's the non SLI version)1GB 2x512MB Corsair PC3200 RAM CAS 2.5 with either a Radeon X900 Pro (R520) or a GeForce 7800 GT (G70) (whichever is faster and/or available around June or July). I'm obviously guessing as to what ATI and nVidia will call their upcoming cards but those names sound right to me.

Do you guys think I should get the A64 4000+ "E" or wait until the X2 4400+ comes out. Right now I've got $1000 to spend on the upgrade. If I were to upgrade right now, where prices are at currently and say the GeForce 7800 GT were out and it was $450 would come out to $1,311.00 if I were to get it all from Monarch. Guessing the video card price...would probably be a bit higher but not by much.

I'm mainly waiting on the video cards to come out but I'd like to get the Dual Core A64 though. I use my computer for various things but I mostly use it for gaming and recently photo editing using Photoshop CS 2 and Elements 3. I know I don't need to get the X2 4400+ but then again, I don't need to upgrade but for a gamer, it's a must.

In one day, the A64 4000+ Rev E from Monarch went from $540 to $500! The sweet spot for the price would around $350. I doubt it's gonna get that low but it may get down to $450 or perhaps $400 by August. When the video cards come out, I'll be ready to buy though whether the X2 is ready or not.

 

[SynthDude2001]

I'm personally going to wait for an X2, but in all honesty, a cheap 3000+ single core Venice overclocked will be basically as good for gaming.

Edit: But if you're not overclocking and/or actually willing to pay $500 for a CPU, then I'd say that out of the 4000+ and 4400+ X2, get the 4400+ X2 with no doubt. It's about the same price, only 200MHz slower, and if you do overclock that a bit, you basically have two FX-55's for one fourth the price...

Edit 2: Be aware too that the X2's may not actually be available for retail purchase for several months. AMD seems to have a pretty low production capacity for these things (to start with), so in that sense, it is somewhat of a "paper launch" (just like everything else these days).

 

[Sithtiger]

Yeah, especially from where I'm coming from. I used to upgrade every year but money has become a problem but the upside is that when I upgrade this time, I should see a noticeable increase in speed from my P4! Oh and ya know what else...my mobo's AGP is limited to only 4X! The Radeon 9800P is of course an 8X part so I can't wait to see the increase in speed!

I've seen some early benchmark reviews for a X2 4400+ and it's essentially two A64 3800+ together. I'd love to get the X2 4800+ but that's just too high for me.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Sithtiger
Yeah, especially from where I'm coming from. I used to upgrade every year but money has become a problem but the upside is that when I upgrade this time, I should see a noticeable increase in speed from my P4! Oh and ya know what else...my mobo's AGP is limited to only 4X! The Radeon 9800P is of course an 8X part so I can't wait to see the increase in speed!

I've seen some early benchmark reviews for a X2 4400+ and it's essentially two A64 3800+ together. I'd love to get the X2 4800+ but that's just too high for me.

The 4400+ is actually two 3700+ San Diego's (2.2GHz, 1MB) on one chip. The 4800+ is the same thing, just 200MHz faster, definitely not worth 2x the price at all.

About AGP 4x/8x...there is basically no difference between the two, in that video cards don't even yet use all the bandwidth that AGP 8x provides.

 

[xsilver]

predicting the future - 10/10 people have tried and failed

next gen video cards wont be out in june/july -- expect them more in q4 if at all this year .....

 

[biostud]

I'm waiting for the same upgrade as you (currently 2100+@2083Mhz + 9800pro), but I'm gonna wait to the X2, since I don't want to spend money on a PCIe motherboard until I can get the videocard I want (R520 or G70).

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: biostud
I'm waiting for the same upgrade as you (currently 2100+@2083Mhz + 9800pro), but I'm gonna wait to the X2, since I don't want to spend money on a PCIe motherboard until I can get the videocard I want (R520 or G70).

Exactly the same here (waiting for X2 and PCI-E and R520/G70 all at the same time). Although I'm on an XP at 2400MHz w/ 6800GT right now.

 

[MobiusPizza]

You guys can wait and I can't why are you complaining?

I've got an Athlon TB 1.2Ghz, GeForce 2 Ultra, still running on SD RAM
I am not gonna wait that long

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
You guys can wait and I can't why are you complaining?

I've got an Athlon TB 1.2Ghz, GeForce 2 Ultra, still running on SD RAM
I am not gonna wait that long

My condolences.

 

[Sithtiger]

The 4400+ is actually two 3700+ San Diego's (2.2GHz, 1MB) on one chip. The 4800+ is the same thing, just 200MHz faster, definitely not worth 2x the price at all.

About AGP 4x/8x...there is basically no difference between the two, in that video cards don't even yet use all the bandwidth that AGP 8x provides.[/quote]

Yeah, your right, it is two 3700+ cores. I do think that at least some games at least AGP 8X. There's one thing I do know for certain though, my FSB is a bottleneck for me. It really pissed me off because when I bought my P4 2.8GHz, about a month later the P4's with the 800MHz FSB came out along with HT support. I'm NOT making that mistake again!

The biggest mistake would be to settle and get a GeForce 6800 Ultra and then the new cards come out. I'm not sure whether I'll get the 4400+ or the 4000+. I don't really do much multitasking. The amount of TSR's are growing in my systray though. I only used to have an anti-virus and firewall there and that's it. Now, I have that plus MS's anti-spyware program running and now Google's Web Accelerator...and yeah guys, I know all about the problems that some sites are having with Google's new toy. For now, I'm gonna keep it.

 

[Sithtiger]

Originally posted by: xsilver
predicting the future - 10/10 people have tried and failed

next gen video cards wont be out in june/july -- expect them more in q4 if at all this year .....

I don't expect them any earlier before the end of July, going by past releases. I do expect them this year though. I would say between August and October they should be available but we'll all just have to wait and see unfortunately. I've heard that the new Radeon will be twice as fast as the X800 XT. If that's true (and I don't see why it shouldn't be since this is supposed to be from ATI) then that's very impressive to me!

I want to go back to nVidia again. The 9800P was my first ATI card. It's been a fine card and I can't say that I've had much trouble with it at all but I do prefer nVidia's drivers to ATI's. That said, I actually believe ATI has the advantage here. Look at how long they were able to stretch out that old 9700 core! That's nothing short of amazing! ATI's been working on this new core for quite a while now and I would think it will be quite powerful.

I'm a little confused about nVidia though. If I understand what little that's available about the G70, it looks like it's a whole new core. To me that's very surprising since the 6800 (NV40) is an all new core too. It seems to me that nVidia would be losing money by changing to a whole new core every year. In the past they've used the same core for at least two years or longer. If I'm mistaken, please correct me because I'd like to know. If nVidia is using the same architecture than ATI's got an even bigger advantage. If they are not then it's still all up in the air.

 

[Sithtiger]

Originally posted by: biostud
I'm waiting for the same upgrade as you (currently 2100+@2083Mhz + 9800pro), but I'm gonna wait to the X2, since I don't want to spend money on a PCIe motherboard until I can get the videocard I want (R520 or G70).

Exactly, but ya know, you could buy a A64 and use an old PCI video card or buy a cheap one until the new cards come out. Does anyone happen to know if there is a AGP to PCIe adapter? If so that would be great! I'll wait at least until the 1st of July before I decide. As far as the X2 goes, I'm waiting for full reviews to come out so I can really compare...that and more importantly the price. If I could find the A64 X2 4400+ for around $550, I'll be happy. I remember paying $800 for a PIII 800MHz too but then again, I had more money back then too...heh

 

[Sithtiger]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
You guys can wait and I can't why are you complaining?

I've got an Athlon TB 1.2Ghz, GeForce 2 Ultra, still running on SD RAM
I am not gonna wait that long

OMG, I'm so sorry...my condolences! The GF2 Ultra was a good card though wasn't it. I had one but I had a 1.33GHz T-bird instead of a 1.2GHz. Now those were good CPU's!!!