Does a higher FSB help game play THAT much?

[VirginiaDonkey]

The reason I ask, is I just got a Radeon 7500 to replace my LE. when I run the 3dmark tests and compare to others, I get my ass handed to me in the game benchmarks, but do pretty good in the other areas.
My motherboard is a FIC AZ11-E which means only a 100 FSB, where I see most everyone else with 133+ FSB.

my LE scores a 2300 in 3d2k1
my 7500 scores a 3150 in the same test. ~25% improvement, but still low IMHO

here is a link to my last test null

ok doc, give it to me straight

Thanks!

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

bump cuz no one loves a vulture

 

[Theslowone]

You gave the wrong link, and yeah your scores are low. The fsb isn't going to make that much of a difference in your scores.

 

[richleader]

Alright. First ya gotta stop with the 3dmark2k1 nonsense. That's just for macho types who don't know anything about cars so they can't compare genitalia that way.

But a higher FSB will naturally add speed to your system. When the kt133a came out, people initially thought that the increase in speed was only due to DDR memory for a while, until we figured out that a good part of that increase was due to the higher FSB.

But back in the day, the two competing systems were the 486DX 50 and the 486DX2 66. The DX 50 had an FSB of 50mhz, the last Intel processor to have one that matched its clock speed. The DX2 was the first clock multiplier, meaning that the FSB was 33mhz and the clock speed was 2X that. So what was faster? Well, I went with the DX 50, thinking the FSB could compensate for the 16mhz. It couldn't.

A pumped FSB can turn a great system into an excellent one--but don't build your system around it, because you're bound to be dissapointed, whether its that your video card can't handle the AGP ratio or whatever, but do what you can with it, it's worth it.

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

Thanks for the insight gents, greatly appreciated.

I shouldnt care about the 3dmarks, and I dont care about having the highest score, I just use it to compare relatively like systems to see if I am running as well as I should be.

thanks again!

 

[ErikaeanLogic]

I hate to throw a fly into the ointment here, but I do have to interject my $0.02 opinion. While I agree that basing your opinion of a system's performance upon the default (read: standard) score of 3DMark2001 with other user's scores may be misguided, 3DMark2001 is an excellent tool for gauging a system's performance against itself for tweaking/optimization purposes. I use it as a baseline to determine whether a higher-fsb/lower-MHz system setup works better than a previous setup, and to test the stability of my vid-card/cpu overclocking. Ultimately, I'll fine-tune these settings to optimize whatever game is at the top of my list for current play, but I get alot out of using 3DMark2001 to set up my system(s).


[/rant]

 

[richleader]

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't trying to make anyone get defensive--it's just that threads around here involving 3dmark and product speculation (WHAT SHOULD I BUY THAT'S NOT OUT YET?) seem to take over this forum and it's a peeve of mine. I agree that 3dmark, or any standardized public test can be a helpful benchmark, but like anything else, everything in moderation and all that.

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

agreed....everything in moderation. I just used the 3dmark to compare against a similar computer since that is the only tool we have to do those comparisons. I was wondering why my FPS in the games seemed so low to everyone elses.

Lets not start a 3dmark flame-a-rama

 

[Theslowone]

What drivers are you running for your video card?

 

[Plester]

system bus speed makes a big difference in overall performance - plain and simple.

go look at reviews of t-birds and durons around the net, often there are comparisons between the chips at a 100mhz fsb and a 133mhz and the difference is very dramatic.

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

I am using the 7199 drivers. I have tried varoius drivers from 7189 thru 9016 and the 7199 seem to be the fastest, but only by ~100 points.

I have o/c the card to 335/235 (I cant get 1 more mhz out of the memory without artifacts....dammit!!) and it gave me another 250 points, making my score 3300, which still seems low considering I am running a morgan duron 1.0@1.2 ghz. I think the 100 FSB and SDRAM are my bottlenecks.

 

[Theslowone]

Look here and compare yours to others like yours, 3dmarks isn't perfect but it can show when something isn't quite right. It might be your ram it might be fsb, but I have seen similar systems score higher.

 

[Odin30]

I have a interesting question?
Is it better to overclock yer video card from say 215 core and 510 me to 220- 515 or have your fsb at 133 -143 respectively?
Basically im curious which will run games faster? If i have my fsb on my kt133a(abit) at 143 i can only overclock to 215 -505 but with my bus at default (133) i can go up to 222 - 510. Just curious as to which would be faster?
And could running my io(3.3v-value in via monitor) at 3.7 v. Hurt my card? I leave it at 3.6 usually but it can overclock higher at 3.7.
Anyone have any comments?

 

[Plester]

Odin30 - you are talking about a negligble overclock difference, i would stick with the higher bus speed. 3.7v i/o voltage seems a bit high. i'm no electrical engineer, but i know there is a point at which all these low voltage components start to decay much faster if you go too far on the voltages. i fried a tbird w/ 2.15v (it was water-cooled and ran stable and cool for about 4 months, then one day it said no mas, dead as a door nail)

 

[Auric]

The scores do seem low if it's with the D1200. Did you try to compare via madonion with similar CPU/FSB systems or just others in general?

My Radeon LE with a C825 (104 FSB) got 2400 and with a P1200 (112 FSB) got 3200.

3d2k1 is lame but it is a constant that is useful for comparision and I think in this case it is telling you something is wrong.

 

[MiklosMillora]

Richleader don't forget the 486 DX4/100

 

[BFG10K]

Yes, a higher FSB does help in 3D games expecially since a locked CPU will be overclocked with a higher FSB. Also if you have faster memory than your FSB then the extra speed is utilised when your FSB gets higher.

 

[Daovonnaex]

Raising the fsb, on most boards, also raises memory speed--meaning more memory bandwidth, and hence, better graphics.

 

[richleader]

<< Richleader don't forget the 486 DX4/100 >>



What are you talking about? That had a multiplier of 3. The FSB was 33mhz.