From 3200+ to X2 4400 (s939) : worth $100 ?

[LOUISSSSS]

for $100 go with 2gb of ram and any dual core cpu that fits you. it'll feel like double the performance. no gaming so dont bother on your already pretty good (for the normal user) video card. worth every cent of $100... esp if u sell ur old stuff too!

 

[Arcanedeath]

Its a worthwhile upgrade, I went from a 3200+ winchester @ 2.4ghz to a 4400+ toledo @ 2.8ghz and it was well worth the upgrade, I've since handed down the system to my little brother but had he not needed a new computer I'd prob. still be using it today. If you multitask you'll notice a large difference.

 

[BlueFlamme]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
You should double-check that Toms hardware chart - I believe you misread it. I upgraded from 7800GT to a GTS and am getting more like 30-40 fps increase. Every benchmark I've seen (oblivion, far cry, fear, bf2, bioshock, so on and so forth) agrees. The 7800GT is now lower mid-range, while the GTS is lower high-end. If you're still in doubt, then I can probably find some articles for you.

Mistyped, I meant over the 8600 GTS (which would almost be in my price range, 8800 GTS or even GT are way above what I can justify).

Haven't played CS:S since the new monitor, mostly CoH where even with settings turned down it still struggles when rendering.

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
As far as your real question, I would not recommend upgrading to dual-core unless you are going to do video encoding, heavy multitasking, or start playing a game that REALLY uses both cores (Supreme Commander is about the only one out right now). Otherwise I would hold off a few months and build a new setup in the spring. By then that $65 will get you a processor that's more than twice as fast as the 4200. Not to mention you'll get two gigs of ddr2-800 for like $25.

What proc is gonna be twice as fast for $65 within 6 months? And I would also have to upgrade mobo too, all of that would keep me from getting the 8800 GT next Dec (hopefully $150ish).

 

[Denithor]

Well, to be honest I would suggest waiting for a full refresh as well.

However, you could see a tremendous improvement by moving up to a Radeon HD3850 from your 7800GT. Take a look at these benchmarks:

HD3850 destroys x1950xtx and 7900GTX
HD3850 trounces 8600GTS

The HD 3850 is available for around $185 shipped from Newegg.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
As far as your real question, I would not recommend upgrading to dual-core unless you are going to do video encoding, heavy multitasking, or start playing a game that REALLY uses both cores (Supreme Commander is about the only one out right now).

Where in the world did you come up with that? There are closer to 100 games available today that utilize both cores (closer to 100, than to 1). As a matter of fact, there are at least 4 or 5 that utilize four cores, Supreme Commander being the second. Here's a partial list, of the games that I know of that support dual-cores:

Age of Empires III, Black & White 2, Call of Duty 2, City of Villains, Doom3, Quake 4, F.E.A.R., Peter Jackson?s King Kong, Prey, Test Drive Unlimited, Serious Sam 2, Star Trek Armada 2, Star Trek Legacy, Command & Conquer 3, Splinter Cell, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Movies (I've never heard of it either), Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Rainbow Six 3, Rainbow Six Vegas, Tony Hawk?s American Wasteland, Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Supreme Commander, Bioshock, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Quake Wars, Unreal Tournament 2007, M$'s Flight Simulator X, Crysis, and I'm sure I'm not listing them all.

These games support quad-cores: Supreme Commander (doesn't benefit much, though), Quake Wars (again, not much benefit), Flight Simulator X (utilizes all cores 100%, with roughly double the framerate over dual-cores), Unreal Tournament 2007, and Crysis (demo is only single-threaded, though).

edit: The majority of the dual-core-capable games above aren't multi-threaded out of the box. They have to be patched, before they have multi-threading capabilities.

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: DetConan
Here is my system
Case : Sonata II, 450 PSU
MSI K8N-NEO4f s939
3200+
XFX 7600gt xxx
2 X 512 DDR

Mainly to play (for me) and scrapbooking, music, internet (for my wife)
No Overclocking.

For now, this system is very good for me. In a perfect world (where s939 would not have been phased out), I would not upgrade now. But as the s939 processors are disappearing, i feel that I have to upgrade before it becomes impossible.

I Found a X2 4400 s939 for $100. Would the upgrade be performance-wise ? Should I go for it, or just keep my money and upgrade the videocard later next year, when the prices of the 8800 will drop a little, for instance ? Would a X2 4400 make a better use of this 8800 card than the 3200+ ?

I think dual core would give you a noticable improvement in several aspects of computing. I would get a 3600+ at newegg for $49 shipped. Sell your old processor for a quick $30, less than $20 invested.

I know you said no overclocking, but your motherboard has the capability, so why not?
Lower the HTT to 3X, fsb to 250Mhz, lower the memory divider one, raise the core voltage to 1.4-1.45 volts. An easy 2.5Ghz and should still remain more then cool enough with the stock cpu fan. I just got three 3600+ cpu's with cheap motherboard combo's and they all hit 2.6Ghz without much effort.

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
As far as your real question, I would not recommend upgrading to dual-core unless you are going to do video encoding, heavy multitasking, or start playing a game that REALLY uses both cores (Supreme Commander is about the only one out right now).

Where in the world did you come up with that? There are closer to 100 games available today that utilize both cores (closer to 100, than to 1). As a matter of fact, there are at least 4 or 5 that utilize four cores, Supreme Commander being the second. Here's a partial list, of the games that I know of that support dual-cores:

Age of Empires III, Black & White 2, Call of Duty 2, City of Villains, Doom3, Quake 4, F.E.A.R., Peter Jackson?s King Kong, Prey, Test Drive Unlimited, Serious Sam 2, Star Trek Armada 2, Star Trek Legacy, Command & Conquer 3, Splinter Cell, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Movies (I've never heard of it either), Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Rainbow Six 3, Rainbow Six Vegas, Tony Hawk?s American Wasteland, Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Supreme Commander, Bioshock, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Quake Wars, Unreal Tournament 2007, M$'s Flight Simulator X, Crysis, and I'm sure I'm not listing them all.

These games support quad-cores: Supreme Commander (doesn't benefit much, though), Quake Wars (again, not much benefit), Flight Simulator X (utilizes all cores 100%, with roughly double the framerate over dual-cores), Unreal Tournament 2007, and Crysis (demo is only single-threaded, though).

edit: The majority of the dual-core-capable games above aren't multi-threaded out of the box. They have to be patched, before they have multi-threading capabilities.

Key word bolded: support. I remember seeing Oblivion getting around 10fps increase going to dual-core, and CoD2 getting a marginal decrease in fps going to dual-core, with most games falling somewhere in between. Find me 10 games that experience similar benefit as SupCom to multicore and I'll retract any and all statements. If a user is trying to determine whether s/he should spend money right now switching to dual-core on a socket 939, my recommendation is still NO. I think it's a very safe bet that prices will continue to drop on all hardware. With Phenom adding additional competition within the next couple of months and Penryn on the way I think it's pretty reasonable to wait to drop cash on a gaming rig, especially when his system bottleneck is going to be GPU in the vast majority of games.

I think that given amd and intel's roadmaps for releasing new CPUs, the C2D 4500's will likely be in the range of $70 or so by next spring, with the E6550's probably not being far behind. That's where I came up with my "twice the processor" statement.

Is multi-core something that he'll want to migrate to in the near future? Definitely. Is it an upgrade that will improve his CS:S experience on his 22" monitor right now? No f'in way. I'm responding to the guy's post specifically, and trying to take his situation into account. He is cash-strapped and GPU bound, and therefore I'm not going to recommend spending any money on a 939 CPU given recent downward trends in ddr2 and CPU prices.

 

[BlueFlamme]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
Is multi-core something that he'll want to migrate to in the near future? Definitely. Is it an upgrade that will improve his CS:S experience on his 22" monitor right now? No f'in way. I'm responding to the guy's post specifically, and trying to take his situation into account. He is cash-strapped and GPU bound, and therefore I'm not going to recommend spending any money on a 939 CPU given recent downward trends in ddr2 and CPU prices.

As i said earlier, haven't played CS:S on this monitor yet (will test today if the construction crew every shows up!).

For Company of Heroes (playing 4x4 multiplayer with lots of arty), you're saying I'm vid card bottlenecked and a dual core wouldn't have much gain so best value is to squeak a few % more fps out by OCing my opteron and wait until I can justify the 8800 GT?

Thanks again for the responses.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
Find me 10 games that experience similar benefit as SupCom to multicore and I'll retract any and all statements.

Prey, Quake 4, Serious Sam 2, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Flight Simulator X, Bioshock, Quake Wars, UT 2007, Crysis, need I go on?

Originally posted by: BlueFlamme
For Company of Heroes (playing 4x4 multiplayer with lots of arty), you're saying I'm vid card bottlenecked and a dual core wouldn't have much gain so best value is to squeak a few % more fps out by OCing my opteron and wait until I can justify the 8800 GT?

Actually, with any multiplayer game, overclocking your CPU always gives you higher framerates. It isn't your video card that's having to do the calculations for those other 7 players you see running around onscreen, firing weapons or swinging swords or whatever, it's your CPU. Do you also need a faster video card? Absolutely.

 

[Dravic]

I?m for the most part coming from the same place you are, over the course of my 939 lifespan.

Started as
3200+
1 GB ram
6800nu - unlocked


1st upgrade little over 2 yrs ago, moved to pci-e and upgraded my secondary gamer(now the box above with 2GB ram)
2GB ram
3800+ x2 @2.6ghz
7800GT ? most expensive vid card I?ve every brought ~$280

Last upgrades for my 939
Acer 20? 8bit gaming lcd panel (view sonic 19? graphic series crt as my secondary monitor)
4800+ x2 @2.9ghz ~$100 about 2 months ago
8800gt (also do to my lcd purchase pushing me to 1680x1050, just waiting on dell)


If you not a gamer then skip the 8600gt its terrible, and not much better then the 7800gt, I didn?t bite on a mid range card until I got the 8800gt at 207.99 shipped from dell.

The dual core will improve your general computing plenty. With dual cores and 2Gb of ram, long gone are the days of closing everything down to reclaim memory and cpu cycles for gaming. I kept my CRT and dual screen with my LCD, and being able to play WoW, or any other game on the LCD, and browse, chat, whatever in the second CRT is worth the $65 to complete the dual core/screen setup.

Yes you wont be the fastest on the block, you wont be in the core2dou club, but you will have a plenty fast enough PC if you can get to ~2.6ghz on an x2. I think that would give you another year to 18 months of life.

I?m sitting tight myself to see where Amd and Intel are at end of 2008 or early 2009 before doing the MB, memory, CPU upgrade to a new platform.


I kept looking at spending $300 to go c2d, but was going to be left with my 7800gt, so i instead when for the final cpu upgrade for 939 and the 8800gt. I think i'll be fine for at least another 18 months at 1680x1050.

 

[billy2003]

i would say better to ditch the mobo and cpu and go am2. keep the video card for now and wait for nvidia's new generation video card. thats what i would do if i am you.