Getting 6800GT, how much will computer config limit me?

[IndyJaws]

My wife is buying me a 6800GT for Christmas (greatest wife in the world - she got me a Jagermeister dispenser like you see in bars for my birthday!). I currently have a GF3 Ti200, which means I've never bothered even trying FarCry, D3 or HL2.

My computer has an XP 2000+ (slightly oc'd) w/ 1 gig of RAM. Now that the GPU bottleneck is taken care of, will the age of the processor really hurt me in the above games, or is the speed of the vid card enough to overcome that limitation? I'll be upgrading to an A64 later in '05, but for now, how does it look?

Also, if I don't want to deal w/ a reformat/reinstall right now, is Driver Cleaner the best way to go?

TIA,
IndyJaws

 

[Acanthus]

Youll see an enormous performance increase, but of course not as large as if you had a much better CPU.

That being said, the AXP 2500+ is around $60 nowadays. Even less if you go used. That would be your cheapest tangible CPU upgrade. The truth of the matter is, with these new gen cards youre pretty much CPU limited with an FX-55.

 

[Spike]

Yes, you will be limited by that CPU... but not by much. Acanthus is correct, even with a FX-55 you would be CPU bound on games. I would look at upgrade that CPU to another Althon XP just because they are insanly cheap and you will notice improvements elsewhere. For the fun of it, I put my 6800 GT in my old Athlon XP 1800+ system (currently running a Athlon XP 3200+) and the improvments in games was HUGE over my old 8500.

Thank your wife for a wonderful gift. Mine got me the BFG 6800GT but let me open it early (just isntalled it a few days ago...) It was fair though as she got to open the new Kitchenaid mixer early 😉

-spike

 

[Supa]

If you run games at high resolutions, cpu limitation will be less apparent.

Also since your 6800GT is AGP version, might as well schedule your next cpu/mother board upgrade sooner rather than later, as motherboard manufacturers are geared more and more toward pci-e mb.

---

 

[kmmatney]

I'd like to see some benches with an older cpu and this video card (and the 6600 GT as well). I'm in the same position, with an Athlon XP 2400+, overclocked to 2800+ speed.

I know that ECS makes a motherboard that supports LGA775 + AGP, and I'm sure there are others as well. It will be a while before AGP is dropped altogether. And of course Athlon64 boards all still except AGP...

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=13-135-171&depa=0

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

You'll see a huge preformance increase... HL2/Doom 3/FarCry should certainly be playable on that system, especially since you've already got 1 GB of system RAM. As other have mentioned, though, the bottleneck from your proc will still be felt... don't put off the new mobo/CPU combo for too long.

 

[SickBeast]

Yeah I would suggest either asking for a PCI-E 6800GT/X800Pro so you can upgrade your system, or just buy a cheap 2800+ A64/Chaintech motherboard combo right now to go along with it.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I'd like to see some benches with an older cpu and this video card (and the 6600 GT as well). I'm in the same position, with an Athlon XP 2400+, overclocked to 2800+ speed.

I know that ECS makes a motherboard that supports LGA775 + AGP, and I'm sure there are others as well. It will be a while before AGP is dropped altogether. And of course Athlon64 boards all still except AGP...

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=13-135-171&depa=0

Firing Squad has a comparison using some XPs with Half-Life2:

Article

The XP 2100+ gets smoked, even at 1600x1200 4xAA 16xAF. The XP 3200+ isn't too far behind the A64 3200+ at high resolution, though there is still a noticeable difference.

Half Life 2 appears to be less CPU bound than many games.

 

[wmansfield]

Your CPU is going to be a big limiting factor. Ignore the people here telling you to get any form of an Athlon XP because it's not going to help you out. At a minimum get a Sempron 3100 with a decent S754 board and you'll be in a much better situation. The XP is far inferior in gaming and will not help you in getting the potential out of the 6800 GT

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: wmansfield
Your CPU is going to be a big limiting factor. Ignore the people here telling you to get any form of an Athlon XP because it's not going to help you out. At a minimum get a Sempron 3100 with a decent S754 board and you'll be in a much better situation. The XP is far inferior in gaming and will not help you in getting the potential out of the 6800 GT

Yes ignore everyone that has a budget in mind and just buy an SLI rig, FX55 and of course 2 6800GT PCI-Es.

We were reccomending the most worthwhile CPU upgrade on his current platform, and if you think going to a barton 2500 wont make a large difference on a card that will be CPU bound... youre on crack.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: wmansfield
Your CPU is going to be a big limiting factor. Ignore the people here telling you to get any form of an Athlon XP because it's not going to help you out. At a minimum get a Sempron 3100 with a decent S754 board and you'll be in a much better situation. The XP is far inferior in gaming and will not help you in getting the potential out of the 6800 GT

Lol, are you serious?

Apparently my XP 3200+ can't game well... bummer, I figured getting an average of 80 FPS in HL 2 at 1600x1200 at 4x aa, 8xas max everything was actually decent... guess I was wrong 😉

Get a cheap barton 2500+ for like $60-80 (maybe even less) and you will have a large improvement, make that HUGE when you add that 6800 GT. Then you will have a setup that can last you a year or more till you want to go PCIe.

-spike

 

[bradyapba]

IndyJaws,

I was just in your position a few weeks ago. I had a aXP 2200, 512 ram. But i was running a better VC than you, I had a ti4200. YOu may not be able to improve your CPU, I couldn't the 2200 was the most my oldr MOBO could handle. If you can increase your CPU, you should, they are really cheap. But onto what happened with my VC.

Now i only got a 6800 Vanilla. I was building a new cpu (A64 3000) but the VC i got about 2 weeks before I could build the SYSTEM due to a sale (compusa pny 6800). So i stuck in in my old system to see how it would work.


My old system got a mark03 score of 1500.. which was all GPU limited. Once the 6800 was installed, it jumped to 7500. In my new rig, 10,500. Anyways... in the old rig, it ran SMOOTH as silk, and it was a HUGE upgrade from my ti4200(which is a huge step ahead of your gf3200 as it is). I could play games maxed out, or near maxed out... i could finally turn on some AA and AS turned on and at 1600 by 1200 on some games. Every new game played smoothly. Some slighty older games... Joint Ops, Call of Duty, NWN, etc.. I could turn everything on FULL.. and had no idea what i was missing.. the detail, was amazing.

So in summation... will you be CPU limited. yeah some, but aren't we all? Will you see a HUGE, and I do mean HUGE upgrade if you get this card? You sure will. I sure did, it ran awesome on my old system, and it only had 512 ram, you have a gig... your going to be very glad you got it. Then when you build your new system later on this year, you will already have one part bought.

Thats my 2 cents.

 

[MustangSVT]

seesh.. install the card.. see if it runs things you want fine or not.

if not upgrade, if good, just keep using ur current setup.

 

[IndyJaws]

Originally posted by: bradyapba
IndyJaws,

I was just in your position a few weeks ago. I had a aXP 2200, 512 ram. But i was running a better VC than you, I had a ti4200. YOu may not be able to improve your CPU, I couldn't the 2200 was the most my oldr MOBO could handle. If you can increase your CPU, you should, they are really cheap. But onto what happened with my VC.

Now i only got a 6800 Vanilla. I was building a new cpu (A64 3000) but the VC i got about 2 weeks before I could build the SYSTEM due to a sale (compusa pny 6800). So i stuck in in my old system to see how it would work.


My old system got a mark03 score of 1500.. which was all GPU limited. Once the 6800 was installed, it jumped to 7500. In my new rig, 10,500. Anyways... in the old rig, it ran SMOOTH as silk, and it was a HUGE upgrade from my ti4200(which is a huge step ahead of your gf3200 as it is). I could play games maxed out, or near maxed out... i could finally turn on some AA and AS turned on and at 1600 by 1200 on some games. Every new game played smoothly. Some slighty older games... Joint Ops, Call of Duty, NWN, etc.. I could turn everything on FULL.. and had no idea what i was missing.. the detail, was amazing.

So in summation... will you be CPU limited. yeah some, but aren't we all? Will you see a HUGE, and I do mean HUGE upgrade if you get this card? You sure will. I sure did, it ran awesome on my old system, and it only had 512 ram, you have a gig... your going to be very glad you got it. Then when you build your new system later on this year, you will already have one part bought.

Thats my 2 cents.

That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. I realize that an A64 will make a lot of difference, and I know that I could get an AXP 2500+ for the time being, but since I hope to get a new mobo/cpu in the next 6 months, I'd rather save the $60-80 for that. If I'm able to play HL2 at 12x10 w/ lots of eye candy (or even if I have do drop a step), that's good enough for me right now. 🙂

Thanks everyone for your input...it was very helpful. Now I just have to wait for BFG Day, er, Christmas Day. (She tried telling me she couldn't find one, but I know it's just an act 😉 )

Indy

 

[bradyapba]

Glad to help out. Enjoy the card i know i am (well you will even enjoy yours more, you have the gt!).

It was interesting becuase you and I had almost the same system, wanting to do the same upgrades, and I had done the the exact testing you wanted to see. Glad all my time spent testing, etc helped someone else out.... and I can show my wife all that time spent researching, tweaking, etc went to some good use!

enjoy the holiday!


Chris

 

[wmansfield]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: wmansfield
Your CPU is going to be a big limiting factor. Ignore the people here telling you to get any form of an Athlon XP because it's not going to help you out. At a minimum get a Sempron 3100 with a decent S754 board and you'll be in a much better situation. The XP is far inferior in gaming and will not help you in getting the potential out of the 6800 GT

Yes ignore everyone that has a budget in mind and just buy an SLI rig, FX55 and of course 2 6800GT PCI-Es.

We were reccomending the most worthwhile CPU upgrade on his current platform, and if you think going to a barton 2500 wont make a large difference on a card that will be CPU bound... youre on crack.

And apparently you cannot read. I'm suggesting some form of Athlon64 or the 754 Sempron. Didn't say anything about SLI or FX55.

 

[wmansfield]

Originally posted by: Spike

Originally posted by: wmansfield
Your CPU is going to be a big limiting factor. Ignore the people here telling you to get any form of an Athlon XP because it's not going to help you out. At a minimum get a Sempron 3100 with a decent S754 board and you'll be in a much better situation. The XP is far inferior in gaming and will not help you in getting the potential out of the 6800 GT

Lol, are you serious?

Apparently my XP 3200+ can't game well... bummer, I figured getting an average of 80 FPS in HL 2 at 1600x1200 at 4x aa, 8xas max everything was actually decent... guess I was wrong 😉

Get a cheap barton 2500+ for like $60-80 (maybe even less) and you will have a large improvement, make that HUGE when you add that 6800 GT. Then you will have a setup that can last you a year or more till you want to go PCIe.

-spike

Actually I am serious. Spend $80 on a mobile barton or $180 on a Sempron 3100 and reasonable 754 board. I can guarantee that at any speed the Sempron it's going to walk all over any form of Athlon XP in games. Granted it will play fine with a 2500 barton but if one spends $400+ on a video card, they should spend the extra $100 to get a good board and CPU to power it along.

edit - for whatever reason, the A64 2800+ seems to be cheaper than the Sempron 3100... way to go AMD

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: IndyJaws

Originally posted by: bradyapba
IndyJaws,

I was just in your position a few weeks ago. I had a aXP 2200, 512 ram. But i was running a better VC than you, I had a ti4200. YOu may not be able to improve your CPU, I couldn't the 2200 was the most my oldr MOBO could handle. If you can increase your CPU, you should, they are really cheap. But onto what happened with my VC.

Now i only got a 6800 Vanilla. I was building a new cpu (A64 3000) but the VC i got about 2 weeks before I could build the SYSTEM due to a sale (compusa pny 6800). So i stuck in in my old system to see how it would work.


My old system got a mark03 score of 1500.. which was all GPU limited. Once the 6800 was installed, it jumped to 7500. In my new rig, 10,500. Anyways... in the old rig, it ran SMOOTH as silk, and it was a HUGE upgrade from my ti4200(which is a huge step ahead of your gf3200 as it is). I could play games maxed out, or near maxed out... i could finally turn on some AA and AS turned on and at 1600 by 1200 on some games. Every new game played smoothly. Some slighty older games... Joint Ops, Call of Duty, NWN, etc.. I could turn everything on FULL.. and had no idea what i was missing.. the detail, was amazing.

So in summation... will you be CPU limited. yeah some, but aren't we all? Will you see a HUGE, and I do mean HUGE upgrade if you get this card? You sure will. I sure did, it ran awesome on my old system, and it only had 512 ram, you have a gig... your going to be very glad you got it. Then when you build your new system later on this year, you will already have one part bought.

Thats my 2 cents.

That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. I realize that an A64 will make a lot of difference, and I know that I could get an AXP 2500+ for the time being, but since I hope to get a new mobo/cpu in the next 6 months, I'd rather save the $60-80 for that. If I'm able to play HL2 at 12x10 w/ lots of eye candy (or even if I have do drop a step), that's good enough for me right now. 🙂

Thanks everyone for your input...it was very helpful. Now I just have to wait for BFG Day, er, Christmas Day. (She tried telling me she couldn't find one, but I know it's just an act 😉 )

Indy

That's good and it's better to wait for a brand new cpu+mobo upgrade.
I don't know for 12x10 but10x7 should work just fine with the highest end games.